Summary: Paul St. Charles

At the request of the Nashville media, I am going to briefly summarize the issues that surround the accused pedophile priest, Paul St. Charles.  Despite being acknowledged by the Catholic church as an abuser, St. Charles still is held forth as an "vindicated" man. Ask the average Nashville Catholic about Father Paul St. Charles and you will get one or two different answers: 1.) Who is that? or, 2.) He's innocent, and the church has made a mistake.

This summary is divided into three parts:  1.) I will briefly give the facts with relavent links to current news media reporting.  2.) The tug of war between bishops will be outlined, and questions regarding this dichotomy in the Catholic church's claim of being united and supportive. 3.) The outrageous false reporting to the people that keeps children and teens in danger will be explained.  The fact that despite all the evidence to the contrary, people still believe Paul St. Charles is innocent.  

Paul St. Charles has been awarded by Bishop Choby as a "Golden Grad" of Father Ryan High School.

Part 1:  Facts in a nutshell:

• born and raised in Nashville
• attended Father Ryan High School in Nashville
  
• ordained.  Here is the entire assignment record of Paul St. Charles as it appears in the public record from the "Official Catholic Directory."  
  
• retired in 1987 and has lived for most of his retirement at 122 Tallwood Drive, Nashville, TN, 37211-2711 (see assignment record above.)
  
• during much of his retirement, he was substitute priest in many parishes and gave retreats to youth in many diocese of Nashville parishes.
• allegations against St. Charles surface in at least 2004 (probably earlier but diocese of Memphis reports nothing, exactly like its mother diocese, the diocese of Nashville)
  
• Bishop Steib with the advice of the diocesan review board in Memphis finds the allegations against Paul St. Charles to be "credible."  ("Credible" is Catholic church double-speak for "guilty" when they have no way of quelling the tide of truth about a priest.  This means that there was too much information against Paul St. Charles in their own records over the years, and they couldn't dismiss it without getting caught.)  They say is "more likely than not" to have abused. 
  
• Bishop Steib petitions the Vatican to defrock Paul St. Charles in November 2004.  To date, this has not been accomplished to my knowledge, four years after declaring Paul St. Charles credibly accused.  
  
• lawsuits begin to be filed.  Settlements begin.  
• lawsuits are still being filed . . . another one just a few weeks ago on September 12, 2008.
  

A compendium of links to the articles about this pedophile priest can be found of Bishopaccountability.org by clicking this link.

Another way to get the information on Paul St. Charles is to go to Bishopaccountability.org and search the website for the names of Bill Dries and James Dowd.  Both of these Memphis journalists have written numerous articles about this issue and the other pedophile priests in the Memphis diocese. (Be sure to put quotation marks around the names so that the search is narrowed somewhat.)

Here are some of the sources, but more complete results are at the link above:

• Bishop Suspends Priest Accused of Sex Abuse
  Paul St. Charles Was Cyo Leader
• Prosecutor Says Church Should Have Reported Sexual Abuse Cases
• Retired Memphis Priest Faces New Charges of Molestation
• Former Memphis Altar Boy Files Lawsuit
• Memphis Catholic Diocese Hit with Another Sex Suit
• Diocese Settles Sex Suits for More Than $300k
• Abuse Survivors Want Names of Molesting Priests
• Catholic Diocese Settles Lawsuits
•  Suit Accuses Retired Priest of Abuse
• Another Suit Filed against Diocese
  

Part 2:  Bishop Choby of the diocese of Nashville does not support the decision of the Bishop Terry Steib of the diocese of Memphis. 


Part 3:  The people support Paul St. Charles and think that he has not guilty despite mounting lawsuits and the diocese of Memphis asking  Rome to defrock St. Charles, permanently removing him from the priesthood. 

Letter to ETC on anniversary of diocese

I sent this today to the newspaper of the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee. It is in regard to an article in the last edition, "Diocese of Knoxville going strong at 20th anniversary."

Dear Editor,
As the diocese celebrates its 20th anniversary, it seems that a movement continues to rewrite history and reinstate the reputation of Anthony J. O'Connell, first bishop of Knoxville. In reading the effusive article about the diocesan anniversary in the last edition of the ETC, one would think that the first bishop did not go on to admit abusing "one maybe two" high-school aged seminarians and resign his church career as a result.

Are our memories so short that we dare trample on all survivors of clergy sexual abuse who live in our diocese, victims whose pain is so conveniently and adeptly ignored? Does our penchant for history not include all of history or do we continue to pick and choose what we want to know and not what is true? The answer is abundantly clear. This diocese from the top down is full of cafeteria Catholics when it comes to Anthony J. O'Connell. Pick and choose and do not ask questions.

