Many of you already know that a young seminarian testified in a diocesan inquiry in 1998 to having been homosexually molested by Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity, the Superior General of the Society of St. John. This seminarian is not the only young man who has claimed to have been homosexually molested by Fr. Urrutigoity. Moreover, I have received testimony from another young man who claims that he was homosexually molested by Fr. Eric Ensey, the Chancellor of the Society of St. John.

For the sake of those who are new to the sordid story of the Society of St. John, a clerical association in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, I will offer below a brief chronology leading up to the most recent evidence of the misconduct of Fr. Urrutigoity and Fr. Ensey. I will also address how two other priests of the Society, Fr. Basel Sarweh and Fr. Daniel Fullerton, as well as Bishop James C. Timlin himself, the Ordinary of the Diocese of Scranton, have attempted to cover up the scandalous activity of the Society of St. John.

As President of the College of St. Justin Martyr, a liberal arts college established in association with the Society of St. John, it became apparent to me in late August 2001 that the College must separate itself from the Society of St. John. In brief, two reasons necessitated this separation: first, the Society had been using the College to raise money without giving any of the money raised to the College; second, and even more decisive, I had learned on August 19, 2001 that Fr. Urrutigoity had a habit of sleeping with young men, and that a lawsuit against Fr. Urrutigoity and the Society was pending.

Parenthetically, the Society of St. John has raised millions of dollars by holding out the promise of a Catholic village and a liberal arts college of their own. The Society can no longer pretend to bring either of these into existence. Indeed, the Society's own land developer has informed them that their envisioned Catholic city is entirely infeasible. As for the liberal arts college, the Society has neither the education, nor the property, nor the financial wherewithal to establish, let alone support, such an institution. The Society's claim to the contrary, now posted on their website, is misleading in the extreme. In fact, the Society is on the verge of bankruptcy after having squandered hundreds of thousands of their benefactors' dollars. In all likelihood, the Society will have to put its 1,000-acre property up for sale. Lawsuits from creditors and defrauded donors will soon follow.

Given the above-noted revelations of misconduct, the Board of Directors of the College of St. Justin Martyr decided to remove from its Board the sole Society representative, Deacon Joseph Levine. In reaction to this decision, Bishop Timlin contacted me by telephone on September 10, 2001 to express his desire that the College not be separated from the Society. I explained to Bishop Timlin that our complete dissociation from the Society was necessary to protect the College for both financial and moral reasons. When I referred to Fr. Urrutigoity's immoral practice of sleeping with young men, Bishop Timlin vehemently objected to my use of the word "immoral." Bishop Timlin claimed that he, as a result of complaints made by others, had already investigated the matter and found that "no sin had been committed." Because I knew that no genuine investigation had taken place, I continued to insist that the College no longer be associated with the Society of St. John.

My first telephone conversation with Bishop Timlin was followed, over a period of five weeks, by many hours of face-to-face meetings with Bishop Timlin and his auxiliary, Bishop John Dougherty. Bishop Dougherty, who had apparently conducted something of an inquiry of his own, expressed his conviction that Fr. Urrutigoity was a "cult leader" who was "capable of pederasty." In light of abundant testimony that Fr. Urrutigoity was regularly plying minors with alcohol and sleeping with them in his private chambers, Bishop Dougherty acknowledged that Fr. Urrutigoity was "grooming" young men for sexual encounters. In consequence of this, Bishop Dougherty said that Fr. Urrutigoity should be deposed, if not laicized. Nevertheless, for his part, Bishop Timlin took no disciplinary action against Fr. Urrutigoity.

I did not know at that time - although both Bishop Timlin and Bishop Dougherty did - that Fr. Urrutigoity had already been accused of homosexual molestation in the 1998 diocesan inquiry mentioned above. At first I knew only of Fr. Urrutigoity's "sleeping sickness," as it has been euphemistically called. Thus, in an e-mail to the Society of St. John dated September 27, 2001, I asked the other members of the Society to repudiate Fr. Urrutigoity's habit of sleeping with young men. It was still my hope that the Society of St. John might be salvaged. However, none of the Society's members were willing to denounce Fr. Urrutigoity's reckless behavior, despite the fact that it was becoming widely known that Fr. Urrutigoity regularly slept one-on-one in his bed with young men in his private chambers.

I have been told by a number of young men who have slept with Fr. Urrutigoity that he sleeps "very close," meaning that he maintains full body contact with his arms around his sleeping partner. These young men have also informed me that Fr. Urrutigoity's modus operandi is to encourage them to come to his room for late night spiritual direction. He then invites them into bed with him under pretext of their being "brothers" with no need to concern themselves with any possibility of impropriety. This approach is aided by Fr. Urrutigoity supplying these young men with alcohol to weaken their natural resistance.

By early October 2001, it had become clear that Bishop Timlin had overruled Bishop Dougherty's judgment. In fact, when Bishop Dougherty was asked if Bishop Timlin was being held hostage by the Society's huge debt, Bishop Dougherty responded "yes." It was now evident that Bishop Timlin would not intervene to prevent Fr. Urrutigoity from continuing his immoral practices. I therefore announced on our website on October 14, 2001, that the College of St. Justin Martyr was compelled to separate itself from the Society of St. John because the College could not endorse the policies and practices of the Society. When persons wishing to know the specific reasons for our separation contacted me, I informed them about both the financial mismanagement of the Society and Fr. Urrutigoity's habit of sleeping with young men.

