Kids Swimming with Pedophile Priests: Interview with a former Servant of the Paraclete

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He was about to get drafted into the Vietnam War when friends said you could find refuge at a retreat in the New Mexico mountains. "Oso Pious" and a buddy drove 290 miles through winding wilderness roads and arrived in the middle of the night at the cluster of structures that was Via Coeli, a rehab center for problem priests in Jemez Springs. There, Servants of the Paraclete religious order brothers bustled the young men onto the grounds for what was to be safe haven from the draft while they worked on deferment.

But soon Father Gerald Fitzgerald (pictured), with his Kennedy family eyes, stood over young Oso saying, “God sent you here” and without preparation or going to seminary or even particularly having a calling, the 20-year-old found himself with a new identity: Father Pious. Oso contacted me through Facebook after we published Murmur She Wrote 1 October 16th, announcing that City of Angels Blog is going on the road, first stop Albuquerque to write about Servants of the Paraclete. Now a New Mexico resident, the former Servant is known in online comments and blogs as "Oso Pious." He only remained with the Order from April to December 1965, then became a special education teacher in New Mexico.

Over the phone this week, Oso told me of watching local kids swim in the pool with the pedophiles in New Mexico, helping draft dodgers slip over the border into Canada at a Vermont Servants of the Paraclete center, and living out a false identity as Father Gerald’s secretary, "Father Pious." Oso left Servants of the Paraclete when a fellow brother set himself on fire as part of an antiwar protest.

I’d actually read some of Oso Pious’s story earlier in Sons of Perdition the 2009 book by former Missing Link editor Jay Nelson, on page ix: “‘Father Pious,’ as he prefers to be called contacted me. This gentleman claims that he’d been a novice with the Servants of the Paraclete for some time in the mid to late 1960s. Though he has not provided any documentary evidence, his local knowledge plus assertion of certain obscure facts about Servants of the Paraclete, which later research verified, have convinced me that he was indeed present there.”

When Oso and his college friend arrived at Via Coeli, the priests put them up in the Nuncio Villa, where they were to cram for exams and get their grades up. “I was going to Regis College, a Jesuit university in Colorado," Oso said. "The draft board wasn't allowing student deferments. We had to make a certain grade or we were going to Vietnam.”

Hours after their arrival, the priest from Boston who founded the religious order and said he was a Kennedy family member penetrated Oso’s young visage and said, as Oso relayed to me, “You think it’s an accident that you came here, but it’s not an accident, you're the one we've been praying for, you're going to be the first priest ordained in the Canyon.”

Oso said, “I was a twenty year old kid, imagine how that affected me.”

Oso told me the story, and I'm so happy I've worked as a Transcriber since 1998, so now can type so fast, I can take down pretty much everything a person says to me over the phone:

“Gerald made me Father Pious so I could be his secretary. They invented this person named Father Pious and I was good at writing what they called Pious Pap.

"We’d get people to sponsor priests. We wouldn't say they were pedophiles, but say this priest needed a sponsor. That was my job as Father Pious, as his secretary to bring in all the money.”

Kids Swimming With Pedophile Priests

Oso also was lifeguard at a Servants of the Paraclete pool in Jemez Springs that was open to the locals.

“I was a lifeguard at Camp Ped, the special pool they had for the kids in the neighborhood,” he continued in our recent phone call. “That's where pedophiles would molest some of the little kids. I was the lifeguard.

He tried to explain the environment to me: “The Jemez Springs Via Coeli was a prison. Priests could get sent there for all kinds of reasons, then they divided them up. We put all the alcoholics in one house, the guys trying to have sex with kids in another place.

“I was at the one where they had the pedophiles, where they also had the pool for the kids to swim, and they let them swim together.

“We knew we had crazy nuts there, but we didn't know how bad it was. One guy was painting crucifixes red, one guy was a compulsive bingo player, but the Catholic Church was in denial.

“I was trained by Servants of the Paraclete as a guard. I’d get a call to go to the La Madrid Bar and pick a guy up. The police didn't know how to deal with them. Any kind of crime these priest did, the New Mexico police would turn them over to us. Even to this day, the Governor of New Mexico will not put priests on the sex offender list, because the Governor is Catholic and the Church has control of everything.”

Oso’s ruse as Father Pious, helping donors sponsor problem priests while he was staying at Via Coeli, was cut short:

“One day this nun showed up and said, I want to meet this holy man,” Oso laughs into the phone, “I said, tell her Father Pious is in the woods in deep meditation.”

Father Gerald helped Oso get out of Dodge fast.

“He showed me a map of the world with all these push pins. He said, we've got about thirty or forty houses, all over the world, and we have the papal privilege, because we work directly for the Pope. He said, we don't have to go through channels. He says, where would you like to go.

“I said, Father Gerald, I've been all those places because my dad was in the military, except this one on the Canadian border in Vermont. So he sent me up there.”

'My friend Roger set himself on fire'

Oso says that at the Servants of the Paraclete center in northern Vermont they helped young men cross the border into Canada and evade the draft in the Vietnam War. Around that time in New York City a group of Buddhists set themselves on fire.

Roger LaPorte a Servant of Paraclete member in Vermont, joined them.

“My friend Roger set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building. It was 1965 and he was a Servants of Paraclete member.”

Oso said by order of Cardinal Spellman, nobody found out the connection of the antiwar protest suicides in New York to Servants of the Paraclete in Vermont.

“Roger went nuts,” Oso said, “seeing people burning themselves to death. He went to New York to get our supplies, and we found out later he had set himself on fire too.

“All the higher ups, Cardinal Spellman etcetera, said we couldn't tell anyone he was a Paraclete.

“We were doing all kinds of illegal stuff, smuggling people across the border, the Father Pious stuff. They said if anyone investigates you, say Brother Roger was a homeless man we fed but don't admit he was one of the members of the Order.

“We were told to bare faced lie.

“The police did ask us questions and we did lie, and I was deeply disturbed by this.

“My friend had just burned himself to death and I was supposed to tell people he didn't exist. It was bad enough being Father Pious, but this was way over the line.”

