Anti-gay preacher James David Manning faces abuse allegations
The preacher is under scrutiny after an investigation by Huffington Post revealedallegations of abuse at the private fundamentalist school attached to the church, also run by Manning.
One former ATLAH High School student, Tamar, alleged that Manning had sexually harassed her and touching her inappropriately.
Aged 18, Tamar secretly recorded a conversation with Manning in which the preacher makes sexual comments and states he had feelings for her when she started at the school.
He says: “You got an incredible body… In fact, like on Wednesday night you came, and you had on a black blouse and black stockings and a gray or something skirt. All I could think about was, ‘Wow, I sure would like to remove those stockings and that blouse,’ and just look at your body.”
James David Manning at ATLAH World Missionary Church in Harlem
Another former student told the outlet that he was locked in a basement for three days by Manning as a punishment for having sex with a girl.
Other students said that homophobia was rife at the school, with Manning frequently railing against evil “faggots.” Others likened Manning’s grip over Atlah congregants to a cult leader.
Four attendees at Atlah church also alleged that Manning encouraged them to “defecate in a bag and leave it at gay-owned businesses.”
The private religious school has been operating for years despite its “registration pending” status with New York state.
A spokesperson for the New York Department of Education told Huffington Post: “The Department takes all allegations of misconduct against certified educators extremely seriously.”
“[We] would encourage anyone that believes they may have been the victim of misconduct to contact us with the appropriate complaint information.”
Anti-gay preacher blames ‘LGBTQ mafia’ for abuse allegations
Manning did not comment on the allegations.
However, in a Twitter storm he claimed: “THE LGBTQ MAFIA IS SPREADING LIES ATTEMPTING A HIT JOB ON OUR CHURCH. THEY WANT HARLEM TO BE WHITE AND HOMOSEXUAL.
“THEY SAY HATE ALL WHO PREACH AGAINST THEIR SEXUAL RACISM. IT WILL BE A COLD DAY IN HELL BEFORE THEY TAKE ME OR ATLAH CHURCH DOWN.”
He added: The LGBQT have attacked The Lord’s House And The Lord’s Servant.
“This attack will fail like a pervert news reporter boarding a bus with a student math protractor. He will fall on the needle and die the death when I stand and preach The Word.”
A new campaign has launched, calling on the Church of England to end its ban on same-sex weddings.
The Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England launched on Friday (April 12), seeking an end to rules that ban same-sex weddings in Church parishes, and an end to rules that target gay vicars for getting married.
The campaign, led by several members of the clergy, launches exactly five years after hospital chaplain Jeremy Pemberton defied the Church’s rules to marry his same-sex partner, which led to the removal of his permission to officiate.
Church of England clergy: It is time to embrace same-sex marriage
Revd Andrew Foreshew-Cain, said: “We congratulate Jeremy and Laurence on their wedding anniversary, and rejoice with the many same-gender couples who have made lifelong, faithful commitments to each other in marriage in recent years.
“The Church of England has spent too many years saying it is sorry for the way that it treats LGBT+ people, whilst continuing its own injustice towards us in marriage and ministry. It is time for what is done to match what is said.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (Dan Kitwood/Getty)
Revd Canon Rosie Harper, member of church’s General Synod, added: “Marriage ‘enriches society and strengthens community’, as the C of E wedding service says, and the Church should be open to all loving couples who want to make that commitment, regardless of their sexuality.
“I welcome this campaign and look for the day when I can welcome gay and lesbian couples to my church for their wedding day.”
Revd Dr Nicholas Bundock, of St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury, added: “It is time for the Church of England to start to heal the hurt and pain it has caused to LGBT+ people and to welcome and bless their faithful, loving relationships in church.
“Marriage is a gift of God to all people.”
Gay Church of England weddings would require change in UK law
Permitting same-sex marriage in Church of England parishes would require a change in the law, as the 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act explicitly barred the Church of England and the Church in Wales from conducting same-sex marriages as part of a ‘quadruple lock’ to appease religious opponents of same-sex marriage.
Several other churches within the Anglican Communion, including the US Episcopal Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church, have embraced same-sex unions, while the Anglican Church of Canada is also in the process of making reforms.
However, the Church of England has been more resistant to change.
Top leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have reversed a policy that prevented minor children of same-sex married couples from joining the church and participating in its sacred rituals since 2015.
Many conservative churches oppose same-sex relationships and have done so with increased intensity since the second half of the 20th century. In the case of Latter-day Saints, the reasons for opposing same-sex marriage are based in their theology of a “real family,” as willed by God.
However, as a scholar of gender and sexuality in Mormonism, I argue that the 2015 decision to bar children of same-sex parents from the church was tied to the conservative fight against same-sex marriage that was finding an increasing acceptance at the time in courts and elsewhere.
Mormon theology
Mormon theology is based on a divine heterosexual archetype that sets the pattern for all intimate human relationships.
