Speaker 1: We got ahold of the faculty handbook of Holy Cross Academy,
Speaker 1: and let's just read some passages. So religious affiliation. Holy
Speaker 1: Cross Academy was founded as a private, independent preparatory school
Speaker 1: in the Catholic monastic tradition of education by the Monastery
Speaker 1: of the Exaltation of the Most Holy Cross, with the
Speaker 1: permission of the Most Reverend Michael J. Duddick of Passaic,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. Parentheses, in whose Diocese of the Eastern Right
Speaker 1: of the Catholic Church the academy is located. So they're
Speaker 1: like really stressing the fact that they're strictly Catholic and
Speaker 1: that they are under the Aparchy of Passaic. That's what
Speaker 1: this is saying. You want to go on to the
Speaker 1: next passage. Legal jurisdiction regarding Holy Cross Academy. Holy Cross
Speaker 1: Academy is an independent, non for profit corporation in the
Speaker 1: state of Florida. It is neither owned nor operated did
Speaker 1: by the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami or the Byzantine White
Speaker 1: Catholic Diocese of Passaic, New Jersey. Therefore, it is inappropriate
Speaker 1: and in fact useless to contact the bishops of either
Speaker 1: diocese or the superintendent of Schools of the Archdiocese of
Speaker 1: Miami regarding matters of Holy Cross Academy, since the school
Speaker 1: is neither owned, governed, nor controlled by either of these dioceses. Likewise,
Speaker 1: its priests are not members of either diocese parentheses. They
Speaker 1: are priests of Holy Cross Monastery. Therefore, for matters relating
Speaker 1: to the administration, operation, policies, decisions, et cetera of Holy
Speaker 1: Cross Academy, there is no higher authority to whom to
Speaker 1: direct a suggestion, concern, complaint, or appeal than the Chancellor, Headmaster,
Speaker 1: who is the president and highest authority regarding this corporation. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know how the first paragraphic goes, Holy As Academy
Speaker 1: was founded that with the permission of the Most Reverend
Speaker 1: Michael Duddick of Passaic, New Jersey. So it was with
Speaker 1: the permission of Passaic, New Jersey. And they don't have
Speaker 1: any power over it, got it, That's what they're saying,
Speaker 1: which is very confusing. I would love to have a
Speaker 1: conversation with Father Abbot one day and ask him this.
Speaker 1: I'm Paula Barrows and I'm Melanie Bartley, and this sacred
Speaker 1: scandal I remember did something was communicated to the Vatican.
Speaker 1: But you know, I really don't know too much about
Speaker 1: how that whole system operates, So there was always that weirdness.
Speaker 1: So if you have this Bysantine Catholic on one side,
Speaker 1: and you have this Roman Catholic on the other, So
Speaker 1: how are they able to actually continue if they were
Speaker 1: told to cease and desist essentially, but they didn't. Well,
Speaker 1: the dude was a fraud. They weren't pretty. They were predators. Man.
Speaker 1: I could totally believe that there were people that are
Speaker 1: out there to like get them, because they have something
Speaker 1: so good that's going on, and all these wonderful people
Speaker 1: surrounding them, Like I wouldn't doubt if there was somebody
Speaker 1: out there to be like, let's shut the church down,
Speaker 1: he shall cease and desist from for sending himself as
Speaker 1: a profest monk. And wow, how in the world did
Speaker 1: they get to open that school? Then? With all this
Speaker 1: going on, as the investigation into sexual abuse at holy
Speaker 1: Cross Academy continued, the legal teams for the defense and
Speaker 1: prosecution continued to get little cooperation from the school's leaders,
Speaker 1: Father Abbot Gregory Went and Father Damien Gibald. The priests
Speaker 1: of holy Cross Academy remained silent on the advice of
Speaker 1: their attorneys. So the legal teams for the defense and
Speaker 1: the prosecution started looking more deeply into their history and
Speaker 1: the schools on their own. And as they started asking questions,
Speaker 1: both sides found that they weren't the only ones looking
Speaker 1: into Holy Cross and the two priests. Years before the
Speaker 1: murder of Sister Michelle, the Eparchy of Passaic, New Jersey
Speaker 1: started its own investigation into the school and the monastery.
Speaker 1: The eparchy, which is like the diocese in the Roman
Speaker 1: Catholic Faith, was trying to find out if Holy Cross
Speaker 1: was actually a part of the Byzantine Catholic Church, or
Speaker 1: any church at all. Holy Cross was within the territory
Speaker 1: of this New Jersey eparchy, and as they explored the
Speaker 1: history of the school, they started to realize that the
Speaker 1: priest and the monks may have been using the church's
Speaker 1: name to misrepresent what they really were. The issues appeared
Speaker 1: to stretch back to the original formation of the school
Speaker 1: back in by then, Father Went and Father Damien had
Speaker 1: been operating their two man monastery for almost three years.
Speaker 1: According to documents that we've come across from the eparch,
Speaker 1: key the priests met with the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
Speaker 1: and Bishop Michael Duddock from the Byzantine Church in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: They laid out plans for a K through twelve academy.
