From VirtueOnline

PRIEST WHO MADE SEXUAL ABUSE CHARGE IS INHIBITED BY CENTRAL NY BISHOP
Diocese is in chaos and starved for money, say reports

By David W. Virtue
http://www.virtueonline.org

SYRACUSE, NY (10/10/2005)--The Bishop of Central New York, Gladstone "Skip" Adams III has inhibited Fr. David Bollinger, priest for 20 years at St. Paul's, Owego, NY for supposed financial irregularities allegedly in order to shut the priest up after he had a dispute with the bishop at last year's diocesan convention following allegations of a sex abuse scandal, which the priest says Adams is trying to cover up.

Bollinger named Fr. Ralph Johnson as the unmarried priest for his alleged pedophile activities at St. Paul's parish in the 1970s and says that the inhibition, recently extended for a second term of three months, was also because of the cover-up of the Diocesan Controller's invasion of his private savings account.

"I believe I have been inhibited as a punishment for trying to seek the truth about Johnson's alleged pedophile activities when I received an affidavit from one of 16 victims of my parish charging the former parish priest with sexual abuse."

Bollinger sent the signed complaint to the bishop and pastoral response team. As a result of doing this, and because he blew the whistle on the former parish priest, the bishop turned on Bollinger and inhibited him and then accused him of misusing his Discretionary Fund, he says.

VirtueOnline contacted Fr. Johnson, now retired and living in Gibson, PA and asked him the following questions:

VIRTUEONLINE: "Fr. Johnson you have been identified as the priest at St. Paul's in Owego, NY who sexually abused some 16 boys in the 70s. Is that true?"

JOHNSON: "Not that I know of."

VIRTUEONLINE: A woman has stepped forward with evidence that you had a joint bank account with her son to cover up your sexual behavior? Is that true?

JOHNSON: "No way".

VIRTUEONLINE: "Fr. Bollinger, the current priest at the parish alleges that he has been inhibited because he exposed information about you to Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams? Why would the bishop go after him and not you?"

JOHNSON: "I don't know anything about this. Good luck with this." Johnson then hung up.

VirtueOnline then wrote and e-mailed Bishop Adams and asked him the following questions:

Dear Bishop Adams,

It has come to my attention that you have inhibited the Rev. David Bollinger rector of St. Paul's in Owego, NY.

I would like your answers to the following questions.

1. Fr. Bollinger's central charge is that he had received an affidavit from one of 16 victims of his parish charging the Rev. Ralph Johnson, a former parish priest with sexual abuse. Bollinger sent the signed complaint to you and a pastoral response team. As a result of doing this, and because he blew the whistle on the former parish priest you have turned on Bollinger and claims you have inhibited him and then accused him of misusing his discretionary Fund. Is this true?

2. You have demanded that Fr. Bollinger receive psychiatric care. Why? What is the basis for this that necessitates such action?

3. You have said that Fr. Bollinger had criminally misused his Discretionary Fund. What is the basis for that charge?

4. Fr. Bollinger believes these are manufactured charges because he pressed you to fulfill your responsibilities to investigate the sexual misconduct issues in his parish and to be honest about what occurred between him and the diocesan controller? Is this true?

5. Fr. Bollinger charged that you manufactured a sham audit to discredit him and his parish? True or false?

Adams did not respond to a phone call and an e-mail for comment from VirtueOnline.

PRIOR to his being inhibited Bollinger was the Dean of the Ithaca-Courtland District for 12 years. He is listed in the 2003 Diocesan Journal as the Dean of this District. He also sits on the ecclesiastical court of the diocese. His father the Rev. Charles Bollinger was a priest for over 40 years in Seneca Falls, NY.

Kelly Bollinger is the former Mayor of Owego. She is presently the Executive Director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center in Owego and they have three daughters aged 24, 21 and 18.

VIRTUEONLINE INTERVIEWED the Rev. David Bollinger, 51, rector, St. Paul's Church in Owego, N.Y. and asked him a series of questions about his situation with the bishop.

