UPDATE:: An interesting take on the situation from Jennifer Haselberger, a 'canon lawyer who served as the Chancellor for
Canonical Affairs in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis until
April of 2013, when she resigned in protest of the Archdiocese's
handling of sexual misconduct by clergy."
By allowing Gustafson (and others) to
remain a priest, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis both
symbolically and legally accepted ongoing responsibility for him and
for his actions. As such, Tuesday's disclosure that Gustafson has formed
a non-profit with the goal of 'helping' victims of sexual abuse by
clergy demonstrates that once again the Archdiocese has failed to honor
its commitments. As a priest, Gustafson is prohibited from raising funds
without the permission of his ordinary (canon 1265, 1), he is not
to speak on the radio or on TV on matters pertaining to Catholic faith
or morals without the permission of his ordinary (canon 831,2), and most
importantly there is no way that a man who is being supervised as part
of the Archdiocese's 'state-of-the-art monitoring program' should have
had the opportunity to interact with victims of sexual abuse.
The
Archdiocese made a decision in 2002, 2005, and again in 2008 that it
would accept ongoing responsibility for Gustafson. Therefore, it is the
Archdiocese's responsibility to see that his actions and conduct
are circumscribed to the extent required by his current status in the
Catholic Church. Clearly, they have not done this. It is time for them
to begin.
This is the same jack-wad who was able to
collect disabilty for being a pedophile, "In July 2006, Gustafson was declared “disabled” based on his pedophilia,
the church said. This allowed him to collect disability checks on top of
his earnings as a leadership consultant."
The Rev. Gilbert Gustafson, a priest convicted of child sex abuse, is
behind a new effort to raise money to buy the headquarters of the Twin
Cities archdiocese and turn it into a healing center for abuse
survivors.
The website for the nonprofit Gilead Project, which seeks to raise money
online, does not mention the priest's criminal conviction or
acknowledge any abuse allegations against Gustafson. It also does not
indicate that he is a priest.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis wants to sell the nearly
60,000 square-foot chancery property across the street from the
Cathedral of St. Paul to pay creditors in bankruptcy. The archdiocese's
realtor has listed the price as "negotiable."
,,,
The pair are basing the plan on a model of restorative justice but they
admit there's nothing like this out there where priests who've abused
kids would be inside a building with people who've been abused.
David Clohessy, who heads the national Survivors Network of those Abused
by Priests, says he has never heard of anything like it, either.
"I think it's the height of arrogance for a child molesting cleric to
say, 'I sexually assaulted kids but I can help sexually assaulted people
heal from this,'" he said.
Convicted priest wants to buy St. Paul chancery, aid sex abuse victims | Minnesota Public Radio News
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