Speaker 1: At the end of those talks, the bishop said no
Speaker 1: to the high school, but did eventually agree to them
Speaker 1: opening a middle school by Bishop Didick retired and the
Speaker 1: new Bishop, Andrew Pataki recently took over. At some point
Speaker 1: he took notice of Holy Cross Academy and Bishop ATTACKI
Speaker 1: summoned fathers, Went and Damien to a meeting. I am
Speaker 1: Peter Davidson, the author of Murdered Holy Cross. Well, the
Speaker 1: rationality I read in all the communication that they had
Speaker 1: there was a whole hearing. They pretty much had a
Speaker 1: tribunal they called it, where they confronted Went and Damien
Speaker 1: about what they were up to. And the reason was that,
Speaker 1: according to the Bishop, the eper Key had tried to
Speaker 1: do high school level but it never worked out. They
Speaker 1: were successful doing elementary school, successful doing middle school, but
Speaker 1: high schools that just didn't work. And he wouldn't give
Speaker 1: him his permission. But the Eperchy guaranteed at one point
Speaker 1: for a million dollar loan to the bank that enabled
Speaker 1: went to build the Holy Cross campus, and then went
Speaker 1: in Damien went one step further. They defied the bishop
Speaker 1: by doing a high school. This meeting took place in June,
Speaker 1: and what Bishop attack, he claimed was that Fathers went
Speaker 1: and Damien secured the loan to build a new school
Speaker 1: and expand to a high school without anyone in New
Speaker 1: Jersey or the Miami diocese knowing until it was already done.
Speaker 1: One of the documents we came across talked about how
Speaker 1: the Archbishop of Miami and the Byzantine bishop from Passaic
Speaker 1: were invited to bless the new school building when it
Speaker 1: finally opened. It was only when they got there on
Speaker 1: the day of the ceremony that they realized they were
Speaker 1: blessing a high school they said wasn't allowed to exist.
Speaker 1: But it was too late, the school was already open,
Speaker 1: and they did the blessing anyway, not to cause a scene.
Speaker 1: It's not clear from any eparchy documents we've come across
Speaker 1: what the plan was for Holy Cross after this first meeting,
Speaker 1: and we've not been able to get any response from
Speaker 1: the eparchy, But what is clear from public records is
Speaker 1: that not long after this meeting, Fathers went and Damien
Speaker 1: started making some changes to all of Holy Cross. First,
Speaker 1: it's important to know that since they were both founded,
Speaker 1: holy Cross the School and Holy Cross the Monastery were
Speaker 1: separate legal entities. The property of the school was owned
Speaker 1: by Holy Cross Academy, Incorporated, and the properties that were
Speaker 1: a part of the monastery dairy were held by Monastery.
Speaker 1: Of the Exaltation of the most holy Cross Incorporated documents
Speaker 1: show that they were formed as civil companies and outside
Speaker 1: the norms of church law. A few weeks after the
Speaker 1: meeting with Bishop Attacki in July of nine, Father Went
Speaker 1: was in Ukraine recruiting the very first monastic candidates, and
Speaker 1: at the same time Father Damien was back in Miami
Speaker 1: transferring all of the property that belonged to the monastery
Speaker 1: to the school. Then a few months later, in December nine,
Speaker 1: fathers Went and Damien legally amended the school's articles of incorporation.
Speaker 1: Now they said the Academy was an independent, self governing
Speaker 1: school in the Catholic tradition, but that it is not
Speaker 1: under the jurisdiction or control of the hierarchy of any church. Now,
Speaker 1: before these two moves, if the school or the monastery
Speaker 1: closed all of its assets would have been absorbed by
Speaker 1: the Eparchy, its governing body. But now the monastery had
Speaker 1: no assets other than a modest bank account, and Holy
Speaker 1: Cross Academy was no longer officially affiliated with the Byzantine
Speaker 1: Church at all. Everything now belonged to the directors of
Speaker 1: Holy Cross Academy, namely Father Went and Father Damien, two
Speaker 1: monks who took a vow of poverty. I think Father
Speaker 1: Wind saw himself as an intellectual. I think he saw
Speaker 1: himself as a great authority, and he desperately wanted people
Speaker 1: to follow him. And what he was actually doing was
Speaker 1: setting up his own little operation that wasn't under the
Speaker 1: control of the eparchy, and it was his own operation
Speaker 1: where he was the be all and end all. And
Speaker 1: he even told that to the teachers, there is no
Speaker 1: higher authority than me, And that's not the way it
Speaker 1: is in parochials, schools that are affiliated with part of
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church. Everybody answers to a higher authority, whether
Speaker 1: it's to a bishop, went to the pope. But Father
Speaker 1: Went was very specific that there was no other authority
Speaker 1: to appeal to but him. By the following year, Bishop Attack,
Speaker 1: he noticed what happened at Holy Cross and he wasn't
Speaker 1: pleased that the Byzantine priests were continuing to advertise the
Speaker 1: now independent academy as a Catholic school. But the bishop
Speaker 1: also found out about a new project at Holy Cross
Speaker 1: and Pattacki asked to speak with the priests. Again. Here's
Speaker 1: Assistant State Attorney guil Avin to explain what happened was
Speaker 1: there came a point where he was aware that there
Speaker 1: were boys being brought over from Ukraine, and he met
Speaker 1: with Went and he said, what are you doing. We
Speaker 1: don't take boys under the age of eight to be monks.