Oso left the Order, took refuge with family and friends, then contacted Via Coeli.

“They said if you don't come back right away, we're going to turn in your name and you're going straight to Vietnam, and they turned me over to the Draft Board. That's how I ended up back in New Mexico, as a Vista Volunteer.

“Cardinal Spellman made sure Roger’s connection to us didn't get into the press as nobody knew about the Paracletes. They were supposed to be a secret order, and we were helping people get across the border into Canada, that's why they had a center up there by the border.”

A decade later, “A couple of my students when I was teaching special ed were victims of these priests,” Oso said.

Father Gerald Fitzgerald was one of Those Fitzgeralds

The Servants of the Paraclete religious order was founded, Oso Pious tells me, thanks to the charisma and cash Father Gerald Fitzgerald had as a Kennedy family member from Boston.

“That's how they got so much power,” Oso told me. “He was related to the Kennedys through Honey Fitz the Mayor of Boston, he’s from the same family.

“He didn't brag about it, but he was connected.

“He got whatever he wanted. He got to pick his own place, he picked Via Coeli in New Mexico, which by the way used to be run by the Capone family. Where Jemez Springs is today, there was a whore house, that later became the Via Coeli building, the road ended in Jemez Springs.”

From Sons of Perdition page 79:

“Fitzgerald was given a choice between a rundown monastery in the mountains near Pecos, ease of Santa Fe, or an old tourist hotel in Jemez Springs to the west. He instantly chose the Jemez Inn, and on January 5, 1947, celebrated the first Mass there. Rumors to this day persist that the hotel itself was actually owned by Capone, who died less than three weeks later. Supposedly, it was given to the Church in exchange for allowing the Chicago gangster a Christian burial in a Catholic cemetery. It’s also said that Fitzgerald had to clean a massive amount of filthy pictures, liquor, and gambling equipment out of the place before he could use it.”

Oso said that in 1965 Servants of the Paraclete “owned the whole town, they owned the San Diego Land Grant.”

The story is “Capone was dying of syphilis in 1947, and this was his hideout in New Mexico. He cut a deal with the church, if they’d let him be buried in holy ground, then he would give the church this house of prostitution. Everything in return for him being given the last rights.

“Then the church had this whorehouse and didn't know what to do with it. Gerald Fitzgerald was flying around the country with his vision of starting a religious order for problem priests. He went to see the Pope to talk about his vision. He had plenty of money to use for these trips, being in the Fitzgerald family.

“He comes to New Mexico, sees the whorehouse that the church is only too happy to get rid of, it’s in a dead end canyon, nobody knew Los Alamos was up the road.

“The Church gave him the place, they they had to clean out all these old slot machines and stuff.”

Legend has it that movie stars, even Marilyn Monroe, would arrive at the Albuquerque train station and ride the 40 miles or so north to Capone’s place to party days on end.

I’ll be getting off the train in that same station in a couple weeks, to blog here about Servants of the Paraclete and other things I find in Albuquerque, and as long as I have an internet connection I can keep doing my other job.

Stay tuned.

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For reference:

For reference, When the Sons of Perdition review by Tom Doyle ran at Voice from the Desert blog, Oso Pious was an active participant in the comments, copy and pasted here for posterity:

1. Every time we read about this thing called abuse…it is like a part of our innermost being dies and I am not sure if it is our faith that becomes strained or we become sickened at the awareness of what ought not to have happened…happened. These are nightmares and freaky terrors…and now I know why the holy ones escaped into the desert—because, to hear and to know such things …would cause a monastic to give up his silence and hurl curses in the direction of Rome!
2. Father Pious Says:
October 19, 2009 at 5:07 pm
As a contributor to Sons of Perdition, I suggested the title because of its similarity to Servants of the Paraclete. I know of hundreds of victims of priestly abuse who may now come forward as a result of this excellent book being published. These pedophile monsters not only hurt their victims and their families but also damaged small innocent communities in New Mexico for several generations. The greatest crime was the cover-up by the hierarchy and the passing of the “trash” from one parish to another.
3. Deanna Leonti Says:
October 21, 2009 at 2:24 am
Both harm us, by chipping away until our original form we once were dissipates……….and becomes void……..
The shape of our inner being changes everytime another story of clergy abuse is told,
everytime a cover-up, sealed records & failure to comply with words once spoken to protect & do whatever it takes are not carried out by what church officials claim to do.
And little by little the spirit gets vaporized by the “things” once cherished the most, and had hoped for.
The indignant victims of the past & present continue to not rest & cry out to the heavens for Human Dignity to be restored, but does or can heaven hear the cries? where are the miracles of restoration in restitution?
there are none, never can be whole again! its gone. Pieces of a past of what once whole are what is left to salvage. Was it all worth it? & for what? who profited from it?.
4. Thomas Says:
October 21, 2009 at 2:32 pm
When bad things happen to good people, or at least the innocent—there isn’t always a concept that offers adequate explanation. Some things are undoable like the restoration of innocence to a child harmed by sexual or child abuse whether or not it is at the hands of aberrant clergy. Since the abused becomes changed in some way, that doesn’t mean that they lose faith in all things temporal or spiritual…but that does not mean that they will not move more cautiously through life if they recover, or that ultimate trust will ever be restored. It doesn’t mean that they remain egocentric and selfish either…they promote causes that support welfare for all who are marginalized…especially children and the poor. Poverty of spirit after being abused is difficult to come out of after the abuse crisis in one’s life. As a Christian, faith in God does provide solace and enrichment. It is our destiny that we must identify through soul searching…the answers most often come from within because that is where ours spirits are linked to the divine. Many will learn what their destiny is, and some may never learn this at all during their lifetime. The Roman Catholic Church is not authorized to define destiny…God might be old, but He is not senile.
5. Brady Earlewine Says:
October 22, 2009 at 11:36 pm
This excellent book makes us all aware of the tremendous damage that was done to the children, their families, and their communities that will last for several generations! …The Bishops passed the pedophiles from parish to parish. They even used scripture to justify their actions just as Jesus refused to reveal the identity of his betrayer at the Last Supper, they felt justified keeping the pedophiles identities secret to avoid scandal. After all didn’t Our Lord say “Forgive us our trash passing as we forgive those who pass trash against us”?
6. Martin Says:
October 23, 2009 at 12:28 am
Our small, rural community in New Mexico was visited by 2 ot the “sons of perdition” back in the 70s and 80s. Like a terrible tornado they both left dozens of innocent child victims in their wake. One committed suicide and several others had to leave the community because of the shame and suffering that they endured. No one came to their aid nor even believed that their parish priests could be guilty of any sexual abuse or anything so evil. The priests were reported by a few brave parents but the Archbishop merely transfered both priests to greener pastures where they continued abusing children. These sacrilegious monsters devoured the lives and spirits of their young victims. Are there enough millstones around to adorn the necks of these priestly pedophiles?What about the hierarchy that enabled them and sacrificed the laity to their vile lusts and preversions?
7. Jacob 'C. Says:
October 23, 2009 at 12:54 am
Sons of Perdition is a great book! It is about time that someone had the courage to step up and report the facts . Jay Nelson is a survivor of clegry sexual abuse. His book is a must read for any Catholic or Christian. What would Jesus do?
8. Jacob 'Chavez Says:
October 23, 2009 at 1:01 am
This book is a must read for every Catholic! Jay Nelson is a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and he deserves to be praised for having the “guts” to write this factual account. It is high time that someone dared to expose these terrible crimes and cover ups.
9. Chris P. Says:
October 23, 2009 at 1:13 am
This book is terrific! Please take the time to read it and be shocked by the horrible facts that it reveals. I am so glad that this book has finally come out. The Catholic Church needs to be responsible for its priests and stop hiding their crimes.
10. Sorala Khan Says:
October 23, 2009 at 4:38 pm
This book is absolutely the best I have read on this subject! This abuse has been going on far too long. Jay Nelson shows how the hierarchy was able to keep the whole clergy sex abuse secret for so long. It took great courage for Jay to reveal so much of his personal struggle.
11. Brad Earlewine Says:
October 23, 2009 at 5:04 pm
This book is way overdue! I am so grateful to Jay Nelson for having the courage to write this well researched book. Please take the time to read it.
12. Oso Pious Says:
October 24, 2009 at 4:39 pm
As a young man in 1965, I joined the Servants of the Paraclete as a novice. I was told by Father Gerald Fitzgerald that his order worked directly under the Pope as a kind of secret Papal Police. As such, the Paracletes enjoyed the “Papal privilege” of having their novices study at any one of their houses that covered the globe. I chose Randoph, Vermont and assumed the position and identity of Father Pious, a fictious character like Betty Crocker or Aunt Jemimah. Fr. Pious was supposed to be a very wise and holy old monk who answered all the mail in the so-called Pious Apostolate. People would send money every month to ’sponsor’ one of the afflicted priests whom the Paracletes ministered to. Fr. Pious would send an updated report every month on each ‘guest’ priest and collect their offerings. One day a mother superior from a large order of nuns showed up and asked to see Fr. Pious because she wanted him to give a retreat to her young novices at her convent. I heard about the mother superior and sent word that the saintly Fr. Pious was deep in the woods at our hermitage in a all silent retreat in deep meditation and could not possibly be disturbed. A few months later the nuns found out the truth about Father Pious and cancelled all their memberships and threatened to expose us for fraud. If you want to know thw rest of the story, read about it in Sons of Perdition.
13. Martin Says:
November 7, 2009 at 6:35 pm
The book is getting a lot of good reviews on Amazon and in local newspapers. It is a shame that most of the priestly pedophile monsters are still on the loose and still molesting children. The Bishops and hierarchy who covered up this terrible scandal deserve to be exposed and held responsible. It will take many generations for the families and communities who were exposed to this toxic human waste to heal. The Catholic Church and its new Pope are becoming more inclusive now and inviting married Anglican pastors to join as long as they oppose the ordination of gays and women. Is this a good sign of things to come or true hypocrisy?
14. Brad Earlewine Says:
November 7, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Has Archbishop Emertus Robert Sanchez ever apologized to anyone for all of the clergy sexual abuse he caused and covered up? Why is he still saying Mass and recently shown celebrating with accused molester Diego Mazon( see abuse tracker on Bishop Accountability web site) on http://www.OLGOFM.ORG?? Is there no shame or any apology expected of Sanchez or Mazon? How can Sanchez who has admitted having sexual relations with several under-aged girls be allowed to celebrate the Mass in public and be shown doing this on a web site? In Sons of Perdition Archbishop Robert Sanchez is shown as the main enabler and cause of most of the scandal.
15. Oso Pius Says:
November 9, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Wow! I thought things were weird when I was in the Paracletes. Is there a secret group that harbors and protects these molesters? Are they immune from any responsibility for what they have done or covered up? Is Robert Sanchez the Roman Catholic equivilant of Roman Polanski???
16. Jacob Says:
November 10, 2009 at 6:24 pm
In the olden days my ancestors would solve the problem of molesters by castrating them. If a few of the priestly predators were made eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven, the rest of us would feel much safer. Sons of Perdition names the perps and their crimes, their victims and the Bishops who covered up for them. Why have very few ever been brought to justice?
17. Sorala Says:
November 12, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I hope you read “Sons of Perdition” because it is a great tragedy that some of our young people were victims of these monsters. Their evil spread like a cancer all over New Mexico. Our towns and villages became dumping grounds for this toxic human filth. Our families have been deeply wounded for grenerations to come. May God help us to recover and heal from this ordeal. It would be similar to Los Alamos labs trying to recycle “human plutonium” by dumping it on our entire State.
18. Chris Says:
November 12, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Sons of Perdition describes one of the worst plagues to afflict our nation. The cover up was a criminal action. These bishops were just as guilty for aiding and abeting the priestly predators. This terrible evil spread all over our country from New Mexico because good people did nothing. The shepherds DID NOT PROTECT their flocks.
19. Oso Pious Says:
November 20, 2009 at 9:11 pm

