Louis Brouillard, 96, spent a lifetime sexually molesting church children. Told by Catholic church officials to ” try to do better and say prayers as a penance,” Brouillard now faces eighty-seven lawsuits over lifelong predatory behavior.
Haidee V Eugenio, a reporter for the Pacific Daily News, writes:
A priest accused of sexual abuse was sent from Guam to Minnesota for “help with his personal problems” in 1981, and later barred from serving as a priest after questions arose about a house guest from the island, according to a statement from the Diocese of Duluth.
Louis Brouillard, 96, is accused of sexually abusing minors in 87 lawsuits filed since the beginning of the year. He served as a pastor, teacher and Boy Scout leader on Guam, and he has admitted to molesting 20 or more boys here.
In three recent lawsuits, he is accused of paying to bring boys from Guam to Minnesota, where he continued to abuse them. One of the lawsuits alleges he moved a boy into a two-bedroom retirement home apartment where he lived with his elderly parents.
Brouillard would have been about 60 at the time.
“Father Bouillard was sent to the Diocese of Duluth in 1981 in the hope that he would receive help with personal problems,” said Kyle Eller, communications director for the Diocese of Duluth.
“While in the diocese, he did assist at several parishes. In 1985, Father Bouillard’s faculties to serve as a priest in the Duluth Diocese were revoked after questions were raised about a guest from Guam staying with him,” Eller wrote.
Brouillard, who continues to receive a monthly retirement check from the Archdiocese of Agana, was ordained as a priest on Guam in 1948 and served here until 1981. He is being deposed in Minnesota this week in connection with the Guam lawsuits.
In 2013, Brouillard’s name appeared on a list of priests released by the Diocese of Duluth with credible allegations of child sexual abuse against them.
Although the Diocese of Duluth did not specify the nature of Brouillard’s personal problems, he had at least one criminal sexual conduct complaint filed against him shortly before leaving the island, according to a lawsuit.
In 1980, Brouillard was moved to St. Williams Catholic Church in Tumon, now the Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church, according to a lawsuit. While at St. Williams, according to a separate lawsuit, he was named in a criminal sex abuse complaint filed with police.
Former altar boy and Boy Scout Felix Manglona said he was abused by Brouillard when he was 13, and “after several years passed, Felix was assisting the statistician at the Guam Police Department under the cadet program. While performing his daily duties to review police reports and collect data, Felix reviewed a police report pertaining to Brouillard. Upon information and belief, an incident occurred at the St. Williams Catholic Church in Tumon involving Brouillard and a minor boy, resulting in a sexual abuse complaint being filed against Brouillard,” the lawsuit states.
Brouillard’s sexual activities involving children had been known to church officials for at least a decade before he left the island, according to an affidavit Brouillard signed last year.
“My actions were discussed and confessed to area priests as well as Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner who had approached me to talk about the situation. I was told to try to do better and say prayers as a penance,” he said in the affidavit.
Baumgartner died in 1970.
While at St. Williams, according to a lawsuit, Brouillard abused an altar boy, identified in court documents only as F.S.L. to protect his privacy. In 1981,when Brouillard moved to Minnesota, he invited F.S.L. and a friend to spend the summer with him. While there, according to the lawsuit, the boys were sexually abused.
Another lawsuit, filed by plaintiff J.T., stated that he was abused by Brouilard on Guam from 1972 to 1976. Around 1981, Brouillard brought him Minnesota, telling his parents he would be able to attend college there.The lawsuit said Brouillard tried to rape him in Minnesota.
More than 140 sex abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Agana, 16 clergy members and three others affiliated with the church since the beginning of the year.
Richard Jacklin, who is a priest affiliated with Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Goodrich, Illinois, was charged yesterday with sexually assault a disabled adult.
Father Richard E. Jacklin, who assists with Masses at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Goodrich, is scheduled to be in court today for his bond to be set after he was arrested by Illinois State Police on Tuesday and charged with sexually assaulting a resident at Shapiro Developmental Center in Kankakee.
The 65-year-old Jacklin has been preliminarily charged by state police with criminal sexual assault by force and sexual misconduct of a person with a disability.
“We are still gathering information,” Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe told the Daily Journal on Wednesday.
Rowe said he would not comment further until after Jacklin’s bond is set in Kankakee County court today. Jacklin, who was ordained June 2, 1984, has been assigned to Sacred Heart since 2005, according to the Diocese of Joliet. Jacklin was assigned as resident at St. Rose of Lima Church in Kankakee from 1996-2005.
