The Roman Catholic Church’s Bishop of Grand Rapids has stood before his faithful before to talk about “inappropriate conduct” on the part of one of his priests. On Monday night the setting was St. Mary Church, Custer, where more than 100 parishioners from St. Mary and St. Jerome parishes gathered to hear Bishop Walter A. Hurley speak about Fr. Johnson Jeyabal Pappusamy who had been their priest for the past four months until he resigned last Wednesday.
The Grand Rapids diocese released a statement earlier Monday indicating Pappusamy had been accused of “inappropriate conduct in public with an adult male.”
As yet no criminal charges have been brought and the incident continues under investigation by the Michigan State Police.
The diocese, however, was more quick to take action.
“In criminal judgment somebody must be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Hurley reminded the gathered parishioners. “In the church our standard for ministerial inappropriateness is not that strong.
“Let’s be clear about something here. What Fr. Johnson has done makes him unsuited for ministry in the diocese. That’s my judgment.
“Now I am not going to tell you chapter and verse of every detail, but what Fr. Johnson told me was enough to say he cannot function as a priest in this diocese.”
When asked by a parish member to elaborate on the type of misconduct involved, Hurley responded, “It is misconduct with sexual overtones. Beyond that, I do not know. I wasn’t there, but it did have those overtones.”
As Hurley addressed the St. Jerome and St. Mary parishioners, the word “transparent” was used repeatedly.
“We have learned,” said the bishop, “that the best course of action is to be honest with each other — let people know what has taken place as best we can and then let it fall wherever it may in that regard.
“The whole notion of transparency has become much more a part of our church than it was before. When we were dealing with situations of the abuse of young people the church was accused of not being very transparent and not being very open and accepted a great deal of criticism, some of which was fair and some of which was not fair.”
No children involved
Hurley was quick to point out that the inappropriate conduct in this situation in no way involved children.
“The situation was with an adult. There is a great deal of concern in the parish about the children. There was no issue here involving children.
“The situation involved a man and not a woman. Oftentimes women are victims of abusive behavior on the part of men. That was not the case here.”
Having taken steps to remove Pappusamy from his work with the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Bishop Hurley went on to describe a situation now almost entirely out of his control.
“The decisions are out of my hands. They lie with the county prosecutor as to what charges will formally be brought and with Fr. Johnson’s religious superior as to his future as a priest.”
Pappusamy is a priest of the Missionary Society of St. Francis.
“In a sense,” explains Hurley, “he was like a contracted employee of the diocese. That’s not the right theological term, but it is easy to understand. That’s the relationship to the Diocese of Grand Rapids. Once he no longer has an assignment here he is no longer accountable to me but is accountable to his religious superior.”
Q&A
The questions that followed revealed two parishes deeply affectionate toward their former pastor and intensely concerned for his welfare.
Does father have legal council?
“Yes. That is a very critical thing because we all need to have our rights protected.”
Could the situation have involved a problem with culture?
“I can tell you this, this is not a problem with culture. That was our first thought — is there the possibility of some profiling here? But as we got the information we realized that culture did not play a role.”
Is there a possibility that this did not occur?
“No, that is not a possibility. This did happen. Something happened that should not have happened.”
Depending on the criminal outcome, could Fr. Johnson’s status as a priest in the diocese change?
“No. When we are talking about criminal behavior we are talking about one set of standards. What’s appropriate for clergymen or priests is a different set and we have made our judgment.”
For many in attendance at Monday’s meeting, the most moving moment seemed to come as a parishioner asked Bishop Hurley to relay a message to Fr. Johnson.
Praying for Fr. Johnson Jeyabal Pappusamy
“We all have a fondness for Fr. Johnson and we respected his leadership. I don’t know if you are in a position to give him a message, but I think that I probably speak for more than myself here if you would just share that we have concern for him and that we are all praying for him.”“I will. I will,” replied the bishop.
Though repeatedly making clear that the “inappropriate conduct” on the part of Fr. Johnson had nothing to do with the abuse of minors, Bishop Hurley ended Monday’s meeting by recalling his own appointment in 1987 by Cardinal Szoka, then Archbishop of Detroit, to investigate clergy abuse of children.
“Quite frankly, I could not believe that any priest would ever do that. It was just beyond the realm of my thinking. And yet the reality is that some have engaged in inappropriate behavior and it has done great harm to the church.
“It is hard for us sometimes to accept the fact that priests are human and sinful people as we all are.
“We are human beings and sin is a reality in our lives. There is no screening process that will screen out the reality of sin in the world.
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(Source: CBRCN)