Speaker 1: This isn't part of our faith. This isn't part of
Speaker 1: what we do. And they met, and they had a
Speaker 1: long meeting over a couple of days, and at that
Speaker 1: point that particular Bishop of Passaic, New Jersey said, if
Speaker 1: you don't get the boys out of there, we're basically
Speaker 1: separating you, or, for lack of the better term, excommunicating you.
Speaker 1: They didn't come back to Miami and tell anybody, and
Speaker 1: because the Byzantine right is so few and far between,
Speaker 1: nobody talked about it. We know from the Upper Key
Speaker 1: documents that Father Went was feeling persecuted by Bishop Attacki
Speaker 1: at the time of the second meeting, so much so
Speaker 1: that he reached out to a cardinal at the Vatican
Speaker 1: for help. Bishop Attacki also sent a letter to that
Speaker 1: same cardinal, Only now his concerns weren't just about the school.
Speaker 1: He was questioning whether the monastery was truly a monastery,
Speaker 1: or whether Father Abbot Went was really an abbot at all.
Speaker 1: That's coming up after a break. Welcome back to Sacred Scandal.
Speaker 1: Back when I was still a student at Holy Cross
Speaker 1: Academy in the late nineties, I didn't know about what
Speaker 1: was going on between the school, it's monastery, and the Eparchy.
Speaker 1: Of course, after the murder of Sister Michelle and the
Speaker 1: sex abuse allegations were made, we students heard whispers that
Speaker 1: something was going on there, and there were rumors that
Speaker 1: maybe Father Went and Father Damien weren't really priests. In
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the truth, Melanie and I came
Speaker 1: across some documents that addressed the conflict between the school's
Speaker 1: priests and Bishop Attacki from the Eparchy. We got a
Speaker 1: copy of a document sent from Bishop attack in New
Speaker 1: Jersey to Cardinal Achile Silvastrini at the Vatican. Back it's
Speaker 1: something called a vote um, which is like an official,
Speaker 1: authoritative opinion in a case in the church, and in
Speaker 1: this vote, m Bishop Attack laid out a case against
Speaker 1: the monastery, arguing it was not a valid church body.
Speaker 1: He also made some other recommendations for the priests. We
Speaker 1: showed this document to some former Holy Cross students. Go
Speaker 1: ahead and read that for me if you can, okay.
Speaker 1: The directors addressed to Reverend went are as follows. He
Speaker 1: shall seize and desist from representing himself as a professed monk,
Speaker 1: and its consequently forbidden to wear the monastic habit, since
Speaker 1: he is neither a monk nor an abbot. He shall
Speaker 1: see synthesis from representing himself as an abbot in general
Speaker 1: and as abbot of Holy Cross Monastery. The ron Gibol
Speaker 1: shall see sy thesist from representing himself as a professed monk,
Speaker 1: and as consequently forbidden to where the monastic habit, are
Speaker 1: permitted to reside as since a drive until such time
Speaker 1: to discern the future course of their lives. The Academy
Speaker 1: shall be restructured in conformity with the norms of canon law,
Speaker 1: and shall not use as a name Catholic school or
Speaker 1: private Catholic school. Without proper ecclesiastical authorization. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: something that you read and you're disappointed to know. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this whole document is about a twenty page report with
Speaker 1: more than thirty attached documents to support its argument. But
Speaker 1: neither of us are lawyers, let alone lawyers familiar with
Speaker 1: church law, and it can be hard to understand everything
Speaker 1: that's going on. We reached out to the Eparchy on
Speaker 1: some of the p but who are involved in the
Speaker 1: bishops case, to try to understand what he was getting at,
Speaker 1: but they didn't respond or comment. We even got in
Speaker 1: touch with the cannon lawyers for the Vatican who eventually
Speaker 1: worked on this case, but they also declined to comment.
Speaker 1: So to help us interpret why Bishop Pataki made these suggestions,
Speaker 1: we spoke with a priest and canon law expert. I'm
Speaker 1: Father louve Alone. I'm a retired priest of the Diocese
Speaker 1: of Pittsburgh. I also, for a long time was adjunct
Speaker 1: professor in the School of Law Ducane University, teaching an
Speaker 1: elective in Cannonball. To be transparent, when we talked to
Speaker 1: Father lou we told him nothing about the murder at
Speaker 1: Holy Cross or the sexual abuse allegations against father's Went
Speaker 1: and Damien. Now Father lu also knows about the relationship
Speaker 1: groups like Byzantines have with the Catholic Church because he
Speaker 1: is a bi ritual priest. He's not only a priest
Speaker 1: of the Latin or Western Church and Home, but he's
Speaker 1: also qualified to serve mass for the Marionite Church. Mayonites,
Speaker 1: like the Byzantines are part of the Eastern Catholic Church. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there are seven Catholic churches. They're all under the
Speaker 1: Bishop of Rome as the singular head and Vicar of Christ.
Speaker 1: The largest one in the world and one what most
Speaker 1: people are familiar with is what we call the Latin Church.
