(posted by Frenchie)
From the look of things, this story still has some legs.
After articles here, but also on Church Militant, many questions have been raised, most of them without good answers. This weekend Kandit News followed up with an article of their own, which brought more questions, following less than candid answers from the Chancery through their spokesman.
Lets review that issue first. Following some pointed questions by Troy Torres, himself a victim of the Apuron administration, Mr Diaz (a holdout of the Apuron era, like most permanent staff at the Chancery), answered the following:
*"The Archdiocese has viewed the post on social media regarding the ministry of Fr Ron Richards in the Archdiocese of Detroit, including his personal message to the congregation of his parish. That's the extent of what we know"
*'Fr Ron formerly served with us temporary as Episcopal Vicar, before leaving us on May 31 2022 and returning to the Archdiocese of Detroit, a year and a half ago"
*"He served the Church faithfully, properly and effectively during his time with us. We care for his well being, and offer prayers for him"
These statements, by themselves and taken without their context, could be innocent enough, yet they demonstrate, that the "deep Church" within the Chancery has learned nothing at all over the last 10 years, and continues to act as if the faithful are gullible and idiotic. It certainly is not a good signal coming from the Episcopal Administrator, that no lessons have been learned from the huge turmoil we, as an Archdiocese went through. This is a huge let down.
After Archbishop Byrnes, enacted policies to recognize abuse, and deter it in the future, key personnel at the Chancery and within the Catholic School System, had to attend special training on a yearly basis, to keep their ability to work.(Is this still the case?) The Archdiocese sent blanket statements of apologies to the known and unknown victims, and their families, and publicly directed prayers for their well being. Was this all a scam?
Any such healing process can only be based on a true sense of atonement on one side, and a will to accept said atonement along true forgiveness, on the other side. Both of these can only be born from trust. Was trust betrayed in this case by the same team of administrators that have made their whole career on top of the hill, by pushing known lies and half truth? Lets look at these statements.
According to Tony Diaz Ron Richards served faithfully, properly and effectively. Looking on how the trial and the pretrial for the bankruptcy was handled , one could disagree strongly about the effectiveness. When you dig further, and watch how he held some appointments, accelerated others and managed the regional vicariates, his notion of what is proper can also be strongly challenged as well. As for the faithful part, I have called this one out on several occasions, which can be found in other articles referred here later.
Also stated by Tony Diaz is that Richards served as temporary Apostolic Administrator. That one is a hard one to swallow when you have followed the Byrnes Era. It was because of the fact that Richards had accumulated the powers of Vicar General, Apostolic Vicar (2 titles that cannot be held by one person), and Chancellor that I was compelled to denounced it on this blog.
Actually to understand the problem facing the Archdiocese at the time you have to go back to the resignation of the Vicar General, in June of 2021 Fr Jeff San Nicolas who had held the position during the thick of the pandemic, and held the helm of the ship, at the great chagrin of Fr Ron and Fr Mike who had grown close to one another due their common hunger of power. I made a series of article that rock the boat considerably at the time. You can find the article called " Update about Fr Jeff San Nicolas" June 13 which followed the one done the day before called "Is this latest move legal? Sure does not look like it" which you can find Here and Here
What happened after the resignation of Fr Jeff, was the consolidation of all powers in the hand of Ron Richards.Junglewatch was the only voice in the desert, which raised the alarm about that situation. This never the less, created enough unease at the chancery, that they took several moves to make it look more palatable during the month of September (3 months later). At the time, my little finger told me that the Nuncio had actually asked for clarification. During that 3 months gap, we had to AGAIN shake the coconut tree with the scandal of the attempted coup against the principal of Fr Duenas Memorial School. Ron Richards was right in the thick of it, along with the latest interloper Josephine Villanueva.
If you have time to dig, you can look at "confusion or clarity" July7 2021, "A premiere for Guam? or is it another game of Musical Chair" Sept.16 2021. " Of the consequences of a power vacuum" Sept 28 2021.
Now that the context was re-established, the statement by Mr Diaz that Ron Richards served as temporary Episcopal vicar, looks and sounds laughable at best. If I could give a recommendation to Fr Concovar, it would be, don't let the professional cover-up artists at the Chancery, pull the wool over you eyes. You are running the risk of being their first victim.
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