Latter-day Saints hold an ideal that heaven is a domestic paradise where families will live together in eternal harmony. In Latter-day Saints’ view of God, there is a divine Father in Heaven, but also a Mother in Heaven, who are believed to be the heterosexual parents of human spirits.
Mormons protest over the 2015 rule change by church officials that bars children of same-sex couple from being baptized. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File
When the policy was adopted in 2015, the church deemed same-sex married Latter-day Saints as “apostate” and excommunicated them. This involved removing their names from the records of the church and nullifying any previous rituals.
‘Protecting children’
In order to explain why the children were also deserving of official sanction, the church said it was an effort to “protect” them.
One senior church leader claimed that it was an act of “love” and “kindness” to prevent the children of same-sex families from participating and joining the church. One church leader, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, said, “We don’t want the child to have to deal with issues that might arise where the parents feel one way and the expectations of the Church are very different.”
In the religious practice of Latter-day Saints, a child’s name on church records initiates visits to their home and an expectation of attending church-sponsored activities. Christofferson claimed, that it would not be “an appropriate thing” for a child living with a same-sex couple.
The church even issued an official statement about not wanting to subject children to teachings that their same-sex married parents were “apostates.”
Mormons and politics
What I argue is that the roots of rhetoric of the focus on family goes back to the emergence of the anti-gay politics of religious conservatives starting in the 1970s.
At the time, several preachers and anti-gay activists such as Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye and others increasingly spoke out against the gay rights movement as a threat to “family values” that would undermine society. Latter-day Saints joined this opposition.
These conservatives, advocating for “family values,” opposed same-sex marriage. These efforts often relied on claims that same-sex marriage would harm children belonging to same-sex families as well as those children who interacted with them.
In 1977, evangelical activist Anita Bryant launched a national campaign against the gay rights movement, specifically to keep gays and lesbians out of schools, and successfully rallied conservatives to this cause.
Bryant’s campaign was a simple slogan, “Save Our Children,” which depicted gay men and lesbians as pedophiles recruiting young people into “perversion.” Her campaign also suggested that “our children” belonged only to heterosexual people.
Gay rights activists protest against the Mormon Church’s alleged heavy support of the anti-gay marriage initiative in 2008, AP Photo/Reed Saxon
In the 1990s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints backed campaigns and mobilized members and money to deny same-sex couples the right to create legally protected families.
The policy on children was a response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier that year that legalized same-sex marriage.
What’s not changed
When it was first announced, the policy was deeply unpopular among the rank and file. The truth is that many members of the church increasingly support same-sex marriage.
A Public Religion Research Institute survey found that 55% of Mormons opposed same-sex marriage in 2016. But this number was rapidly declining. In 2015, the same survey had found 66% of Mormons opposing same sex marriages. In one year, it noted, there was an 11-point drop in opposition, with a corresponding 11-point increase in support.
People holding placards at an annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City in 2018. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
In light of this trend, it was no surprise to see the unpopular policy reversed.
The reversal of the 2015 policy, however, does not change the status of same-sex relationships in the church. These relationships are still forbidden and subject couples to potential excommunication. Only their children can once again participate fully in the church without sanction.
In my view, the church faces a real conceptual problem when it comes to imagining same-sex families as “real families” that may include children. How can it support the children of same-sex families when its teachings claim that they are “counterfeit and alternative lifestyles” and not part of the family organization willed by God?
Pope Francis has been criticised for his “failure” to address the damage done to LGBT+ youth by the Catholic Church.
LGBT+ humanitarian campaign group Equal Future hit out at the pope after the Vatican released a new teaching document for young people, titled Christus vivit, on Tuesday (April 2).
The pope released the nine-chapter publication in response to an event held by Catholic bishops, called the “Synod on Young People,” in October.
But Equal Future criticised the pope for “airbrushing of the lives and aspirations of millions of young LGBT people from the document,” which it said “compounds the damage being done to young people.”
Campaign group calls out Pope Francis over document for youth ministry
In a statement, Tiernan Brady, campaign director for Equal Future, said: “Given the highly problematic nature of the Catholic Church’s teaching on LGBT…the document represents a failure of nerve to follow through on previous positive statements by Pope Francis.
“The pope does not say anything about shielding children from the damage that any sense that being LGBT would be a misfortune or a disappointment. The document fails to even consider this damage.”
The pope’s document does not include any mention of the “LGBT” acronym. However, it does briefly mention “homosexuality.”
Brady noted that the the publication contained some “positive elements,” including calling for an “inclusive” approach towards the development of its youth ministry.
Pope Francis’ guidance for youth is a “missed opportunity,” says LGBT+ group
Still, Brady added: “But these are only potential pathways to progress and the document is ultimately a missed opportunity.
“The Synod on Young People failed to acknowledge and tackle the problem. Pope Francis has made little headway.”
