Pioneer Press has more on the seminarian-crash story, in its Mundelein Review. It raises the question whether charges would be filed against the pizzeria, Emil’s, on Route 176 in Mundelein, for over-serving the driver. More:
Neither of the deceased were wearing seat belts. Both were outside the car by the time help arrived, but it is unclear to what degree, if any, the young men had been moved.
Rowlands did not present himself as a police officer; the impersonating charge is based on the badges that were found.
All calls by Pioneer Press to St. Mary's were referred to the Chicago Archdiocese.
Rowlands is due back in court in Waukegan on Oct. 4, Spaulding on Oct. 19.
Canary talks
That’s Rev. John Canary, rector of St. Mary of the Lake Sem-Mundelein, hitherto silent on the drunk-driving wee-hours twice-fatal car crash last Thursday. He said seminary authorities will “review policies” and make changes about drinking and off-campus activities.
Chi Trib’s Manya A. Brachear and Margaret Ramirez, both semi-regulars on religion coverage, raised the question of lowered admission standards because of candidate-shortage. "I don't know that's the fact of the matter here at all. Everyone in seminary training is aware of this and trying to resist it,” Rev. Don Senior, president of Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park, told them. Canary said, "The requirements are much more extensive and higher than they've ever been."
So how did Rowlands the car owner with gun, ammo, and badges in its glove compartment get in with his felony indictments and misdemeanor plea back in Columbus? Because bishops have such a “strong sense of brotherhood,” and therefore trust each other and won’t “challenge” a judgment, said Dean Hoge of Catholic U., a church sociologist and an old hand in these matters. (Chi authorities say they did not know about it. Brotherhood, yes but also politics?)
As for Columbus, authorities did the religious thing, according to Rev. Robert Silva, Chicago-based full-time president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils, a sort of trade or professional association. As “religious people” they
have a great deal of faith in the ability of grace to convert the human heart. If they sin, they sin on the side of mercy and forgiveness and possibility. If this man had an honest conversion, his heart now is committed and clean, then there's nothing standing in the way."
But nothing like this has been applied to priests found guilty of sexual abuse, even if when it’s been a one-timer from years back. The argument is that people have to be protected from such people.
Silva still would like to know what the four seminarians were doing at a bar so late. There’s no curfew, said Canary, but they are expected to be back by 11 p.m. All of them must attend a two-day orientation seminar on alcohol use, he added.
Facing time
Robert Spaulding, the 27–year-old driver of the seminary-grounds crashed car, has been charged.
"He's now looking at a special Class 2 aggravated DUI, which is punishable by 6 to 28 years in the Department of Corrections," said Suzanne Willett of the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.
Cardinal Francis George, who is “very upset,” went to the seminary Monday night, NBC5’s Mary Ann Ahern reported. The seminary flag is flying at half-staff.
Columbus diocesan officials knew about Mark Rowlands’ indictment and guilty plea.
Robin Miller, a spokeswoman for the Columbus diocese, said Rowlands told officials there about his guilty plea before beginning his studies at St. Mary's. Miller said the charges were "not of a real concern" to the diocese.
"Based on our knowledge of the situation and communication with him, we were satisfied," Miller said.
This seems naive.
[Fr.] Belauskas [seminary’s vice rector and spokesman in lieu of its rector, Fr. Canary] said the seminary would have appreciated knowing about Rowlands' past legal troubles.
"It would certainly be something to monitor," Belauskas said.
Yes.
Emil's Pizza & Sports Bar in Mundelein was the scene of the driver’s drinking. “Restaurant,” as the archdiocese’s Colleen Dolan and others put it?
The two have been “suspended” as St. Mary of Lake students, their future in the clergy “uncertain,” says Trib.
Seminarian put on leave
Update from Catholic News Service: Mark Rowlands has been "placed on a leave of absence to attend to health and legal issues arising from the accident," his (Columbus) diocese said today. The bishop, Frederick F. Campbell, and seminary officials "will confer to consider what action they will take on the matter" after the police investigation is completed, the diocese added.
Cath News Service (CNS) also reports the Chi Trib reporting of Rowlands’ indictment, etc. back in Ohio. Its whole account seems quite thorough.
More bad, bad news of Mundelein sem crash
Chi Trib has “Seminarian had Ohio rap sheet. Man in fatal crash lost sheriff's job” in which the 36–year-old from Columbus turns out “a former Ohio sheriff's captain who resigned in 2001 following charges stemming from a corruption probe.”
During the crash investigation, Ohio and local officials revealed that [Mark] Rowlands was indicted in February 2000 on felony charges of bribery, perjury and failing to file a state income-tax return. The charges stemmed from an investigation into audits of the Fairfield County sheriff's office, said Suzanne Schmidt, a special prosecutor who handled the case. The audits revealed that the sheriff's office misspent about $300,000 in public money from 1994 to 1999, she said.