Speaker 1: But also there are Eastern churches. They have their own
Speaker 1: form of spirituality, their own form of liturgy, their own
Speaker 1: code of canon law. The Catholic churches in the East
Speaker 1: are under the Pope, and all of these churches communicate
Speaker 1: to the Pope and the Vatican through something called the
Speaker 1: Oriental Congregation. Back in the late nineteen nineties, the congregation
Speaker 1: was led by Cardinal Silvestrini, which is why both Father
Speaker 1: Went and Bishop Attacki contacted him in their dispute. Father
Speaker 1: Lieu also told us that the argument Bishop ATTACKI made
Speaker 1: to the congregation, wasn't that Father Damien and Father Went
Speaker 1: weren't priests, but that they weren't actually monks, and that
Speaker 1: Holy Cross was not a valid monastery. And it all
Speaker 1: stems back to the fact that when they founded that monastery,
Speaker 1: they also founded a new monastic order. And can I ask,
Speaker 1: is there some kind of protocol or process that needs
Speaker 1: to be followed to establish one of these new orders? Yes?
Speaker 1: There is. If you have a vision, all right, if
Speaker 1: you want to establish an order, the person who has
Speaker 1: the authority the governance is the local bishop. You go
Speaker 1: to him. The local bishop says, okay, I give you
Speaker 1: permission to start doing it. You have to write your
Speaker 1: by laws. You have to articulate what your special charroism is.
Speaker 1: Why are you starting it? Couldn't this week put under
Speaker 1: the Jesuits or the Franciscans, etcetera. If the local bishop
Speaker 1: gives his permission, he has oversight of it. For Catholics,
Speaker 1: terrorism is a special talent or gift from the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit that a monastic order focuses on. Father Went and
Speaker 1: Father Damien proved this first step. They got permission from
Speaker 1: Bishop Duddick the abric and power when they found that
Speaker 1: Holy Cross, and then they submitted their vision for the
Speaker 1: monastery and their terrorism would be building the school. But
Speaker 1: one of the next steps to becoming monks they skipped,
Speaker 1: since you know religious life is so old. There are
Speaker 1: certain steps. As a dossarsan priest, I had to go
Speaker 1: to the seminary to be formed, spiritual formation, academic formation,
Speaker 1: pastoral formation, and human formation. To be a priest in
Speaker 1: the parish for religious orders, they have to be formed
Speaker 1: in that communal life, communal prayer, the evangelical councils. So
Speaker 1: they have to go through a training period postulancy, no
Speaker 1: vision to specifically prepare them for that communal life, and
Speaker 1: then they take homporary vows for example. It's an incremental system.
Speaker 1: So you come in as a partial and I think
Speaker 1: I want to do this. Then you know, if you
Speaker 1: do okay as a partilant, then you're a novice. If
Speaker 1: you do okay as a novice, you take temporary vows.
Speaker 1: If you do okay in temporary vows, eventually you take
Speaker 1: permanent vowls. Bishop ATTACKI argued can in law, stating that
Speaker 1: for a novice to become a professed monk, they need
Speaker 1: to be in that novice stage for at least three years,
Speaker 1: and then they must profess their vows to someone who
Speaker 1: has been in a director position for at least ten
Speaker 1: years beyond that to get the title of abbott the
Speaker 1: leader of a monastery. The eprichy argued law, saying that
Speaker 1: a person needed to be a professed monk for at
Speaker 1: least a decade. Bishop Attaki says his predecessor ignored these laws.
Speaker 1: And to be clear here there's a difference between a
Speaker 1: priest and a monk. They both make vows of chastity,
Speaker 1: but monks also take vows of obedience to their order.
Speaker 1: They also take a vow of poverty to own nothing.
Speaker 1: All right, So there was the priest who was named
Speaker 1: the abbot. He was in a seminary at one time,
Speaker 1: it appears, studying, I think, for the Latin Church. This
Speaker 1: guy had already been formed as a priest in the seminary.
Speaker 1: The eparch gave him permission to establish a monastery and
Speaker 1: added a second person for the establishment. However, the two
Speaker 1: people that he gave permission to establish the monastery did
Speaker 1: not go through the training and formation to become religious.
Speaker 1: They did no partialance here Noviciat anywhere. They did not
Speaker 1: make vows in any established house. Instead, the bishop said,
Speaker 1: I'll take your vows. I'll make you religious. And the
Speaker 1: one priest he took his vows one day without any
Speaker 1: formation and appointed him abbot. He took the second and
Speaker 1: one who was a deacon at the time, professed his
Speaker 1: vows and ordained him to the priesthood, and said, the
Speaker 1: two of you and our priest monks, and you can
Speaker 1: embark on your mission of establishing a school. Bishop attack
Speaker 1: he's vote him to the Vatican. Said that there was
Speaker 1: something even simpler that the bishop before him ignored when
Speaker 1: allowing them to create the monastery, a part of canon
Speaker 1: law that's existed for more than a thousand years. They
Speaker 1: didn't have enough members. So there's certain very very basic things.
Speaker 1: If you want to start a religious order, a community,
Speaker 1: a communal life, you have to start with at least three.