“The pope does not say anything about shielding children from the damage that any sense that being LGBT would be a misfortune or a disappointment.”
—Tiernan Brady, campaign director for Equal Future
Following the synod in October, the Catholic Church was criticised for dropping the “LGBT” acronym from an official document discussing recommendations on how to welcome young people into the church.
Pope Francis. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty)
The Synod on Youth—a global summit for Catholic bishops—took place over the month of October, with a final 60-page document approved by the end of the month.
The National Christian Foundation reportedly raised over $1.5 billion in tax-exempt donations in 2017 and a lot of that money is being devoted to groups which advocate for imprisoning LGBT persons around the world.
The nation’s eighth-largest public charity is pouring tens of millions of dollars each year into a number of mostly anti-LGBT hate groups, a Sludge investigation shows. According to the three most recent available tax filings — which cover 2015-17 — it has donated $56.1 million on behalf of its clients to 23 nonprofits identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups.
By far the biggest recipient of NCF donations is Alliance Defending Freedom, a large network of Christian extremist lawyers who have supported criminalizing homosexuality, sterilizing transgender people, and claimed that gay men are pedophiles. The group recently came out against congressional Democrats’ Equality Act, which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.
Alliance Defending Freedom took in $49.2 million from NCF from 2015-17. ADF received $46.3 million in contributions and grants during the 2016 fiscal year (from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016). It got $16.8 million from NCF in the calendar year of 2015, meaning that, if these years were aligned, NCF’s donations would have represented over one-third of ADF’s annual contributions.
At the link you’ll see that the NCF also gave over $1.2M to the Family Research Council and smaller amounts to Liberty Counsel, the American Family Association, and other anti-LGBT hate groups. And do hit that link, this is an important exposé, particularly regarding where the NCF gets their money. (Via The Friendly Atheist)
Using the principles of religion is vital for challenging anti-LGBT+ prejudice in faith schools. Some of those principles include, commitment to be kind and respect one’s neighbor.
A report from Goldsmiths, University of London found that all children had heard transphobic or homophobic bullying in the playground.
Goldsmiths’ Dr Anna Carlile’s evaluated Educate & Celebrate’s year-long work in faith schools. Educate & Celebrate is a charity employing qualified teachers and youth workers.
The charity spent a year working at faith schools and secular schools serving faith communities.
Carlile visited each school at the start and end of the school year to conduct interviews and focus groups, following Educate & Celebrate’s programme of activities and looking at changes in the schools over time.
Carlile published her findings on 1 February to mark the start of LGBT History Month.
Before the programme, all children across reported direct or overheard experiences of homophobic or transphobic bullying. By the end of the programme, the culture had changed. The report found pupils across the schools could agree that no religion condones bullying.
The programme also had a tangible impact on teacher confidence. Many teachers had expressed anxiety about ‘saying the wrong thing’. They also felt worried about balancing teaching with their own faith, or thought that students would not take the programme seriously or be unkind.
LGBTI teachers felt more comfortable
The report also offers ten steps of guidance for schools serving faith communities, based on successful initiatives for pupils, parents and teachers introduced by Educate & Celebrate.
‘It was clear from the research that most children and parents in families where faith is important were already respectful and kind to people that are LGBT+,’ Carlile said.
‘The Educate & Celebrate programme consolidated that approach and helped school staff to feel more confident in their work.
‘Families also often recognised that it was important for people who are LGBT+ to ‘come out’ because being honest, generally, was important in their religion. Other students had become comfortable that they could accommodate their own LGBT+ identity within their faith.’
After the programme LGBT+ staff also reported they felt safer being ‘out’ at school.
Dr Elly Barnes founded Educate & Celebrate and welcomed the findings.
‘This much needed report is very timely as we enter into LGBT History Month 2019 with this year’s theme of Peace and Reconciliation,’ Barnes said.
‘Our goal at Educate & Celebrate is to give teachers in all schools the confidence and knowledge to successfully provide an LGBT+ inclusive education by eradicating any perceived barriers.
‘This report succinctly demonstrates how through tried and tested strategies we can all successfully create cohesive communities.’
Some people think you can’t be gay and Christian. What better way to prove them wrong than with a list of LGBTI saints?
The Catholic Church doesn’t want you to read this. They’ve deliberately erased many gay saints from official lists.
And we have to admit it is difficult to find hard historical evidence about most saints. Many of the stories about them are little more than legends.
But if you start looking, there are lots of LGBTI saints and martyrs. Here are just a few of the most famous:
St Joan of Arc
The 1999 movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.
Jeanne d’Arc is not just the most famous LGBTI saint but the most famous saint full-stop.
Joan was just a French peasant. But an angel appeared to her in a vision and told her God wanted her to lead the French fight against the English in the Hundred Years War.