On October 27, 2001, I wrote a letter to Bishop Timlin protesting his refusal to intervene in a principled manner and insisting that he canonically censure Fr. Urrutigoity. In that letter, I informed Bishop Timlin that, were he not to discipline Fr. Urrutigoity, I would be morally obliged to take this matter to Rome, the Catholic press, and even the District Attorney of Pike County.

At this time I continued to gather new and corroborative evidence about Fr. Urrutigoity's "sleeping sickness." My investigation has uncovered the following:

(1) When Carlos Urrutigoity was a seminarian at the Society of St. Pius X seminary in La Reja, Argentina, he was dismissed for homosexual behavior.

(2) After admission to the Pius X seminary in Winona, Minnesota, Fr. Urrutigoity again came under a cloud of accusations of homosexuality due to his particular and excessive attention to certain young seminarians.

(3) Fr. Urrutigoity was kicked out of the seminary in Winona as a result of his subversive activities undertaken to further his private agenda. Fr. Urrutigoity's project, begun in secret in Winona, eventually became the Society of St. John with the canonical approval of Bishop Timlin.

(4) Subsequent to his departure from Winona, Fr. Urrutigoity homosexually molested a former seminarian who had left Winona with Fr. Urrutigoity and his followers. That seminarian has testified that, once they left the seminary, Fr. Urrutigoity made an unwanted sexual advance upon him, which ended their friendship and led to the seminarian's return to Winona. Despite two years of carefully grooming this seminarian, Fr. Urrutigoity apparently misjudged the seminarian's aversion to homosexuality.

(5) When Bishop Fellay of the Society of St. Pius X learned of Fr. Urrutigoity's homosexual advance on the seminarian, he denounced Fr. Urrutigoity to Bishop Timlin for that advance, calling it "a grievously reprehensible action." Bishop Timlin then sent Bishop Dougherty, accompanied by a diocesan attorney and a priest, to Minnesota to take testimony from the seminarian. The seminarian claims that, after Bishop Dougherty heard his testimony, Bishop Dougherty told him "I believe you." Nonetheless, Bishop Timlin dismissed the charges against Fr. Urrutigoity.

(6) The seminarian claimed, furthermore, that he later revealed the incident to Fr. Eric Ensey, Chancellor of the Society of St. John. He added that Fr. Ensey in turn informed Fr. Daniel Fullerton, a founding member of the Society. According to this seminarian, when Fr. Ensey and Fr. Fullerton confronted Fr. Urrutigoity with the seminarian's story, Fr. Urrutigoity admitted the truth of the story.

(7) In addition to the seminarian mentioned above, another young man under Fr. Urrutigoity's spiritual direction has stated that Fr. Urrutigoity homosexually molested him.

(8) A third young man has testified that he, while a minor, regularly slept with Fr. Urrutigoity after being plied with alcohol to the point of intoxication.

(9) Most recently, I have received testimony from a young man claiming that Fr. Eric Ensey homosexually molested him while he was a minor, and that alcohol was used to accomplish that purpose. This latest testimony helps explain why Fr. Ensey has refused to denounce the immorality of Fr. Urrutigoity.

On November 7, 2001, I sent a letter to Bishop Timlin presenting the additional information I had gathered since my first letter to him of October 27, 2001. Then, on November 19, 2001, I wrote to Bishop Montalvo, the Papal Nuncio in Washington, with a copy sent to Cardinal Hoyos, the Prefect of the Congregation of Clergy at the Vatican. Neither of these November letters mentions the immoral actions of Fr. Ensey because I did not know about his misdeeds until December 2001. I am currently investigating additional credible accusations against other members of the Society of St. John.

Many of you have seen my e-mail of October 31, 2001 to Fr. Basel Sarweh, and my e-mail of November 10, 2001 to Fr. Fullerton. I denounced both men for their lies and attempts to cover up Fr. Urrutigoity's immorality. Both priests, in response to those seeking to know the truth about Fr. Urrutigoity's "sleeping sickness," had claimed falsely that my accusations were due to a misperception stemming from the "overcrowding" on the Society's Shohola property. Fr. Fullerton went so far as to tell donors that Fr. Urrutigoity had merely acted in imitation of our Lord by receiving guests into his private chambers where they could sleep. My e-mails exposing these priests, as well as my letters, are available upon request to anyone who wants to know the truth about the cover-up initiated by the Society and perpetuated by Bishop Timlin.

In sum: it is clear that Bishop Timlin is covering up both the Society's financial misconduct and its gross immorality. Bishop Timlin has gone so far as to contact Society donors to assure them, falsely, that I have not accused Fr. Urrutigoity of immoral behavior; he has known, since 1998, of charges of homosexuality leveled against Fr. Urrutigoity, and yet has neglected to contact the young men involved, let alone speak with the parents affected; he has not asked Fr. Urrutigoity to recant his self-serving and aberrant theory of male intimacy; and he has ignored overwhelming evidence that Society members have plied young men and minors with alcohol, seeking to reduce their natural inhibitions, in order to lure these young men into bed. In short, the abuse of spiritual offices, both episcopal and priestly, is too manifest to be ignored.

Please feel free to pass this information along to concerned parties. Also, do not hesitate to contact me for further documentation concerning the above.

Sincerely yours,

The College of St. Justin Martyr
142 Market Road
Greeley, PA 18425