We have found the prodigal archbishop, Robert F. Sanchez, now a Franciscan Friar. None of our television or newspaper reporters are interested in interviewing him. During his 19 years as archbishop, hundreds of New Mexican children were sexually abused by his priests, while he did nothing to stop them. Neither did the chief shepherd minister at all to the victims and their families and parishes hurt by these pedophilic monsters. Nor did he discipline or remove any of the offenders. The victims and their families have every right to hold the Father of Perdition responsible for loosing the Sons of Perdition upon the faithful flock of innocents. According to the website of the Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Robert Sanchez has been a friar for 2 years now, and he is celebrating his 50th anniversary as a Roman Catholic priest with his Franciscan brothers. He has so much to celebrate after all. What a record!! Hundreds of innocent children sexually abused, while he was busy chasing skirts himself. Will he at least offer an apology or explain his inaction? The brazen effrontery of this Judas, Robert Sanchez, who led his Church into such an awful crisis, to return here to celebrate his vocation is a horrible sacrilege and a scandal beyond belief.

20. THOMAS Says:
November 20, 2009 at 11:34 pm
The sheperds do not protect the flock…they attempt at all cost to protect themselves. So, now the flock is in a position of protecting itself through the grace of God, and all things reasonable and Christian—even if it means firing the sheperds! It will be easier for an elephant to pass through a Taco Bell driveway than for reason to pass through the narrowmindedness of hiearchy. If Christ told Santan to leave Him in peace…why cannot we say the same to hierarchy?
21. Oso Pious Says:
November 23, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Kay Ebeling in her City of Angels 5 website is starting a series of articles about Franciscan pedophile priests in California and Arizona. It is interesting that the Franciscans of Our Lady of Guadalupe province in New Mexico never mention where they have stashed their new member, retired Archbishop Emiritus Robert F. Sanchez. Jay Nelson has featured Robert Sanchez on his November installment of his renegade catholic blog. Now that he is a Franciscan friar, Robert Sanchez can really proclaim St. Francis’s prayer: “Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace” by making amends to all of the victims of priestly sexual abuse caused by his priests. As a pious follower of Saint Francis, he can ask truly himself “What would Saint Francis do?” “What would Christ do?”
22. Brad Says:
November 25, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Thanksgiving is a time for giving and forgiving. If RETIRED Archbishop Robert Sanchez would just admit what he did and covered up, and help find escaped predators like Msgr. Arthur Perrault, I know people could forgive him. The whole celibacy tradition is a big mistake that encourages homosexuality and promiscuity and denies women and married men the opportunuty to serve as priests. Taking preteen boys into minor seminaries and making them priests is not how Christ recruited his apostles (who were married, mature men). Archbishop Robert Sanchez was ordained a priest at age 25 in Rome. Just like baptising infants, the Church tries tries to mass produce priests before they can reach maturity. If we ordain married men and women we could help solve the problem. If we keep ordaining young, socially and sexually immature kids as “fathers”, we should expect the scandals to continue!
23. Oso Pious Says:
November 28, 2009 at 9:21 pm
If several Archbishops in Ireland can apologize for the sexual abuse caused by their priests over a period of 30 years, why can’t Archbishop Emeritus Robert Sanchez do the same? Why is the clergy exempt? Who watches the watchers?
24. Brad Says:
December 1, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Jesus says whoever scandalizes one of these little ones, WOE to that person. (see Luke 17:2 and parallels). Jesus forgave murderers, thieves, adulterers. hypocrites, and those who crucified him. I don’t recall him ever saying to forgive those who harm little children. I don’t recall him ever saying to cover up such a scandal. Jesus did say something about mill stones and throwing such people into the sea.
25. Jacobo Says:
December 3, 2009 at 5:36 pm
If Jesus wouldn’t put up with these perverts, why should we? Archbishop Robert Sanchez is a disgrace to our people. When he was in power , he strutted around like a cock. Roberto was the Latino “Elvis” and he took advantage of it by abusing young girls and women. He also covered for all his gay and pedophile priest friends, some of whom are still active. Whenever he would come to our village, all the young females would follow him around like dogs in heat. He acted and dressed like a religious. rock star with dark aviator glasses and sideburns. Now he is with Father Diego Mazon, who molested a little 9 year-old girl when he was running the Cursillo in Roswell. Diego apparently settled out of court. Why are the Franciscans hiding Robert Sanchez and when are they going to clean their filthy laundry??
26. Chris Says:
December 5, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Archbishop Emeritus Robert Sanchez is going to celebrate his 50th year jubilee anniversary as a priest on December 20th, 2009. I think we should all send him something on that day. It should be a giant millstone to remind him what we victims think of his “SERVICE” to all of us in New Mexico. We should also send him a list of all the people and their families who were abused by the pedophile priests who worked for him. We need to nominate this infamous character, Robert Sanchez to the Archbishop’s Hall of Shame. He ranks right up there with the mad monk, Rasputin and the Borgia and Medici cardinals and popes. He was “el hoto sin verguenza”, a person who had no regard for his people and only cared for himself.
27. Sorala Says:
December 5, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I am definitely going to send his excellency, Archbishop Emeritus Robert F. Sanchez a card. I know Cathy Mendoza, Patty Madrid, and Julie Maloof all remember his tender touch and I got to personally meet him and kiss his ring. His hands were so soft and gentle! I feel sad that he was not able to control his desires and behavior. I can perhaps forgive him for that, but to let all those perverted priests go on molesting kids for 19 years is too much to even think about or imagine.
28. Jacob Says:
December 5, 2009 at 8:26 pm
As a Latino Catholic I AM EMBARRASSED by what Archbishop Robert Sanchez did and allowed to happen to his Church in New Mexico. Several times I got to meet him when he came to our fiestas. I know the ladies adored him. He wore silver-framed aviator glasses and gucci shoes and he acted like a celebrity. The men thought he was muy macho and we felt sorry for all the women and girls who fell for him. I also know of several young boys who were abused by a priest whom he sent to our community. May God forgive him for all the evil that happened because of his inability to control himself and those priests under his authority. I wonder if the Pope will ever appoint another Latino Archbishop of Santa Fe in my lifetime.