She persuaded the French Prince Charles to let her lead his army, even though she had no military training. And, dressed as a male soldier, she achieved a momentous victory over the English at the city of Orléans in 1429.
Thanks to her, the prince was crowned King Charles VII. But Joan was then captured by the English.
They decided she was a heretic and a witch and burnt her at the stake. She was just 19.
Some refuse to accept Joan was LGBTI.
Was she a trans warrior or did she only cross-dress in male armor through necessity? Either way, she would be part of our gay, trans and gender-fluid family today.
Likewise, the same people who claim she was a virgin admit she liked to share her bed with other young women. And that sounds pretty lesbian to us.
St Sebastian
Gerrit van Honthorst’s depiction of Saint Sebastian.
St Sebastian is the original gay icon. This near-naked, young, muscled man – tied to a post and pierced with arrows – is one of the most famous images in fine art.
He was the commander of a company of archers in the imperial Roman bodyguard. And he was known to be ‘close’ to his male superiors. But he had a secret.
To rescue two other Christian soldiers, he ‘outed’ himself as Christian too. The Emperor Diocletian ordered that he should be shot to death by his fellow archers.
Strangely, that didn’t kill him. The pious St Irene saved him and treated his wounds. But Diocletian caught up with him. He ordered a second execution and Sebastian’s fellow soldiers beat him to death.
There’s no single reason why he became the unofficial gay patron saint. It’s a mix of his rumored sexuality, his ‘coming out’ story and his iconic homoerotic image penetrated with arrows. And homosexuality was once considered an illness while St Sebastian was known to save plague victims.
St Wilgefortis
Conchita (right) brought fresh attention to St Wilgefortis.
Legend says Wilgefortis was the daughter of a king in Portugal who took a vow of chastity.
When her father tried to force her into marriage with the king of Sicily she prayed for help. God saved her by giving her a beard and the Sicilian king refused to marry a bearded wife.
So she is a trans male saint.
Sadly, there is no happy ending. Her father got so angry he crucified her.
Her only reward is to become the patron saint of difficult marriages. After all, it’s a particularly difficult marriage that ends in crucifixion. In Spain she is called Librada because she helps women who want to be ‘liberated’ from difficult husbands.
The Catholic Church plays down St Wilgefortis. But after Conchita – another bearded lady – won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014 for Austria, depictions of the saint gained short-lived cult status.
St Perpetua and St Felicity
George Hare’s 1890 painting Victory of Faith depicted Perpetua and Felicity in prison.
This North African lesbian couple are the patron saints of same-sex relationships.
Perpetua was 22-year-old noblewoman with a newborn baby. Felicity, who was pregnant, was her slave.
Roman soldiers arrested them in around 203AD because they were Christians. They comforted each other in prison and Perpetua wrote a jail diary, describing the visions she had while inside.
Felicity worried that she wouldn’t be martyred because Roman law forbade the execution of pregnant women. But she gave birth to her daughter in time.
The day came for games to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Septimus Severus. As part of the entertainment, the pair were taken into the amphitheater in Carthage, North Africa, along with a group of male Christians.
Gladiators whipped them. Then boar, a bear, and a leopard were set on the men, and a wild cow on the women. That still wasn’t enough to kill them and they gave each other the kiss of peace before a swordsman finished them off.
Perpetua’s diary became the ‘Passion of St Perpetua, St Felicitas, and their Companions’. The story was so popular in North Africa that St Augustine ordered people not to treat it like it was part of the Bible.
St Paulinus
St Paulinus processed through the streets of Nola, near Naples, Italy.
If you’ve ever heard a bell ringing to call you to church, you’ve got the bisexual St Paulinus to thank. He invented that tradition.
He had previously been a married Roman senator. But after his wife died, he became bishop of Nola in Italy from 395AD to 431AD.
When the Vandals raided the region, a poor widow came to Paulinus asking him to help her son who the Vandals had carried off.
He had spent all his money paying ransoms for other captives. So he went to Africa to offer himself to the Vandals in return for the widow’s son. They agreed and made Paulinus a gardener. But when the Vandal king realized his son-in-law’s slave was the Bishop of Nola, he set him free.
What’s not well known is Paulinus also wrote love poems to his boyfriend, Ausonius. In one, he promised there love would last even after his death. And he added:
Thee shall I hold, in every fiber woven, Not with dumb lips, nor with averted face Shall I behold thee, in my mind embrace thee, Instant and present, thou, in every place.
He is still honored every year in Nola when his statue is paraded through the streets. American descendants of Italians from Nola also honor him in the same way in Brooklyn.
St Francis of Assisi
Mickey Rourke as St Francis of Assisi in the movie Francesco.
St Francis is one of the best-loved religious figures in history, famous for hugging lepers and showing compassion to animals.
What you probably don’t know is he encouraged the other Franciscan friars in his 13th century cloister to call him ‘mother’.
