Alter Christus

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Apr 02, 2005

Occasionally we all need a bit of uplift, and no doubt you'll be as edified as I by the following glimpse of contemporary pastoral spirituality, available thanks to the newly expanded archive at Bishop-Accountability.org. It's an excerpt of an interview with serial molester Fr. Leo Landry (Diocese of Manchester), conducted by New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, 4 September, 2002.

Attorney: What was your expectation of the type of support you should have [from] the bishop of the Diocese?

Landry: Well, I, I think you know hindsight now too of course you know I really felt that I should have been taken out, you know, and I could have done other jobs besides, you know and it's like every time you walk into a parish, you know, the pastor will say well the kids of this parish have been neglected. Well you take care of them and you better do a good job. It's not, you never got a thank you this or you know oh please do a good job. You know I always, I always use to say and this is my opinion here. I'm shootin' off and I'm sorry.

Attorney: That's OK.

Landry: You know. I always felt that every pastor was like the Pope, you know. He could expound on dogmatic things you know. What's, what's the word I'm using, I'm looking for for the Pope? When he gives dogmatic -- what is that word?

Attorney: Pontificates?

Landry: No, no, no. When you can never be wrong there.

Attorney: Infallible.

Landry: Infallible. That's the word. Thank you. You know and I felt that that infallibility came down from the Pope to the pastors see and, and they were that way you know. Ah, this is horrible. Father Leo Ryan told me this. He said when I was a curate I was **** on. Now it's my turn to **** on you and when you get up there you can **** on everybody else.

Thank you, Father Landry. We understand better now.

Two questions. 1) If the young men with whom Father Landry recreated had all reached their 18th birthday, would Landry then be "suitable for ministry"? 2) Are those Catholics who are skeptical of the claim of the Charteristas -- the claim, namely, that the men who recruited, formed, employed, and re-employed Landry can be trusted to solve the problem they created -- are such skeptics necessarily motivated by ill-will?