In exchange for dropping the felony charges, Rowlands pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of obstructing official business, Schmidt said. He was fined $400 plus court costs.
He hasn’t worked for the sheriff’s office for four years. His car had flashing red and blue undercover police lights. One of the badges found in it was from the Scioto County sheriff's office in south-central Ohio, where he had worked. The other was from the Fairfield County sheriff's office, where he worked from 1996 to 2001.
Scheduled for ordination in 2007, he would have begun theology at Mundelein two years ago. Nothing had turned up when Chicago had done a criminal background check, said Rev. Gus Belauskas, St. Mary's vice rector. Rev. John Canary, the rector, was not talking. The Chicago archdiocese’s director of communications, Colleen Dolan, “speculated that the screening process used by the archdiocese relies on a national database that may not always pick up crimes committed in smaller towns.”
Dolan had earlier given the deer-avoidance explanation for the crash, but cops had smelled alcohol, and Robert Spaulding the driver’s blood-alcohol level was “double the legal limit,” Suzanne Willett, chief of the traffic division for the Lake County state's attorney's office, told the Trib.
Not in the hard copy Trib was this:
Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., said the church does not specifically call for criminal background checks for candidates to the priesthood but calls for adequate screening and evaluation techniques. State laws vary with regard to such checks, he said.
Maniscalco said that in some cases, men with prior criminal backgrounds might be admitted into seminary.
"The church does believe in redemption, so it is possible," he said. "Assuming the man was, in fact, guilty, considerations would be the nature of the crime, the amount of time passed since its commission and whether the man had paid his debt to society. I am sure some grave crimes would probably exclude a man altogether."
When asked if a drunken-driving incident would be grounds for dismissal from the seminary, Maniscalco said, "It would have been when I was a seminarian 40 years ago."
At http://www.seekholiness.com/html/profile/profile_bio14.htm, where he profiled himself, Rowlands said nothing about the Ohio indictment and guilty plea, needless to say.
Vatican man in Atlanta
What makes a school Catholic, per Vatican’s man for Catholic Education — title is Secretary of the Congregation for Cath Ed, name is Archbishop J. Michael Miller, late of U. of St. Thomas in Houston, where he was president.
Has to be:
1. "Inspired by a supernatural vision." Schools are about preparing students for "heavenly citizenship."
2. "Founded on a Christian anthropology." Education is the "perfection of children as images of God."
3. "Animated by communion and community." Schools should have the collaboration, interaction, and environment that "safe-guards the priority of the person."
4. "Imbued with the Catholic worldview across the curriculum," Catholic education should "transform the way we see reality."
5. "A place where committed Catholics teach." Catholic teachers should themselves be "witnesses for Christ."
Sounds great, but what does it mean? Look to Miller’s U. of St. Thomas, which he left 16 months ago for Rome, says Deal Hudson, who heard him give a talk and interviewed him in Atlanta. The benchmarks “apply mainly to K through 12 education,” says Hudson, who sends email stories from Washington-based Morley Institute for Church & Culture. But they are “easily be adapted to college and university education by the addition of a criterion on excellence in scholarship,” says Miller, who is quoted, oddly, as saying,
Good Catholic schools grow from the "bottom up, not from the top down" . . . . Wherever you find a good Catholic school you will find leaders behind it who have a "genuine Catholic vision of education."
Is it only on the Catholic scene where you can speak of “bottom up” development and “leaders” in the same breath? Miller means local leadership, I presume, as opposed to Roman. It’s relative.
As for U. of St. Thomas, its theology program is described in Pope John Paul II terms, citing theology’s role in “the synthesis of knowledge” and in the “dialogue between faith and reason.” As part of a liberal arts education, it helps the university community to decide how various disciplines fit together in “the context of the human person and the world that is enlightened by the Gospel.” Thus it preserves “the sense of the transcendence of the human person over the world and of God over the human person.” – (John Paul II, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, 16, 19).
In other words, “the human person” comes first, right after God.
Let is be observed that this “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” (“From the heart of the church”) by John Paul II has been highly controverted by Catholic campus leaders who see in it an attack on learning itself, of which more later.
Seminary crasher was deputy sheriff?
The sheriff deputy badges that got seminarian Mark Rowlands charged with impersonating a police officer are explained in part in this blurb he posted on the “Seek Holiness” web site:
I am 1987 graduate of Fisher Catholic High School in Lancaster [Ohio]. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in English from St. Meinrad Seminary [Indiana] in 1991. After college, I decided to enter the workforce, and for 11 years worked as a sheriff’s deputy as well as a management consultant. I am the youngest of 5 children and have many nieces, nephew’s [sic] and a great niece that I love to spend time with. My love is cars, old and new. I also enjoy golf and cigars. My greatest gift from God, is the love he has given me to share with my family and friends. My greatest challenge is humility and conversion to the life of Jesus Christ.