VIRTUEONLINE: Fr. Bollinger you have been inhibited by your bishop Skip Adams not once, but extended for a second time. Why?

BOLLINGER: I believe I have been inhibited as a punishment for trying to seek the truth about the pedophile activities in my parish in the 1970s by a Fr. Ralph Johnson and also the cover-up of the Diocesan Controller's invasion of my private savings account.

VIRTUEONLINE: What is the connection between the sexual molestation/pedophile charges and the possible criminal misuse of your discretionary account?

BOLLINGER: The charge that I had criminally misused my Discretionary Fund is a manufactured charge because I pressed the bishop to fulfill his responsibilities to investigate the sexual misconduct issues in my parish and to be honest about what occurred between him and the diocesan controller. The bishop manufactured a sham audit to discredit me and my parish. I am being scapegoated and the full weight of these charges has descended on me.

VIRTUEONLINE: How big was your parish before this scandal and how big is it now?

BOLLINGER: At full strength we were 425 parishioners, and now we are significantly lower than that, perhaps 175. On an average Sunday we would get 125 individuals and now it is down in the 60s and 70s.

VIRTUEONLINE: Has your situation got anything to do with the current moral climate of the Episcopal Church and the Robinson consecration?

BOLLINGER: No. I would consider myself a moderate. Through this interim period and through being inhibited and being on sabbatical I have been worshipping with my family at St. Andrew's in Vestal, an orthodox parish NY and a Baptist Church in Owego, as well.

VIRTUEONLINE: How did Bishop Adams vote for the consecration of V. Gene Robinson?

BOLLINGER: The bishop voted for the consecration of Robinson.

VIRTUEONLINE: Tell us about your discretionary fund account and why do you see this as a smokescreen issue? What triggered that to the bishop?

BOLLINGER: In January the bishop issued a pastoral direction. It was written by his office staff (see letter that follows). The day after I was given that pastoral direction the bishop held a meeting at a Holiday Inn in Liverpool, NY. All of the diocesan clergy were required to attend.

VIRTUEONLINE: Were you invited?

BOLLINGER: I was not allowed, nor were any representatives of St. Paul's, Owego invited. At that meeting, the bishop proclaimed that there had been financial wrong doing by me and that my wife was the treasurer of the parish and that there would be an investigation.

VIRTUEONLINE: Is that true?

BOLLINGER: My wife has never been the treasurer of the parish. She has never signed a check or had signatory power. What the financial audit issue did for the bishop was to raise a smokescreen for his inept handling of the pedophile issue and a further attempt to cover up Gael Sopchak, the diocesan controller's invasion of my personal savings account.

VIRTUEONLINE: How did she get into your account?

BOLLINGER: The controller Gael Sopchak followed a sequence of prompts to get to our savings account and then she put in her own pass code and changed our personal pass code. She boasted about it in front of my wardens. They swore a signed affidavit to that effect. All of this occurred on December 1, 2004. That evening I called her saying I could not gain access to my personal account. She told me what she had changed them too and then I was able to regain access.

VIRTUEONLINE: What did you do?

BOLLINGER: I called my attorney the next morning and told him what had happened. This led me to a place where I am now, where I have been inhibited and possibly putting me on the road to deposition.

VIRTUEONLINE: Where does your vestry stand on all this?

BOLLINGER: They totally support me. The vestry wrote a letter in total support of me.

VIRTUEONLINE: Has the bishop asked to see your discretionary account?

BOLLINGER: I willingly handed over all of my checks and bank statements and any other information I had to the auditor in complete disclosure of everything. I fully cooperated with the bishop and his staff.

VIRTUEONLINE: What happened then?

BOLLINGER: The diocese came back with wild conjectures about misuse of my discretionary fund, including the misuse of funds to resettle a refugee family which is referenced in the vestry letter. The vestry exonerated me because they know that all of that money was used properly.

VIRTUEONLINE: How many people have accused the former priest of your parish with sexual misconduct?

BOLLINGER: Some 16 men. Then they were boys now they are men in the early 40s. They came forward with their stories of being sexually molested by this priest.