Even more surprisingly, he allowed a widow to enter the all-male friary, renaming her ‘Brother Jacoba’.
And it is likely he had at least one same-sex relationship while in his 20s. His partner’s identity is hidden by history but is thought to be Brother Elias of Cortona.
Thomas of Celano, who knew Francis personally and wrote a biography of him in 1230 just four years after his death, wrote:
‘Now there was a man in the city of Assisi whom Francis loved more than any other…
‘He would often take this friend off to secluded spots where they could discuss private matters and tell him that he had chanced upon a great and precious treasure. There was a cave near Assisi where the two friends often went to talk about this treasure.’
St Sergius and St Bacchus
The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus by Elastic Theatre.
Homophobic Christians tell us that same-sex marriage is against their faith. Trouble is they don’t know their own history. Step forward Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
Sergius was a commander in the Roman army in the third century and Bacchus was his second in command.
They were referred to in the earliest records of their story as ‘erastai’, the Greek word for ‘lovers’. And it’s believed they committed themselves to each other in a Christian ceremony called ‘adelphopoiesis’ or ‘brother-making’ which was a kind of same-sex marriage.
But their faith got them in trouble while they were stationed in Syria in 303AD. As Christians, they refused to sacrifice to Jupiter, the Roman’s chief god.
Officials arrested them, dressed them in women’s clothing and paraded them through the street to humiliate them into submission. But they resisted, chanting they were dressed as brides of Christ.
So the Romans turned to torture. They separated them and beat them so severely that Bacchus died.
That wasn’t the end of the story. That night Sergius had a vision.
Bacchus appeared to him in his soldier’s armor and with the face of an angel. He urged Sergius not to give in, saying they would live together as lovers forever in heaven. It’s a unique martyrdom story, because martyrs are always promised they will be with God in heaven, not with their lover.
Over the coming days, Sergius was tortured and finally beheaded.
Christians honored them as saints right up until 1969, the same year as the Stonewall Riots. The Catholic Church stripped them from the official list of saints, perhaps to starve the emerging gay rights movement of their power.
St Aelred
The Name of The Rose movie depicted medieval monastic life.
The patron saint of friendship was erotically attracted to men, and celebrated male relationships, throughout his life.
Aelred was the abbot of a Cistercian abbey in North Yorkshire, England for 20 years until his death in 1167. He wrote about the link between friendship and spirituality, saying ‘God is friendship’.
Aelred advocated chastity. But his passion for male relationships is clear when he wrote: ‘It is no small consolation in this life to have someone who can unite with you in an intimate affection and the embrace of a holy love…’
In the same passage he describes this relationship with another man as one where ‘the sweetness of the Spirit flows between you, where you so join yourself and cleave to him that soul mingles with soul and two become one.’
St Galla and St Benedicta
Women in the Dark Ages faced few choices, as depicted in The Last Kingdom.
Galla had been married but was widowed after just one year. Not wanting another relationship with a man, she grew a beard to ward them off.
And she went even further. St Galla founded a convent in Rome in the sixth century and fellow nun Benedicta moved in with her there.
Then Galla fell seriously ill and St Peter appeared to her in a vision, telling her to prepare for death. She was devoted to God so liked the idea of going to heaven. But she was also devoted to Benedicta and didn’t want to leave her behind.
So she prayed to Peter that Benedicta would swiftly follow her to the afterlife.
Admittedly, by modern standards, praying for your partner’s death seems a bit wrong. But Peter agreed.
Galla died in 550AD of breast cancer and Benedicta’s death came 30 days later, just as St Peter had promised.
Historical note on gay saints
To historians, we would point out there are around 10,000 Catholic saints (though there is no definitive figure). By any impartial standard, some of them are bound to have been LGBTI.
To Catholics, we would say that you accept a saint’s sanctity on the basis of faith, not scientific proof. So why would you not accept their sexuality on the same basis?
An Orthodox Rabbi has said that gay people caused the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting which killed 11, adding: “I’m not sorry for this disaster.”
New Jersey Rabbi Mordechai Aderet told his followers not to go to a vigil for those murdered last Saturday (October 27) because it reportedly took place during a circumcision ceremony for the twins of two gay dads.
In a Facebook video which has been viewed more than 10,000 times since it was posted to Facebook on Sunday (October 28), Aderet said that anyone who attended the interfaith memorial was “spitting in Hashem’s (God’s) face.”
“I’m not sorry for this disaster” (Rav Yosef Mizrachi/facebook)
He continued: “The two men adopted a boy and did the brit milah (circumcision ceremony), and you wonder why there was a massacre? And now you want to go say Tehillim (readings from the Book of Psalms) for them?”
The rabbi also said that people shouldn’t go to pay their respects because the Tree of Life Congregation, where the shooting happened, invited other Jews to a vigil for the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.
He referred to the 49 people killed in the attack as “those sinners, trash… that were killed in a massacre in a club. The club was a club for men to men.”
