SNAP's Puppy: A Lot of Barking

Well, well. The pastor of Holy Name Parish in Sheboygan, one Fr. James Connell, puts himself into the limelight. Smooth move, Father!

The standard used to vet clergy sex abuse cases involving children in the Catholic Diocese of La Crosse appears to violate church law and may be putting young people at risk, a canon lawyer and high-ranking priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Thursday.

The word "may" is significant. Think: 'The Packers may go 16-0 this season.' 'The Brewers may run the table beginning July 1st.' 'CO2 may cause the Ultimate Conflagration.'

Connell is good with wordplay. The Diocese of LaCrosse is not impressed:

"...our procedures have been reviewed during each audit and found to be satisfactory, that no pedophile priest is loose because of having been found not guilty by the La Crosse Diocese of La Crosse Sexual Abuse Review Board..."

IOW, Fr. Connell simply ignores the results and multiple years of reviews and audits to concentrate his attention on a phrase found on a website:

the La Crosse diocese's website lists the review board standard as "moral certitude,"

However, the LaX review board does not use the website as its protocol--a fact which Fr. Connell seems to have missed in his exhaustive investigation.

La Crosse said its review board uses a standard of "sufficiently confirmed," and describes that as a lower standard of proof than "beyond a reasonable doubt."

In other words, Fr. Connell read a website, drew his conclusions, and got himself into the newspaper! The LaCrosse folks are not amused.

...we do question his impatience and judgment asserting unfounded facts, drawing outrageous conclusions and disregarding the information conveyed by our most recent Bishop and now his Archbishop in Milwaukee.

We're not surprised. It's clear that SNAP and a couple of slip-and-fall types are behind all the allegations about LaCrosse. And there's the larger agenda: Abp. Listecki is not a member of the club.