In Massachusetts, prosecutors are dealing with a bizarre case of a man who allegedly store $83,147 to pay for his pornography habit. What makes the case even more bizarre is that the victim was the St. John the Baptist Church and the alleged felon was its pastor, Rev. Keith LeBlanc.
LeBlanc is accused of using a credit card for online porn. Police found a $25,000 balance and allege that LeBlanc admitted to his addiction. They say that, the day after LeBlanc came to the parish, he racked up an adult movie bill on Comcast worth $4,021.14. It got so bad that he allegedly forged the name of the chairwoman of the parish’s Finance Committee on an audit slip.
LeBlanc has been sent to St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania, which treats “behavioral health issues” of clergy.
This is not the first time that we have seen clergy raiding the church coffers. Past collared defendants include clerics who used church money for male escorts, a hitman, and botox. One priest left the church funds alone and turned to shoplifting.
The greatest problem for LeBlanc is that, while a first offender, he was in a position of authority and trust for sentencing. The court could feel that some jail time is warranted for breach the trust of his flock and victimizing a church. On the other hand, this has all of the elements of a true habit. The courts have not reached a consensus on how to treat pornography and whether it can be given the same treatment as a chemical or alcohol addiction.
Source: Eagle Tribune.
Kudos: Elaine M.
Jonathan Turley
As a child of Baptists, I can confidently say our pastors were not called priests. Priests were, and are, Catholic, in the world of Baptists.
“The court could feel that some jail time is warranted for breach the trust of his flock and victimizing a church.”
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I think some jail time is appropriate given the violation by one in a position of trust. I also think a creative sentence could be fashioned involving restitution, addiction counseling, and ministry to those at the jail during incarceration. I would recommend a one year term with “good time” credits, full restitution, and three years of supervised probation along with a large community service component coupled with successful completion of counseling.
Alice
1, November 9, 2010 at 7:25 am
As a child of Baptists, I can confidently say our pastors were not called priests. Priests were, and are, Catholic, in the world of Baptists.
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I’m not certain why you wanted to make that point, although it is correct
The Priest in question is from St. John the Baptist Parish (Catholic) in Haverhill MA
In the world of churches, the word Baptist in a church’s name does not necessarily indicate the Protestant faith
This Reverend of a Catholic Church definitely made a bad decision. If, instead of siphoning funds for pornography, he had simply raped little children, the legal system would not have to be involved.
And thank God he was not an atheist, as he would then be part of a “Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society” and would have no moral rudder at all. And he would not be “sent to St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania, which treats “behavioral health issues” of clergy”, cured, and then reassigned, perhaps to a new and unsuspecting parish.
Speaking of the St. John Vianney Center, wouldn’t you just love to see what goes on behind those cloistered walls? I know I would. How do you suppose they reinforce negative feedback training for bad behavior? I’m thinking spankings. Spankings and self-flagellation. There are two methods for reinforcing negative feedback – spankings, self-flagellations and… Three – there are three methods, spanking, self-flagellation and….
It is too bad that finance committees in churches have to worry that their funds are being used for activities that are totally opposite from their message and purpose. Then they need to be forgiving since the priest states that he has a disease. Didn’t he have a “disease” before he was caught and don’t most of us seek help for any disease that may do them harm.
I doubt things will change in this man’s universe until he can confront and assume responsibility/consequences for his actions. I would say that these behaviors are not the same as chemical addiction, which isn’t a disease either, so I think he should be seen as someone that embezzled from his employer, period. The rest of the details just make it more obnoxious.
It is so ridiculously easy to find free feature-length porn on the internet without exposing yourself to viruses or mal-ware. I’m mostly stunned that anyone would pay even $1 for something that can be found legally with little effort and for absolutely free.
“LeBlanc has been sent to St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania, which treats “behavioral health issues” of clergy.”
And ?
Re: St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania
…with all the comforts of home and then some, but I’m just guessing.
“Saint John Vianney Center is a faith-centered community that specializes in the treatment of behavioral health issues that are unique to Catholic clergy and…”
http://www.sjvcenter.org/
“that are unique to Catholic clergy and…” (Take a look at the photos — it looks fairly nice…)
I would agree that “some jail time is appropriate.” (refer to mespo’s comment)
anan nurse,
I suspect your guess is closer to fact than not
anon nurse I looked at your link to the recovery center for priests. It was fully staffed with doctors. Priests need a safe place to recover, too.
“anon nurse 1, November 9, 2010 at 11:05 am
Re: St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania
…with all the comforts of home and then some, but I’m just guessing.”
So I guess the question would be is it a No TV Zone?
eniobob,
I do hope it’s a “no altar boys” zone.
SM: “It was fully staffed with doctors. Priests need a safe place to recover, too.”
I don’t disagree with this point.
Safety is one thing (as is appropriate treatment). “Coddling” is quite another.
Off to work…
anon nurse & Swarthmore one,
How the Boston Globe exposed the abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic church
The tenacity of Boston Globe journalists in uncovering the scandal of widespread sexual abuse by priests led to the current crisis in the Catholic church. And there’s more to come, as Jon Henley reports
Wednesday 21 April 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/boston-globe-abuse-scandal-catholic
Excerpts:
In Junes 2001, Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston, perhaps the most staunchly Catholic of all America’s big cities, filed a routine court submission in response to a number of allegations contained in lawsuits brought against one of his former priests, Father John Geoghan.
