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The Cleveland Diocese is in the midst of a fund-raising campaign to improve the Seminary which, apparently, is old and needs to be updated. This story and other recent improprieties clearly show they have to do a MUCH better job at filtering these guys away from the priesthood before they have a change to abuse their position to hurt others.

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As a cradle Catholic who was raised to venerate priests, and grew up with many visiting priests over the years, it is so difficult to read accounts like this. But necessary. Thanks to the family for the courage to tell their story and for keeping the faith through such a horrific encounter with evil. The devil’s goal is to drive people away from the Church, as evidenced in the recent Pillar survey. My prayers go out to the family and the Church.

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God bless this family. Wow. God bless this mom. I love her so much she just wants her son to feel peaceful to go to Mass and be with Jesus... that is always what I feel for abuse victims because so many are so hurt and have feelings of aversion and God loves them and I and others want to be united with them in the Eucharist. God bless her sons. I am a catechist and have also told kids not only "don't look at pictures of naked people" but "don't take naked pictures"... it feels like such a weird, gross thing to say since a lot of kids would NOT think of something like that (this boy victimized by Fr McWilliams didn't plan on it either till a wrongful request was made), but that boy's words make me feel I should say that to this year's class (middle schoolers) when we have our "safe environment lesson." you don't want to suggest things to kids' minds. God bless the writer of this article too, it is so sensitively written that it would not harm children I don't think. It's a painful story, I cried, but what I mean is it avoids gratuitous detail.

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A gut-wrenching story, especially realizing this isn’t an isolated incident or a unique story.

I was a seminarian alongside Father Ryan Erikson at the Saint Paul Seminary in the mid-1990s. At the time, I had no idea what he was involved with, but after the murders and his suicide, looking back, I could see many signs from my experiences of him during the seminary years that something was seriously wrong. I was really naive. I’m not sure hindsight really produces 20-20 vision, but at least it reduces blindness.

Fr Ryan Erikson’s case is now almost 18 years in the past. That’s a generation ago, in terms of seminary formation and church reform. But it seems that very little progress has been made, except the proliferation of processes and Virtus seminars and legal protections.

I’m not convinced that the ethos in the church has changed. At all. And without a new ethos, everything devolves into hollow people making hollow promises.

I sometimes wonder if institutional reform is an oxymoron, or at least putting the cart before the horse.

Benedict XVI has taken a lot of heat for suggesting that the abuse crisis is first and foremost indicative of a crisis of faith. But I think he’s exactly right.

He also wrote about the limits of moral progress. His words in Spe Salvi (“The Hope That Saves”) are illuminating:

“…We must acknowledge that incremental progress is possible only in the material sphere. Here, amid our growing knowledge of the structure of matter and in the light of ever more advanced inventions, we clearly see continuous progress towards an ever greater mastery of nature. Yet in the field of ethical awareness and moral decision-making, there is no similar possibility of accumulation for the simple reason that man's freedom is always new and he must always make his decisions anew. These decisions can never simply be made for us in advance by others—if that were the case, we would no longer be free. Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning. Naturally, new generations can build on the knowledge and experience of those who went before, and they can draw upon the moral treasury of the whole of humanity. But they can also reject it, because it can never be self-evident in the same way as material inventions. The moral treasury of humanity is not readily at hand like tools that we use; it is present as an appeal to freedom and a possibility for it. This, however, means that:

a) The right state of human affairs, the moral well-being of the world can never be guaranteed simply through structures alone, however good they are. Such structures are not only important, but necessary; yet they cannot and must not marginalize human freedom. Even the best structures function only when the community is animated by convictions capable of motivating people to assent freely to the social order. Freedom requires conviction; conviction does not exist on its own, but must always be gained anew by the community.

b) Since man always remains free and since his freedom is always fragile, the kingdom of good will never be definitively established in this world. Anyone who promises the better world that is guaranteed to last for ever is making a false promise; he is overlooking human freedom. Freedom must constantly be won over for the cause of good. Free assent to the good never exists simply by itself. If there were structures which could irrevocably guarantee a determined—good—state of the world, man's freedom would be denied, and hence they would not be good structures at all.

