Documents Related to St. Peter Parish, the Rockford Diocese, and the Church Universal.
The Office of Child and Youth Protection (OCYP) has developed, since it's inception by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Dallas in 2002, may documents that relate to responding to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and prevention of such abuse in the future.
Unfortunately, these materials are not easily accessible and many Catholics are unaware of their existence. Even more tragic is the fact that the actions of many bishops throughout the country indicate they do not take these documents seriously and may provide them only as a smoke screen so the public will believe they are finally addressing the clergy abuse crisis with compassion and sincerity when the reality proves otherwise.
Since each bishop answers only to the pope, there is no real accountability when bishops refuse to comply with their own policies. Even the 'audit' process is nothing more than a self-evaluation done on the honor system. Unfortunately, and quite ironically, there is not a whole lot of honor or honesty in bishopdom these days.
This section of the web site includes links to many documents of the OCYP. Other documents found in this section include articles, letters, and other materials that relate to, not only clergy sexual abuse, but also the expected conduct of all members of the church and the role of the laity. Some newspaper articles listed in the 'Headlines' section as well as letters to editors refer to some of the documents in this section.
The most important of all the documents is the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the USCCB in 2002. Every Catholic should be aware of this document but it seems little effort has been made to put it into the hands of the laity, at least in the Rockford Diocese. The OCYP, which was created by the Charter, has developed materials- posters, prayer cards, bulletin inserts, and brochures - with the title "Promise to Protect, Pledge to Heal". Unfortunately, these materials are of no use if the majority of parishioners do not even know about them.
Other Documents of the USCCB/OCYP:
The Rockford Diocese Report on Clergy Abuse
As stipulated by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, an audit is to be performed on each diocese in regards to how the diocese handles allegations of clergy abuse and what actions are being taken to prevent abuses by clergy or others. The Gavin Group was hired to perform these audits. The Rockford Diocese has passed the audits performed in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
Bishop Doran mailed to each Catholic household in the Rockford Diocese a Report on the History of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests in the Diocese of Rockford. This report claims to outline "instances of allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the Catholic Diocese of Rockford from 1950 to 2002 inclusive". The report lists allegations "that were found to be without merit", "that were found to be substantiated and proved", "that remain unsubstantiated and, to this point, unproven". It then states, "All of the allegations that remain unsubstantiated and unproven were made against clergymen who are now deceased".
This report came out in January 2004, four months before the guilty plea of Fr. Campobello. During this time, the Rockford Diocese was arguing in court why it should not have to follow a court order to release its documents related to the Campobello case. Did the diocese, at this time, consider the Campobello allegations "substantiated and proved", even when they fought in court against cooperating with the state's request? Or did they not even bother to include the allegations against Campobello in the report? They certainly would not have fallen in the "unsubstantiated and unproven" category and Campobello is certainly not deceased.
Other Documents Concerning the Rockford Diocese
A letter from Bishop Doran to the people of the Rockford Diocese
Rockford Diocese Code of Conduct Policy
Rockford Diocese Sexual Misconduct Policy
Rockford Diocese Volunteer Acknowlegement Form
Article written by Vicar for Clergy Msgr. Eric Barr on withholding Campobello files
The Ruling of the 2nd District Appellate Court
Another important document is the ruling of the 2nd District Appellate Court in response to the Rockford Diocese's appeal to keep the documentation it has on Campobello, including the notes of the investigation they did - in place of calling the civil authorities - after receiving word of the allegation against Campobello.
The diocese used many arguments for not following a court order to release those documents to the court which included protecting Campobello's privacy by not releasing his medical records, the Constitutional separation of church and state, sacramental privilege and claiming the documents were, after Campobello's guilty plea, irrelevant.
In July 2004, Monsignor Jarmoluk walked up to the pulpit at the end of each weekend Mass, whether he celebrated the Mass or not, and waved a 12-page letter in the air. He referred to this letter as a "due diligence report" and explained that it was written by his own personal attorney, paid for out of his own pocket, so he said.
He stated to everyone sitting at Mass that his attorney, Canice Timothy Rice, Jr. had done an investigation and declared St. Peter school and church to be safe for children. He also claimed that his attorney, from the investigation he had done, cleared Monsignor Jarmoluk of any wrongdoing in the Campobello cases. He explained that new locks were being put on the doors of the school and there were going to be background checks on all of the teachers. He encouraged all parishioners to pick up a free copy of his attorney's report outside the rectory after Mass, handed out by deaconate candidate Mike Sullivan and his wife.