At the time, sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic clerics was not a widespread topic of discussion, in the US or anywhere else. Cases would surface, and sometimes be quite extensively reported: in 1981, Father Donald Roemer pleaded guilty to child molestation in Los Angeles; in 1985, a Louisiana priest, Gilbert Gauthe, was convicted of similar offences against 11 boys. But they were seen, for the most part, as isolated incidents. There was no convincing evidence of any consistent pattern of clerical abuse, still less of a sustained attempt by the church to cover up such behaviour – by simply moving priests on without informing the authorities.
Cardinal Law’s seemingly innocent court filing, though, was about to change that. Buried somewhere in it was the admission that when, in 1984, he had assigned Geoghan to St Julia’s church in the Boston suburb of Weston, he had done so knowing that the priest had, in his previous parish, been accused of molesting seven boys from the same family.
With fresh allegations of abuse and cover-ups now surfacing almost daily, and calls in the UK for Pope Benedict to be arrested, something resembling the worldwide crisis facing the Catholic church would surely have happened sooner or later. But it is possible it would not be happening now, on such a large scale and with such potentially disastrous consequences for the church, had it not been for the work of a small group of journalists – the majority of them Catholic – from the Boston Globe newspaper, who were the first to spot Cardinal Law’s startling admission.
“I think we all had a sense, even before our first story came out, that this was an explosive subject with huge potential impact,” says Michael Paulson, the paper’s former religious affairs correspondent, who helped the paper to win the 2003 Pulitzer prize for exposing both the full extent of sexual abuse by Boston Catholic clergy, and the shameful response to it of Cardinal Law and his bishops. “But I think we were still all taken aback by how quickly and dramatically it exploded – first here, then across the country and around the world.”
*****
Law’s initial argument was that when he transferred Geoghan to his new parish, neither he, the Catholic church, nor indeed society as a whole, understood how difficult it was to change the behaviour of child sex abusers. But, Rezendes writes, “We found, within a matter of days, that Geoghan was only one of a large number of priests who had sexually molested children and been given new assignments.”
The Globe reporters were also quietly told of many dozens of cases over the previous decade or so, in which the church had settled claims against molesting priests privately, often including a clause that barred the victims or their families from ever talking about it. Concrete evidence of those settlements, however, would be harder to find.
*****
All too often in the past pedophile priests were sent to treatment centers—and then returned to parishes where they continued to sexually abuse children. Here’s one example:
From Politics Daily
Pope’s Exit Strategy on Clergy Sex Scandal: Prayerful and Quiet
6 months ago
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/20/popes-exit-strategy-on-clergy-sex-scandal-prayerful-and-quiet/
Excerpt:
In truth, Benedict is hardly the mastermind of some global, Vatican-led conspiracy to shield child abusing clergy. There is one case from his tenure as archbishop of Munich (1977-1982) in his native Bavaria, that of a child-molesting priest, Father Peter Hullerman, who Cardinal Ratzinger allowed into the diocese in 1980 for psychiatric treatment and then allowed to return to parish work, where Hullerman went on to abuse more children.
Elaine I was thinking about a priest that I knew that had a nervous breakdown from too much work and stress. He went to one these treatment centers for priests and got better. He was there for a few months. It did not involve sexual abuse. They treat all kinds of disorders at those places. On the other hand, sexual abusers whether they were family members, priests, doctors, etc. have been shielded by the system until maybe the past 20 years.
Swarthmore mom,
I agree that treatment centers can help priests with certain types of problems. I do think it was unconscionable of the church to return pedophile priests who had undergone treatment to positions where they would come in close contact with children. I was a public school teacher. If I had ever sexually abused any of my students and my school district had found out about it, I would have been out the door in a flash…and never allowed to return to my teaching position again.
Elaine: We had one in the Dallas Diocese named Rudy Kos. He was on drugs, and he gave altar boys drugs and molested them years. He is in prison for the rest of his life, and the bishop that enabled him finally retired. By the way, did you think the priest was guilty in the movie “Doubt”? I have a friend who was molested by his pediatrician, and the nurses looked the other way but that was in the fifties.
Swarthmore mom,
I never saw the movie “Doubt.” One of the middle school teachers in my system sexually abused female students…for years. He’d select a different girl every year. The teacher wasn’t what most people would think of as a “usual suspect.” He was really handsome and personable. He was popular with both students and parents. He was also a fantastic math teacher. These abusers count on their victims’ silence. Eventually, one of the girls told her parents what had happened to her. I’m glad that young woman had the courage to speak up.
That paragraph is complete horse**** and we have the documents to prove it.
From the London Evening Standard, the discovery of a highly secret letter from Ratzinger to every Catholic church in the world (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369148-pope-led-cover-up-of-child-abuse-by-priests.do)
Gingerbaker,
I just included that excerpt as one example to substantiate what I had written about priests who had undergone treatment, weren’t cured, and were sent back to parishes where they continued to abuse children.
Elaine
Thanks. I didn’t mean for my post to cast aspersions on you, or your post, but merely to point out that that particular paragraph doesn’t stand true anymore.
There are a lot of apologists who still stick to the argument outlined in that paragraph, as if they refuse to even read further on the matter, and I can’t stand to see it out there without rebuttal.
Gingerbaker,
Would ANY thinking person ever allow a priest who was known to have sexually abused children in the past to work closely with children ever again? Too often pedophile priests in Massachusetts were just removed from one parish and transferred to another.
BTW, I probably should have searched for a better excerpt to prove my point.
Fleeced the Flock…….