29. Chris Says:
December 7, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Why are we not outraged by these perverts and the bishops who protect them? As an Archbishop for 19 years, Robert Sanchez pranced around New Mexico like a barnyard rooster. He was young and handsome and even looked like an Elvis impersonator. He took advantage of more than a dozen young females who idolized him like a religious rock star. Now at 75 years of age, Robert Sanchez is going to celebrate his 50 years as a priest dressed in a simple brown robe as a Franciscan Friar. No doubt his pedophile priest buddies are celebrating too. Their hundreds of child victims, however, are trying to recover from all the abuse that they endured while Robert Sanchez protected their abusers. If Our Lord Jesus Christ would not abide these reprobates, why do we??
30. Oso Pious Says:
December 9, 2009 at 6:23 pm
It is time for Catholic priests to “get out of their dresses, roll up their sleeves, and dig down to the roots of the Church to get out of this disease”. The Church needs to “open the doors, open the files, clean out the crime, admit their sins and pay a penance in a penal institutuion”. On this feast of the legendary Saint Juan Diego, the Catholic Church needs to fess up to the truth. Will the real Robert Sanchez please stand up and give us an honest account or will he hide behind his sponsors like Tiger Woods and wait for the victims to drag him out into the sunlight?
31. Brad Says:
December 12, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Greetings on this holy feast day of Guadalupe,(a.k.a. Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte, Juno, Hera,etc.). It seems that the bishops are more over-lookers than over-seers (episcopoi from the Greek). Our Pope has said that he will reorganize the Irish clergy due to their sexual problems. What about us in New Mexico and the other States? Ignoring our problems will not make them go away. Pretending that nothing happened will not help to heal the wounded laity. Do we need to name the names and put up pictures of the clergy that are accused of crimes against children? It is so easy to be against abortion and pro-life. What about the lives of all the victims of these pedophile priests. Have they not been “aborted” and sacrificed in some tragic way?
32. Sorala Says:
December 12, 2009 at 9:37 pm
On this glorious feast of Saint Isis, the Great Mother Goddess (also called Mary, Adi Shakti, Devi, Corn Mother, Guadalupe, Tonantsin etc.), we honor the divine feminine energy in all of us and in our universe. May She infuse us with her healing power and motherly love. May She take care of all of the children who were abused by priests, bishops and other clergy. May She enfold them in her arms and tenderly touch their hearts and souls. May Archbishop Emeritus Robert Sanchez know that Our Lady of Guadalupe will protect her children from the “wolves” dressed in sheep’s clothing and from the shepherds who abandon them. She is our loving Mother and we are all her sons and daughters.
33. Oso Pious Says:
December 19, 2009 at 6:28 pm
The last time I talked with Archbishop Emeritus Robert Sanchez he said he wanted to “give the children my love”. This was in Socorro before all of the scandals broke and he went into exile. As Robert Sanchez celebrates his 50th jubilee anniversary as a priest, I hope he takes the time to remember and pray for all of those children who were abused while he looked away and refused to help them. I think Robert Sanchez acted a lot like Tiger Woods, acting like a charismatic celebrity until the end. I hope he reads “Sons of Perdition” and thanks Jay Nelson for telling his story. I would like to place a copy of the book in every Catholic parish in New Mexico and give my special father pious blessing to all who read it.
34. Brad Says:
January 11, 2010 at 10:33 pm
The people of New Mexico need to promote “Sons of Perdition” and get their local bookstores to carry it. The sacrilege of priests sinning against the innocent and the audacity of bishops covering up their crimes is a story that needs to be shouted from the housetops! This book should be a best seller! Where is the outrage? Are we waiting for another such scandal to erupt? When will we wake up and bring the perps and their enablers to justice? How many more children need to be raped and sodomized before we are ready to demand accountability in our holy Roman Catholic Church and our not so holy prelates?
35. Oso Pious Says:
January 16, 2010 at 6:31 pm
When will we ever break out of this magical, mystical, medieval, monarchial and toxic system which is controlled by cultic, ritualistic and smooth-talking clerics with magic fingers and mystical mumbo jumbo? Why do the clerics in the hierarchy think they are better than lay people? Why do we let them keep us in a toxic spiritual bondage system of sacramental control? What gives a bishop the right to deny communion to one who is gay, divorced, or votes pro-choice? And above all what gives the bishops and pastors the right to abuse the innocent little lambs and sheep under their supervision? As Father Pious, a former Paraclete who worked directly under the aegis of (soon to be canonized)Pope Pius XII, I give my special plenary indulgence to all who read Sons of Perdition. You can earn bonus points if you think pious thoughts while promoting the book.
36. Martin Says:
February 25, 2010 at 6:25 pm
This Lent I will read Sons of Perdition again and see if anything has changed. If the Irish bishops can be called to task for their sexual sins, why not the Americans? Is the Pope afraid to expose the American bishops? All Catholics need to wake up and deal with the issue of priestly sexual abuse of children.
37. Oso Pious Says:
March 31, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Have you heard about the Pope’s 1962 “smoking gun” letter which forbids the bishops to report clerical sexual abuse? Well, we covered it it detail in Sons Of Perdition, The Pope is claiming that as head of State of the Vatican, he can’t be sued or forced to testify or to produce documents. As a former employee of Pope Pius XII, I am not afraid to testify or produce secret documents. In fact, as Fr. Gera;d Fitzgerald s.P. ’s private secretary, I, Father Pious, welcome the sun light!!!!!
38. Martin Says:
April 5, 2010 at 4:46 pm
People are upset by the Church’s refusal to admit any wrong. The Vatican press says that the devil is responsible for all the bad publicity about the Pope. One cardinal said they need an exorcist. How about a sex-orcist??
39. Brad Says:
