Father Greeley

Mr. Matt Abbott e-mailed me a link to an article he wrote about Father Greeley back in March.

An excerpt.

“They are a dangerous group. There is reason to believe that they are responsible for at least one murder, and may perhaps have been involved in the murder of the murderer. Am I afraid of them? Not particularly. They know that I have in safekeeping information which would implicate them. I am more of a threat to them dead than alive.”

(The murder Greeley is alluding to in the above passage is almost certainly that of Francis E. Pellegrini, who was the organist and choir director at All Saints — St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, located on Chicago’s South side. Pellegrini was allegedly in the process of exposing to the Archdiocese the activities of the clergy sex/pedophile ring, but was found brutally murdered in his apartment on May 30, 1984. To date, the murder remains officially unsolved.)

The obvious questions: If Greeley is truly interested in justice and the good of the Catholic Church, why has he thus far refused to expose this “dangerous group”? Why is the “information” in “safekeeping” and not with the proper authorities? And what about the newspapers that run Greeley’s columns? One would think that they would be aware of his (public) allegation. Yet, the silence from them on the matter is deafening.

As for the Church, the Archdiocese of Chicago has no information to corroborate the allegation “that a ring of priests may have been involved in criminal activity. Nevertheless, when this information was published, the Archdiocese brought it to the attention of the State’s Attorney in Cook County.” So stated a letter sent to Yours truly, dated July 31, 2001, from John C. O’Malley, director of legal services for the Archdiocese. And, according to Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, Greeley hasn’t provided him with any actual evidence on the matter.

So…is it a case of Greeley’s smarmy fiction, or is it a case of his liberal hypocrisy? Or both?

This was in response to my comments on the Catholic and Enjoying It Blog on this Father Greeley article.

Thanks for sending it Mr. Abbott

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