Father Thomas Euteneuer was a rock star to many US Catholics. Charismatic, media savvy, energetic and assured he was a regular on EWTN, radio, a sought after commenter and columnist and his star only rose when he took on Sean Hannity in 2007.
For 10 years Euteneuer led one of the Virginia based anti abortion Catholic organization called Human Life International as it’s President. He was a celebrity priest. In August 2010 Euteneuer abruptly announced that he was stepping down because he was burned out:
‘It has been 15 years since I last had any significant time for renewal, and after traveling more than 1.1 million miles, authoring two books, visiting 58 countries and making thousands of public appearances, I am ready for a break! I intend to continue to do pro-life work wherever I may be called to serve, and my bishop agrees that this is a vital charism of my priestly life.’
The press release from the organization carried a phrase which caught the attention of his fans and others.
“The board of directors of Human Life International (HLI) has announced that after nearly 10 years of meritorious service to HLI as president, Reverend Thomas J Euteneuer has stepped down from his position after being asked by his Bishop to return to his Diocese in West Palm Beach, Florida.”
(bold is mine) The structure of authority in the Roman Catholic Church is such that when a Bishop gives the order, priests obey. His fans mourned and offered their prayers and support. He was replaced at the organization by a monsignor from Rome.The deafening silence from the former very public priest began to be questioned, lines began to be drawn, and speculation began to run rampant.
People are people. One of the sidelines Father Euteneuer engaged in was exorcism. He wrote a book (Exorcism and the Church Militant) which quickly disappeared, eventually selling for over 500 dollars as copies got scarce. Rumours floated around about the book shortage and the devil got blamed a lot.
The language of devout Catholics who blame the devil is no different than the language of devout protestants who blame the devil. The real devil however, may have been in the resounding silence from the disappearing priest’s bishop and the priest himself.
As time passed Catholic bloggers began asking hard questions. I like the Catholic blogosphere. It is diverse, engaged, and tenacious. One blogger who received particular vitrol for her anger at the silence of the diocese and her anger at Fr. Euteneurer kept at it.
Today the silence was broken. Catholic news blogs and sites such as Spero News and Lifesite played it straight, releasing Fr. Euteneurer’s statement and checking with his bishop to see if the priest had permission to publicly confess.
The circumstances that led to my departure from HLI were related exclusively to my own decisions and conduct within the ministry of exorcism that I carried out independently from my responsibilities at HLI. The vast majority of my decisions and conduct, both personally and in this ministry, were morally sound and consistent with all standards of pastoral care of persons. Moreover, they were all motivated exclusively by my desire to give priestly assistance to people in great spiritual distress. I must acknowledge, however, that one particularly complex situation clouded my judgment and led me to imprudent decisions with harmful consequences, the worst of which was violating the boundaries of chastity with an adult female who was under my spiritual care.
His contrition is real, but, and this is the but that has the Catholic blogs in an uproar, Euteneuer lashed out at laity, particularly bloggers who filled the vacuum of silence digging for the truth that led him to release his statement in the first place.
While I would much prefer to allow this public act of contrition to stand alone, I regret having to address the malicious falsehoods that were published this past week on various internet sites. I can only say that I am shocked to the depths of my being at the malicious efforts by supposedly faithful Catholics to destroy a priest who has served the Church faithfully for 22 years. The campaigners have made intolerable attempts to contact my family, to defame innocent co-workers and even to solicit and to persuade others with whom I have prayed that they are victims despite their unequivocal statements to the contrary. Some have even claimed falsely and maliciously that there is a possessed person living in my family’s home. No one should have to endure such malevolence or such treatment of innocent family members. Despite the rhetoric of justice and truth-seeking, the sinful campaign has not made one single positive contribution to the resolution of this difficult situation that has already been handled appropriately by Church authorities for nearly six months.
While I would otherwise willingly suffer calumnies in silence to atone for my sins, and knowing how pointless it is to respond to every crackpot with a website, I cannot remain silent when such falsehoods threaten to damage the Church, the priesthood, and other innocent persons and organizations that are or have been linked to me.
That was earlier today. Big mistake. His confession is what a confession should be. Perhaps incomplete, but blaming laity for seeking accountability and truth about departure of a priest who was the object of a cult of personality was untenable, even for those who have supported him. The outrage today cause his bishop to finally break his silence, something which should have been done months ago. Bishop Gerald Barbarito:
Due to the publicity being given to the situation of Father Thomas Euteneuer, I now feel it is not only fair but necessary to inform the priests of the Diocese of appropriate information in his regard.
Father Euteneuer has been undergoing intensive evaluation and counseling to address admitted inappropriate crossing of adult heterosexual boundaries on the occasion of carrying out his priestly ministry. Immediate action was taken to deal with this matter and to restrict his ministry as soon as it was brought to the attention of the Diocese. Father Euteneuer has cooperated in the process while at the same time expressing contrition for his conduct and the harm it has caused. No determination has yet been made as to when and under what circumstances he may return to ministry.
While committed to Father Euteneuer’s healing, I truly regret and apologize for the hurt and harm which his actions have caused.