Speaker 1: So that's number one. You have to start with lease three. Well,
Speaker 1: at least goes back to St. Benedict in the information
Speaker 1: of the Benedictive monasticism. But it's one of those common
Speaker 1: sense things. Now, Jesus sent the disciples odd to by
Speaker 1: two to preach, you need two people to go odd
Speaker 1: to the world and read things because their support for
Speaker 1: each other. But if you're going to seal yourself off
Speaker 1: kind of from the world, two is not enough. You know,
Speaker 1: if two guys want to vote that they're your monastery
Speaker 1: is going to do something. One guy votes, one guy votes. Today,
Speaker 1: there's nobody to break the tie. So what does common
Speaker 1: sense tell you? You got to have a third guy
Speaker 1: to break the tie. Father lou told us that it's
Speaker 1: from here. Bishop Kentucky built the case against the monastery.
Speaker 1: Monasteries are able to run themselves as a community. But
Speaker 1: he told us that without having gone through the proper
Speaker 1: process to become monks, or even having enough members to
Speaker 1: start a monastery, Father Went and Father Damien would just
Speaker 1: be a regular priest and the property they held would
Speaker 1: fall under the direct control of the eper Keys authority.
Speaker 1: So here's the analogy. You can try to bake a cake.
Speaker 1: You get all your elements together, you mix it in
Speaker 1: a bowl, you throw it any oven. It smells like
Speaker 1: a cake. It looks like a cake when you tell
Speaker 1: get on and eat it. You left something important not.
Speaker 1: You didn't put milk in, you didn't put butter in,
Speaker 1: you didn't put sugar in. And when you take a
Speaker 1: taste of it, you say, it looks and smells like
Speaker 1: a cake, but it ain't a cake. So the new
Speaker 1: eparch says, this looked and smelled like a monastery, but
Speaker 1: the assasial ingredients, the laws that it takes to establish
Speaker 1: a monastery weren't there. Therefore it's not a monastery, and
Speaker 1: they're not, and therefore he has governance and jurisdiction over
Speaker 1: their property, their mission, and their lives because now they
Speaker 1: are under the promise of obedience to go where he
Speaker 1: sends them to work in a parish or whatever. Father
Speaker 1: Lew told us that even though all these basic rules
Speaker 1: were ignored, bishop did it hadn't done anything against Church law.
Speaker 1: Bishops are like dictators, he said. They can really do
Speaker 1: whatever they want until someone challenges that they're breaking a
Speaker 1: universal law of the Church. In this case, that's what
Speaker 1: the new Bishop Andrew Pataki was doing, challenging Bishop Duddick's
Speaker 1: old decisions. Father Battaki recommended to the Vatican that the
Speaker 1: Eparchy figure out what to do with the school and
Speaker 1: the monastery, and he suggested Father went and Father Damien
Speaker 1: stopped dressing as an abbot and a monk and be
Speaker 1: reassigned somewhere else. Now, the eparch called them back to
Speaker 1: the eparchy. You are not monks, you are priests of
Speaker 1: bidass Come back and I'll give you a priestly job
Speaker 1: to do. It appears they did not do that, but
Speaker 1: they had already moved their property beyond the bishop's legal reach,
Speaker 1: and they altered the school's mission to make it independent
Speaker 1: from any church. So now you have rogue priests saying
Speaker 1: they're accountable to no one. I mean, the bottom line
Speaker 1: here is and it's it's really I've I've got a
Speaker 1: laugh because this is also really really complicated, and to me,
Speaker 1: it's really really simple. You have two guys who wanted
Speaker 1: to do their own thing, and they manipulated a bishop
Speaker 1: and the church in order to run their own con
Speaker 1: and they seemed to have gotten away with it for
Speaker 1: quite a while. These were conmen, These were sociopaths. These
Speaker 1: are narcissists as I interpret their actions, So let me
Speaker 1: be more precise. What they did was narcissistic behavior. What
Speaker 1: they did was sociopathic behavior. What they did was manipulative behavior.
Speaker 1: Now they may be saints, and them and God may
Speaker 1: be in a lot better relationship than I have with God.
Speaker 1: I don't know that's interior, but judging by behavior and
Speaker 1: external actions, this was a big con. This was a
Speaker 1: long con. This would make a better movie than The Stink.
Speaker 1: Father Loose said he would expect the Vatican to favor
Speaker 1: Bishop Attacki's ironclad case, But the only evidence of change
Speaker 1: that came from Bishop attackis recommendations was that Holy Cross
Speaker 1: Academy was removed from the directory of Catholic Schools. In
Speaker 1: our search, we've come across records of independent on site
Speaker 1: inspections made after the bishop reached out to the Vatican,
Speaker 1: but we've never come across a record of any full
Speaker 1: report or ruling from Rome, and the surviving lawyers who
Speaker 1: led the investigation for the Vatican declined to comment on
Speaker 1: the case. Even the state's prosecution and defense teams never
Speaker 1: fully resolved the outcome of the eper Keys investigation. It
Speaker 1: was a time before Catholic organizations were compelled by the
Speaker 1: PO to cooperate with law enforcement. Mike's attorney, Edith Georgie
Speaker 1: said her legal powers only stretched so far. We tried
Speaker 1: in our investigation to get through to Patachi and his
Speaker 1: New Jersey people, and many doors were closed. Now this
Speaker 1: whole investigation by the apparchy was totally invisible to me
Speaker 1: as a student at Holy Cross. I really knew nothing
Speaker 1: about it until we started interviewing lawyers, digging through documents,
Speaker 1: and watching the testimony of the monastic candidates. We asked
Speaker 1: Mike what it was like to be behind the scenes
Speaker 1: and inside the monastery as the investigation happened. Did they
Speaker 1: ever tell you or talked to you about the relationship
Speaker 1: with the bishop or the Aparchy of Passaic. Yes, they hated.