April 8, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Pope Benedict is responsible for this mess!! The Catholic Church is merely acting out the “incest” paradigm which is to protect the father at all costs. Denial is not just a river in Egypt, Sins against the innocent children has got to be one of the worst crimes in the world. The damages done to the children last throughiut their lives. Their families and communities suffer for generations.
40. Oso Pious Says:
April 12, 2010 at 7:46 pm
The latest news is that a U.N. judge wants to try Pope Benedict for crimes of covering up the sexual abuse and refusing to discipline priests and bishops who protect these predators. If the Catholic Church had not been so high and mighty and treated the crimes commited by its clergy the same as crimes commited by the laity and the general public, then these abuses and
scandals would not have been allowed to fester and grow like a cancer.
We need to treat these criminals as we do ordinary citizens who are tried,
punished and removed from their communities when they molest kids.
41. Martin Says:
April 13, 2010 at 4:53 pm
These pedophiles could and should have been STOPPED decades ago!!! As supreme leader of all Catholics, the Pope has to accept RESPONSIBILITY for hiding the abuse and enabling the perps to continue molesting children. In New Mexico, the State Police routinely handed over any clergyman whom they arrested to the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs. The offender was then whisked away to the Canyon “retreat of Via Coeli” where he was coddled, protected and RECYCLED to various parts of New Mexico where his past was kept secret. That way the Archdiocese of Santa Fe could use this perp as a “supply priest” to say Masses and bring in needed collection money. The abused and molested and sometimes raped children were collateral damage and casualities of war to be forgotten and became expendable. Jay Nelson has carefully documented this tragedy in Sons of Perdition. Please read and promote this excellent book!!!
42. Sorala Says:
April 14, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I think that the celibacy vow is the problem. Just like Mary Magdalene and the Phoenician woman in the gospels, women just want to touch holy men like Jesus. The problem was that the Archbishop did more than touch Patti Madrid, Cathy Mendoza, Beatrice and Julie Maloof and the other 18 New Mexican girls and women. Everyone, children especially, needs love, companionship and touch. Why did Catholics think that priests did not need those things? Why did the Church try to cover up all the cases of sex-crazed lonley men reaching out for love? Even Jesus needed Mary Magdalene and all the women who follewed Him around Galilee.
43. Jacob Says:
April 14, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Well I want to say that the three pedophile priests that were sent to Torrence County did a lot of raping, sodomizing, abusing and fondling the very young boys and girls in our parish. The victims and their families and relatives are still suffering the pain from their being molested by these “fathers of perdition”. Archbishop Sanchez too, came out several times to our fiestas and confirmations and was followed around by his groupies and such. I knew Beatrice and some of Sanchez’s victims. The older folks just want to forget the whole thing, like it never happened, like a bad dream. They won’t even talk about it. The predator priests were transferred to Belen, Ruidoso, and other small communities where they continued to molest undisturbed and unknown.
44. Oso Pious Says:
April 14, 2010 at 10:51 pm
As a Paraclete Novice, I was there when the Via Coeli retreat house was used to house every kind of pervert from all over the world. Then they were suddenly “healed”, given a new identity and transformed into a “SUPPLY PRIEST” for the unsuspecting little villages where they were sent. They were seen as “gifts from heaven” by the local laity who were to see a priest and have Mass. Some of the little towns had been without priests for decades. They might as well have been terrorist suicide bombers for all the terrible damage they caused!! The poor young boys and girls in the villages were grateful for the new “attention” that these priestly “angels” provided. I was there also when we had to pick up our “guest priests” from bars and alleys and houses of ill repute so as not to scandalize the public. The local police would call us to take care of “our” problem priests. As long as we kept everything secret, no one cared what havoc was being wrecked on the expendable children, expendable families, expendable towns and communities. In some cases the victims died, commited suicide, and even became abusers themselves. Several generations have been wounded, and yet we are told to pretend that nothing happened. We are told to forgive and forget and get over it already, while “His Excellency” hides in his Albuquerque Villa and the “Holy Father” hides in the Vatican. Enough already!! I Father Oso Pious repent and ask for forgiveness for the small part that I played in this terrible tragedy.Like the Holocast survivors, I will never forget, I must never forget!! IT MUST NEVER BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!!
45. Martin Says:
April 15, 2010 at 9:12 pm
I just found out that Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald’s former boss and friend, Cardinal Francis Spellman was an active homosexual. See http:www.nypress.com/15/18/news&columns/signorile.cfm. Also you must look at http://www.aaacworld.org. It is called Adults abused as children worldwide.
It is a network for survivors of sexual abuse.
46. Oso Pious Says:
April 15, 2010 at 10:56 pm
My dear brother Martin, Why on earth should you be surprised that anyone whose business attire is a flaming red dress could possibly be gay? TheVatican’s #2 Cardinal’s Freudian slip was indeed showing in Chile when he said that gays were behind most of the child abuse in the Church. That certainly doesn’t help the Pope’s case, now does it?
47. Brad Says:
April 23, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Father Gerald Fitzgerald, the founder and superior general of the Servants of the Paracletes had several members of his order who were gay. I recall one named Brother Paul Jones who ran the switchboard at Via Coeli. He had been an actor on Broadway before joining the order. Archbishop Frances Spellman visited New Mexico in June of 1947 as the Head of Military Chaplains. He and Father Gerald were long time and close friends. Father Gerald expressed his opinion at one time that the Catholic priesthood was turning gay.
48. Jacob Says:
April 23, 2010 at 10:18 pm
I know that Father Gerald had his strange brother Ned Fitzgerald in charge of all the Paraclete Brothers. Brother Paul Jones was definitely way out of his closet. Father Gerald had a huge man crush on Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston. He even changed his name to Father Gerald Michael Cushing Fitzgerald in the seminary. I know that there was a special house in the canyon at Via Coeli for all the gay guests just as there was one for all the alcoholics.