This "due diligence report" is actually a letter, written by Canice Timothy Rice, Jr. and addressed to the "Chair, Pastoral Council, Mr. Ramon L. Benedetto". Before releasing the letter to the parish, the members of the pastoral council were given the letter, probably with the hopes they would give their seal of approval and endorsement. That did not happen.
Most of the pastoral council members, aware that the letter was filled with lies, inaccuracies, and threats of filing lawsuits against several parishioners, wanted nothing to do with it, thus their names were not on the letter. The pastoral council, minus Ray Benedetto, tried to bring intervention to the parish by driving up to Rockford and meeting with Bishop Doran. The bishop made promises to the council that he never kept.
The council later met with Monsignor Jarmoluk and encouraged him to face the parish, acknowledge his mistakes and apologize for them. Jarmoluk assured them that would never happen. That was the last time he met with them and they are no longer a pastoral council. In fact, St. Peter parish has been without any kind of parish or pastoral council since 2004.
Mandated Reporting
On August 1, 2004, the Kane County Chronicle published a rebuttal to the 'due diligence report, written by a Geneva attorney with ties to the parish. The same Geneva attorney, John O'Halloran, had also prepared, in response to Rice's 'due diligence report' a document on mandated reporting, including a chronology of events at St. Peter as it relates to the Illinois law on mandated reporting. A Manual for Mandated Reporters is provided by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The Tri-Cities and Kaneland Daily Herald published on August 16, 2004, a front-page article on mandated reporting, specifically referring to the abuse that occurred at St. Peter.
Illinois State Policy on Mandated Reporting
Frequently Asked Questions on Mandated Reporting
A Manual for Illinois Mandated Reporters
St. Peter Parish
In a letter dated November 1, 2003, and signed by pastor Jarmoluk and the chair of the parish finance council, Al Krause, residents of each parish household were informed that the parish was having financial problems. "Our Parish has grown significantly over the past five years, as we anticipated, however, the corresponding projected growth in collections has not only fallen woefully short, but has taken a step backward as we have seen collections actually decrease in the past few years" [emphasis added]. The annual parish financial report echoes the same message, though each year the pleas for more money seem to get more desperate as the financial picture of the parish has not improved, yet worsened.
The reasons given for such financial difficulties in a community that is not exactly depressed are many. The parish has blamed low weekly collections on bad weather, summer vacations, a troubled economy, donors' uncertainty, and all of the factories closing. Though one financial letter claimed that no money from the weekend collections went toward the defense for Mark Campobello, the parish has never acknowledged that the "substantial decrease" in collections could have anything to do with the poor leadership of the parish administration.
When the allegations first came out against Campobello, a parishioner suggested to the pastor that the parish offer some sort of outreach to the girl who was (then-allegedly) molested. The pastor ignored this offer and the parish never did provide members with any opportunity to reach out to either of the girls, one of whom was a parishioner. There was, however, a petition in the parish lobby in support of Jarmoluk, the pastor. As people entered the church building for Mass all throughout the weekend in February 2004, they were greeted at the door and asked to sign the petition which defended Jarmoluk's recent attack against a parishioner from the pulpit.
During Jarmoluk's altar rant, he claimed a letter printed in the Daily Herald was "full of falsehoods" and tried to counter the assertion in the letter that collections at the parish had decreased. In doing so, Jarmoluk assured parishioners that collections were not down at the parish but that they simply were not increasing at the rate the finance council had anticipated. Jarmoluk's argument was in direct contradiction to the letter he signed his name on dated, November 1, 2003 which clearly stated, "Reflecting the national trend, our past fiscal year which ended June 30, 2003 was the first time we experienced a decline in collections which put a significant strain on all areas of our parish", and "What was not seen, however, was the substantial decrease in Sunday collections" [emphases added]. Jarmoluk's error was pointed out shortly after his one-sided 'dialogue' during Mass and a demand was made that he apologize to the "letter-writer" he accused of being a sinner and a liar when he, if fact, was the one claiming 'falsehoods'. True to his character, Jarmoluk refused to offer an apology or even to admit he was in error.
Click here for a complete list of all of the documents on this site. (Testimonies and commentaries can be found in the Viewpoints section of the site.)