“THERE CAN BE NO

LOVE WITHOUT

JUSTICE”

Jesus rejected the role of politico. O'Connor and Scanlan embraced it.

To this day when I see the Cardinal's logo, "There can be no love without

justice," I am struck to the core by the deep hypocrisy it represents adorning

the Cardinal's letterhead.

The logo is beautiful and absolutely true: Bishop Ottenweller demonstrated

Love and Justice to the former members of Servant's of Christ the King.

Cardinal O'Connor however contradicts it. He chose to protect, maintain and

promote the one person responsible for injuries in Steubenville: Fr Michael

Scanlan TOR went from "glory to glory" in the years following the Pastoral

Visitation, never having to experience the consequences of leading Catholics

outside the Magesterium of the Catholic Church and into the aberrant crucible

of Sword of the Spirit theology and pastoral models.

In the Cardinal’s response he says no one mentioned Fr Scanlan’s behavior or

his role in the problems of the Covenant Community to him. Fr Scanlan was

able to get away with misleading his Bishop, then telling his own people that,

“The Bishop knows about and approves” what the SOS Covenant Community

was teaching and doing.

I left Steubenville in 1991 with my spouse and children and began a new life

in Nebraska. I was playing my guitar at liturgies at St Mary's Cathedral in

Grand Island in 1992 & 93. I was having a hard time letting go of my sense of

betrayal and anger at Fr Michael Scanlan. I knew the Bishop had said that

there needed to be "re-education" to return community members to a sense of

Church important for all those who call themselves Catholic. Bishop

Ottenweller retired later that year and I knew that no re-education was being

done.

When I heard that John Cardinal O'Connor had gone to Steubenville to affirm

the University, it saddened me even more. Fr Jim LeBar who had chaired the

Pastoral Visitation Committee at Bishop Ottenweller's request had come from

the Cardinal's Office and is referred to in this letter. O'Connor was certainly

aware of what had transpired in Steubenville, and what Fr Scanlan's role had

been. So I wrote to the Cardinal and asked him how he could publicly affirm

Fr Scanlan.

Cardinal O'Connor chose to render his unconditional support for Fr Scanlan.

His letter ended my participation in the Catholic Church. As I would not be

allied to the Sword of the Spirit because of its abusive pastoral methods, so I

would not be allied with a Church that would not discipline (but applaud and

promote!) their own abusive members.

The Catholic Church would again have to choose between the "abuser and

abused" in about 8 years. Only this time the 2002 public advent of the Priest

Sex Abuse scandal would cost the Church nearly a billion dollars in legal

settlements. In terms of its credibility it would cost it a whole lot more.

Yet after Bishop Ottenweller's pastoral visitation in Steubenville no lawyers

would be hired. The diocese would not be sued. No legal action was ever taken

against former paid coordinators though there were likely grounds for it. It is

the thinking of men like John Cardinal O'Connor -who died of brain cancer a few

years ago- that have cost the church millions of dollars.

But when Bishops act as they should -like the Good Shepherd of

Steubenville did- the Church didn’t get sued for legal damages. It just

takes a shepherd willing to lay down his life for his sheep… instead of

laying down the lives of the sheep for “the good of the Church.”

Bishop Ottenweller was the last Christian I met in the Catholic Church. While

others may proclaim, "There is no love without justice," on their letterheads,

Albert Ottenweller LIVED that way. He allowed the Servant's of Christ the

King Community to continue as a parish after the Visitation, though that was

not his recommendation. (Later it merged with other shrinking parishes due

to lack of membership.) He genuinely loved those people, even though they

applauded him to his face in November 1990 and later booed him behind his

back in February 1991.

Jesus rejected the role of politico. So did Albert Ottenweller – May his soul rest

in the Peace of Christ.

John Flaherty ~ Grand Island, NE ~ September 1, 2009/Revised June 25, 2013