Early Tuesday morning, my wife, Polly, got up to use the bathroom. Upon her return to bed she said to me, something is not right. My heart is beating like crazy. I could tell she was quite worried, so I got my blood pressure machine and had Polly check her blood pressure. Sure enough, Polly’s blood pressure was 158/100 and her pulse rate was 158. On Monday, Polly had her annual health exam. Her blood pressure was 120/70 and her pulse rate was 65.
I told Polly to get dressed so I could take to her the emergency room in nearby Bryan. Polly is Mrs. Healthy. She’s had never been to the emergency room and her only hospitalizations were for six pregnancies. Polly has worked for Sauder Woodworking for almost twenty years. She’s never missed a day’s work. She has been to the emergency room and hospital numerous times with me, but her experiences on Tuesday were new to her.
The ER doctor quickly determined that Polly had atrial fibrillation-rvr — a heart rhythm problem. The upper chambers of Polly’s heart were out of sync with the lower chambers. Left untreated, atrial fibrillation can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Polly was given several medications and put on an IV. The doctor informed her that she would likely be in the hospital overnight. For the next six hours, I watched the heart machine as it recorded Polly’s heart rate bouncing all over the place. The medication eventually brought her heart rate down, but it was still bouncing from 80 to 110. Finally, around 2:00 PM, Polly’s heart decided it was tired of jumping around and returned to a normal rhythm. The doctor released her at 5:00 PM and we came home, exhausted from a busy, frightening day.
I had let Polly’s parents know that she was in the hospital. That afternoon, Polly called her Mom to let her know what was up. During the conversation, Polly’s Mom tried to evangelize her, saying, that [Polly’s heart problem] makes me think of eternity. Polly quickly and angrily shut off this line of conversation, curtly saying, I’m fine. (It has been nine years since Polly and I left Christianity. Her parents have yet to have a conversation with us about why we are no longer Christians.)
The conversation ended shortly thereafter. Polly’s Mom told her, I’m praying for you daily. At a loss as to what to do about our turn from Jesus to Satan, Mom and Dad have taken to daily praying for us. In their minds, if we would just get back in church all would be well. They hold out the hope that we will return to Jesus and start serving him again. Deep down I wonder if Mom doesn’t think I am the reason for Polly’s deconversion, and that once I am dead and gone and she is free of me, her daughter will return to Christianity. Little does Mom know that Polly is much more strident in her unbelief than I am. I may be more vocal about it than Polly is, but she has zero interest in anything associated with religion.
As Mom was giving her evangelistic spiel, this daughter of a Baptist preacher, wife of former Evangelical preacher, mother of six, and grandmother to eleven, raised her hand and gave the phone a middle finger salute. Polly will never tell Mom to fuck off, but the sentiment is there. She’s done with religion, and so am I.
Polly’s heart problem is a screaming reminder to us that life is short. Everyone expects me to die first. After all, I’ve been dealing with chronic health problems for twenty years. It makes perfect sense that I would be the one to make it to the crematorium first. However, life often does not make sense, nor is life fair. Proverbs 27:1 is right when it says, Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I was reminded on early Tuesday morning that those I love and hold dear can be quickly snatched from my hands. Treat every day as your last. Someday, it will be.
Shane Cruse, pastor of Restoration Life Church in Hamilton, Mississippi, was arrested Saturday and charged with “illegal sex act with a minor and prohibited use of electronic communication system to procure a minor.”
A Mississippi business owner and pastor was arrested in Kentucky as part of an online sex sting operation.
Michael Shane Cruse, 46, of Columbus, was arrested Saturday in Danville, Kentucky, WCBI reported, and charged with an illegal sex act with a minor and prohibited use of electronic communication system to procure a minor, also a sexual offense.
Cruse is accused of communicating with whom he believed was a 16-year-old boy online and arranging to meet for a sex act. Cruse was actually communicating with an undercover law enforcement agent in Boyle County, Kentucky.
He was released by the Boyle County Sheriff’s Office on a $20,000 bond.
A Hamilton pastor and local businessman is behind bars in Kentucky on a charge of an illegal sex act with a minor through use of electronic communications.
Shane Cruse, 46, was arrested in Danville, Kentucky, on Saturday as part of a Boyle County Sheriff’s Office online sting operation targeting child sex offenders.
BCSO said a detective, posing as a 16-year-old male, met Cruse online and agreed to meet Cruse in Kentucky to have sex.
Cruse came into public attention in 2012 when, on behalf of the church he pastored, he offered a $175,000 bid to purchase the Lee Middle School property, which had been put on the market a year earlier. Then the pastor at Point of Grace Church on 18th Avenue in Columbus, Cruse told the Columbus Municipal School District board he hoped to expand his church’s operations through the purchase. His offer was declined because it did not comply with state criteria governing the sale of school properties.