Quite a convenient trend but the same dangerous attitude that allowed clergy sexual abuse to occur in the first place.

The "specialness" factor

When I was in teacher training and throughout my career as a teacher, it was prevalent to encourage teachers to encourage the uniqueness of each student.  It was the "You're special" factor that was always encouraged.

I think it's common sense.  We all want and need to feel special, to have our "brand" of person affirmed and approved.  We need to feel loved.

Over the years of speaking to clergy sex abuse survivors, I have been horrified at how many times I have heard of the distortion of "specialness."

"You're my special boy (or girl)."
"We won't tell anyone about our special love."
"I do these things to you because you are special."

The mantra goes on and on as the pedophile puts the child or teen in a death grip or conflicting emotions.  The victims hates the actions but is caught because he or she is being told by someone who is supposed to be protective and good and responsible and an adult.  In other words, life experiences are not complete enough for the child or teen to comprehend the evil that is happening.

Ultimately the victim is caught accepting blame for what has happened.  The pedophile walks away unscathed.

I am very careful about telling anyone they are special.  Too often it evokes pain and not happiness.  All because a powerful adult used those words to excuse the crimes of sexual abuse against the defenseless.

Children, ruin your lives

I am so sick to death of these arrogant, self-righteous adults! Here is the picture of a molester of young boys.

Dan DuPree. AKA Father Daniel T. DuPree of Memphis, Tennessee. Abused over and over.

Yesterday, the court ruled against the courageous man who is trying to tell you the truth about this pedophile. But he can't tell you because he didn't tell you years ago.

It's not about money. It's about the truth.

He knows that Dan DuPree is still out there. DuPree left the priesthood and is now living somewhere near Texarkana. Don't bother looking on the sex offender list. He's not there and won't be there because the duplicit Memphis Catholic diocese waited out the pathetic statute of limitation so that they would not have to be liable for the perversion of Dupree and other pedophile priests.

Here's is the reason that the court has given for tossing out this heroic attempt to get out the truth.

The man filing suit against the church for lying and hiding this pedophile did not tell his parents, tell his neighbors, tell his friends, tell his girlfriend, tell his high school graduating class, tell the police, tell the judge, tell the court, tell the jury, tell the citizens of Memphis, tell the state of Tennessee, tell the entire country about Dan Dupree by the time he was 19 years old.

19 YEARS OLD. 19 YEARS OLD. Are you hearing this people???? What else in the world does a 19-year-old have to do except to openly ruin his life by telling the world that he was molested?

A victim, a young man barely over 18 and not yet the legal age to even drink a beer, did not ruin his life by reporting to EVERYONE about Dan Dupree. So he gets no justice, and Dan DuPree still lurks out there, able to abuse at will. And the church still keeps its deep, dark, evil secrets about how much abuse has occurred at the hands of its clergy?

Wrong??? You bet it's wrong!!!! It's so much more than wrong that I don't have room to go into all the ways.

Is Dan Dupree one of the 10 pedophiles that the Diocese of Memphis told the district attorney about? We don't know because we are not told those 10 names.

If you are sitting there reading this and you don't demand the truth from the catholic church in Tennessee, you are complicit in this crime. You are, as I said before, an arrogant, self-righteous adult.

Shame on all of us for the continued abuse of our children.

That little house behind the school

I never realized until I went to my 40th class reunion that people were upset that Knoxville Catholic High School had moved to a new location and sold the old school. Without going into details, I know that the sentimentality of the old school is very great, and people are loathe to turn loose of those things that matter to them. KCHS matters to many of us. Rich and fond memories for most; pain, humiliation, and horror for some.

It's really all about that little house behind the school.

Old KCHS on Magnolia had become a rather dangerous place because of its location in the city. Drug dealers on the streets were far too frequent. Staying late at school for extracurricular activities had become a security nightmare. It was really necessary to move, but before all that came about, there was a danger far more sinister and more perverse than most could imagine. And it all came about in that little house behind the school.

It was the priest's house. That's what we called it anyway. If the principal of the high school were a priest, he lived there. So it was when Father Frank Richards was principal of KCHS in the mid 80s. And Frank Richards is a pedophile who preys on teenage boys.

He would ask unwitting parents to let their son come to spend the night. There were several who were going to come there, he said, and there was work to be done and fun to be had. All too soon, the fun ceased, and the shame and horror began.

