no prior warning

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Feb 25, 2005

A couple months ago an Oakland neighborhood was incensed to learn that the local Dominican Priory was used to warehouse clerical sex-offenders. The prior, Fr. Roberto Corral, O.P., attempted to defuse the PR bomb by holding a tightly controlled by-invitation-only meeting with neighbors. The San Francisco Faith reports on the meeting, noting that some of the obstreperous laity not only failed to cherish the diversity which the miscreants provided the community, but asked questions that were in the worst possible taste.

"Around 8:30, the subject came up about a priest asking permission of Corral to go to Bangkok. It was denied, and he went anyway. That really blew the lid off things, that he was able to go anyway. Everyone wants to know where he got the money, and he obviously didn't go there for priestly duties. It got a little acrimonious after that. Also they made a statement that they were just now putting together a program to control what these guys can access on the internet. The reaction was one of shock, because everyone thought it should have been in place from the get-go. That angered a lot of folks.

"When the question came up about what they wore, we were told that they wore the Dominican garb on the premises and dressed in their clerical clothes when they went out. That was kind of surprising."

You can say that again. Both friar and neighbor must have choked on that line when it was delivered. But read on:

"They spoke about one of the men falling in love with a girl and running away with her several years ago, but I assumed that all the others are there because of pedophilia and there was not much further distinction made. The people there wanted names and photographs because they have children and want to protect them, and that was denied." ...

Since reading the testimony of the two former seminarians in the November San Francisco Faith, another former seminarian at St. Albert's has come forward. Pietro (not his real name) said he thinks St. Albert's neighbors are being misled by Father Corral.

It behooves us, I think, to remember the great apostolic needs in Bangkok, and the importance of putting aside Western theological prejudices in order to address them on their own terms.

"There was a secret meeting at St. Albert's every time they moved one of these guys in," said Pietro. "We were ordered not to even talk to our parents about it. There was no supervision. Zero. From day one. They might be getting some kind of counseling, but no supervision. One of the priests, a child molester, walked all over the neighborhood after he moved in, and no one was watching him. They can all roam freely. And they don't wear clerical garb, they wear civilian clothes when they leave. No one can tell they are Dominicans or priests or anything.

Many forward-looking clergymen assure us that clerical garb puts a barrier between themselves and they people they serve. Incidentally, Jeff Miller's Domini Can-Can (below) was collaged from the 2001 General Chapter and must be understood to have no connection whatsover to the present ills of the Order of Preachers. Call it ars gratia artis.