Cruse later moved into the restaurant business, purchasing Cattleman’s Steak and Fish on Tuscaloosa Road in Columbus in October 2016 and, just three weeks ago, purchasing the Highway 45 North restaurant Little Tokyo, which he renamed Samurai Sushi and Steakhouse.
Cruse is listed as pastor at Restoration Life Church in Hamilton. According to the church’s Facebook page, it was launched in July 2016 ….
Chris Cunningham, former priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale, St. Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach and St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church in Covina, (all in California) stands accused of sexually abusing numerous children.
Stephanie Baer, a reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, writes:
A former priest who served in Southern California and was named in a 2015 child sexual abuse lawsuit allegedly molested at least four additional children at parishes in Palmdale, Redondo Beach and Covina, according to lawsuits recently filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Civil complaints filed in July and October allege former Rev. Chris Cunningham sexually molested boys ages 10 to 15 from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale, St. Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach and St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church in Covina.
The lawsuits, which name the churches and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as defendants, also allege the archdiocese knew of the allegations against Cunningham.
The archdiocese did not investigate, opting instead to transfer the priest to various assignments and destroy the complaints, according to the court filings. None of the plaintiffs is named in the lawsuits.
Robert Flummerfelt of Canon Law Services, which is representing Cunningham, said in an email that the former priest denies the allegations and has “never sexually abused anyone.”
he new lawsuits come after a 2015 case filed by the same attorney, Anthony DeMarco, on behalf of a plaintiff who he said was sexually molested as a 12-year-old boy at St. Louise in Covina from 2001 to 2002.
“We’ve since that time learned of quite a few more victims of his abuse,” DeMarco said Tuesday. “Folks in charge of youth at every parish he was at leading up to St. Louise and at St. Louise were aware of that conduct and nearly all of them reported their suspicions and concerns to their superiors.”
All three complaints describe Cunningham as regularly having underage boys alone with him in his church living quarters, regularly wrestling with them on church grounds and regularly meeting with them without chaperones outside of church.
Cunningham was removed from active ministry in 2006.
The archdiocese said in a statement that Cunningham was reassigned from St. Louise in 2004 “due to management issues not related to misconduct” and that the church “was not aware of any alleged sexual misconduct until 2015,” when the initial lawsuit was filed.
“The archdiocese received allegations of improper boundary violations concerning Fr. Cunningham in August 2005,” the archdiocese said in the statement. “According to archdiocesan policy, the matter was investigated and an announcement concerning the allegations was made at the parish informing the parish community.”
Stephen Howard, pastor of Muscoy United Methodist Church in San Bernadino, California, was convicted last week of ” 32 counts of sexual abuse, including lewd acts upon a child, oral copulation of a person under 16 years old and sodomy of a person under 18.”
The pastor of the Muscoy United Methodist Church, charged with multiple counts of child molestation involving boys who attended the church, was found guilty by a San Bernardino County jury last week, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office said.
Stephen James Howard, 58, was convicted Friday, Oct. 27, of 32 counts of sexual abuse, including lewd acts upon a child, oral copulation of a person under 16 years old and sodomy of a person under 18, court records showed. He is being housed at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga with no bail, according to jail records.
Howard is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 29 in San Bernardino.
Howard was arrested and charged in March 2014, according to court records. Detectives had investigated reports that month that Howard had molested boys at several locations, including San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials have said.
The department’s Crimes Against Children took over the case and found two victims, a 14-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man from Rancho Cucamonga, sheriff’s officials said. The older victim said the abuse began when he was 9, and continued into adulthood, authorities noted.
Twelve of the counts involve acts committed between 1990 and 2000, according to court records. The most recent charges involve acts committed between 2011 and 14.
“I am deeply grieved by this sad situation and earnestly ask for your prayers for all who are affected,” United Methodist Bishop Minerva G. Carcano said in a 2014 interview. “As United Methodists we stand firmly against child abuse, sexual abuse and sexual misconduct.”
Howard had been lead pastor at the Muscoy United Methodist Church since 2001. He was also youth director at a United Methodist Church in Ontario from 1989 to 2001.
A former assistant pastor was sentenced to 13 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a girl that initially was covered up by church leaders and the girl’s father, the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said.
Robert Wyatt, 51, repeatedly sexually assaulted the now-15-year-old girl whose family attended Agape Bible Church in Thornton, prosecutors said.
Wyatt gained trust from the girl and her parents, and got access by home-schooling her in his residence.
The girl told investigators the inappropriate touching started when she was 12 and had been going on for nearly two years.
