A little remembering - Abuse of Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell - first bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee

Link to the best summary of Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell.  You must read this.  

Link to proof positive of the lack of transparency in the Diocese of Knoxville.  This is the entry that I found in the notebook at the St. John Vianney shrine to honor deceased priests of the Diocese of Knoxville.  This St. John Vianney Purgatorial Society notebook was installed in the new Sacred Heart Cathedral.  

After talking yesterday to a wonderful man and friend of mine who was molested by Bishop Anthony O'Connell and Father Xavier Mankel at Sacred Heart Cathedral, I decided to do a little introspection.   Sometimes we just need to make sure we remember. Or maybe we should call it making sure that we never forget.  

When Anthony J. O'Connell left St. Thomas Aquinas Preparatory Seminary and became the first bishop of Knoxville, it was a euphoric day in East Tennessee.  But we would come to regret that day in many ways.  We got a new name, Diocese of Knoxville.  We got a new bishop, and he was a pedophile. 

This is not in dispute although if you talk to many members of the Diocese of Knoxville they will deny it.  This is how poor the leadership of the next bishops of Knoxville have been.  

I remember sitting in the office of Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz with his Chancellor, Father James "Vann" Johnson in attendance.  The subject of the meeting was for three moms and members of the diocese to ask for help from Bishop Kurtz, the successor of O'Connell as 2nd bishop of Knoxville.  We would be disappointed.  Not only did Kurtz refuse to counter all the lies that were being passed around the diocese about now-admitted pedophile, Bishop O'Connell, Bishop Kurtz sat in silence and just looked at us.  I asked him, "Bishop, are you and your priests going to rectify these lies?  Are you going to tell the truth and make sure the people know?  

Silence.  Total and complete silence.  

What has followed is years of lies perpetrated by the diocese of Knoxville about O'Connell.  He died in 2012, ten years after admitting his pedophilia and resigning as bishop.  Not once was the truth emphasized in Knoxville for the sake of our children.  Not once were the misperceptions of the people addressed and amended to keep our children are safe, making liars of anyone who says there is even a semblance of transparency in the Diocese of Knoxville.  

Kurtz is now the Archbishop of Louisville, KY and head of all of the diocese of Kentucky and Tennessee.  Father Johnston is now Bishop James "Vann" Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri (the place who gave us O'Connell to begin with).  Bishop Richard F. Stika succeeded Kurtz as the 3rd bishop.  He came to us from the Archdiocese of St. Louis where he held high positions in the Archdiocese including right-hand man to Cardinal Justin Rigali, then-archbishop.  Rigali and Stika were at the heart of archdiocesan power when reports about O'Connell started surfacing and reported in the Archdiocese.  

Nothing was done.  O'Connell was bishop of Knoxville at the time of the first reports but nothing was done to remove him.  No one was told, not the least of which were his victims of abuse.  

I call the Diocese of Knoxville "Boston South."  You will hear more about that.  Someday, the truth will be out there.  No rest until it is.  

Be at peace, my friend.  Someday when we have fought long enough and hard enough, the truth will be out.  Then we can say, "FINALLY!"  Finally, the people will know  Finally, there will be a day of reckoning for those who have hidden the dirt that they knew all this time.