It was the alcohol or the drugs or the pornography or any combination of these that started it all. Father Richards gave it to the boys so what could they say. He was cool. He let them taste the wilder side of their approaching manhood, so why not participate. "Father said it's okay" is a strong argument to the teen brought up in the strict Catholic homes of yesteryear.

And then he abused them. Frequently they were dazed with alcohol. Sometimes not dazed enough, but the results were always the same. Shame. Guilt. Pain. Despair.

"I don't think your parents would want to hear what you did." And now, years later, the horror of that little house behind the school still haunts these once-innocent boys, now men. Still brings chills and nausea and sometimes the desire to recreate those alcohol and drug-induced, mind-numbed moments so they don't have to remember.

And Frank Richards is a free man. Ex-priest. Not prosecutable because of statutes of limitations. Murderer of souls. One time occupant of that little house behind the school.

It was time to move KCHS away from the pain.

The pedophile priest and the toy train

I saw an advertisement on TV today for an upcoming toy train exhibit at the Knoxville Expo Center. Huge displays of trains with long winding tracks, landscapes, villages, imitation ponds and lakes. It looked so idealic. Like a Norman Rockwell painting. Families will go there and enjoy the day. Dads and Moms will laugh and smile as they watch their sons and daughters enjoy the meanderings of the toy trains.

Then I remembered the boys. The 11-year-old olds. The 10-year-old olds. The 12-year-olds. The ones whose parents dropped them off at Father Edward McKeown's house, the rectory where he had a huge train set up in the basement. The house where he gathered boys for sleepovers to play with the toy train set. To have innocent fun. Or so the parents thought.

But Father McKeown never had enough room for the boys to sleep. Seems like one boy always found himself sharing the bed with McKeown. And the stage for McKeown to molest was set, organized every bit as meticulously as his elaborate train set and fake landscape and sleepovers. Arranged to feed his evil predilection for these boys, whose parents trusted him. The rape of childhood had begun.

I know so many men, once happy children in small Tennessee towns, who will not attend a toy train show this weekend. They can't. The very sights and sounds of those trains will nauseate them and fill them with revulsion and despair. Their childhood was robbed from them by McKeown. The church officials knew. They did nothing.

McKeown was put in jail years and years later by an irate non-Catholic mother whose son was molested by the wicked ex-priest McKeown. In a trailer park where he lived. Long after the diocese of Nashville turned the monster loose to abuse where they could turn their shameful faces away and not see.

Clergy sexual abuse ruins lives in so many ways, hidden dreadful ways. The toy trains are dust-covered and put away in attics as grown men weep for their childhood lost.

Keep Edward McKeown in prison. Away from his toy train set. Away from the young boys. Your sons. Your neighbors.

Ask your bishop to tell us the names of all of these evil clergy predators. It's the least they could do.

Abusing a teenager

There are people out there who simply do not believe that it is possible to abuse a teenager. I've talked to them, and their logic, or lack thereof, is amazing. Their ignorance of abuse and how is occurs is even more astounding.

Apparently, when you are a teenager, you are supposed to be equipped with all the tools in a human being's arsenal to thwart any intrusion into your life. Never mind that the teenage years, as I recall, are times of great uncertainty, lack of confidence, fumbling social steps forward . . . and steps backward. Never mind that there are dozens of frightening and confusing events facing the teenager almost daily, almost hourly. Never mind that you feel ugly, fat, awkward, insignificant and a hundred other negative things.

But to this group of observers, a teenager should repel the spiritual leader who controls his or her sphere of reference, the person in charge of his or her school, church, or diocese. A teenager should readily stand up and stop abuse by his or her mentor, the person who comes to dinner, the cleric whose virtues his or her parents extol on every possible occasion so that their children will love the church, the priest who everyone says is such a holy man.

The absolute certainty that these people have that it is just that easy . . . say "No" to an authority figure of the highest spiritual stature in your life at that time. It's easy, they say. Just say "No." Just push him down and run. Just tell your parents.

The utter naivete of this view takes my breath away.

After you are plied with alcohol, drugs, and pornography or any combination thereof, the abuser will have his or her way, and you are powerless whether you are 5 or 15 or 25 or . . . whatever.

When the perpetrator says, "It's okay. This is how you receive a special communion from me." You lose faith.

When the perpetrator says, "Your mother would be so ashamed of you if I told them what you did." You keep silent.

When the perpetrator says, "It's our special secret. It's how I show you I love you." You are emotionally bereft of future certitude in relationships.

When the perpetrator says, "Now go to confession and confess to God the sin you just did and the sin YOU made me do." You leave the church or attend wounded for the rest of your life.