In March 2016, Wyatt offered to take the girl on a field trip but instead they went to a hotel where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Wyatt describes this as a ‘stupid decision’ but this wasn’t a mistake. He saw he could manipulate the victim and her family. It was a calculated, methodical decision by the defendant to take advantage of this young girl,” senior deputy district attorney Patrick Freeman said.
“He is a sexual predator.”
Church leaders and the girl’s father tried to keep Wyatt’s crimes from being reported to police.
“Those who attempted to hide him from justice share blame,” Freeman said.
“You were in a position of trust with the church and as her teacher,” Adams County District Judge Don Quick told Wyatt at the sentencing hearing.
“You preyed on her emotional and physical vulnerabilities. Over and over again you planned how to groom her so that you could commit these acts. You took advantage not just of her body but her heart, telling her that you loved her.”
Quick was also critical of church leaders and the girl’s father for how they shifted blame to her and trying to handle things internally.
“I’m still shocked at how certain adults responded to this,” Quick said. “She didn’t put him in prison. He put himself in prison.”
Wyatt pleaded guilty in July to attempted first-degree assault and sexual assault on a child.
He was charged last year with one count of sexual assault on a child, one count of sexual assault on a child as a pattern of conduct and one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.
Police documents and former congregation members allege that Agape’s head pastor, Darrell Ferguson, knew about the allegations in July and refused to go to police.
A 16-page arrest affidavit describes evidence that Ferguson knew about the allegations by July 21, when Wyatt reportedly confessed the crime to the girl’s parents.
“Ultimately, Darrell and [the girl’s parents] agreed to not report the sexual assault to the police or social services because they were concerned with what would happen to Bob,” the affidavit alleges.
It is important to know when Ferguson found out about the alleged abuse because in certain circumstances, if a member of the clergy knows about child abuse and does not report it, it might be a crime.
The Problem Solvers pressed Ferguson on the issue. In a recorded phone conversation, he said he didn’t report it earlier to police or the congregation because “the sexual assault on a child, that wasn’t known until the arrest.”
Wyatt stepped down from his leadership position on July 21 and remained at Agape as a member of the congregation until his arrest.
On Tuesday, Ferguson was asked, “You’re saying you, as church leaders didn’t know that it was sexual assault against a child?”
Ferguson replied, “The, uh, the eldership, let’s see I’m just now getting on the highway here. The eldership, you’re asking when the eldership, when the leadership of the church discovered that it was sexual assault on a child?
“That happened the day of the arrest. That’s when that came out.”
Over the weekend, Ferguson sent a letter to the congregation apologizing for making what he describes as misleading statements.
“Dear Agape,
In my phone conversation with the reporter from FOX31, when I answered her question about when the leadership knew, I said it was when the arrest was made. I began my sentence with “The other elders … but that part was edited out.”
FOX31 edited Ferguson’s response for time in the story that aired. In no part of the interview did he specify he was talking about the other church leaders, excluding himself.
Since Ferguson is the head pastor at Agape, it was FOX31’s understanding that when Ferguson was asked “When did you as church leaders know?” Ferguson’s response was referring to himself too.
The rest of Ferguson’s letter to the congregation goes on to support FOX31’s interpretation of his answer:
“I did not intend to deceive her — I just wanted to make the point that the other elders did not know until the arrest. Nevertheless, I do think what I said was wrong. I knew she wanted to know when I found out, and I had been advised by our lawyer not to discuss that in the press, so I got flustered and just tried to divert to something I did want to talk about rather than answer her question. This was wrong, and it ended up being very misleading.”
Ferguson sent a separate statement to FOX31 over the weekend clarifying that he knew about the accusations of abuse before the other church leaders. He also said that under Colorado law, he does not believe that he had an obligation to report the suspected crime to police.
The full statement reads:
“Regarding the Bob Wyatt matter, it is very important to us at Agape Bible Church that all of our communications be completely accurate. To be clear, the statement about first becoming aware of the allegation on Monday applies to the other elders, but not to Pastor Ferguson, who did have prior knowledge. Also, it turns out the other elders actually became aware of the allegation of sexual abuse the day before the arrest.
It is not true that there was collusion with the father to withhold the information. The things that were said to Darrell by the family in confidential pastoral contexts in July were kept in confidence as required by Colorado law (C.R.S. 19-3-304 II and C.R.S. 13-90-107 (1) (c)). Any information that came to Mr. Ferguson outside of those confidential contexts was reported by Mr. Ferguson to the Child Abuse Hotline (report #667944).”