VIRTUEONLINE: Why is the bishop protecting him?

BOLLINGER: Nobody knows.

VIRTUEONLINE. Why have none come forward?

BOLLINGER: I cannot make a comment on this at this time.

VIRTUEONLINE: What did he do?

BOLLINGER: He took young men down to a cabin in Pennsylvania where the sexual activity took place.

VIRTUEONLINE: Why has no one gone to the police and charged this priest with sexual misconduct?

BOLLINGER: This is long past any statute of limitations for criminal charges. But the other truth is that this has to do with a lot of evil, and I have no idea why the bishop is covering for this man, but I am paying the price.

VIRTUEONLINE: What legal action has the bishop taken?

BOLLINGER: None that I know of.

VIRTUEONLINE: What other ecclesiastical action has he taken?

BOLLINGER: Only against me. The first was the pastoral direction, because it did not conform to Title IV. This was written by his image consultant, his secretary, and also the woman who broke into my account. He then inhibited me.

VIRTUEONLINE: Have you sought reconciliation with your bishop?

BOLLINGER: On Holy Tuesday I went to the cathedral and reaffirmed my ordination vows and my obedience to my bishop and I ate lunch with him and told him I wanted to reconcile with him. He said no. On another meeting with my attorney he told him I must resign my position at the church and go for an extended psychological evaluation, and submit myself to further scrutiny regarding my financial stuff at the church. But the bishop made it clear he wants no reconciliation and he wants me gone. We have tried three times to reconcile but the bishop wants nothing to do with it.

VIRTUEONLINE: What are your plans?

BOLLINGER: My plans are too remain a faithful Christian and protect my family. I will go through the process of appealing my inhibition and I will face whatever canonical process comes next.

VIRTUEONLINE: Did you ever approach the bishop with a victim of sexual abuse?

BOLLINGER: I presented one of the victims mother to the bishop. She had kept in a safe deposit box information that the pedophile had had a joint back account with her son. The account was signed by the priest. The bishop did nothing with it. In December 2004 she wrote another letter asking for further investigation of the pedophile activity against her son and again the bishop did nothing.

VIRTUEONLINE: Do you have documentation of your charges?

BOLLINGER: We have documentation of everything.

VIRTUEONLINE: I gather the bishop hired a Public Relations firm?

BOLLINGER: He hired Peter Kapcio, a member of Eric Mower Associates, a major New York Public Relations firm. Adams calls him his "image consultant." He is a crisis manager and spin doctor, and the bishop hired him to spin my situation. I am convinced that Kapcio orchestrated the Holiday Inn meeting which for most clergy was a disaster for the bishop. He lost a great deal of credibility. It was a kangaroo court. Sopchak got up and protested her innocence and I was not allowed to be present to defend myself.

VirtueOnline spoke with one of Fr. Bollinger's attorney's, Raymond Dague in Syracuse, NY, and asked him about the situation with Fr. Bollinger.

VIRTUEONLINE: Mr. Dague what evidence do you have of Fr. Bollinger's state of mind?

DAGUE: There is not a shred of evidence that Fr. Bollinger has any psychiatric problems. This is a trumped up suggestion by the bishop that Fr. Bollinger must get psychiatric treatment. The bishop is bolstering a non-existent case against this priest.

VIRTUEONLINE: What legal action do you think you will be taking?

DAGUE: I cannot comment on the specifics of our legal strategy, but you can be sure that we will not be inactive in this matter.

VirtueOnline was told that Fr. Bollinger has been the rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Owego, NY for 20 years. He is loved and respected by his congregation and vestry and the bishop acted against him at a time when Fr. Bollinger and his wife Kelly faced medical problems with their second daughter who has thyroid cancer.

DIOCESE IN CHAOS

The Diocese of Central New York is starved for money and in chaos, says a source in the diocese. The bishop has in the last year lost and not replaced two full-time clergy canons and the full-time lay communications director. Bishop Adams' Canon for Formation and Leadership, the Rev. Paul Kowalewski (who formerly held the title of "Canon Visionary" until the bishop changed his title after it became the butt of jokes all over the church) left at the end of September 2005 for a parish in Los Angeles.

