Monday, April 29, 2024

Another misstep in the handling of clergy sex abuse cases

Florida priest continued in active ministry for three years after sex abuse lawsuit filed

Father Leo Riley, 68, continued to serve as a priest for years after a 2020 sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the Diocese of Venice, Florida. | Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office

By Daniel Payne

CNA Staff, Apr 27, 2024 / 19:18 pm

A Florida priest who was recently arrested on sex abuse charges was permitted to continue in active ministry for nearly three years after a civil sex abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the diocese in which he serves.

Father Leo Riley, 68, continued to serve as a priest for years after a 2020 sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the Diocese of Venice, Florida.

The matter came to the forefront this week after Riley was arrested on several sex abuse charges dating back to his time serving as a priest in Iowa decades ago.

The Charlotte County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that deputies arrested Riley in Port Charlotte on April 24 “on multiple counts of capital sexual battery stemming from his past work as a priest in Iowa.” He was ordained in Iowa in 1982 and served there until 2005.

The civil lawsuit in Florida was filed in July 2020 with the 12th Judicial Circuit Court. It named Riley, the Diocese of Venice, and St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Port Charlotte as defendants, along with Alan Klispie, a music teacher at the parish school. The suit alleges that both Klispie and Riley committed various forms of abuse against the plaintiff for years.

Venice Bishop Frank Dewane told members of the San Antonio Parish in Port Charlotte on Saturday — where Riley was previously pastor — that there is “a pending civil lawsuit of 2020 against Father Riley here in Florida which upon its receipt was reported to the state attorney of Charlotte County.”

“At the time the civil lawsuit was received, the factual allegations therein were inaccurate and contradictory,” Dewane wrote.

“The plaintiff has since changed his allegations and the litigation is still pending,” the bishop wrote in the letter.

The diocese said the letter was also being distributed “at all parishes where Father Riley has been previously assigned in the Diocese of Venice.”

The bishop in the letter urged “anyone who believes that he or she has been the victim of sexual misconduct by someone serving in ministry for the Diocese of Venice” to contact law enforcement as well as the diocese itself.

Asked if Riley was placed on leave following the 2020 suit, diocesan spokeswoman Karen Schwarz told CNA on Saturday: “Regarding the civil lawsuit of 2020, it is my understanding that Father Riley was not placed on administrative leave at that time, due to the facts of the allegations being inaccurate and contradictory.”

The diocese’s website shows Riley still in active ministry, working as pastor at San Antonio Catholic Church, at least as late as 2022, two years after the suit was filed. The parish is home to St. Charles Borromeo School, a pre-K through eighth grade Catholic school.

Damian Mallard, a Florida attorney who is representing the plaintiff in the 2020 lawsuit, told CNA on Friday that the diocese was aware of the suit when it was filed. “We served them with the lawsuit back then,” he said.

Asked if there had been any communication from the diocese at the time of the filing, Mallard said: “Diocesan lawyers responded to my lawsuit. But there was nothing concerning taking Riley out of his job.”

Mallard confirmed that the suit is still pending. “Riley won’t sit for a deposition because his lawyers demand that I tell them every victim that I’ve found,” he said, “and I said no.”

Several courts have ruled in Mallard’s favor on the matter of detailing the identities of the alleged victims, he told CNA.

The lawsuit is seeking “damages for my client for what he’s been through,” Mallard told CNA.

“His life has been destroyed,” the lawyer said. The amount of the damages is “up to a jury to decide,” he added.

Priest arrested this week on sex abuse charges

Dewane wrote the letter this week partly in response to Riley’s arrest by Florida law enforcement earlier in the week.

In their press release, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said Florida law enforcement officers had worked with the Dubuque, Iowa, Police Department in making the arrest. The Dubuque police “had developed probable cause for five counts of capital sexual battery within their jurisdiction,” the sheriff’s office said.

Riley, who previously served in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, has been on administrative leave in the Venice Diocese since May 2023 when several abuse allegations from his time in the Iowa archdiocese were made against him.

Riley’s arrest this week comes after at least a decade of abuse allegations made against the priest.

In a letter released on Friday, Dubuque Archbishop Thomas Zinkula said the “first notice of any allegation of abuse by Father Riley was made in December of 2014.”

“The claim related to the time period of 1985, when Father Riley would have been in Dubuque,” the archbishop wrote. “Particulars of the allegation were received in February of 2015.”