The late Robert Lott, a Catholic priest, abused a boy repeatedly between 1975 and 1985. The Archdiocese of New York recently paid out a $500,00 settlement to Stephen Ryan-Vuotto, one of Lott’s victims.
Sharon Otterman, a reporter for the New York Times, writes:
Stephen Ryan-Vuotto was 14 and had recently lost his father to lung cancer when a priest in his Greenwich Village parish began inviting him to sleep over at the rectory. His mother was happy, he recalled, because she revered priests.
In particular, she loved the Rev. Robert V. Lott, the man who had befriended her son. He had ministered to the boy’s dying father, and was starting charitable organizations. Before his death in 2002, Father Lott’s reputation grew, as he led an effort to build hundreds of low-income housing units in East Harlem. To this day, an assisted living center, a home health care organization, a community development corporation and a charitable foundation in East Harlem are named for him.
But those nights at the rectory were not innocent. In August, Mr. Ryan-Vuotto was awarded a $500,000 settlement for sexual abuse by Father Lott. The money was from a program being run by the Archdiocese of New York to compensate those sexually abused by priests. In an interview, Mr. Ryan-Vuotto said he was abused more than 50 times between 1975 and 1985, in acts ranging from fondling to sodomy. But he kept silent, in part because after the abuse ended, he became a priest.
Mr. Ryan-Vuotto, who was known as Father Ryan for nearly 20 years, is one of 181 victims who have been awarded settlements by the New York Archdiocese for sexual abuse by priests or deacons in claims reaching back to the 1950s. The deadline for victims to apply is Wednesday.
Mr. Ryan-Vuotto spoke about his abuse on Thursday, and plans to hold a news conference on Monday to encourage more victims to step forward. By going public, he becomes one of only a handful of Roman Catholic priests nationally who have spoken about their own clergy sexual abuse. He is also the first person to name Father Lott as an abuser, forcing a reassessment of a man some called a saint.
This is not a happy day for me, and I’m not thrilled about it,” said Mr. Ryan-Vuotto, 55, who lives in the Albany area and works at a college convenience store. “But it is something I had to do from the deepest core of my being. If I’m going to be transparent and honest and expect that of others, then I need to do it.”
“I believe, I truly believe,” he added, “that although it is going to sully the name of someone a lot of people look up to, it’s truthful. And in the Bible, it says, the truth will set you free.”
Most victims of childhood sexual abuse in New York State have been unable to sue or file charges against their abusers because the statute of limitations requires that they report the abuse before age 23. Most victims are unable to come forward until they are older because of the trauma, psychologists say.
….
Father Lott was his mentor as he joined the priesthood, and also his family priest, officiating over the marriages of his siblings and the funerals of his grandmothers.
Mr. Ryan-Vuotto said it wasn’t until he entered the seminary in 1987 that he began the process of overcoming what had happened.
As part of his therapy, he confronted Father Lott in the early 1990s. Father Lott, who was then pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Manhattan, didn’t even look up from his desk, he said. “You know, I always cared very deeply for you, and I never meant to hurt you,” he recalled Father Lott saying.
Mr. Ryan-Vuotto was a priest for 18 years, his last post as pastor of St. Rita’s Church on Staten Island. In 2008, he petitioned for a leave of absence, telling the chancery that he was questioning his vocation because of his own sexual abuse.
After leaving the ministry, he met the man who would become his husband, Michael Vuotto, moved to the Albany area and joined the Episcopal Church. He received no pension, and his priest friends cut ties with him, presumably to avoid association with his gay marriage. He had to start over. “The church was everything to me,” he said.
….
Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer portrayed in the movie “Spotlight,” represented Mr. Ryan-Vuotto. He called for all posthumous honors to be stripped from Father Lott and the other accused priests.
“The reputation of Father Lott should be reflected to show that he was a pure predator who preyed upon an innocent child by repeatedly sexually abusing that child over the course of years,” he said. “It is not unusual for the Catholic Church to put up buildings in the names of predator priests, and supervisors who allowed predatory activity to take place.”
In East Harlem, the executives of the Lott Community Development Corporation, Lott Residence, Lott Community Home Healthcare, and Lott Foundation were grappling Friday with the news that their namesake had been named a sexual predator.
“The boards and executive leadership of the Lott organizations need time to digest this news and reflect on the question of whether we should rename our organizations, [ YOU HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THIS?] ” the organizations said in a statement.