49 died in the attack on Pulse in 2016 (Joe Raedle/Getty)
“That’s the same people that invited the people two years ago to say Tehillim for those lowlives,” said the rabbi.
Aderet, who PinkNews understands has not attended the synagogue listed on his website, New Jersey’s Congregation Ahavath Torah, in the past year, continued: “All those people who go tonight, you protest against Hashem (God).
“This is not Tehillim, this is spitting in Hashem’s face. And you like it or you don’t like it, that’s the emet (truth).”
He added: “Those people do not let Moshiach (the Messiah) come. If you don’t go on the straight… thing, Hashem won’t bring the Moshiach.”
Dr Jerry Rabinowitz worked a short drive from the synagogue (michael kerr/facebook)
The doctor, who practised family medicine a short drive from the synagogue, was praised after his death by one of his patients, Michael Kerr.
In a Facebook post on Sunday (October 28), Kerr described Rabinowitz’s kind treatment of people with HIV during a time in which tens of thousands died and many were scared to touch sufferers, let alone care for them.
Kerr said that “in the old days for HIV patients in Pittsburgh he was [the] one to go to.”
Kerr praised Rabinowitz (michael kerr/facebook)
“Basically before there was effective treatment for fighting HIV itself, he was known in the community for keeping us alive the longest.”
A shocking report released last week by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates in Saint Paul, Minn., identified 26 members of the Roman Catholic clergy in Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties who are alleged to have had child sexual-abuse histories that in some cases dated back to the 1960s.
The firm’s findings come as the California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has pledged to investigate sexual-abuse charges in the Bay Area and the alleged cover-up by the Catholic Church.
A review of the firm’s thumbnail sketches of the 200-plus accused clergymen from the Bay Area may give insight into what the Boston Globe and the film Spotlight highlighted—that for decades, the Catholic Church dealt with its pedophilia problems by apparently shuffling sex-abusing clergy from one diocese to another. And it indicates that numerous California Catholic clergy sex abusers may have gotten away with their crimes due to a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that rejected a California attempt to retroactively eliminate statutes of limitations for certain sex crimes, including those perpetrated against minors.
Here are the clergy members of the Roman Catholic church who at one time or another were assigned to schools and churches in Marin, Napa or Sonoma counties, and who are alleged to have committed sexual assault against children, according to Anderson & Associates:
Marin County
• Msgr. Peter Gomez Armstrong, according to the law firm’s report, has been accused of sexually abusing at least one child. He worked at St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael between 1975 and 1979, and died in 2009.
• Fr. James W. Aylward was subject to a civil suit alleging sexual abuse against a minor, which the law firm reports was settled by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. After assignments to San Francisco, Millbrae, San Mateo, Washington, D.C., and Pacifica, Aylward arrived at St. Sylvester’s in San Rafael in 1990 and stayed on for five years. He was then sent to Burlingame for a few years and then to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Mill Valley from 1998 to 2000. His whereabouts are currently unknown, says the law firm report.
• Fr. Arthur Manuel Cunha was assigned to Our Lady of Loretto in Novato and served there between 1984 and 1986. He was absent on sick leave in 1986–87. From 1987 to 1989, his whereabouts were unknown, according to the law firm. He was absent on leave again from 1989 to 1991, and his whereabouts have been unknown since then. The law firm reports that Cunha was “arrested in 1986, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and four months of counseling in connection with sexually abusing two boys.” He’s been named in multiple civil lawsuits.
• Fr. Sidney J. Custodio was assigned to St. Raphael’s Church in San Rafael in 1955; sex-crime allegations against him were lodged while he worked at St. Gregory in San Mateo County. According to the law firm, his whereabouts have been unknown since 1975.
• Fr. Pearse P. Donovan was assigned to Marin Catholic High School in San Rafael from 1953 to 1955, and allegations of sexual abuse against him were levied when he later worked at St. Clement in Hayward. He’s been named in at least one civil lawsuit, reports Anderson & Associates. He died in 1986.
• Msgr. Charles J. Durkin is reported to have retired in 2002, “a month after the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office requested 75 years worth of church records related to abuse allegations,” reports Anderson. He worked at St. Sebastian’s in San Rafael in 1962, and lived at the Nazareth House in San Rafael after he retired in 2003. He died in 2006 and was the subject of an accusation of sexual assault that occurred while he was at the Star of the Sea in San Francisco, where he served from 1956 to 1961, and again from 1996 to 2003.
• Fr. Arthur Harrison was charged with criminally abusing a 10-year-old when he was assigned to Our Lady of Loretto in Novato, in 1960. The case was dismissed because of the statute of limitation, but the Diocese of San Jose lists Harrison as a clergy-member “with credible allegations of sexual abuse of children,” according to the law firm report. He died in 2006.
