Dakota Beacon

There is no greater betrayal than that by one with whom you have shared your innermost hopes and fears, than that by one whom you have trusted as a guide and counselpr, than that by one whom you have been taught is your conduit to your God.  It perhaps even surpasses the crushing betrayal of a parent, a beloved teacher or scout master.

Growing up is hard.  A lot us remember that.  Many of us are grateful to a mentor who was there for us to help us at times of confusion and doubt and into the light of our self-discovery.  Most of us would not want to be in our teens again. The betrayal of a child or teenager is devastating and there are lifelong consequences - sometimes a chain of future betrayal, sometimes an injury to the very soul of the victim that never, ever heals, that casts shade on all of his future relationships, that affects his physical, mental and spiritual health.  I’m talking about the sexual abuse by a trusted priest of an innocent youth or child, abuse which heaps a lifetime of wrongful shame and guilt upon the innocent.

A lot has been said about this sickness which has appeared in the Catholic Church (as well as other denominations).  It is now said by church authorities to be a “tsunami” of cases.   Some have come forward, and it is probably safe to say that they are but a small percentage of those directly affected, not to mention those whose lives have suffered collateral damage by their hurt.  Since the first of these public statements by victims, there have been numerous investigations and reports and we keep finding that these priests have not acted in isolation or without the knowledge of others in the church hierarchy who could have intervened and stopped the abuse . . . but the abuse continued unabated.  Sometimes the miscreant would be moved from one parish to another, where he would find fresh, unsuspecting victims and continue in the same way as before. Sometimes nothing would be done at all.   

The senior priests and bishops who have learned of these crimes - for they are crimes - and have permitted continued abuse are criminals in themselves.  Some of them have gone through the motions of sending the wayward priest to therapy programs and then, even when advised by therapists that the priest was still not in control of himself, sent him back into ministry among vulnerable young people and innocent families.

The stories are heartbreaking - and these are just the ones that have been told.  The massive, unbearable guilt which has burdened and limited the lives of victims from childhood and adolescence on, is immeasurable.  It has perhaps resulted in not only a perpetuation of this crime with new victims, destroyed marriages and family relationships, dysfunction in a future career of the victim, but loss of faith and possibly even self-harm or suicide.  The human cost of this abuse is terrible to contemplate.  

Whose fault is it?  First, it is easy to say it is the offender himself.  But he could not continue harming others without a veritable network of lies perpetrated and supported by a church hierarchy - a rogue hierarchy, to be sure, but one which has withstood many serious efforts  by victims and their families to correct. The perpetrators and their enablers must be stopped. The bishops who, knowing the harm that is caused, allow this to continue unchecked are as guilty as the perpetrators themselves.  

Crookston is the epicenter of a recent attempt to find justice and peace for victims and an end of abuse.  Bishop Michael Hoeppner has come under fire for allowing not one, but several priests known to be homosexual abusers of those within their spiritual care.  What could be his motivation? Is he, too, a direct offender? Of other priests or accolates? Is he under orders from someone higher up to cover this up?  He has repeatedly had full warning from others who knew the truth and yet he continued again and again, to place these people in positions of authority and responsibility in their parishes, who then persisted in harming others.

At the moment there is a petition circulating to remove Bishop Hoeppner.  That is the least that should happen to him.  It is not too much to say that he is actually at the hub of an organized cover-up and perpetration scheme.  The numbers of innocent people he has harmed are unknowable. These bishops have betrayed their victims, the faithful whom they have directly abused, their families, their futures, and also their high calling, the Catholic Church and the wider Christian faith and culture.  They must be stopped and immediately removed. Their crimes are not in the past - they are going on today, every day, unchecked.  

The priests should be named - Fr. Patrick Sullivan, Fr. Don Braukmann, Msgr. Grundhaus, Fr. Joseph Richards.  When a parishioner, Ron Vasek, came to Bishop Hoeppner with a complaint about Msgr. Grundhaus - who he has alleged had plied him with alcohol and then assaulted him as a teenager, Hoeppner ordered him to keep quiet about it and threatened to harm his son’s career.  His son is a priest. The callous cynicism exhibited by this man where he should have shown compassion, his determination rather to conceal than to help heal and provide appropriate counsel to both the priest and the parishioner, was an abject neglect of a sacred duty.  A criminal neglect. He is, if this testimony continues to hold up, actually an accomplice after the fact and perhaps a perjurer, if his lies were under oath. And there were others in this chain of cover-up, a veritable web of deceit and coercion.  

There is another, very dark, aspect of this.  Fr. Braukmann has died, rather suddenly. In care.  Allegedly of natural causes. What, perhaps, could Fr. Braukmann have been able to tell us about this?

Light, it is said, is a great disinfectant.  Let us put all the light on this that is needed, let us clean up the  rot it reveals and begin healing this deep wound in our culture and in the hearts, minds, souls and lives of the victims.  To that end, here is another video. Note, if you will, the cynical, smirking manner of Bishop Hoeppner during his deposition.  Where is his concern for the pain of those innocent persons harmed by his negligence? Where is his sense of responsibility as he his called out on his guilt in this?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2u7bDFSmA&feature=youtu.be  If experience teaches us anything, perhaps it is that rather than bring such a complaint to another priest, a victim should go first to the police and then to an attorney.  This might, in the long run, be in the best interest of the Catholic Church.

Finally, here is a petition.  Let us support the victims of this abuse and just as importantly let’s make sure there are not more and above all, let us restore the integrity of one of our vital cultural pillars. 

We are in the throes of an existential battle, whether we all realize it or not.   Our very civilization is under direct threat on multiple fronts - Islam is at the gates, threatening to extinguish that culture and return mankind to utter darkness and from the Left, which seeks to obliterate our very sense of right and wrong, good and evil.  And here is Bishop Hoeppner and his cohorts, pouring gasoline on a raging inferno. He needs to go. Now.