Father Greeley's secret

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | May 31, 2013

Matt Abbott reminds readers on the Renew America site that in his book Furthermore! Memories of a Parish Priest--published in 1999, well before the sex-abuse scandal reached its peak—the late Father Andrew Greeley made a sensational charge. Some priests in the Chicago area were involved in a “ring of predators,” Father Greeley charged. And not only that:

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.

The irrepressible Father Greeley said that he personally was not afraid of this nefarious crowd. Why?

They know that I have in safekeeping information which would implicate them. I am more of a threat to them dead than alive.

Now Father Greeley is dead. Is he a threat to that cabal? Will the information that he claimed to have withheld come to light after his death? Or was he exaggerating things: either the extent of a conspiracy among child-molesters, or the importance of his own evidence against them, or both?

My guess is that the story died with Father Greeley, and we’ll never hear anything more about it. But the sensational charge, aired more than a decade ago, leaves some unanswered questions about the Chicago archdiocese. Were there (and are there now) some priests involved in an unspeakably evil conspiracy? Or was there a prominent priest of the archdiocese making reckless accusations against his colleagues? Neither possibility is reassuring.

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.