An open letter to the U.S. head of the Marianists:

6/3/14 

Dear Fr. Solma

We look forward to the arrival of Fr. Charles H. Miller back in the US.

You haven't told anyone that you're insisting that Fr. Miller return here. But we presume you've doing that because last week a top Vatican official (Archbishop Silvano Tomasi) said the days of Catholic officials moving predator priests are "in the past."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/06/uk-pope-abuse-idUKKBN0DM1EE20140506

Fr. Miller, as you know, is accused of molesting a St. Louis teenager (according to BishopAccountability.org). Marianist officials “found a claim that he sexually abused a teen in 1980 to be credible” (according to the San Antonio Express News).

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2009/01_02/2009_02_19_Levy_PriestWas.htm

Still, Fr. Miller was sent to work at a Marianist facility in Rome in 2007 (five years after U.S. Catholic officials pledged “zero tolerance” and “one strike and you're out” regarding clergy sex offenders).

Fr. Miller, as best we can tell, is still in Rome today, living and working around unsuspecting families in the literal and figurative center of Catholicism, where millions of devout Catholics visit every year, none of whom know about Fr. Miller.  

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/assign/Miller_Charles_H_SM.htm

At least back in St. Louis, he'll potentially be around less vulnerable families. He'll be near people who will hopefully recall that he is a credibly accused abuser.

You, along with so many Catholic officials, are fond of pledging to be “open and transparent” in clergy sex cases. So we look forward to your announcement that you have brought Fr. Miller back to the US and have put him in a remote secure independent treatment centers where he'll be kept far away from innocent kids and vulnerable adults.

- David Clohessy


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