Senior canon lawyer at the Vatican revealed as sexual abuser

On the eve of the clergy abuse summit in Rome, U.S. diocese says No. 3 official at the Vatican's 'supreme court' has been 'removed from ministry'

Pope Francis has got a real mess on his hands.

In just a few days he will gather the presidents of the all the world's episcopal conferences in Rome to make them understand there must be "zero tolerance" for priests who sexually abuse minors. But on the eve of this important meeting, yet another long-serving Vatican official has been revealed as a perpetrator.

Msgr. Joseph Punderson, who has worked at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura since 1993 and its Defender of the Bond (DOB) since 1995, is expected to end three decades of service in Rome after his New Jersey diocese listed him among those "credibly accused of the sexual abuse of a minor."

Punderson, 70, was one of 30 people on a preliminary list of offenders published on Feb. 13 by the Diocese of Trenton.

The news comes only two weeks after Father Hermann Geissler, an Austrian priest accused of making sexual advances on a nun, resigned his post as section manager at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

CDF officials had known about the accusations against Geissler since 2014. But it is not clear who in the Vatican knew what about the accusations against Punderson or when they knew it.

Allegations could go back decades

The Diocese of Trenton listed his status as "Removed From Ministry" but it did not indicate when that action was taken or when the accusations were made.

However, Father John Bambrick, a dean (vicar forane) in the diocese and a nationally known advocate for abuse victims in the United States, said he believed the allegations go back decades.

"Sometime after Dallas, in 2003 or 2004, one of Msgr. Punderson's victims called me. We spoke on the phone several times... the victim was upset about how the Diocese of Trenton treated them," Bambrick told La Croix International.

Dallas is where the U.S. bishops met in 2002 and adopted a charter for the protection of children, including "zero tolerance" (permanent removal from ministry) for priests who have admitted to or have been proven guilty of even a single act of abuse.

Father Bambrick said he was not surprised to see Punderson's name on Trenton's list.

"I knew him to be an abuser," he said.

"I was only surprised the diocese had placed his name there after all these years of denial and cover up, presumably only because the Attorney General is investigating the diocese. So, to leave him off would possibly result in criminal charges," said the priest.

Shades of the McCarrick saga

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal formed a task force in September to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by clergymen connected to the state's five Catholic dioceses.

Like Trenton, the other four also published the names of credibly accused priests on Feb. 13. There are a total of 188 men, including former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Before his brief time as head of the Archdiocese of Washington, McCarrick had been bishop of Metuchen and archbishop of Newark.

Pope Francis removed the 88-year-old from the College of Cardinals last July and ordered him to lead a life of prayer and penance.

Meanwhile, the Vatican has investigated the various allegations that McCarrick abused underage boys and there are expectations that the pope will remove him from the clerical state.

It would be an unprecedented move against a former cardinal.

And while most Catholics would applaud that action, many believe that the real question the Vatican must answer is how someone like McCarrick was able to advance to the highest levels of the Church's hierarchy despite long-standing rumors and supposed evidence that he was sexually abusing vulnerable seminarians and young priests.

Just like the disgraced former cardinal, Joseph Punderson was also the subject of talk among Trenton's priests relating to sexual misconduct.

"I first heard rumors about Msgr. Punderson as a seminarian 36 years ago," said Father Bambrick.

Sent off to Rome

But unlike McCarrick, Punderson did not get to Rome and land his Vatican position despite those rumors. It seems he was sent here precisely because the rumors were true.

"Priests said he was sent to Rome because the bishop (John Riess) needed to 'get him out of the country.' No one ever stated why this was necessary," said Bambrick.

Riess became bishop of Trenton in 1980. And just a few years later he sent Punderson to Rome for further studies at the Gregorian University, where the priest earned a doctorate in canon law in 1988.

Punderson already knew the Eternal City well, having done four years of theology there several years earlier in preparation for his priestly ordination in 1976.

He was a seminarian at the North American College in the same era as five men who are now cardinals — Blase Cupich, James Harvey and Raymond Burke (all ordained in '75); Timothy Dolan ('76) and Daniel DiNardo ('77); plus a handful of others who are currently bishops and archbishops.

His easy acquaintance and friendship with these influential churchmen and others he would meet in Rome would prove beneficial over the years, especially his ties with Burke, just two months his junior.

Influential friends

Burke, a canon lawyer from Wisconsin, was appointed DOB at the Apostolic Signatura in 1989.

Punderson would join him at the tribunal in 1993 as Deputy Promoter of Justice, then replace him as DOB in 1995 when Burke was named bishop of La Crosse. The two would be united again in 2008 when Benedict XVI made Burke prefect of the Signatura and then a cardinal.

Punderson collaborated with Burke on various projects and the two co-authored a number of articles for scholarly journals and books on canon law.

One such article, published in 1995, was titled, "Canons 1421–1422 and 1435–1436: The Exercise of the Office of Judge or Defender of the Bond by a Priest on Leave of Absence from Priestly Ministry."

Their conclusion, which seems somewhat ironic now, was that "priests on leave" should not be judge or DOB.

Msgr. Punderson has also worked in similar ways with now-Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the man considered to be the Vatican's top-gun on dealing with sex abuse cases.

The Maltese prelate became Deputy Promoter of Justice at the Signatura in 1996 and stayed there until 2002 when he was appointed Promoter of Justice at the CDF.

The priests back in Punderson's home diocese of Trenton have been reluctant to denounce the Vatican canon lawyer. That includes people like John Bambrick who have known about the abuse allegations for years.

"I have never spoken about Msgr. Punderson until his name was made public yesterday," Bambrick confessed.

"I have always known he was an abuser, but he was powerful and had a great deal of influence here and in Rome. He had many friends in our curia and the pope's curia," said the priest.

Roman Curia as a hiding place?

There are many unanswered questions surrounding the Punderson case. Bishop David O'Connell of Trenton has not been forthcoming.

The list of credibly accused priests he issued on Feb. 13 has to be among the most skeletal of any that has been published by a U.S. diocese.

Typically, such inventories include a chronology of the places where these priests have served, how many alleged victims there were, when the supposed abuse took place and when it was reported.

They also state clearly the date when a priest was removed from ministry. Trenton's list provides none of this information.

This is particularly crucial in understanding the dynamics surrounding the case of Joseph Punderson. Were officials at the Vatican ever informed that he had been accused of sexual abuse? If so, when was that? And if not, why not?

Bishops in many countries, including the United States, vowed a long time ago that the days of shuffling priests to other dioceses at home or abroad were over. They promised it would never happen again. But the Punderson case is proof that despite the promises it is still being tolerated.

Bishop O'Connell may have inherited the problem, but did he try to do anything to fix it? He surely saw the accusations in the file.

But, as Father Bambrick suggests, he likely moved only when he realized that if he did not he could be charged with a crime. Perhaps the bishop did tell people at the Vatican who told him to leave things as they are.

We just don't know. Just as we do not know if Punderson is still working at the Signatura. The Vatican has not commented on any of this so far.

Pope Francis needs to insist that, like the McCarrick case, the Punderson file is fully investigated. Because you can bet that these are not isolated cases. How many other priests who face abuse accusations or are a liability to dioceses in other ways have been sent quietly to Rome or to work in the Vatican?

We don't know this, either. But, at this point, most people probably would not be surprised at all if the number is substantial. This is what happens when bishops talk a good game, but they do not act; when they make promises, but do not fulfill them.

"Every time Pope Francis says, 'zero tolerance' I think of people like Msgr. Punderson," said John Bambrick. "If he wants 'zero tolerance' he should start by cleaning out the filth in his own household."

Follow me on Twitter @robinrome