The Reverend Julian B. Goodman, pastor of the Catholic Church of the Holy Comforter on Jefferson Street, has been forced to resign over alleged sexual molestation that took place in the early 1980s, WVTF reports. This is presumably a consequence of the Church’s new zero-tolerance policy towards molestation, though few details were provided in the report. 08-08-2002 Update: Adrienne Schwisow has the story in today’s Progress, which provides a great deal more information about the late-70’s case and about the church’s late-60’s case involving a different priest.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
four six and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Ms. Schwisow’s article goes along just fine until she writes this sentence in the second-to-last paragraph: "Still, Kronzer, who is gay, has trouble trusting in intimate relationships, a difficulty he traces to the abuse."
Hello! If he weren’t gay, he’d be a happy and trusting person?? Sexual orientation has NOTHING to do with abuse or its effects; this detail is completely irrelevant to the article and will only further twist people’s notions about the "causes" of being gay. If he weren’t gay, would the sentence have read "Still, Kronzer, who is heterosexual, has trouble trusting in intimate relationships, a difficulty he traces to the abuse." ?? Doubtful.
This problem is vastly overstated. The Pope is right: this is primarily an American cultural problem. It arises out of Puritanical angst about sex combined with laws paying plaintiff’s lawyers to magnify and exploit alleged injuries. Other (Moslem) cultures stone women to death for adultery while tolerating open homosexual relations. Should we emulate their oppression aspects–merely picking a different target for stoning–or their live-and-let-live tolerance? And I might note in closing that the Gospel of Mark sugests Jesus Christ himself, if preaching in an American Catholic church, would have risked getting fired and sued. Cf. http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_miss.htm
If it was Schwisow’s intention to equate gay with trust in intimacy, then shame on her.
But more likely, it’s a lack of mastery in the English language. The journalist probably simply intended to convey a fact of homosexuality but clumsily attached it to another bit of information, the subject’s intimacy issues. We can witness this growing phenomenon time and time again. A place this is insidiously prevalent is in our under-graduate schools, where tests are so poorly phrased, students are continuously challenged not to find the correct response, but rather to speculate what the teacher or other testing authority was trying to ask.
I am often the first to criticize American Puritanism, which I find associated with numerous modern societal ills. However, I don’t see the relevancy here. The Roman Catholic Church is being confronted with an issue that’s likely as old as the church itself. This has never been resolved in a sustainable manner. The fact of life is we are all sexual beings. Some have greater control over sexual urges than others, and Catholic priests certainly exhibit very great control. Yet ‘great’ control is not ‘total’ control. The Vatican needs to reform the whole establishment. This is not easy, but it is necessary.
Are you trying to say that in other cultures authority figures molesting children is an accepted practice? Should we look the other way, roll our eyes and say "Priests will be priests?" I hope not – and I don’t think that’s what the Popester was trying to say, either.
I think the difference is, in our culture, we’ve decided to do something about it. We’ve decided to draw the line, and to encourage victims (and these people are certainly victims) to bring their complaints forward. We want the abuse to stop, and we want to punish the abusers. We want to lock them up adn throw away the key. Moving them into administrative positions just isn’t going to cut it with us.
Perhaps the "cultural problem" the pope refers to is the fact that the United States has about the strongest separation of church and state in any non-Socialist country. Maybe that’s his beef with us. He meets with our president and usually doesn’t get the result he’s looking for. Maybe if we bowed to the dictates of the Vatican and adjusted ALL of our laws accordingly, he’d think better of us.
This isn’t a problem because of our culture. It’s a problem because of the Church’s culture.
the guy’s sexuality has NOTHING to do with the issues discussed in the article. Even if it was a grammatical accident (missed by all the editors and proofreaders in addition to the writer), whether or not he’s gay has NO bearing on anything in the story. If she’d pointed out that he’s (black/Asian/Jewish/paraplegic), it would have been equally immaterial. He was abused; someone took advantage of him sexually as a child and he has trouble with intimacy. The gender of his current romantic partners has zero importance in that context.
Oh ok, so let’s look at the stats.
Sex of Catholic Priests who have been accused: MALE
Sex of the majority of the victims: MALE
EQUALS: HOMOSEXUAL. It’s a fact NOT an insult. Quit dancing around it and call it what it is.
fdr writes: the guy’s sexuality has NOTHING to do with the issues discussed in the article. Even if it was a grammatical accident (missed by all the editors and proofreaders in addition to the writer), whether or not he’s gay has NO bearing on anything in the story.
Well, I’ll assume that Schwisow didn’t make a subjective determination of Kronzer’s ‘gayness’. Rather, I suspect that this was something he brought to the forefront, just as he was eager that his name (which is also quite ‘immaterial’) be made public.
The fact that male priests molested young boys does not mean the victims are homosexual. I don’t care if the victims are gay or straight but it is probable that the victim told Schwisow that he is gay. Perhaps he felt that this was relevant to his story. I don’t think it is and I think it should have been ommitted. Maybe he thought it was best to go ahead and say he was gay so that if his gayness was made public later he’d be prepared to meet accusations that he had concealed his gayness because it was a consensual relationship.
I attended St. John Vianney in 1966-1967. I never knew of any sexual activities at all and was never molested or approached sexually by anyone. A lot of the students and faculty (myself included) did seem confused and searching for answers. I didn’t find any there.
I was also an altar boy for Paul Rodriguez and he never touched me. I do believe that he is guilty and that people in the diocese and the parish knew about it. One disturbing fact about Rodriguez is that he was working as a counselor at the mens prison in Lompoc in California when he was first arrested.
Kevin Cox
Whoa. You’re totally confusing me. Is there any implication, in either the article or the above posts, that calling the victim gay is an insult?
Also — The line in the article refers to the victim’s homosexuality, not the perpetrator’s. The sexuality of the perpetrator does not determine the sexuality of the victim.
His name is immaterial, yes, but the journalist does not use his name in the story in a way that implies that his being named Kronzer and his problem with intimacy are connected. She does do so with his sexual orientation.
Yes, Mr. Cox, let me clear this up. I was in no way inferring that the VICTIMS are gay.
Thank You
Thanks for the clarification Mr. Ms. or Miss BetterLife. It sure sounded like you were talking about the victims sexuality, after all the sexual orientation of the priest was never mentioned in the article but that of the victims was.
I understand your point sir, thanks
“And I might note in closing that the Gospel of Mark sugests Jesus Christ himself, if preaching in an American Catholic church, would have risked getting fired and sued. Cf. http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_miss.htm“
The ‘secret gospel’ has been pretty thoroughly discredited by both Christian and secular scholars. Here’s just one link: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qbadmark.html.
Still, it has lots of adherents, but there motives usually seem to be less than scholarly.
how do you get a nun pregnant?
dress her up like an altar boy.