But when Mundelein police called Ohio police, they said Rowlands “does not work for either department, and they didn't know why he would have the badges," according to Sgt. Mark Parrish.
One of the deceased passengers, Matty Molnar, pictures himself as a good-time charley on his own blog site, full of pictures of him travelling the world — Mexico and the Ukraine — and enjoying himself with “wonderful seminarians” and others.
Churchgoing in two towns
Yesterday afternoon in Crystal Lake, the Congregationalist minister spoke Christian language unblinkingly, as about “letting Christ into your lives” said to the couple whom he pronounced husband and wife “in the name of the Father and the Son and of Holy Spirit.” This from a member of the United Church of Christ (from merger with Evangelical United Brethren many years back), which Time Mag’s (and now AP’s) Richard Ostling classed as post-Christian also many years back, if not in those words.
This morning in Oak Park, the priest finished his words of wisdom before I arrived on the scene, alas, but the Scripture of the day — 25th Sunday in ordinary time, A-sequence — had its own. My ways are not your ways, said Isaiah 55. Thoughts, rather, in my translation, “and my thoughts [are] above your thoughts.” I’ll buy that, and it’s good to keep in mind when trouble comes.
And Paul in Philippians 1 can’t decide whether it’s better to die now and go to heaven or stay a while doing the Lord’s work. Such a conundrum we should all have.
And Jesus in Matthew 20 tells his story of the estate owner who paid late hires as much as early ones. “I am free to do as I please with my money, am I not?” the owner asks. “Or are you envious . . . ?” That’s a defense of private property on the one hand, and a critique of (insufficiently discussed) envy on the other.
Main point of all three readings seems to be we should not try to run too many things. It’s a losing game, or business. And we should stay reminded that it’s not our universe but Someone Else’s.
Seminarian crash again
The St. Mary of the Lake-Mundelein seminarian charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI was freed on $50G bail Saturday. Prosecutors had asked $500G. He is to appear Tuesday at the court house in Waukegan.
The four were on their way back from “having dinner at a restaurant,” spokeswoman Colleen Dolan of the Archdiocese of Chicago told AP (not at a bar, as “authorities” told Chi Trib). The driver “had lost control when he swerved to avoid hitting a deer,” she said. "This seems to have been more of a freak accident.”
Nothing in this story as it ran in the Casper, Wyoming Star Tribune — the driver is from Wyoming — about driving drunk, as police told Chi Trib, just “driving under the influence” as the charge against him. Nor anything yet from seminary officials, who remain unreachable, the archdiocese having given public statement over to a professional. Indeed, Dolan’s comments will fit in seamlessly with any legal defense to be mounted, including in a civil suit.
Another dead after SML crash
A second seminarian died after the 1:42 a.m. crash on St. Mary of the Lake-Mundelein grounds Thursday. The driver was charged with reckless homicide & DUI; the other survivor, a passenger and the car’s owner, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and false impersonation of a police officer because of handgun, ammo, and sheriff deputy badges found in glove compartment. They had been at a Mundelein bar. None is of the Chicago archdiocese.
More on investigation of seminaries
The head of a national priests’ group objects to the focus on homosexuality:
"We need not to focus on specific homosexuality, but we need to focus on the integration of our own human sexuality and the ability to live a deeply committed virginal life that is fully and wholly sexual,"
said Rev. Robert Silva, of the National Federation of Priests Councils. Only one of six must-answer questions asked of seminarians and faculty deals with homosexuality, Sun-Times’s Cathleen Falsani points out. But it’s certainly the attention-grabber.
An unidentified gay priest mounts a standard defense of gay priests, that the problem is not gaiety in this sense but immaturity. Fr. Silva’s comments reflect this, with their “integration” of sexuality and the goal of living as virgin while remaining “fully and wholly sexual,” which seems highly technical and as such is not clear to most people, to say the least.
The anonymous gay priest speaks of a “witch hunt . . . funny if it weren’t so sad,” and suggests that homosexuality is widespread at all clerical levels. “Why stop at seminaries?” he asks. Why not ask cardinals and all beneath them in church pecking order and force gays out, leaving “many empty offices, many empty parishes and many empty sees”? In this he seems to endorse the idea floated by former seminary rector and author Rev. Donald B. Cozzens, who said, “the priesthood is or is becoming a gay profession.”
St. Mary of the Lake crash, investigation
It’s grief counseling for St. Mary of the Lake seminarians now in the wake of the death of one of them and serious to moderate injuries of three others whose car smashed into a tree on seminary grounds in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Police smelled alcohol and say it was a factor in the accident.
Meanwhile, the seminary, U.S.’s largest with students from around the country, can expect a visit from Vatican-appointed interrogators or interviewers seeking to unearth evidence of "evidence of homosexuality" and other deviations from church norms. The investigators are to ask among other things whether teachers "watch out for signs of particular friendships,” New York Times reports. Each of the 229 U.S. seminaries will be visited.