Now self-righteous people, is it so clear-cut now? Or have you lost all perspective on life itself that you would blame a teenager for abuse rather than the twisted pervert who is raping, sodomizing, humiliating, destroying. . . .

People get a grip. A teenager is so much a child in formation. They need our protection as children in progress.

As for the pedophile who would do this to a teenager, I cannot write what I truly think should happen to this priest, nun, brother, minister, rabbi, etc.

Read my mind.

Paul St. Charles, the PPP

Here he is!  The PPP, preferred pedophile priest, Paul St. Charles.

By the way, does this look like a bishop who gets it? Bishop Choby is awarding St. Charles the "Golden Grad Award" from Father Ryan.  Sure, you get it for just being alive, but how many boys has he killed in his life?  Killing their souls, killing their futures, killing their dreams, wounding their psyches, mangling their hope for a peaceful life. 

Looks to me like they would have given him a jail sentence after what he has done to youth.  After all, that is what your ordinary, run-of-the-mill pedophile gets.  Ask Bishop Steib of Memphis what the files says about the abuse by the PPP. Ask the courts who are still hearing his abuse cases if he is innocent as his legion of followers say. 

Bishop Choby, you deserve an award.  Let's see . . what should we call that award?  Something with alliteration.  Well, maybe we can come up with this soon in another post.  I'll try to think of some words that I could actually post without having my blog removed for "ugly words" (if you know what I mean.)

Crumbs of cooperation

The Catholic church is so fond of saying that they are now fully cooperative and transparent. Funny thing, transparency. It's hard to attain when you won't release the names of the pedophile priests who have been assigned in your diocese. This is a brick wall if anything, and is just about as transparent as a dark starless night in the dessert.

Names of 18 priests across Tennessee were turned into the now famous John Jay Study at the turn of the millennium. Someone please comment to this post and send me the names. I have asked for 7 years and have never gotten them. (The pathetic excuses the church has given me is the subject of a future blog.)

Do you know who these pedophiles are? Do you know where they were assigned?

Me either. . . except what victims have told me. My mental list is lengthy, and the details gruesome.

But officially, no one knows, and clearly, that is wrong. The church would be guilty of malfeasance and obstruction of justice if it were a secular institution. But since it is "the church" it gets a pass on the truth. Even the justice system seems reluctant to hold it to the same standards as the rest of us.

Crumbs of cooperation. That's what we get. Nothing more. Nothing to sustain our lives, these crumbs that so many accept as enough.

Make a difference. Tell your pastor that you will not give a dime to the collection basket until you get full accountability about these pedophiles. That's what will work. Withhold the money; get the information. Good clear-cut plan. . . if we could only get together and execute the plan.

Question - did Paul St. Charles abuse at SHC?

I have one question that needs to be asked . . . and answered.

Did Father Paul St. Charles spend a year at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Knoxville, Tennessee? Public records say that he was there around 1967-1968.

Do the people of Sacred Heart Cathedral (and the rest of the diocese of Knoxville) know that Paul St. Charles is a pedophile priest? That he has been credibly accused by the diocese of Memphis? That he still lives in Nashville after his early retirement from the priesthood in the 1970s? That multiple lawsuits have been filed against him? That more and more men tell one horrific story after another about the hideous abuse by Paul St. Charles? That Bishop Choby of Nashville protects Paul St. Charles from the truth?

What does Paul St. Charles know that he is being protected by the THREE dioceses from exposure of his crimes?

Oops. That was more than one question. Well one question about the perverse secrets in the diocese of Knoxville leads to another. . . and another . . . and another.

KCHS class of 1968 - a get-together

I just had my 40th class reunion at Knoxville Catholic High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was a wonderful experience. After 40 years, some of the pretensions that we all had have dropped away, and we find ourselves surprisingly more in tune with each other than we ever were 40 years ago.

I was happy to see so much happiness and genuine care among my classmates and friends. It has warmed my heart like nothing else in a long time.

I wish everyone could have this experience. Sadly, too many who went to KCHS have to contend with the damaging, devastating effects of clergy sexual abuse.

Many of my classmates know that I have worked with clergy sexual abuse victims. I had decided to be candid about it with them, since I also think frankness and candor are benefits of the 40 years after high school!

Many of them had the usual reaction that it happened to someone else and not to those who went to KCHS. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I only had to point to the yearbooks on display from our four years at Catholic. There are pictures of at least two serial child molesters in those pages. TWO pedophile priests that I am aware of, and there are most likely more.

Not pictured in the books are two other priest predators who were assigned to churches where our classmates came from to go to KCHS. All of us were exposed to these predators in some way and did not know it. Or are there classmates of mine and students from other classes who were abused by these priests?