49. Sieglinde Alexander Says:
April 24, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I salute the Author for his courage in writing “Sons of Perdition” and I admire everyone here for showing courage and self respect, by naming the horror by its real name. Sieglinde Alexander @ Adults Abused as Children Worldwide
50. Brad Says:
May 7, 2010 at 4:15 pm
The whole problem began when the clergy started thinking of themselves as better than the laity. Once the hierarchy became privileged upper class brahmins, then the rest of us became untouchables, except of course for the young children. Once we believed that priests and bishops were above the law, then they could create their own laws and morality.
51. Jacob Says:
August 11, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Is it true that New Mexico will not put convicted pedophipe priests on their sex offenders web site???
52. Donald E. George Says:
August 14, 2010 at 9:22 pm
I grew up in Albuquerque during WWll and Korea. I remember visiting Via Coeli when I was about 14, and what I remember is a priest who very much wanted me to see the “library” which I remember as being in a building away from the main complex. I’m glad I didn’t go. I had an instructor for my last course at the old College of Sanint Joseph on the Rio Grande by the name of father Gopaul. He told us that he would soon be joining the Servants of the Paraclete. Do you know anything about this man? My family was indirectly affected by Aurthor Perrault’s activities in a northeast Albuquerque parish. We could use some help on the USAToday religious forum. Regards OjoFelizNM
53. Sandia Mountain Boy Says:
August 15, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Does anybody have information of a Father Gopaul who was I believe a Gray? father but had indicated that he was becoming a member of The Servant of the Paraclete?
54. Brad Says:
August 17, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Yes, It is true. The other factor is that a lot of the convictions were from other states. New Mexico settled most of the cases out of court. Nevertheless, I have NEVER seen a priest or ex-priest’s name on the sex offender list.
55. Jacob Says:
August 26, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Father Paul GoPaul was a notorious pedaphile. He molested hundreds of young boys in the New Mexico towns. We knew he was as the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs.He was a hopeless alcoholic and drug abuser too.
56. Brad Says:
August 27, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Rev. Paul Gopaul died in 1988. see the BishopAcccountability.org web site for more info.
57. Jacob Says:
August 30, 2010 at 5:05 pm
In 1974 Archbishop James P. Davis suddenly resigned and left for Phoenix. Father Robert Sanchez was immediately chosen to replace him. NOW it is being revealed why Davis had to go. It all involves a Father Ed Rutowski from Alameda’s church of the Nativity in the North Valley area of Albuquerque. Rutowski is alleged to have abused one boy and in 1971 another boy. Financial troubles and a pending law suit led to Davis leaving abruptly.
58. Brad Says:
August 30, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I was having breakfast with Father Robert Sanchez at the Sheridan Coffee Shop in Old Town the day he found out that he was going to be the Archbishop. It was a very sudden announcement. Sanchez was getting ready to leave the priesthood and he led an anti-war group against Viet-Nam and was very popular among our generation. He was not ready in the least to be the new Archbishop. He was not even a monsigneur or an auxiliary bishop. We all got so caught up in the euphoria that he would be the first hispanic archbishop that we didn’t notice why Davis was leaving suddenly to Phoenix. Now after 36 years we can put the pieces of the puzzle together.
59. Jacob Says:
September 2, 2010 at 5:10 pm
When Archbishop James Peter Davis retired suddenly in 1974, there was no real explanation. The media was so excited that Father Robert Sanchez would be the first Hispanic Archbishop that no one questioned Davis’s sudden departure to Phoenix. Now it can be revealed finally why Archbishop Davis was in such a hurry to leave. The scandals that were avoided in 1974 erupted in 1993.
60. Rita Prince Says:
September 3, 2010 at 1:05 am
Father Paul GoPaul drugged and raped my bother. If you are a victim of GoPaul’s please contact me.
princepahrump@aol.com
61. Rita J. Prince Says:
September 3, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Father Paul A. GoPaul drugged and raped my brother in 1969 at St. John’s University, MN.
According to the Edmunites, the order he was from in VT, he died of AIDS in 1988 in CA.
62. Brad Says:
September 4, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Dr. Leon J. Podles, the author of “Sacrilege” is taking an interest in some of the Paracletes who were murdered. He publishes several case studies on his web site LJP. I mentioned Fr. Armando Martinez and his alleged killer Dennis Carabajal. He is interested in the case. Perhaps he would be interested in Fr. Paul GoPaul and his many victims. He did a study of Irene Garza and her murderer, Fr. John Feit S.P. Maybe Dr. Podles will be able to help shed light on these dark cases which were hidden and shredded by the hierarchy.
63. Sandia Mountain Boy Says:
September 13, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Thank you for answering my inquiry about Father Paul GoPaul. I knew him at the Neuman Center at UNM and also at St. Joes. It has been over half a century ,but I can recall that there was always someone wanting to hike up in the Sangres in the Pecos and experience an early morning mass . Several hikes actually took place and I remember someone talking about lugging a portable alter six miles to some lake. Does anyone remember something like this? The name Dennis Carabajal sounds very familiar but I can’t make the connection. Was he from Albuquerqe? Regards
64. Sandia Mountain Boy Says:
September 13, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Rita Prince. I tried to e-mail you but I guess your e-mail is down. The question I had for Rita and now ask here-was Father GoPaul black? Did he join the Paracletes or go to Via Coeli as a client? I remember he liked to go out drinking with some of the students after the evening class at Saint Joes in Albuquerque.He always seemed to be spaced out and not quite all in the here and now. No one in his Summa Theologica class could understand anything he was trying to say but everyone got an A. It was a very unusual ending for my college days.Does anyone here have information about GoPaul while he was in Albuquerque?
65. Rita J. Prince Says:
September 15, 2010 at 5:30 pm
My email is working now. Interested in info about Father Paul GoPaul, alcoholic, druggie, sexual abuser and tax dodger. He felt people didn’t like him because he was Black. Really?
66. Jacob Says:
September 16, 2010 at 8:28 pm
