Patrick Marker from BehindthePineCurtain broke this blockbuster story:
The organization representing lawyers practicing Catholic Church “law” recently allowed a man with numerous allegations of sexual abuse to speak to its membership at its Chicago conference.
The Canon Law Society of America (CLSA), the organization charged with “promotion of the study and application of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church,” hosted speaker Fr. Daniel Ward, OSB, a Benedictine monk and priest with at least five allegations of sexual abuse. The group did this despite being warned in a letter that the Benedictines had launched an investigation and that Marker had collected statements from the victims.
Ward’s presentation: A Diocese, a Parish, a Religious Institute, a Member: An Exploration of Canon and Civil Law is telling—his “exploration of Canon and civil law” seems to be a study on how to hide assets when a diocese is rocked by a sex abuse and cover-up scandal.
How does he know so much? Well, not only has he represented predator monks himself, but he also counsels church groups on sexual misconduct and asset reallocation. And who would know better?
The CLSA owes a huge explanation to its membership, who they thought would never catch wind of the allegations. The Benedictines need to be held accountable as well—one of their priests is under investigation for numerous allegations of abuse, yet they have warned NO ONE and allow Ward to live freely in Silver Spring, MD (home of the infamous St. Luke’s Institute, a treatment center for child-molesting clerics).
Fr. Dan Ward is the key canonical player in the minor abuse crisis in the American Casinese Benedictine confederation of which his monastery, St. John’s, is a primary member. Ward has been summoned into service in countless ways to cover-up real abuses and to weaponize false allegations. He simply knows where all the bodies are buried. His Benedictine brethren have been well notified of his abuses as has been the appropriate watchdog authorities in the diocese and Rome. Yet there he is; priestly faculties intact, addressing American canon lawyers! These authorities may be afraid to touch Fr. Ward; who was and is apparently unafraid to touch the vulnerable young. Cover-up is not always a premeditated plan. Sometimes like this, it is the work of cowardice distributed over a host of “shepherds who only want to pasture themselves.” Where is the paper media in all this? Church authorities apparently think that if people know about this issue only through the electronic medium, that level of information still does not count.