PA Grand Jury Report: Part II

Part II of the Media Report is found here. 

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***SPECIAL PA. JURY REPORT ANALYSIS*** PART II: Mouths Washed Out With Holy Water? Rapes at Airports? Pennsylvania’s Dishonest Grand Jury Report EXPOSED

This is Part II of a special TheMediaReport.com analysis of the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

We will never deny that many stories of clergy abuse are tragically true. Of this we must always be mindful. However, if there is one thing that this site has demonstrated repeatedly over the years, it is that not all accusations are created equal.

Let us look at some of the more alarming abuse claims from Pennsylvania's "grand jury report,"authored by the office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro, that have received wide media attention:

A victim's mouth washed out with holy water?!

It is a stomach-turning story, indeed:

"Monsignor Thomas Benestad made a 9-year-old give him oral sex, then rinse the boy's mouth out with holy water to purify him."

Did this actually happen? No, it didn't. But don't just take our word for it.

Msgr. Thomas Benestad

Josh Shapiro won't tell you this, but two entirely separate investigations – one by a former FBI agent and another by officials at the Vatican – thoroughly examined the wild claims against Benestad. Both independently determined that the accusations were bogus. And when one looks at the details of the accuser's outlandish story, it is apparent why investigators cleared Benestad and why his bishop reinstated him.

In 2011, some chap e-mailed the Diocese of Allentown claiming that he had a "memory" (yes, a "memory") from thirty years earlier. He claimed that, starting at nine years old, he was regularly pulled out of weekly CCD class for oral sex for over two years. The accuser says his abuse began when he was told that wearing shorts to CCD class was "sinful," and after a nun escorted him to Benestad's office, Benestad forced him to perform oral sex on him.

But that's not all. After the boy was finished, Benestad would perform oral sex on him as well. Uh-huh. And then Benestad would somehow magically "produce a clear bottle of holy water and squirt it into the victim’s mouth to purify him." Because what priest doesn't keep a "clear bottle of holy water" handy at all times, right?

The accuser's story is such a crock that even a wild-eyed leader at SNAP would have a hard time believing it. Monsignor Benestad has been a priest for nearly a half century, and Benestad's attorney has forcefully replied:

"Monsignor Benestad has never done anything that would be deemed inappropriate with any individual. Monsignor Benestad has never done anything that would be deemed immoral by the church with any individual. Monsignor Benestad has never done anything illegal with any person as judged by any civil or criminal authority."

[**Click to read Msgr. Benestad's response to Pennsylvania's report (pdf)**]

Attorney General Shapiro is simply nasty for not informing the public that two entirely separate investigations exonerated Monsignor Benestad.

Let's move on.

A scene from 'Airplane'?

Rev. John P. Fitzgerald

In 2014, the Diocese of Pittsburgh spoke to a crook who claimed that years earlier Rev. John P. Fitzgerald sexually assaulted him in an airplane, in a car, and at the Pittsburgh International Airport chapel. The crook also claimed that he was forced to perform oral sex on Rev. Fitzgerald "maybe a half dozen times."

Naturally, Shapiro did not identify the accuser as a crook, but we will have Fitzgerald's attorney explain:

"The allegations of misconduct against Rev. John P. Fitzgerald are false. The allegations contained in the Summary referring to Rev. Fitzgerald are the product of a fabrication made by a convicted thief, a convicted violator of the Controlled Substances Act, a person who 'punched his father in the head and body, kicked his mother in the midsection and choked his sister when they tried to stop him from driving after snorting heroin,' according to a police report filed based on the statements of his father, mother and sister."

And when the accuser sat down for a 2014 interview, he "dramatically changed his allegations." There were also a couple other major problems: The chapel at Pittsburgh International Airport did not even exist until years after the accuser said his abuse occurred. And aviation experts testified that it was "physically impossible" for Fr. Fitzgerald to have been simultaneously flying an airplane and sexually abusing a boy "without crashing the aircraft."

Naturally, Fr. Fitzgerald has vehemently denied the preposterous accusations against him. And it should also be noted that Fr. Fitzgerald has had no other allegations against him in over four decades in ministry.

[**Click to read Rev. Fitzgerald's response to Pennsylvania's report (pdf)**]

A priest did what with a crucifix?!

Then there is the case of Fr. Gregory Flohr. In November 2004, a sole accuser surfaced to claim that for a period of years back in the 1960s, starting when he was 10 or 11 years old, Flohr repeatedly touched his genitals and forced him to perform oral sex on him. (Are you sensing an ongoing theme here, everyone?)

But there's more. The accuser's tale ends with a spectacular "final act":

"Flohr's final act of sexual abuse against the victim occurred in November 1969, when Flohr allegedly took the victim into the confessional of the Immaculate Conception church and began kissing him and tied him up with rope into a 'praying position.' The victim began to scream, so Flohr tried to silence him by forcing his penis into his mouth. 'When the [victim] refused the priest allegedly became angry and sodomized the [victim] with a crucifix approximately 7″x 5″x 1″ in size.' Flohr then stated that the victim was a 'bad boy' and let him go. Following this incident, the victim deliberately set the church carpet on fire."

We are supposed to believe this? That no one else was around when this happened in a confessional in a church? Where was everybody else? The boy screamed out loud, and the priest's idea to quiet him down was to – what? – try and shove his penis in the boy's mouth and then sodomize him with a crucifix? As if that would shut the boy up? Really? And where did the rope and crucifix magically appear from?

One cannot help but wonder what Fr. Flohr had to say when confronted with these alarming accusations against him. Well, he said nothing. He was already dead. And he had no other accusers in over four decades of ministry.

Remember Philadelphia!

In light of Shapiro's crooked attack against the Catholic Church, it is important to be cognizant that we have witnessed an untrustworthy "grand jury report" before.

One of the last times a similar report made huge headlines was back in 2011 with the Philadelphia grand jury report. It was truly an international spectacle. Mugshots were plastered across the media landscape, and the media's drumbeat against the Church banged loudly yet again.

And although it took years for the truth to rise to the surface, we eventually learned that the Philly report was a complete work of fiction. On the testimony of a criminal drug addict and serial liar by the name of Danny Gallagher, innocent men went to prison, and one priest, Rev. Charles Engelhardt, even died there. It is clearly one of the great injustices in modern American history. If you didn’t already know this, you should.

If it were not for the luck of a dogged journalist by the name of Ralph Cipriano – who began covering the Philly cases as pro-prosecution until he realized he was witnessing a con – this outrage never would have seen the light of day.

Some people have characterized the recent Pennsylvania report as "just the tip of the iceberg." It is, but it is just the tip of the iceberg of the massive fraud being perpetrated against the Catholic Church. (Indeed, there are many others in the Pennsylvania report who have been wrongly assailed.)

Wake up, everyone. Especially you all in the Catholic media. Quit fretting over your own optics (the saints surely didn't!), and speak up in defense of wrongly maligned Catholic clerics and against this crooked Pennsylvania report.

Justice demands it.