Render Unto Rome_ The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church - Jason Berry [122]
After the Plain Dealer coverage, several journalists at the diocese’s Catholic Universe-Bulletin felt they should write about the church abuse cases. Pilla, as bishop, was the publisher; the editorial staff were members of the AFL-CIO-affiliated Cleveland Newspaper Guild (as were Plain Dealer journalists). Lou Pumphrey, a Vietnam veteran who had worked at the Universe-Bulletin since 1977, was among the four staffers summoned to a 1988 meeting with Pilla, Quinn, and Father Michael Dimengo, who oversaw the paper. According to Pumphrey, “It was an interrogation. Pilla was very calm, like Al Pacino in The Godfather—no threats, just clear the air. I said we as journalists should be autonomous and have the interests of people in the pews uppermost. Pilla said, ‘Well, we are going to have to change that.’ Quinn was crimson. He said that if he were in Pilla’s shoes he wouldn’t be so diplomatic.” Pilla overruled the project. The journalists withdrew their bylines from one issue as a protest. Despite the union security, the diocese managed to fire them on one hour’s notice.28 The Universe-Bulletin handled the printing of the Youngstown and Toledo diocesan papers. The IRS got wind of disputes among the dioceses and did an audit.
Quinn had a circle of friends, couples he had known for years, and a longtime female secretary who were deeply loyal to him. But sociable Jimmy Quinn could be one tough customer. In a 1990 speech to the Midwest Canon Law Society (an audiotape of which landed in my mailbox), Bishop Quinn declared that personnel files under subpoena
cannot be tampered with, destroyed, removed. That constitutes obstruction of justice and contempt of court. Prior, however, thought and study ought to be given if you think it’s going to be necessary. If there’s something you really don’t want people to see, you might send it to the Apostolic Delegate (Vatican ambassador) because they have immunity.29
In the 1985 report Doyle had bluntly warned against such a move, fearing the Vatican would lose diplomatic immunity if the nunciature became a safe house for incriminating files. Quinn’s cynicism was alpine.
As victims contacted the diocese, Charlie Feliciano went home at night, torn by a horror show of priests he had never imagined. As he told me in 2009, “I wanted to fashion a remedy for victims to get compensation. I’d say, ‘You go out and find a lawyer. Here’s what I’m offering.’ ” Feliciano reported to Father Wright, the financial and legal secretary. Coming from a wealthy local family, Wright had spent part of his childhood in Rhode Island. He was a nephew and namesake of the late Cardinal John Wright, who had been prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, and who, in the 1950s, as a Boston auxiliary bishop, had dined at the Borré household in Rome. “Wright told me, ‘Quinn thinks you’re being too generous with the victims,’ ” says Feliciano. “Quinn began to handle settlements.”
Gary Berthiaume, in 1988, quietly moved to the Joliet, Illinois, diocese, where he was welcomed by an avuncular friend, Bishop Joseph Imesch.30
In 1990 a subdued Pilla told his staff that the Vatican had contacted the Cleveland diocese to host World Youth Day with Pope John Paul II in the summer of 1993. From Washington, the bishops’ conference sent people for a briefing. “We were assured of good cooperation from county leaders, law enforcement, and the governor’s office,” explains a high-level person involved in the decision. “It would have cost the diocese a few hundred thousand dollars, and involved about 100,000 youth. Many would stay at college dorms, others in private homes. But internally, there was a serious concern about any sexual abuse to a young person … Pilla did not seem eager to have it.”
Most bishops would seize the chance to host the Holy Father. By giving the decision to his staff, Pilla sent a message; the staff voted the idea down. World Youth