Reverend Robert V. 1939-2002. Father Lott was a visionary who saw outside of normal boundaries. He dedicated his life to teaching others to help themselves and their communities. Driven by the social gospel to serve those in need, he was a vigorous advocate for programs benefiting the elderly, and a prolific developer of low-income housing. Father Lott asked others to reach for goals that would intimidate most, and his sermons and liturgies inspired those around him to put God’s words into action. Born in the Bronx on November 23, 1939, Father Lott was raised in St. Frances of Rome Parish in Wakefield. He studied at All Hallows High School, and graduated from Iona College. Shortly after, he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie and was ordained on May 29, 1965. After ordination, he pursued advanced studies in Liturgy and earned a Master’s Degree in Sacred Scripture. His first assignment was at St. John the Evangelist in White Plains, where he worked with the New York Apostolate for the Deaf. Father Lott served as Assistant Pastor of St. Peter’s in Yonkers and St. Joseph’s of Greenwich Village. While at St. Joseph’s, he co-founded and served as Chairman of the Caring Community, and he led that organization in the purchase of Village Nursing Home. Father Lott was a former member of Planning Board II, and the co-founder and former Chairman of The Council of Senior Centers and Services. He was appointed Pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish on East 96th Street in July of 1987, and Administrator of St. Lucy’s Parish in 1998. At the former, he operated a soup kitchen and a shelter for the homeless. During the past fifteen years, he founded and served as Chairman of the Board and President of the SFDS Development Corporation. Through that not-forprofit organization, he developed over 700 low-income housing units in East Harlem ranging from housing for the homeless to a model assisted living facility for the elderly on Fifth Avenue. The Caring Community, Presbyterian Homes, and Village Care of New York have all honored him as Man of the Year. Last year he was presented with the Maggie Kuhn Award. Donations may be made to the The Reverend Robert V. Lott Memorial Fund, c/o SFDS Development Corporation, 1261 Fifth Ave., New York, NY, 10029.
LOTT-Rev. Robert V. Died February 27, 2002. The son of the late Margaret and Robert Lott. Survived by his aunt Emily LaFleur, and his cousins Joan Kliemisch, Barbara DiFiore, and Catherine Lewis. The Pastor of the Church of St. Francis deSales on East 96th St, and Administrator of the Church of St. Lucy on East 104th St, Chairman of the Board and President of the SFDS Development Corporation. Father Lott was a vigorous community advocate dedicated to elderly and low income persons in need of housing. His body will lie in state in the Church of St. Francis deSales on Friday beginning at 10:30 A.M. A Eucharist will be celebrated on Friday at 7:30 P.M. The Funeral Liturgy will be prayed at 10 AM on Saturday, March 2. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Robert V. Lott Memorial Fund, c/o SFDS Development Corp., 1261 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10029.
LOTT-Rev. Robert V. The Board of Directors, staff and volunteers of The Burden Center for The Aging note with profound sorrow the passing of Rev. Robert V. Lott. He was a good friend and generous colleague. His passion for helping others informed all his work as demonstrated through his exceptional leadership. We were fortunate that he served as executive director of Volunteer Services for the Elderly of Yorkville before its merger with the Burden Center. His compassion and vision helped set high standards for excellence. We will miss his gracious counsel and wonderful humor. Our heartfelt sympathy is extended to his family and to all the staff and parishioners of St. Francis deSales Church. Ellsworth G. Stanton III Chairman, Board of Directors William J. Dionne Executive Director
LOTT-Reverend Robert V. The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty mourns the passing of our dear friend Father Lott, a pioneer in caring for people in need. Merryl H. Tisch, President Joseph C. Shenker, Pres-Elect William E. Rapfogel Executive Director
LOTT-Rev. Robert V. Bob was a great and good friend and we will treasure our memory of him. Rose Dobrof, Pasquale Gilberto
Tamil Nadu police have arrested a pastor accused of trafficking girls through a Christian-run orphanage that was taken over by authorities two years ago during an investigation into the unregistered children’s home.
Police said they arrested Pastor Gideon Jacob on Saturday after he arrived from Germany and he has been charged under trafficking and juvenile justice laws.
Denying the allegations, Jacob’s lawyer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that his client had voluntarily appeared before the police and was cooperating with the investigation.
The Moses Ministries home in Tiruchy, run by Germany-based Christian Initiative for India that was founded by Jacob in 1989, housed 89 children, all said to have been rescued from female infanticide from Usilampatti in neighbouring Madurai.
However, the home had no proper records of the children, all of whom are now aged 18 years and above.
In December 2015, the home was taken over by the social welfare department after a court directive.
A wave of claims by people saying they were the children’s parents prompted a local court to rule that all the children should undergo DNA testing to establish their real families.
In 2016, DNA results showed at least 32 matches. None of the girls, however, have yet been reunited with their families.
