Milwaukee Vice Chancellor and Liberal Jesuit Accuse Two Outstanding Bishops of Derelection of Duty

I strongly suspect there are other motives for this self-righteous Open Letter of Father James O’Connell, issued while his bishop is away on retreat. Might these motives have something to do with the fact that Archbishop Burke and Bishop Listecki are two of the most uncompromising US bishops in publicly defending Church teaching, opposing pro-abortion politicians receiving the Eucharist, and insisting on a Catholic university’s obligation to enforce its Catholic identity if it advertises itself as “Catholic” ?

Catholic Culture reports: Father James O’Connell, vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a member of the archdiocesan review board for sexual abuse cases, issued an open letter on June 17 in which he blasted the Diocese of La Crosse’s abuse policy. Father O’Connell asserts that the diocese has an inordinately high burden of proof for removing an accused priest from ministry. Read more here with a need-to- read link.

From Catholicism.org

Here Fr. O'Connell, SJ's op ed

Mil Journal Sentinel coverage

Blurb in the La Crosse Tribune

Within the Diocese of La Crosse, allegations of child sexual abuse by priests and deacons are investigated by a six-member Child Sexual Abuse Review Board that determines whether cases should be sent to the Catholic church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.

Appointed by the bishop, the board includes a former public defender, a clinical psychologist and a retired police detective who investigated sexual assault cases.

"This is not a push-over board," said James Birnbaum[a liberal himself], the diocese's attorney. "Our board is a very experienced, very savvy board."

All reports are confidential, and no record is made of the board's proceedings.

From the Diocese of La Crosse (couldn't find on Diocese website)

The Diocese of La Crosse has just learned that a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, with no knowledge of the Diocese of La Crosse, has issued a public statement criticizing the Diocese of La Crosse for not timely addressing his personal highly technical opinion of church law.

The Diocese took immediate steps to address his technical church law question and both reviewed with and retained independent canonical counsel to address that question. (See attached correspondence to the USCCB from the Diocesan Administrator Msgr. Richard Gilles dated April 29, 2010 and May 11, 2010.) As explained in the policy, the standard applied by the Diocese of La Crosse Child Sexual Abuse Review Board is “sufficiently confirmed”, a lower standard of proof than “beyond a reasonable doubt”.

In addition, an immediate review of all cases before the Board occurred to determine if, in any case, a finding of insufficiency was based upon any canonical technicality. The Diocese of La Crosse Child Sexual Abuse Review Board includes its Chair, a practicing attorney who previously was a state public defender; a retired police detective sergeant who investigated child sexual abuse cases; and a clinical psychologist who drafted La Crosse County’s Child Sexual Abuse Review protocols, all members well qualified to make such judgments. No such cases exist. The Board is confident that no child in the Diocese of La Crosse is at risk from any clergy.

The Diocese of La Crosse complies with both the letter and the spirit of the law by reporting and cooperating with authorities regarding all complaints of child sexual abuse. The best evidence of the effectiveness of the Diocese of La Crosse Safe Environment Program is that there have been no current confirmed cases of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of La Crosse by clergy since the very public prosecution and conviction in Marathon County in 2001 of Timothy Svea, a member of a Religious Institute. In that case, the Diocese both immediately reported the accusation and assisted the civil authorities in that conviction.

Despite any conjecture to the contrary, the Diocese of La Crosse is confident that all aspects of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People are being applied and enforced and that its children are safe.

Although we've seen SNAP (particularly in Wisconsin) going after the Church(instead of working with them), I think this might have more to do with Marquette.  O'Connell pouting because of Listecki's influence over the O'Brien incident?  Listecki stated he already discussed the issue with O'Connell; so why make things public?  How many liberal Jesuits (that's not redundant anymore) in Milwaukee are happy right now?  More than anything else, this priest I think is hoping to sling mud at anyone and everyone "conservative".  I think it makes the new pick for Marquette president all the more interesting.  Turn up the heat and hope Arch Listecki will zip-it over the new president. 

H/T Dad29