The archbishop noted that Riley was incardinated into the Diocese of Venice by this time, having been granted that request in 2005 to be near his parents.

The Dubuque Archdiocese “notified the Diocese of Venice, Florida, and Father Riley was placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation,” the archbishop said.

“The investigation concluded that the best information available at the time did not support a reasonable belief that the allegation was true,” Zinkula wrote. Law enforcement, meanwhile, “chose not to conduct an investigation into the allegation because the applicable statute of limitations at that time had expired.”

Two new allegations were subsequently made against Riley in May of last year, both of them once again stemming from alleged misconduct in Dubuque in the mid-1980s. Upon receiving the allegations, the archdiocese “began an internal investigation into the new allegations, which remains open pending the outcome of the criminal charges.”

It is unclear whether these two allegations against Riley formed the basis of this week’s arrest. The Dubuque police department was unable to provide a copy of the warrant on Friday as it was still listed as active in that jurisdiction.

On Thursday, meanwhile, the Venice Diocese said in a statement that when the latest allegations were made public last year, DeWane “immediately placed Father Riley on administrative leave, pending the investigation that was to be conducted by the Archdiocese of Dubuque.”

Diocesan spokeswoman Karen Schwarz confirmed to CNA on Friday that Riley “was put on administrative leave in May of 2023 and has not been involved in ministry since then.”

Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell said in announcing Riley’s arrest that “if the accusations are true, then we have had a sexual predator living among us in Charlotte County that was trusted by far too many people simply because of his position.”

“It is likely that there are more victims, and I encourage them to come forward so that we can make sure this type of heinous thing does not happen to anyone else here,” the sheriff said.

A good overview of the Pope's Sunday visit to Venice

Pope Francis’ visit to Venice showcases art as means of encounter, fraternity

Pope Francis delivers his homily during Mass in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, on April 28, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

By Matthew Santucci

Rome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am

Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries.

“Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God’s love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid,” the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark’s Square.

Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: “Remaining united to Christ, we can bring the fruits of the Gospel into the reality we inhabit.”

“Fruits of justice and peace, fruits of solidarity and mutual care, carefully-made choices to preserve our environmental and human heritage,” the pope continued, seated center stage in a red velvet chair and vested in a white cope.

Pope Francis arrived in Venice early Sunday morning for a day trip to the prestigious Biennale art exhibition — which is celebrating its 60th anniversary — where the Holy See’s pavilion, titled “With My Eyes,” dovetails with this year’s broader theme: “Foreigners Everywhere.”

The pope’s visit also holds a deep meaning as Francis is the first pontiff to visit the Biennale — where the Vatican has held a pavilion since 2013.

In his homily, Pope Francis pointed out that our relationship with Christ is not “static” but an invitation to “grow in relationship with him, to converse with him, to embrace his word, to follow him on the path of the kingdom of God.”

Francis built upon this point to encourage “Christian communities, neighborhoods, and cities to become welcoming, inclusive, and hospitable places,” a point he linked to the image of the city of Venice as a “a place of encounter and cultural exchange.”

Pope Francis observed that Venice “is called to be a sign of beauty available to all, starting with the last, a sign of fraternity and care for our common home,” the pope continued, highlighting the tenuous situation of Venice, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which faces a myriad of problems ranging from excessive tourism to environmental challenges such as rising sea levels and erosion.

After the recitation of the Regina Caeli, the pope entered St. Mark’s Basilica to venerate the relics of the evangelist before leaving by helicopter to return to the Vatican as pilgrims and tourists bid farewell from land and sea.

Earlier in the morning the Holy Father met with female inmates, staff, and volunteers at Venice’s Women’s Prison on the Island of Giudecca, where he spoke on the topic of human dignity, suggesting that prison can “mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others.“

The deeply symbolic visit was followed by a brief encounter with the artists responsible for the Holy See’s pavilion at the Biennale, where the pope encouraged artists to use their craft “to rid the world of the senseless and by now empty oppositions that seek to gain ground in racism, in xenophobia, in inequality, in ecological imbalance and aporophobia, that terrible neologism that means ‘fear of the poor.’”

The Holy Father traveled by a private vaporetto, or waterbus, bearing the two-tone flag of Vatican City, to the 16th-century baroque Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, which sits on the Punta della Dogana, where he met with a large group of young people.