“We have been counselling the girls, who have known no other life since they were babies,” said Tiruchy district head Kuppanna Gounder Rajamani.
“We have also identified the parents willing to take back their daughters and, following Saturday’s arrest, things will move faster and we are hoping to reunite the girls soon.” More than 40 per cent of human trafficking cases in India in 2015 involved children being bought, sold and exploited as modern-day slaves, according to government crime data.
There has been a recent spate of reports of the trafficking of infants and children for adoption and raising funds through charity-run child homes and private hospitals.
In Tamil Nadu, state authorities closed 500 homes between 2011 and 2016, citing mismanagement, a lack of registration and misconduct.
Rights groups have long complained that children’s homes in India are poorly regulated, not inspected often enough, and that many privately-run institutions are able to operate without a license leaving thousands of children open to abuse.
“The arrest gives us hope that there will be justice,” said A. Narayanan, the director of advocacy group Change India, who outlined the scope of the problem in a petition filed in Chennai’s High Court.
“The real worry is when and how these girls will be rehabilitated. Right now, it seems like a life sentence, where they are resigned to live in an institutional home.”
More than 40 per cent of human trafficking cases in India in 2015 involved children being bought, sold and exploited as modern-day slaves, according to government crime data.
There has been a recent spate of reports of the trafficking of infants and children for adoption and raising funds through charity-run child homes and private hospitals.
In Tamil Nadu, state authorities closed 500 homes between 2011 and 2016, citing mismanagement, a lack of registration and misconduct.
The investigation began after two interns from Chennai-based NGO CHANGEindia visited a few unregistered children’s homes in 2015 to gather evidence for a High Court petition on illegal childcare institutions. The interns, Vikas Christy and Babi Christina, reportedly walked into Mose Ministries and spoke to the inmates for three hours.
“It was surprising; they were all around the same age,” Christy told the Hindu. “All the girls said they had been rescued from female infanticide.”
She added, “They were brought up in an unhygienic, isolated environment, without counsellors, or mentors. The older girls took care of the younger ones; they cooked, cleaned and did domestic chores. No local person, except the Pastor’s friends, ever visited. They were forcibly involved in prayer and groomed for evangelist work.”
According to Reuters, a number of people have since stepped forward claiming to be the children’s parents. In 2016, DNA results showed at least 32 matches, but none of the girls have yet been reunited with their families.
“We have been counselling the girls, who have known no other life since they were babies,” said Tiruchy district head Kuppanna Gounder Rajamani. “We have also identified the parents willing to take back their daughters and, following Saturday’s arrest, things will move faster and we are hoping to reunite the girls soon.”
Speaking to ChristianToday in 2015, Pastor Jacob claimed strongly denied the allegations, which he said were motivated by Hindu nationalists. He argued that the children had all been brought to the orphanage as an alternative to infanticide, thus explaining the lack of records.
“When you bring a baby to give her away you are committing a crime for which you can be imprisoned,” he said. “If you give away your child you aren’t going to give your telephone number.”
He added, “I don’t know what lies in the future, but God can do the impossible.”
Jesus, a character on The Walking Dead, is currently among the living. Whether by Negan’s hand or a walker’s bite, this Jesus will one day die, joining all the Jesus’s that have come before him.
Over the past nine years, countless Evangelicals apologists have emailed me or commented on this blog in hopes of winning me back to Jesus. Reclaiming an Evangelical-pastor-turned-atheist for Jesus would certainly be big news and viewed as a sure sign that God is still in the soul-saving business. Why is it, then, that former Evangelical pastors rarely, if ever, return to the faith?
Many apologists suggest that the reason former pastors can’t be reclaimed for Jesus is that they are apostates or they have committed the unpardonable sin. (Romans 1:18-32) These pastors are blasphemers who have trodden under their feet the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:26-30), degenerates who have crossed the line of no return. Apologists will often engage former pastors anyway, seeing it as an opportunity to hone their apologetical skills or preach the gospel to those who are lurking in the shadows.
Assuming that I am not a reprobate that God has turned over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, why, then, do Evangelical apologists fail to win me back to Jesus? One reason is that the behavior of apologists towards me is contrary to everything the Bible says about how we are to treat other people. Some of the most arrogant, nasty, judgmental people I have ever met are people who attempt to win me back to Jesus. I have never understood how behaving this way is conducive to reclaiming me for Jesus. As a pastor, I talked to hundreds and hundreds of people about the state of their souls. I found that being loving, kind, and compassionate helped in setting the tone for a presentation of the gospel. Leading with hell, judgment, and the wrath of God generally turned people off. Sadly, many apologists are oblivious to these things, choosing instead to bully people with the Bible. (Please read Bible Thumpers: Dealing With Evangelical Bible Bullies.) In doing so, these apologists give Christianity and God a bad name. When such people savage me with their words, I often ask them, what is it in your behavior that would make me want to return to Christianity? Granted, just because the messenger is an asshole doesn’t mean that the message is untrue. That said, kindness and respect will open far more doors than hatred and judgmentalism — a lesson some apologists need to learn.