According to Dennis Carabajal’s sister, Father Armando Martinez, a pedophile priest picked up Dennis who was hitch-hiking to Cuba from Rio Rancho. Armando stopped at the 7/11 in San Ysidro used hi credit card and bought beer. Apparently they both recognized each other because Dennis’s daughters and Armando were both from Questa, NM. Armando took Dennis to the Spence Hot Springs near Jemez Springs after getting him drunk. When Dennis awoke, Armando was completely naked and trying to fondle him. Dennis got very angry and tried to fight Armando, eventually hitting him with a rock. Dennis was not armed and dangerous as later reported. Dennis took Armando’s car and fled. Later Armando died and Dennis turned himself in to the authorities and pled not guilty. Later Dennis Manzanares, the Taos County attorney and relative of Armando got Dennis to agree to a plea bargain for 50 years because he threatened him with the death penalty for killing a holy priest. The Church records and the Paraclete records were not allowed to be used to show that Armando had lawsuits against him by victims of his pedophilia. Armando’s therapy at Via Coeli as a pedophile and sex abuser of minors were not allowed. Dennis was conveniently murdered in Santa Fe Prison and it was made to appear as a drug overdose. Dennis was not allowed to have a rosary, a Catholic funeral or to be buried in a Catholic cemetary because he was a “priest killer”. To this day his family lives with this shame and exclusion from the Cuban community. Meanwhile, Armando’s family acts as mayordomos to their Church and prays that Father Armando be canonized as a martyr. Father Paul GoPaul was like Armando.
67. Rita J. Prince Says:
September 17, 2010 at 12:28 am
Jacob, Please contact me princepahrump@aol.com
68. Brad Says:
September 17, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Pedophilia an illness??? The Pope in England just called pedophilia an “ILLNESS”. An illness or a crime??? No wonder the Pope just doen’t get it!! This is just the kind of stupid thinking that led to the current crisis in the Church. This is why the Paracletes were not allowed to put the pedophiles on Tortola Island or send them to prison. Is this why the pedophiles were recycled in small hispanic communities, without any warning to the people because it was JUST AN ILLNESS. Maybe like alcoholism? Is rape just an illness?? Is murder just an illness?? Is gayness an illness??? Can you cure Pedophiles with aspirin or some type of medicine???
69. Sandia Mountain Boy Says:
September 18, 2010 at 1:20 am
Yes brad,there is an effective treatment that’s permanent. You cut their huevos off.
70. Jacob Says:
September 18, 2010 at 5:33 pm
A cousin from Jemez Springs told me that several skeletons of children were found no too long ago in the mountains above Jemez Springs. During the Hippie decades of the 60,s,70’s and 80’s I know that a lot of runaways and homeless children and teens would flee to the Jemez area and camp in the woods near the Spence Hot Springs and Battleship Rock. I know the same thing happened in the Pecos area just north of the monastery there near Cowles and Terrero campgrounds. Priests at Via Coeli had a big outdoor swimming pool that always welcomed kids to swim there. The priests and brothers at Pecos Monastery also took care of homeless and runaway children. During those years everyone felt safe and secure stopping at a monastery in the wilderness. No one ever suspected any kind of abuse or sexual perversions from the holy monks and nuns praying devoutly in their chapels.
71. Brad Says:
September 18, 2010 at 8:15 pm
The “holy” monks were indeed PREYING as well as praying. The innocent little boys and girls who went for a free swim in the Paraclete’s pool at “Camp Ped” or Via Coeli not only lost their innocence and their faith, they became exposed to the darker side of human nature. The most evil Monsters are those that devour their own children. That is why Our Lord Jesus Christ said that it was better for such persons to have a great millstone hung around their neck and be thrown into the depths of the sea. Jemez Springs was where the innocent little children met the big bad wolves.
72. Sandia Mountain Boy Says:
September 18, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Jemez Springs and the canyon are such beautiful locations. It’s too bad that many of us who grew up in New Mexico and hunted and fished the area now associate it with men who like little boys.Who could have known?
73. Brad Says:
September 21, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Father Gerald Fitzgerald S.P., the founder of the Paracletes, called Jemez Canyon the Canyon of the 3 loves and sunshines: 1)the love and sonshine of Christ in the Eucharist 2) the love and sunshine of Nature and 3)the sunshine of “brotherly love” of fellow priests and brothers for each other. When the snows melt on Redondo Peak they form the perfect image of a dove or holy spirit hovering over the canyon (the Jemez people say it is a thunderbird). What a sacrilege and obsenity it is to turn such a beautiful place into a pedophile’s paradise and sanctuary for perverts!!! It could now be called the canyon of child rape and sacrifice, where the innocent little lambs are hunted by the big, ugly monstrous wolves and ogres dressed in sheep’s clothing and fancy robes!!! The Canyon of Perdition where the Sons of Perdition prey and seduce their naive and trusting little victims!!!
74. Jacob Says:
September 21, 2010 at 10:15 pm
South of Jerusalem was the Valley of Ben Hinon or Gehenna where children were sacrificed to Moloch! The stench of the burning flesh and trash in that garbage dump was a perfect image of Hell and that is what Jesus called it. South of Los Alamos is the Valley of Jemez Canyon. It could be a similar image for some of us.
75. Sorala Says:
September 22, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Former Archbishop Robert Sanchez took a lot of us girl on camping trips. He would try to fondle his victims when they were asleep in their sleeping bags. I wonder why Judy Maloof, Patricia Madrid, Cathy Mendoza, and all the restof us are not demanding that he be made to account for what he did to us.
76. Sandia Mountain Boy Says:
September 25, 2010 at 5:38 pm
It seems to me that word about the archbishop’s proclivity for young girls would get around quickly. Why did parents continue to let their daughters go on such trips? Why did the girls continue to go on those trips?
77. Brad Says:
September 27, 2010 at 10:44 pm
According to my friend Oso Pious, both the parents and the girls held the first hispanic Archbishop in such high regard that no one would ever believe it. I myself found it hard to believe until I later spoke with some of his victims. These girls welcomed his attention and they were virgins who could very easily be manipulated by this Cassinova or Don Juan. Most of the priests were afraid to report what he was doing to the young girls because of what a lot of them were doing to the little boys.

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