Reflecting on the visit as a “beautiful moment of encounter,” the pope encouraged the youth to “rise from sadness to lift our gaze upward.”

“Rise to stand in front of life, not to sit on the couch. Arise to say, ‘Here I am!’ to the Lord, who believes in us.” Building on this message of hope, which the pope emphasized is built upon perseverance, telling them “don’t isolate yourself” but “seek others, experience God together, find a group to walk with so you don’t grow tired.”

The pope made his way to St. Mark’s Square in a white open-top golf cart bearing the papal seal, where he closed his visit with Mass. At the end of the Mass Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the patriarch of Venice, thanked the pope for his visit.

“Venice is a stupendous, fragile, unique city and has always been a bridge between East and West, a crossroads of peoples, cultures, and different faiths,” Moraglia noted.

“For this reason, in Venice, the great themes of your encyclicals — Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si’ — are promptly reflected in respect and care for creation and the person, starting with the good summit of life that must always be respected and loved, especially when it is fragile and asks to be welcomed.”

Papal trip to Verona planned for May 18th

POPE

Vatican releases schedule for Pope's visit to Verona

The Holy See Press Office releases the itinerary for Pope Francis' pastoral visit to Verona on May 18, featuring meetings with the local Church, children, and prisoners.

By Vatican News

On Saturday, May 18, the eve of Pentecost, Pope Francis will visit the northern Italian city of Verona for a one-day pastoral visit.

His visit has been given the theme "Justice and peace will embrace," a quotation from Psalm 85.

Priests, consecrated persons, and young people

Pope Francis will depart from the Vatican heliport at 6:30 a.m. on May 18, landing in Verona at 8:00 a.m.

He will be greeted by the city's (and wider region’s) main political and religious figures: Bishop Domenico Pompili, Bishop of Verona; Luca Zaia, President of the Veneto Region; and, Demetrio Martino and Damiano Tommasi, prefect and mayor of Verona, respectively.

Immediately after his arrival, the Pope will travel to the Basilica of St. Zeno of Verona for a meeting with priests and consecrated persons, delivering his first speech.

Following this, in the square in front of the church, the Pope will meet with a group of children and young people.

‘Arena of Peace’ and prison visit

At 10:15 a.m., the Pope is scheduled to arrive at Verona’s Arena, where he will preside at a gathering entitled "Arena of Peace - Justice and Peace Will Embrace." During the event, he will answer some questions from attendees.

The Arena of Peace is an initiative organised by Church and civil society groups, active since 1986.

After the gathering, Pope Francis will travel by car to the Montorio Prison, where he will greet the prison officers, detainees, and volunteers, to whom he will deliver a speech.

Following lunch with the detainees at 2:30 p.m., the Pope will leave the prison to travel by car to the Bentegodi Stadium to preside over Mass at 3:00 p.m.

At 4:45 p.m., he will depart for his return to the Vatican, where he is scheduled to arrive at 6:15 p.m.

Parish Priests from around the world meet in Italy to discuss synodality

The "Fraterna Domus" retreat house in Sacrofano, Italy

CHURCH

Parish priests meet to share experiences of synodality

Parish priests from around the world gather in Sacrafano, outside Rome, for an International Meeting dedicated to the question of “How to be a local synodal Church on Mission.”

By Christopher Wells

Some three hundred parish priests from around the world have gathered in Sacrofano, outside of Rome, for a meeting dedicated to listening, prayer, and discernment to address the question of how to be a local synodal Church on mission.

The five-day gathering will feature five days of discussions, culminating in an Audience with Pope Francis on Thursday.

Organized by the General Secretariat of the Synod and the Dicastery for the Clergy, in collaboration with the Dicasteries for Evangelization and for the Oriental Churches, the International Meeting is aimed at “listening to and valuing the experience parish priests live in their respective local Churches” and offering them the opportunity “to experience the dynamism of synodal work at a universal level.”

The Meeting comes in response to the desire expressed by the Synod Fathers to “develop ways for a more active involvement of deacons, priests, and bishops in the synodal process,” following criticism that parish priests were notably absent from the General Assembly.

Sharing stories

In his opening remarks to the assembled fathers, Cardinal Mario Grech, the Secretary General of the Synod said, “You have not come here to receive some teaching or exposition about synodality,” but “to tell us your story, because the story of each and every one of you is important.”

“We want to hear your stories, we want to hear how Jesus is still working today.”