Another reason that Evangelical apologists fail to win me back to Jesus is their belief that the Protestant Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God. I recently wrote a post titled, Why Biblical Inerrancy is Not Intellectually Sustainable. This post attracted an apologist who was certain that his intellectually superior arguments would destroy any criticism of the Bible. His arguments failed to convince anyone that the Bible was inerrant. The only people who believe the Bible is inerrant are presuppositionalists who assume, without evidence, that the Bible is without the error. The Bible says is it is without error, so it is. End of discussion. This is, of course, a faith claim that cannot be refuted. Once apologists appeal to faith — which is inherently subjective — all rational discussion ends. Faith, according to the Bible, is belief without evidence. Hebrews 11: 1,3, and 6 states:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Creationists love to argue that the events recorded in Genesis 1-3 are scientifically accurate; that God created the universe out of nothing in six twenty-four-hour days, 6,022 years ago. Everything that science tells us about the universe says that creationists are wrong, that the universe is billions of years old, not thousands. Vast amounts of scientific data must be rejected or misinterpreted for creationists to conclude with a straight face that Genesis 1-3 is how the universe came into existence. Lost on creationists is the fact that the Bible says that believing Jesus created the universe is a matter of faith, not scientific fact. Millions of Christians reject creationism, yet believe God is the grand architect of the universe. Creationists, on the other hand, refuse to budge on their ignorant beliefs. Why? Their commitment to literalism and inerrancy forces them to embrace beliefs that are absurd. One need only drive to Kentucky to visit Ken Ham’s Creation Museum and Ark Encounter to see colossal monuments to Evangelical ignorance.
Let me conclude by giving three obstacles apologists can’t overcome in their attempts to win me back to Jesus:
The Christian God is the creator of everything.
Jesus was born of a virgin.
Jesus was executed on a Roman cross and resurrected from the dead three days later.
These three things ultimately stand in the way of me returning to Christianity.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
The Apostle Paul said the universe itself gives testimony to the existence of God. Look at the wonders of the earth and beauty of the star-lit sky. Sure this is proof that God created everything? Perhaps, but what evidence is there for this creator being the God of the Christian Bible? I have long argued that I understand how someone could look at the night sky on a clear summer night and conclude that a deistic God of some sort created the universe. What does not make sense to me, however, is that this creator God is the triune God of Christianity. What in the night sky tells me that the Christian God is the creator? Why the Christian God, and not any of the other Gods human worship? I see no intellectual bridge that gets me from A GOD to THE GOD of Evangelical Christianity. Again, the belief that the Christian God created everything rests on the presupposition that the Bible is the Word of God and whatever it says is true. Believing this way requires faith, a faith that I do not have.
The virgin birth of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead thirty-three years later, are equally problematic for me. Virgins don’t have babies and dead people don’t come back to life. Pregnancy requires the uniting of a female’s egg with a male’s sperm. Believing Jesus’ mother Mary was a virgin requires me to ignore what science tells me about where babies come from. But, Bruce, with GOD all things are possible! So Evangelicals say, but one thing is certain: millions and millions of people have prayed to God asking him to give them a baby. God has — supposedly — answered these prayers countless times. I have heard numerous testimonies about how God “blessed” people with children. What is the common denominator in all these stories? — a female egg united with male sperm, and nine months later a child was born. There’s no evidence that God played any part in these births. Believing so requires faith.
So it is with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Billions of people have lived and died on planet Earth, yet not one of them has come back from the dead. Cemeteries, funeral homes, and crematoriums are reminders that when people die, they stay dead. I believe Jesus was a real person who lived and died in Palestine two thousand years ago. How Jesus died, it matters not. Jesus lived, died, end of story. Evangelical apologists offer no evidence for the claim Jesus resurrected from the dead. Again, believing this to be true requires faith, a faith I do not have. Either someone accepts as fact what the Bible says about the things mentioned in this post or they don’t. I don’t, and this is why apologists fail in their attempts to win me back to Jesus. I want evidence, not special pleadings that appeal to Evangelical faith and the inerrancy of the Bible. Until apologists can come up with arguments that are more substantial than the litany of proof texts and faith claims they currently use, I remain unconvinced. The ball is in your court, Evangelicals.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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