• Msgr. John. P. Heaney served from 1971 to 1974 at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, and again at St. Rita’s in Fairfax from 1974 1979, according to the firm. Allegations against Heaney arose while he was the SFPD chaplain between 1976 and 2002, and he was criminally charged, in 2002, with multiple felony counts of child abuse that were dropped because the statute of limitations had run out. He died in 2010.
• The Rev. Gregory G. Ingels got his start as a clergyman at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield in 1970 and was also assigned to St. Isabella’s church in San Rafael in 1982. “Multiple survivors have come forward alleging sexual abuse” by Ingels from 1972 to 1977, reports the Anderson law firm, while he was at the Kentfied school. He too was criminally charged with child sexual abuse, but the charges were dropped owing to the 2003 Supreme Court ruling. His whereabouts since 2011 are unknown, says the law firm.
• Fr. Daniel T. Keohane was assigned to St. Anthony of Padua, in Novato, from 2006 to 2009; a sexual-abuse allegation was made against him for activities he allegedly committed while he was at the Church of the in San Francisco in the 1970s. The San Francisco diocese deemed the allegations credible, as it recommended further investigation. He took a leave of absence in 2015 and his whereabouts since then are unknown, reports the law firm.
• Fr. Jerome Leach served at St. Patrick’s Church in Larkspur from 1980 to 1983 and the Anderson report notes that he was alleged to have committed sex crimes there and at All Souls in San Francisco. In 2002, he was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse, but again, the statute of limitations had run out.
• Fr. Guy Anthony Mrunig spent his career as a clergyman at St. Sebastian’s in Kenfield-Greenbrae from 1971 to 1973; at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield from 1972 to 1978; and at the Serra Club of Marin County from 1973 to 1977. The report says that multiple survivors have come forward alleging sexual abuse while he was at Marin Catholic in Kentfield. He reportedly left the priesthood to marry a former student from the high school and his whereabouts since 1979 are unknown, says the law firm.
• Msgr. John O’Connor was placed on leave by the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 2002 “after it received an allegation of improper contact with a boy occurring more than thirty years ago,” the law firm reports. During his career, he was mostly assigned to churches in San Francisco, but was at St. Isabella’s in San Rafael between 1964 and 1971. He was “absent on leave” between 2005 and his death in 2013.
• Fr. Miles O’Brien Riley was assigned to St Raphael’s in San Rafael from 1964 to 1968 and also worked as a chaplain at San Quentin State Prison during that time. He was accused of sexually abusing a girl when she was 16, and the Anderson & Associates document notes that the Archdiocese of San Francisco permitted Riley to retire quietly in 2003.
• Fr. John Schwartz was ordained in 1981 and, after assignments in Oregon, wound up at St. Anselm’s in Ross in 2004–06. No further information is provided by the Anderson report on allegations against Schwartz, whose whereabouts since 2012 are unknown, says the law firm.
• Fr. Kevin F. Tripp was ordained in 1968 and spent much of his career in Massachusetts, where, in 2002 the district attorney in Fall River released a list of priests under investigation for sexual abuse, and Tripp was on the list, according to the law firm. The Massachusetts district attorney’s finding alleged that there were two persons who had been victimized by Tripp. The law firm determined that as of 2003, and according to a San Francisco Faith newsletter, Tripp was the executive director of the Marin Interfaith Council in San Rafael.
• Fr. Milton T. Walsh’s first clergy assignment was at Our Lady of Loretto in Novato before heading to Rome to get his doctorate in 1982. He reportedly returned to Novato on a break from his studies, “where he allegedly sexually abused a boy whose family he had grown close with during his time working at Our Lady of Loretto,” reads the law firm report; he was at Loretto between 1978 and 1980. Walsh was arrested for the sexual assault in 2002 after being caught in a Novato police-department telephone sting where he admitted to the sexual abuse of a minor—but the charges were dropped. Yes, the statute of limitations case, again. His whereabouts since 2015? Unknown, says the law firm.
Napa County
• Fr. Edward F. Beutner was ordained in 1965 and spent the next quarter century moving from assignments in Wisconsin to California, including a one-year special assignment at Mont La Salle in Napa. No further information is provided from Anderson & Associates on his alleged misdeeds. He died in 2008.
• Fr. Don D. Flickinger was charged by the San Jose Diocese with having engaged in sexual activity with minors in the years 2002, 2005 and 2006. The cases were all settled, and a 2011 lawsuit against Flickinger alleged that he had a history of sexual misconduct spanning 40 years. He spent two years, 1981 to 1983, at Napa’s Mont La Salle Novitiate.
• Fr. Francis J. Ford was ordained in 1951 and died in 1985. He served as Chaplain at Napa State Hospital from 1974 to 1976. No further information on Ford was provided in the Anderson law firm report.