“We want to hear your stories, we want to hear how Jesus is still working today,” the Cardinal explained, saying that the days in Sacrofano are about “the sharing of stories, helping one another see God’s presence in our own stories, understanding that his providence is still writing the story of the Church today.”

Listening: the methodology of the Synod

For his part, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, Cardinal Lazarus You Heung sik, emphasized that the Meeting is not focused primarily on speechmaking, but on listening to one another and to the Holy Spirit.

He expressed his hope that this approach, which has already begun to bear fruit locally, “will also be the case in these days” in Sacrofano.

Cardinal You highlighted the Second Vatican Council’s ecclesiology of communion in the dimensions of mystery, communion and mission, saying, “There is still much to discover in this very vital way of conceiving and being Church.”

“There is still much to discover in this very vital way of conceiving and being Church”

Finally, recalling that “the synodal style” intends to “fully involve all the baptized,” the Prefect said he hoped that the service of pastors can bear fruit “so that our parish communities might become places where we experience the joy of the Risen Lord walking with us.”

‘The face of a synodal Church’

After the initial introductory speeches, the Meeting of parish priests focused on the first day's theme, “The face of the Synodal Church.” The morning began with spiritual and theological contributions from expert-accompanists, followed by “synodal conversations” in small groups.

In the afternoon, participants will come together for a plenary presentation of the work of the small groups. The first day of the Meeting will conclude with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, followed by recreation and community sharing – the latter involving a sharing of typical products brought by the priests from their local communities.

Over the coming days, the priests will continue their conversations, focusing on the topics of “All Disciples All Missionaries” (Tuesday) and “Teaching Ties, Building Communities” (Wednesday).

The Meeting will conclude on Thursday with a “meeting dialogue” with Pope Francis, followed by the celebration of Mass with the Holy Father in St Peter’s Basilica.

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Monday Saint of the Day

St. Catherine of Siena

St. Catherine of Siena was born during the outbreak of the plague in Siena, Italy on March 25, 1347. She was the 25th child born to her mother, although half of her brothers and sisters did not survive childhood. Catherine herself was a twin, but her sister did not survive infancy. Her mother was 40 when she was born. Her father was a cloth dyer.

At the age of 16, Catherine's sister, Bonaventura, died, leaving her husband as a widower. Catherine's parents proposed that he marry Catherine as a replacement, but Catherine opposed this. She began fasting and cut her hair short to mar her appearance.

Her parents attempted to resist this move, to avoid marriage, but they were unsuccessful. Her fasting and her devotion to her family, convinced them to relent and allow her to live as she pleased. Catherine once explained that she regarded her father as a representation of Jesus and her mother as Our Lady, and her brothers as the apostles, which helped her to serve them with humility.

Despite Catherine's religious nature, she did not choose to enter a convent and instead she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, which allowed her to associate with a religious society while living at home.

Fellow Dominican sisters taught St. Catherine how to read. Meanwhile, she lived quietly, isolated within her family home.

St. Catherine developed a habit of giving things away and she continually gave away her family's food and clothing to people in need. She never asked permission to give these things away, and she quietly put up with their criticisms.

Something changed her when she was 21. She described an experience she referred to as her "mystical marriage to Christ." There are debates over whether or not St. Catherine was given a ring with some claiming she was given a bejeweled ring, and other claiming the ring was made of Jesus's skin. St. Catherine herself started the rumor of the latter in her writings, but she was known to often claim the ring itself was invisible.

Such mystical experiences change people, and St. Catherine was no exception. In her vision, she was told to reenter public life and to help the poor and sick. She immediately rejoined her family and went into public to help people in need.

She often visited hospitals and homes where the poor and sick were found. Her activities quickly attracted followers who helped her in her mission to serve the poor and sick.

St. Catherine was drawn further into the world as she worked, and eventually she began to travel, calling for reform of the Church and for people to confess and to love God totally. She became involved in politics, and was key in working to keep city states loyal to the Pope. She was also credited with helping to start a crusade to the Holy Land. On one occasion, she visited a condemned political prisoner and was credited with saving his soul, which she saw being taken up to heaven at the moment of his death.

St. Catherine allegedly was given the stigmata, but like her ring, it was visible only to herself. She took Bl. Raymond of Capua has her confessor and spiritual director.