Speaker 1: The bishop always said that it's one of the bishop
Speaker 1: that he really wants to call it was school and monster,
Speaker 1: and he didn't like the fact that to be there.
Speaker 1: So I remember they're being stressed out, especially when the bishop,
Speaker 1: who says somebody trying to inspect the school. I remember
Speaker 1: they're being nervous about it. And you know, they would
Speaker 1: coaches and teach us what to say when they interviewed us,
Speaker 1: or remember so that us. Oh you were interviewed by
Speaker 1: the upper key. Oh yeah, yeah, yes, at least one time.
Speaker 1: And I remember to the people telling us, make sure
Speaker 1: you know you never say that things about the school,
Speaker 1: especially when I would say that you're sleeping, you know
Speaker 1: in this bed spend time in increase the room, and
Speaker 1: you know who would tell you that? I believe it
Speaker 1: was for the people too decided said that then of
Speaker 1: course for the one would address in general, tell us,
Speaker 1: you know, say all good things about the school, amounster
Speaker 1: and that bishop the church you know, destroyed a good thing.
Speaker 1: You know, it would say make sure he paints the
Speaker 1: art pisials. Really at that, do you remember who it
Speaker 1: was and what they asked you? I don't know who
Speaker 1: it was, no, but I remember asking me, you know,
Speaker 1: how a use you know, do like being in the
Speaker 1: monastery as the prison or you know, doing everything right
Speaker 1: as the prison or trying and doing everything what they're
Speaker 1: supposed to do, and you know, and then you know,
Speaker 1: and I've answered those questions that everything is fine. Did
Speaker 1: you feel like you wanted to be honest but you couldn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't. I just would help everything. And I
Speaker 1: feel like if I said anything bad or anything and
Speaker 1: the Prince will find out that be setting and that
Speaker 1: you know, they would you know, asked me or just
Speaker 1: keep me out of the place and just so yeah,
Speaker 1: so I remember they were really kind of I remember
Speaker 1: I went ordering me to help Pather get both to
Speaker 1: put more icons on a all of this room and
Speaker 1: hide the TV into the closet, put a bunch of
Speaker 1: cloths on it, and take his kingsize bed and put
Speaker 1: a single bed and father Damian Gibbald's bed. Mike says,
Speaker 1: isn't the only one he was asked to hide. Even
Speaker 1: over close Patrol always stayed over in Went's house. You
Speaker 1: will stay in Went bad. They only had one bed
Speaker 1: in went bed. But for example, if there was like inspection,
Speaker 1: we'll coming in from an intrusive partake. I remember one
Speaker 1: time I'm helping because one says the help Atrot move
Speaker 1: this bad so it looked like Astrolly sleeping in tepe
Speaker 1: of room. So they knew they were doing something wrong.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, of course, they say, okay, make sure because
Speaker 1: this one room in Went's house. So there was nothing
Speaker 1: but that but the whole bunch of garbage there not
Speaker 1: like but the whole bunch of like bad is like parnition,
Speaker 1: all picked up nothing. The room was unused. Butts said, okay,
Speaker 1: so especially timing from his bishop from New Jersey's okay,
Speaker 1: help before arrange it. Take the other thing a flute
Speaker 1: room and put that in there. So it looks like
Speaker 1: he's keeping in a separate room aside from being father
Speaker 1: went assistant. Mike told us a lot about Petro Tornta's
Speaker 1: relationship with the priest. He says that they lived in
Speaker 1: the monastery and shared a bed, They traveled together, and
Speaker 1: Petro acted as Wentz translator in Ukraine. Over the years,
Speaker 1: they spent a lot of time together and they grew close.
Speaker 1: But there was more to their relationship than anyone at
Speaker 1: Holy Cross ever knew. Petro was Father went son. That's
Speaker 1: coming up after a break. Welcome back to Sacred Scandal.
Speaker 1: I'm Paula Burrows and I'm Melanie Bartley. The guy named
Speaker 1: Petro was completely aligned with went and Damien and so
Speaker 1: he was the hardest one, so to speak, to get
Speaker 1: truthful information out of because you could tell he was
Speaker 1: really in on the web that they had created. Um
Speaker 1: she was bishop at This is Petro Taranta. He's being
Speaker 1: questioned by defense attorney Ray Tassive about the Eparchy of
Speaker 1: Passakes investigation into Holy Cross Academy. What we're bishop attacks concerns.
Speaker 1: The only ware was thatship was not I think in
Speaker 1: the Propavati the bishops who as I wanted to it
Speaker 1: was very destructive. That's what very heard from Bishop Attack.
Speaker 1: He had concerns that Father Abbott, the Father Beam and
Speaker 1: we're not monks and we're not priest. I believe so
Speaker 1: I think he was a mimoking and did Bishop Attack.