The blogger I linked to earlier, the one who is angry? Her family paid gave Euteneuer a fair sum of money (unsolicited donations) for an exorcism on a family member. His visits did not help and the family received intervention from another priest and other sources and all are doing much better.
This breaking of long silence is not going to calm down the Catholic faithful anytime soon. The one good thing to come out of this is that Euteneuer’s bishop has categorically stated his priest will never be permitted to do an exorcism again. (I don’t think from what I’ve read he was sanctioned by the Vatican in the first place). This statement from SNAP sums up the reality of what most Catholics feel about victim blaming, laity needs and the official wall of silence their church continues to erect.
We hope Fr. Euteneuer is telling the truth but we suspect he’s not. Rarely do clerics who abuse their power do so only once.
We are disappointed that Bishop Barbarito and HLI have kept secret for months about this admitted violation and are keeping silent even now. It’s irresponsible for church and non-profit officials to let an admitted wrongdoer “spin” his own wrongdoing. Barbarito and HLI are abdicating their responsibility.
We hope that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered any misdeeds by Fr. Euteneuer – or other clerics – will find the courage to come forward, speak up, get help, call police, protect others and start healing.
will the catholic church ever get past their male virgin priest stuff? further, will they ever embrace that jesus christ is our high priest. (of course, the high liturgy of the sanctuary makes for good entertainment of those who love to play church, just like contemporary praise and worship bands engender “intimacy” with god with the charismatics. ) and concerning exorcism, how about acknowledging some legitimacy to psychology and psychiatry?
All you people leaping on this priest, who I think spoke out because criticism is involving his parents & their home (he says it’s a lie what these people are saying regarding them) say nothing when Cardinals like McCarrick continue to jet around on our money after abusing priests and seminarians. I guess because they are in favor of gay marriage and don’t object to abortion or birth control or any other type of sexual deviancy it is okay for them to continue to splash around the country.
We are all sinners. However, the ones in power in the Roman Catholic Church today are the Cardinal Seáns, McCarricks, Mahoneys, Wuerls, and their counterparts in the press and government Hannities, Pelosis, Bidens, Kennedys, Dalys, O’Malleys, Grays who advocate and enact into law taxpayer funding of abortion, gay marriage, gays in the military — in short every evil sin that cries out to God for vengeance.
This priest has his crown of thorns reward; you advocates of Hannity may be surprised at yours. Believe the Bible.
http://www.richardsipe.com/Comments/2008-04-21-McCarrick_Syndrome.html
Instead of shock at the moral failure, I bet most people feel relief when they find out that it was with a woman and not a young boy.
This reminds me of the one time I met . It was at a street demonstration sponsored by the anti-abortion American Life League, one of the few they ran in front of an IVF clinic, must have been over ten years ago. I saw this guy running around on the sidewalk with them, leading prayers and such, and I thought, it’s another one of these sexually messed-up males who obsess over certain medical facilities, their imaginary fantasies/nightmares about what goes on in them, and the women going in and out of them, staring, behaving inappropriately, yelling, and generally putting their obvious, undiagnosed and untreated sex/power dysfunctions out on display.
I was unnerved to find out later that morning that this was in fact the new head of HLI, which had long been a nest of this kind of nastiness since being founded by alleged eternal virgin Paul Marx.
I am, of course, not at all surprised by this latest news.
One victim is one too many, and according to the board of HLI today:
http://tinyurl.com/4uupy68
“In August 2010, HLI received allegations of inappropriate conduct by Rev. Euteneuer involving a young adult woman, which occurred within the context of his exorcism ministry. The Board immediately commenced an inquiry into the allegations, and Rev. Euteneuer admitted inappropriate conduct. At that time, Bishop Gerald Barbarito recalled Rev. Euteneuer to the Diocese of Palm Beach, and HLI sought and received Rev. Euteneuer’s resignation.
Since the time of Rev. Euteneuer’s resignation, the Board subsequently learned of additional allegations in connection with his exorcism ministry. “
No wonder he got banished from his HLI position. He was sexually involved with an adult woman. If his victim had been a pubescent boy, the bishop would have patted the good father’s head for keeping with the best traditions of the Church.
Ambidexter said:
“No wonder he got banished from his HLI position. He was sexually involved with an adult woman. If his victim had been a pubescent boy, the bishop would have patted the good father’s head for keeping with the best traditions of the Church.”
Better yet, perhaps he’d have gotten to move to Rome and be given a nice position like one leader who covered up child molestation did.
Life is so much simpler for us atheists.
Mike:
Polite nod to the affirmative.
I, too am a nonbeliever, but I know that there are a huge number of Catholics who really don’t deserve to be grouped in with these hypocrites. It used to be that the more progressive laity had only the Vatican’s disapproval to contend with. Now they are shellacked by religious right ideologues from all sides, along with Vatican pit bulls like Bill Donohue who will use any cudgel they can find to beat down dissent.
Just watch; I’d be less than surprised to see a couple of Opus Dei-cheerleaders opine that the vindictive, malevolent assault, a virtual tsunami of hatred heaped upon this poor sinner priest, is the real tragedy in all of this.