From 1375 onwards, St. Catherine began dictating letters to scribes. She petitioned for peace and was instrumental in persuading the Pope in Avignon to return to Rome.

She became involved in the fractured politics of her time, but was instrumental in restoring the Papacy to Rome and in brokering peace deals during a time of factional conflict and war between the Italian city states.

She also established a monastery for women in 1377 outside of Siena. She is credited with composing over 400 letters, her Dialogue, which is her definitive work, and her prayers. These works are so influential that St. Catherine would later be declared a Doctor of the Church. She is one of the most influential and popular saints in the Church.

By 1380, the 33-year-old mystic had become ill, possibly because of her habit of extreme fasting. Her confessor, Raymond, ordered her to eat, but she replied that she found it difficult to do so, and that possibly she was ill.

In January of 1380, her illness accelerated her inability to eat and drink. Within weeks, she was unable to use her legs. She died on April 29, following a stroke just a week prior.

St. Catherine's feast day is April 29, she is the patroness against fire, illness, the United States, Italy, miscarriages, people ridiculed for their faith, sexual temptation, and nurses.

Pope begins visit to Venice at the women's prison

Pope encourages women inmates at start of his visit to Venice

Pope Francis begins his pastoral visit to Venice at the Giudecca Women’s Prison, where he tells female inmates that he very much wanted to meet them to tell them they hold a special place in his heart.

By Thaddeus Jones

Pope Francis arrived in Venice via helicopter from the Vatican early on Sunday, 28 April, making the first stop of his pastoral visit to a women's penitentiary institution, the Venice Giudecca Women's Prison.

The Pope greeted over 80 of the inmates, as well as prison staff, security, and volunteers. He greeted each person one-by-one, gave a brief address and then listened attentively to groups of them as they came forward to thank him and offer gifts they made for the occasion.

Special place in his heart

In his address, Pope Francis explained how he wished to be with them on this first event of his visit to Venice to assure them that they hold a "special place" in his heart. And he suggested that this moment be experienced less as an "official visit" and more as a special encounter together where "thanks be to God, we can give each other time, prayer, closeness and fraternal affection" allowing for precious mutual enrichment. He added that God knows each one of us and that here today we each have something unique to give and receive that can benefit us all.

The Lord brings us together

The Pope said it is the Lord who brings us together, and while the paths from which we have come vary, "some are very painful," also due to mistakes that have led to wounds and scars each carries within.

He acknowledged the "harsh reality" of prison also due to overcrowding, the lack of facilities and resources, and incidents of violence that add to the difficult reality.

At the same time, he noted that prison can also offer a time for moral and physical rebirth where the dignity of women and men is not left in isolation, but "promoted through mutual respect and the nurturing of talents and abilities" each person has. He said sometimes these talents can be "dormant" or "isolated" by life's challenges, but they "can re-emerge for the good of all" with due attention and perseverance. He added that "no one can take away a person's dignity, no one!"

New beginnings

Despite it all, prison time can allow for new beginnings through the "rediscovery of the undiscovered beauty in us and in others," the Pope said, "as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute."

Prison can become the worksite for rebuilding lives, the Pope went on to say, by thinking about one's life and, with courage, doing away what is not needed, harmful, or dangerous. By planning, one can start again, creating a new foundation, and in light of experience, rebuild brick by brick with determination, he said.

The Pope underscored how important it is for prison systems to offer possibilities "for human, spiritual, cultural and professional growth" that favour "healthy reintegration" in society, offering "new possibilities" that will benefit everyone.

We have all made mistakes that need to be forgiven and wounds to heal, he pointed out, and when that happens the forgiven can themselves bring forgiveness to others, the reborn can bring rebirth, and the healed can be healers.

Trust and hope in the future

In conclusion, the Pope encouraged everyone to renew their trust in the future and "always look to the horizon, always look to the future, with hope."

“I like to think of hope as an anchor, you know, that is anchored in the future, and we hold the rope in our hands and go forward with the rope anchored in the future.”

In thanking those present before leaving, the Pope gave the inmates an icon of the Blessed Mother and Child, explaining how you can see the tenderness Mary has with all of us as "she is the Mother of tenderness."

Groups of inmates then came forward to greet the Pope, offering words of gratitude for his visit and expressing hopes for a better future for them and our world. They gave the Pope fruits of their efforts working in the prison-run cooperatives where they produce a variety of goods ranging from soaps, clothing and flowers.

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