I suspect the answer is yes given all that I do know about the clergy sexual abuse crisis in East Tennessee, a crisis yet to fully erupt, but one that some of us know to be horrific.

Thanks, class of 1968. I love all of you, and I fervently hope we will meet again before too many years go by. By then, I hope the entire Diocese of Knoxville is exposed for the cover-up and corruption that it has perpetrated on too many of the innocents.

An Irish Tragedy by Joe Rigert

There is a new book, An Irish Tragedy, by Joe Rigert that has two chapters dedicated to the topic of the infamous and somewhat banished first bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, Anthony J. O'Connell.

I am looking forward to reading this book and am especially interested in the part on O'Connell. There is so much left unknown and unsaid about O'Connell. My greatest fear is that we will forget about him to the point that he will drift off to Europe and become a renowned leader of a basilica or cathedral or other edifice of note.

After all Cardinal Bernard Law, his best buddy forever, was rightly humiliated in Boston and then went to Europe to become the potentate of a huge church in Rome. What a punishment! Talk about the ultimate "getting bumped upstairs" situation.

I am so afraid that O'Connell will trade his peaceful, posh, carefree existence at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, for an equally posh existence in Rome or Ireland or some other unsuspecting region of the world.

He deserves jail. He gets comfort. Not fair at all.

Paul St. Charles, the preferred pedophile priest

Why is pedophile priest Paul St. Charles so untouchable? It's a mystery, but perhaps he is the string that will cause the unraveling.

He retired early from the Memphis diocese and has lived ever since in Nashville, his home town. He is the subject of lawsuit after lawsuit and yet remains honored, revered, defended, and protected by bishops, priests, and people in the pews of at least three dioceses.

What does he know that the diocese wants kept hidden? Is it worth giving him the money of good Catholic donors for his livelihood? He is like a cheap knitted scarf. If you start the unraveling of the thread, it will end up a heap of tangled yarn. Too many dioceses want to keep him a perverse but quiet secret that it makes me think he could be the unraveling of the deep, dark secrets of the diocese.

Whatever it is, it's an insult to his many, many victims. When will they be vindicated?

Women in relationships with priests . . .

We have been hearing from the abuse victims of priests who are adult women for a while. I think we will hear more and more. There is a misperception that mostly boys were abused by priests or nuns or brothers in the Catholic church.

Not so. Most of the abuse is of girls and women.

It's the power thing. A priest who enters a relationship with a women is usually entering that relationship by way of his priestly duties. He is her "spiritual director." How many times I have heard that!!!! She confides her problems to him as a counselor.

If he weren't a priest, their paths would likely not have crossed at all. Or more importantly, she probably would not have that awe and reverence for him that is she feels.

And what about this promise of celibacy that a priest takes? What about the power he has over the congregation because he is so "special." That will be the subject of more discussion later.

Here is a presentation about the women's issue.

It's about power . . . not consent

As hard as this is for me to say, there are a lot of people who think that clergy sexual abuse is not really abuse, especially if it is a teenager. People actually think that there is consent involved on the part of the young person. It's the equivalent of saying that "he (or she) was asking for it."

When will we ever stop this nonsense that the victim is the perpetrator? There is really only one perpetrator in clergy sexual abuse. . . the CLERGY. It's quite simple, especially if you put your own loved one in the position of the victim in the abuse scenario.

Here is a presentation that should sum it up.

Father (or bishop) just made a mistake . . .

When Anthony J. O'Connell resigned, I heard all the time that he "just made a mistake." The story which is still held firmly by so many in East Tennessee and the Diocese of Knoxville is that it was mistake. Catholics in the pews tell me over and over that he just "accidentally bumped into the boy's crotch and that the boy made it up that it was sexual."

I know that the many victims of Anthony O'Connell would just love to know that it was all a mistake. That taking them to bed and lying naked with them was just a mistake. The rest of what happened I can't say here. You will have to ask them.

A mistake? If it happened to your child, to someone you love, to you, would it be a mistake?

The following presentation was made to respond in some fashion to this notion that "Father just made a mistake."

***********

But the boy was a college student. . .

I have heard a million times that these "boys" that Bishop O'Connell molested were in college because they were in the seminary. That is a patent lie. Apparently, the idea that he sexually abused college students means that the victims were "of age" and it is not abuse.

O'Connell was the rector of a minor seminary. A minor seminary is a high school

Would you let the principal of your child's hight school molest your child? Of course not.

Here is the presentation that hopefully explains what I am trying to say.