Ron Belgau has a very good summary of yet another scandal erupting in the American Church – this time, in the Archdiocese of New York. An excerpt:

Last Thursday, Catholic New York, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of New York, published a notification that Fr. Donald Timone has (at long last) been removed from priestly ministry. He was suspended in December of last year, and the Archdiocesan Review Board only just determined that allegations that he sexually abused minors were credible and substantiated, though the diocese had paid for two six-figure settlements after abuse allegations in 2017. The story obviously implicates Cardinal Dolan. Last December, the New York Times reported that even after the Archdiocese of New York had paid out the settlements for sexual abuse of teenage boys by Fr. Timone, Cardinal Dolan kept him in ministry, despite the clear requirements of the Dallas Charter [pdf], and the fact that these were particularly egregious allegations: one of Fr. Timone’s victims, Timothy Murphy, had committed suicide.

Ron Belgau

Cardinal Dolan isn’t the only one whose clay ankles are on display in this inglorious affair. Fr. Timone’s depredations also implicate Courage, the bishops’ apostolate to “same-sex-attracted” Catholics. Here’s Ron with the pertinent details:

Fr. Timone was a longtime collaborator of Fr. John Harvey, OSFS, the founder of Courage. In addition to their close working relationship, Fr. Timone was a popular speaker at Courage conferences for 25 years. In 1989, he met with a small group of parents and other relatives of gay men, and helped them to organize Encourage, the Courage-affiliated ministry for parents and friends. He began editing the Courage Newsletter in 1992; in the pre-Internet era, the Newsletter was one of the most important ways for Courage to get its message out. From 1994 to 1995, while Fr. Harvey took a sabbatical to write The Truth about Homosexuality: The Cry of the Faithful, Fr. Timone served as interim executive director of Courage. (For more on Fr. Timone’s historic role in Courage, see Courage: A Ministry of Hope, published in 2018 by James Beers, a long-time member of Courage. Beers’s first effort at publicizing Courage was a 1995 article about Courage in the Staten Island Advance in which both he and Fr. Timone were interviewed.) Last Fall, Crux Magazine offered an overview of several ways that Fr. Harvey contributed to the sex abuse scandal. Fr. Timone’s story shows that Fr. Harvey’s past continues to haunt Courage today.

Ron Belgau

One hopes that Ron’s excellent reporting will cause members of Courage to demand a full ecclesiastical inquiry into the organization’s leadership and history. The fact that Fr. Harvey, Courage’s founder, publicly advocated for restoring sexually abusive priests to ministry already casts deep doubts about the apostolate’s relevance and ongoing role in the Church. This scandal only deepens that crisis. Ron explains why:

Fr. Timone’s case is not that significant in the scope of the abuse scandal in the United States as a whole. It is, however, quite significant for Courage. This case apparently involves the chair of Courage’s episcopal advisory board [Cardinal Dolan] ignoring the Dallas Charter and giving false information to other Catholic institutions in order to keep a former executive director of Courage in ministry, including ministry within Courage itself.

Ron Belgau, emphasis in original

It is, in short, a colossal failure from all the pertinent ecclesiastical authorities involved – especially the Cardinal Archbishop of New York. We can take comfort that Fr. Timone has been removed from the sacerdotal office at last. The fact that it took so long, however, speaks louder than this rear-guard action.