• Br. John Moriarty worked at the St. Helena Christian Brothers’ Retreat House, in Napa County, from 1974 to 1978 and is alleged to have committed sexual abuse against children in 1975–76. He is believed to have passed in 2013, but his whereabouts since 1993 are unknown, says the law firm.
• Fr. Francis Verngren was the subject of a 2003 civil lawsuit file by a man who says the priest sexually abused him from 1966 to 1979, when Verngren was principal at St. Mary’s College High School in Berkeley. He was also affiliated with the St. Mary’s College High School in Napa between 1964 and 1984, and died in 2003.
Sonoma County
• Br./Fr. Donald W. Eagleson’s abuse charges stem from a 1971 incident while he was a Brother of the Holy Cross and allegedly sexually abused a youth. He was assigned to St. Vincent de Paul in Petaluma between 1986 and 1987. In 2002, he was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in Eureka, where another abuse allegation arose regarding his 1971 activities. He was at Nazareth House in San Rafael in 2004 when, the law firm reports, he died.
• Fr. J. Patrick Foley was identified last month, by the San Diego diocese he served in for decades, as a likely candidate to have committed sexual abuse against minors. After a 1991 leave of absence from the San Diego diocese, he arrived at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento for a few years before landing in the Santa Rosa diocese, according to the law firm. He was suspended in 2010 and his whereabouts since 2015 have been unknown, reports the law firm.
• Br. Joseph (Jesse) Gutierrez-Cervantes was hired as a contract psychologist at Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma in 1984 and was fired two years later “after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced” that Gutierrez had sexually abused boys during therapy sessions. According to the Anderson report, his current whereabouts, clerical status and whether he has access to children are unknown.
• Fr. Austin Peter Keegan “has been accused of sexually abusing at least 80 children and has been named in at least one civil lawsuit. Keegan’s abuses are alleged to have started in the 1960s when he worked for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of Santa Rosa, where he served from 1977 to 1979. He was at St. Eugene’s Cathedral in Santa Rosa from 1980 to 1981, but the law firm reports his whereabouts have been unknown since then.
Philadelphia-based Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput, who once said sexually active gays cannot take communion, now denies the existence of LGBTI people at all.
Archbishop Chaput claims that church documents should refrain from using the term ‘LGBTQ’ in any official documents. He also blamed the church’s sexual abuse crisis on liberal beliefs about sexuality.
‘There is no such thing as an “LGBTQ Catholic” or a “transgender Catholic” or a “heterosexual Catholic,” as if our sexual appetites defined who we are; as if these designations described discrete communities of differing but equal integrity within the real ecclesial community, the body of Jesus Christ,’ Chaput said in a 4 October speech at the church’s Youth Synod in Rome.
The full text of his speech was published online by the UK-based Catholic Herald.
While many Catholics urged the Church to become more accepting of LGBTI individuals, Chaput disagrees. A working document for the Synod said, ‘Some LGBT youths, through various contributions that were received by the General Secretariat of the Synod, wish to “benefit from greater closeness” and experience greater care by the Church.’
Chaput objected to this language.
‘“LGBTQ” and similar language should not be used in church documents, because using it suggests that these are real, autonomous groups, and the church simply doesn’t categorize people that way,’ he said.
‘Explaining why Catholic teaching about human sexuality is true, and why it’s ennobling and merciful, seems crucial to any discussion of anthropological issues. Yet it’s regrettably missing from this chapter and this document. I hope revisions by the Synod Fathers can address that.’
According to Chaput, young people are being influenced by a ‘culture that is both deeply appealing and essentially atheist’. He blamed this culture for the Church’s sexual abuse scandal that has come to light in recent years.
‘The clergy sexual abuse crisis is precisely a result of the self-indulgence and confusion introduced into the church in my lifetime, even among those tasked with teaching and leading,’ he said.
‘And minors — our young people — have paid the price for it.’
Chaput was chosen by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to represent the group at the synod. Additionally, he is a member of the synod’s permanent council. This year’s synod opened 4 October and runs through 28 October.
‘[Chaput’s message] is a perfect example of how some church leaders have been so blinded by ideological homophobia and transphobia that they cannot perceive plain human facts accurately,’ wrote Francis DeBernardo of LGBTI Catholic advocacy group New Ways Ministry.
‘His comments reflect the dangerous avoidance mentality that is the cause of the clergy sexual abuse scandal and so many of the ills which plague the Catholic Church today.’
‘There are LGBTQ Catholics and transgender Catholics and heterosexual Catholics, just as there are Italian Catholics, elderly Catholics, disabled Catholics, Latin American Catholics, traditionalist Catholics, poor Catholics, educated Catholics, and so many other distinct groups within our big tent church,’ DeBernardo continued.
‘If Chaput interprets LGBTQ as a sinister designation that must be expunged, the responsibility for such an interpretation is his own fault and a result of his own ignorance to better understand the reality of LGBTQ Catholic people.’