Speaker 1: He had concerns that the monks, the priests at holy Cross,
Speaker 1: we're not really Catholic. I can learn about that. Were
Speaker 1: those expressed to you by Father Abbott? I think you're something,
Speaker 1: Bishop Attack. He had concerns that what was happening at
Speaker 1: holy Cross was not keeping with Catholicism. Correct. He was
Speaker 1: trying to say that in general. I mean this is
Speaker 1: what my knowledgists, which is very limited. The father imot
Speaker 1: and I'm not real priests. A long ConfL Do you
Speaker 1: know whether or not Bishop Tacky ordered and investigation of
Speaker 1: the monastery all across to investigate the guardianship issues of
Speaker 1: having thirteen ft fifteen year old boys at the monastery.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the investigation was for or by
Speaker 1: Whoman stories, but there was a long time that a
Speaker 1: group of people came. They talked to Father Ion and
Speaker 1: other school members. Well, they envous that the coverle of church.
Speaker 1: They concluded that they suspended odership protactists acquisitions in Clemson.
Speaker 1: They were on our side. That's for fact, the report issue,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't very important. But that's what I know.
Speaker 1: That's what you've been told, right, And he told you
Speaker 1: that I believe Father Father. We wanted to pick up
Speaker 1: here with Petro because though we've mentioned him a lot,
Speaker 1: we've never really talked too much about him or his background.
Speaker 1: He was one of the first monastic candidates at holy Cross.
Speaker 1: We also know Petro was Father Went's assistant and spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time in the monastery where Went lived.
Speaker 1: Unlike some of the other candidates at holy Cross, Petro
Speaker 1: had a bit of a different background. He wasn't from
Speaker 1: a rural village, but grew up more middle class in
Speaker 1: a small city. Both his parents worked, and he had
Speaker 1: an uncle who was priest. Though the other boys didn't
Speaker 1: have much contact with their parents beyond letters, Petro's family
Speaker 1: became a part of holy Cross. His father and an
Speaker 1: uncle were managers of the candidate's house in Ukraine. They
Speaker 1: were paid to help keep it running and keep an
Speaker 1: eye on the boys living there. Even investigators like Prosecutor
Speaker 1: Gay Levine noticed something different about Petro one thing that
Speaker 1: we saw was very interesting was Petro Taranta, who was
Speaker 1: what we considered and what appeared to be the favorite
Speaker 1: of Gregory Went. In fact, he lived most nights with
Speaker 1: Gregory when he was one of the only ones that
Speaker 1: had his own room in the candidates house. But we
Speaker 1: saw that the bed didn't appear to be lived in
Speaker 1: and the room didn't appear to be lived in. He
Speaker 1: lived with the father. He lived with Gregory Went because
Speaker 1: he studied later than the others, and he was supposed
Speaker 1: to be like a servant or something. But it seemed
Speaker 1: to me that they were staying together in the same room.
Speaker 1: That's what it appeared to everyone. We thought that there
Speaker 1: was just something wrong with that, and then he blurted
Speaker 1: out that he had been adopted. The prosecution and defense
Speaker 1: teams found Petro had been adopted by Father Abbott Went.
Speaker 1: It happened around the same time that the Eperchy investigation
Speaker 1: into holy Cross got under way. Mike's defense attorney, Rayed Tassive,
Speaker 1: pushed Petro on the adoption and his relationship with father Went.
Speaker 1: During testimony, father Abbott as quote, a perfect match is
Speaker 1: that after him? Yes, what's your relationship to bother? Everyone
Speaker 1: has about the sign whose idea wasn't dead. You become
Speaker 1: his adopted sign Um Primarily, I would say, was his
Speaker 1: idea and would benefit Did he tell you to do
Speaker 1: it received by being his adopted sign? It was just
Speaker 1: for my interest for the future, because it was aboutific compment.
Speaker 1: Did he tell you that it could help you because
Speaker 1: if the church was ever closed down or ceased to exist,
Speaker 1: that you continue to have a relationship with him. We
Speaker 1: didn't talk about it from the player. About that I
Speaker 1: could see because it's computer. The reason, well, that's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons he told you right. Well, the primiti
Speaker 1: reason for the adoption was good relationship between him. I
Speaker 1: mean if he liked me as his son for his
Speaker 1: informations a holsome um here I was only father word
Speaker 1: would want to best for his shot. I don't wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure if something happens to him that if
Speaker 1: I would be adopted, that wild be an advantage for him.
Speaker 1: You loved you as a son, Yes, he used his
Speaker 1: last name. I haven't usday for un I don't choose it.
Speaker 1: So and he has he introduced you to other family
Speaker 1: members as his son. Uh, probably to his mother Mr Taranto.
Speaker 1: What year did you become his adopted son. I believe
Speaker 1: it was not the age. You've been his adopted son
Speaker 1: for four years. I know more much. That adoption happened
Speaker 1: weeks before Petro's eighteenth birthday. Gail Levine, the assistant state attorney, said,
Speaker 1: was something she never truly understood. It's very unusual to
Speaker 1: have an adoption so late in life. And I could
Speaker 1: not imagine why a monk would need to be a parent,
Speaker 1: because really, a monkst job is to minister to everyone
Speaker 1: in the church, and you're not supposed to have children.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to take a vow of celibacy, just like
Speaker 1: a priest, and a monaster candidate was giving up everything.
