the inner ring

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 03, 2005

A Springfield (MA) paper is reporting that its investigator believes he's located some of the daisies in the chain:

The investigator hired to probe the 1972 unsolved murder of 13-year-old altar boy Daniel Croteau says he now suspects that a ring of about 10 pedophiles, many of them priests, operated a sexual abuse ring that preyed upon children at the time Croteau was killed.

"These priests formed their own Internet before any Internet existed," said private detective and former state trooper R.C. Stevens recently. "It allowed them to exchange information and strategies, share children, and rid themselves of them."

Last year, after the inglorious exit of Bishop Thomas Dupre, Springfield's Msgr. Richard Sniezyk referred to a network -- not of pedophiles, but of churchmen who covered for abusers.

The newly-elected leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield said yesterday the church must "come clean," admitting that an "old boy network" years ago protected priests suspected of sexual abuse. ...

"I think truly an old boy network existed. We have to admit that no one did anything with it in those days," Sniezyk said, adding that priests are now being held accountable.

When he last made the news, Bishop Dupre (St. Luke Class of '04) was refusing to respond to questions about his alleged molestation of boys -- on Fifth Amendment grounds. Given the nature of what's at stake in Dupre's testimony, and his brother bishops' commitment to accountability, it might be opportune for his spiritual director to stop by for a chat.