The Rev. Heather Cook was hired last winter, but laid off last summer after she relocated from her parish in Pennsylvania to Syracuse. Christopher Boyle, the communications director, was laid off over the summer. As a result the Diocesan website is stale with people listed on the directory (such as Heather Cook) who has been laid off, and Kowaleski's assistant is still listed as such, even though Kowalewski is gone.

The latest version of the diocesan quarterly newspaper, THE MESSENGER, which is posted on the web is from Easter, and the fall issue has not been published now that the communications director is gone. The annual Journal of the diocese with the statistics, the canons, the clergy directory and other information was last published in the spring of 2004 for the fall 2003 convention.

CONFERENCE CENTER TORN DOWN

Bishop Adams tore down the Thornfield Conference Center because the "vision committee" determined that it had no future and was expensive to run and maintain. Many parishes are not paying or are underpaying their mandatory diocesan assessment and the bishop used his column in the last issue of the Messenger (which came out over the summer but is still not posted online) calling on parishes to pay their assessments.

Said a parish priest, "You don't do this if only one or two parishes are a bit delinquent."

A recent visit to the former Thornfield Conference Center is rather eerie. The grass is up to your knees with no buildings where a dozen buildings once stood. The only man-made structure left are the crumbling parking lots, driveways and sidewalks going nowhere.

INCOME OFF

Word on the street is that the income is off about $200,000 on a $2.3 million budget with about half of the budget coming from endowments and half from the parishes, but with no reports being published it is hard to tell. A source told VirtueOnline that in the last year the bishop dropped a reputed $45,000 into Eric Mower Associates, a New York Public Relations firm to help him with the Fr. Bollinger problem, and another $45,000 on an accounting firm for the expensive forensic audit of Fr. Bollinger's parish. It should be noted that these numbers cannot be confirmed in the absence of financial reports.

LEGAL FEES

Outside legal fees are also a big ticket item, VirtueOnline was told. "The bishop has hired two attorneys in the Syracuse area to conduct investigations. The first investigation was by an independent Church Attorney last winter of Gael Sopchak, the full-time lay administrator with the bishop's office, who was tape recorded trying to break into Fr. Bollinger's personal retirement account. The bishop has refused to say what this investigation cost, and refuses to release the report of the Church Attorney with the exception of a single paragraph. The bishop refuses to fire Mrs. Sopchak even though few clergy in the diocese will trust her," said a source close to the diocese," said a source.

The second investigation is the one by yet a different Church Attorney of Fr. Bollinger. "Presumably that bill is not in yet, but lawyers are not cheap, and an already strapped diocesan budget can ill afford all of this. They have yet to appoint any Church Attorney to investigate the priest who allegedly molested little boys some years ago when he was a former rector of Fr. Bollinger's parish."

HARASSMENT

The bishop has used his underlings to harass his clergy and people, VirtueOnline was told. Last summer the bishop's chancellor, Paul Curtin, asked the New York attorney general to investigate Fr. Bollinger. The bishop's administrator, Gael Sopchak, broke into Fr. Bollinger's private financial accounts, Bollinger claims. The bishop's Canon for Formation and Leadership Paul Kowalewski tried to get Raymond Dague, the parish chancellor of St. Andrew's in Syracuse, excommunicated for publishing an essay critical of Marcus Borg's visit to the diocesan clergy. Imagine a bishop blowing in his clergy to the authorities. What will come next? Who would ever trust clergy who do this to those in their flock?

PRESENTMENT

There is talk of a Presentment against Bishop Adams for his mismanagement of the diocese. "He is approaching a convention in November with what must be anything but the expectation of good things. Even the liberals don't like him now because of the Bollinger inhibition. He controls his clergy through fear that they may be next. Even the female clergywoman who is the head of Integrity of Central New York has written Adams a highly critical letter telling him that he is not running the diocese very well and that the Bollinger inhibition is wrong. We do not agree with her sexual politics, but she is on the mark here," said another source who asked not to be named.

END