Speaker 1: He was giving up his parents in Ukraine, So why
Speaker 1: did he need to have a parent here? So initially
Speaker 1: we thought maybe for purposes of immigration, but immigration told
Speaker 1: us no, that wouldn't have mattered. So we knew that
Speaker 1: that wasn't really the answer. And then the question was why,
Speaker 1: And then we heard a rumbling about inheritance. Well, if
Speaker 1: there was an a vow of poverty, why would there
Speaker 1: be any inheritance? Like who inherits a church? We he
Speaker 1: didn't know whether there was really an ulterior motive, So
Speaker 1: that's really an unanswered question to us. Petro wasn't the
Speaker 1: only monk the priest tried to adopt. Mike told us
Speaker 1: and his lawyers that around the same time as Petro's adoption,
Speaker 1: father Damien tried to adopt him too, and it came
Speaker 1: up on one of the only two trips he took
Speaker 1: home to Ukraine while visiting his parents. Yeah, because I
Speaker 1: had to go and renew the visa. It was like
Speaker 1: two years in or so, and uh, I had to
Speaker 1: go and then for the get bold to adopt me,
Speaker 1: and so they had to keep it like secret and
Speaker 1: stuff this, you know, they said the reasons for it
Speaker 1: would be easier from its big American resident. So so
Speaker 1: but Soul, you don't see that happening at all, And
Speaker 1: definitely the only ways like the monks of priests try
Speaker 1: to adopt somebody, some younger boys to be that wherever.
Speaker 1: Sound so unbelievable, So really we try to keep about us,
Speaker 1: you know. I remember some me and pe both went
Speaker 1: back to Ukraine pass for them to sign the papers,
Speaker 1: and I remember thinking about my parents. I said, we
Speaker 1: both wanted you to sign the papers, so I forget adopted.
Speaker 1: But I remember telling them in the background, says, you know,
Speaker 1: don't do it, don't don't sign You were telling your
Speaker 1: parents not to sign it. Yes, yes, I don't sign it.
Speaker 1: So at the end they didn't sign it. And of
Speaker 1: course you both suspected I would say something like that
Speaker 1: to them. I said, I never said it anything, and
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, you weren't possession enough, And I don't care.
Speaker 1: He was telling you that you weren't persuasive enough. Yes,
Speaker 1: he was depending on you to convince your own parents
Speaker 1: to let you get adopted. So why did he want
Speaker 1: to adopt you? You think? Of course the reason they
Speaker 1: would say was that be easier for me to be
Speaker 1: a resident. But the point is that they were try
Speaker 1: to pud up any other kids that were there at
Speaker 1: the time. So anyway, the semi papers so they didn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask what was your parents reaction when
Speaker 1: they heard about the adoption? Of course it was like chakula,
Speaker 1: what the hell's going to happen? And can I ask
Speaker 1: you to your knowledge, are there any laws regarding a
Speaker 1: monk being a parent or adopting a child? Legally a
Speaker 1: monk would be difficult. I am aware of a few
Speaker 1: diocesan priests who adopt it, I would say that it
Speaker 1: would be impossible to take on the responsibilities of a parent,
Speaker 1: either in civil law or in cannonball. A diostan priest
Speaker 1: who only takes a promise of obedience and no vow
Speaker 1: of poverty, and I personally know own half a dozen
Speaker 1: priests who have adopted children. But for a monk, the
Speaker 1: structure would not allow for it. A monk who owns nothing,
Speaker 1: who is totally dependent because of his viol poverty on
Speaker 1: the community, could not establish fiscal responsibility for a child.
Speaker 1: A lot of the times, these people who have these
Speaker 1: visions of founding in order finding a mission, you wonder
Speaker 1: if that vision came from God or from their own narcissism.
Speaker 1: You know, these are people who live in houses with
Speaker 1: mirrors not windows. But the reason why we have so
Speaker 1: many rules and regulations, that's called discernment. You have to
Speaker 1: keep testing against it. So if this came from God,
Speaker 1: you're not the only one who can discern this. Other
Speaker 1: people have to look at it and say, yeah, this
Speaker 1: looks like it comes from God, not from your personal ambition.
Speaker 1: It's hard to hear about things like the eparchy's investigation,
Speaker 1: the transferring of property, and the adoptions, and not think
Speaker 1: that the priests of Holy Cross felt the rules of
Speaker 1: the church and monastic living did not apply to them.
Speaker 1: But by the time the original murder case was closed,
Speaker 1: none of it would matter, because by the time Mike
Speaker 1: finally received his sentence, the priests of Holy Cross would
Speaker 1: no longer be Catholics. That's next time on Sacred Scandal.
Speaker 1: Sacred Scandal is a production of Exile Content Studio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radios Michael Podcast Network. Sacred Scandal
Speaker 1: was created and produced by Melanie Bartley and me Paula Borrows.
Speaker 1: Our senior producer is Dennis Funk of Written in Air.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Rose Red and Nando Villa. Production
Speaker 1: mixing and sound design by Helena de Groot. Our production
Speaker 1: assistant is Imani Leonard. The show is fact checked by
Speaker 1: Kimberly Winston. Original music and final audio mixing comes from
Speaker 1: Patrick Hart and special thanks on this episode to Corey Chikowski,
Speaker 1: Brian Robertson, and Travis Roig. If you'd like to reach out,
Speaker 1: email us at hello at Sacred Scandal podcast dot com,
Speaker 1: and you can follow us on Instagram at Sacred Scandal