What this means is that every generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs; this task is never simply completed.” (Spe Salvi, 24-25)

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So sad that this man has made such a wonderful kindness of inviting a priest to your home and to include them in family events into a suspicious activity that should be monitored. Bring a priest who can barely leave his rectory or is never invited to meet parishioners leads to a pretty sad lonely life.

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Thank God for The Pillar. Excruciatingly tough to read, and I'll need some extra prayer time to keep this anger from festering into hatred, but we absolutely need these stories told because otherwise nothing will change. Along with the direct victims, I pray especially for all the good priests who will forever fall under our suspicion because how in the world can we trust seminaries that are still letting guys like this slip through.

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Thank you for telling this family's story. I so admire this mother and her faith!

We all need to pray for the victims and their families.

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It is so tragic to hear that the church continues to ignore this family who saved hundreds of children from being abused by this young priest. There needs to be reform in our church. No priest should EVER be alone with a child. No priest should be allowed at recess. There needs to be regular phone checks and screening for apps like the one used by McWilliams. This needs to be conducted by third party resources who can be trusted. There should be no on-going friendships at this level within priesthood. Every single church that my family or I have attended has a priest whose abused a child. Every single church. It’s hard to continue to walk in faith when the church refuses to take extreme measures and demand reform. Every single priest whose not demanding change behind the scenes is as guilty as McWilliams. The lack of accountability will undoubtedly lead to the demise of the church. I feel empathy for the whole family and especially Joseph in this situation. I hope he is not forced to forgive prior to being ready to do so (if/when that time comes) and I hope that’s not used to further manipulate him into not filing a lawsuit against the church for their culpability in this crime. Tragic all around.

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Thank you for this, JD. This is very important reporting, and empowers parents to protect our children- in the “Safe Environment” trainings I’ve attended, it seemed that the emphasis was really on protecting very young children. As we are seeing more and more, we have to be vigilant with our older kids too, especially when technology is in the picture. This kind of story is so helpful- and thank you for presenting it so sensitively for us as readers and for the family involved.

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Thank you for this honest reporting and God bless this mom and family, and thank you, St. Michael.

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1. I'm thankful this story is coming to light. If we don't think these sorts of abuse and blackmail are possible, even among priests, we won't be able to guard against them.

2. The mother's faith is admirable. She also put forth good suggestions for changes in the seminary. May God shower many blessings on her and her family.

3. I'll continue to invite my priests to dinner with my family. I still think doing so is both good for my family and good for the priests. I think God wills for my family to learn lessons from the story, but I don't think He wills for us to exclude all priests from my family life. As the mother said, "Fr. Bobby is not most priests." We just need to remember that priests are human beings, and we human beings are, with very few exceptions, mixed bags.

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I’m a faithful catholic. A sinner by nature, but faithful none the less. Isn’t it unreasonable & unnatural to ask our priests to be celebrate? Isn’t that the foundation of all this disfunction? It appears to me that this code of silence is easily perpetuated due to a general disregard of any sexual preferences. I’m not a alarmist, but the church I’d failing in so many ways. Where are the future priests when we demand unhealthy and destructive vows?

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How, can we get the good and holy priests to come forward, to join with others and make a statement for change?

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Jun 5, 2022·edited Jun 15, 2022

May God bless and heal this precious family of whom you write, and bless and heal all people who have endured such horrific behavior from those they thought they could trust. May God also give the grace of life-giving repentance to all such perpetrators and those who hid their actions.

“Mrs. Christopher”, God bless her and her family!, repeats something I have heard other Catholic Christians repeat over and over again that needs to be corrected - that “the Catholic Church is the only Church with the seven sacraments”.

The Catholic Church recognizes the validity of all seven of the Sacraments of the Eastern Orthodox Church. When the Church, founded on the Rock of Peter’s confession: "15 Jesus said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16: 15-16, RSVCE, we (Orthodox Christians and Catholic Christians) were one. Both churches still have seven valid sacraments. Perhaps Eastern Orthodoxy may prove to be a healing remedy for people who have been wounded severely within the Catholic Church, but who long for the Eucharist and a sacramental life, while realizing every church or ecclesial community that has human beings as members will still have within it sinners of every kind.

May God have mercy on us all, and give us all the grace to trust Him more and bring all of our darknesses to His light. No more hiding and not addressing the evil within PLEASE.

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