Bp. Adams: TAP DANCING

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Down the road, Central New York Episcopal Bishop Gladstone “Skip” Adams is going to have some SERIOUS explaining to do. From 2007:

"After an 18 month saga of temporary inhibitions and presentment by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York and Bishop Gladstone “Skip” Adams, III of Syracuse charging a parish priest with financial misconduct at his former parish, the priest was exonerated today when the Episcopal Church ecclesiastical court dismissed all of the charges. That priest now has restored to him by canon law the right to celebrate the Eucharist and perform the other functions of a clergyman which were taken away from him by the bishop a year and a half ago."

Fr. David Bollinger defended the proceeding which resulted in the church court refusing to allow any evidence to be introduced against the priest or any witnesses to testify against him. The judge cited numerous procedural problems with the case brought by the bishop and the diocese against Fr. Bollinger. Carter Strickland, the judge in the ecclesiastical court, had previously directed the prosecutor, church attorney James Sparks, to give Fr. Bollinger copies of the evidence against him, but the diocese refused to release it to the priest. One of the pieces of evidence was the so-called Schafer Report. That was a report commissioned by the diocese and prepared by a previous judge of the ecclesiastical court. That report was believed to have contained evidence to the effect that Fr.Bollinger was not guilty of misconduct.

"The bishop brought the charges against Fr. Bollinger after Bollinger publicly challenged the bishop. Fr. Bollinger had claimed that the bishop was covering up an alleged sex abuse of young boys by a retired priest at Bollinger’s Owego, New York parish. That retired priest, Fr. Ralph Johnson, renounced his orders as an Episcopal priest when later confronted by the allegations of the sexual abuse, but the bishop kept moving forward with the case against Fr. Bollinger despite that development."

And then there’s this from a few days ago:

"A former rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Owego has been arrested by Pennsylvania State Police after he was accused of having oral sex with a boy.

"Ralph E. Johnson, 82, was arraigned in Clifford, Pa., on 15 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a felony; 15 counts of indecent assault, a misdemeanor; and 15 counts of corruption of minors, a misdemeanor, according to a police report.

"The incidents, representing about 15 encounters between the suspect and the alleged victim, happened at Johnson’s home in Gibson Township, Susquehanna County, between 1992 and 1995, according to a police report released Friday.

"The Rev. David G. Bollinger, rector of the church from 1985 to 2005, said he alerted diocesan officials in Syracuse after receiving complaints of Johnson’s alleged misconduct, but Bishop Gladstone B. Adams rebuffed him.

“He basically told me this would no longer be discussed,” Bollinger said Friday."

Well, that’s got to be embarrassing, Gladstone “Skip.” Covering for a perv and harassing the guy who did the right thing. If I were you, I’d do some major-league repenting right about now because I’m guessing that the Judge is not going to like that one at all.

And you know the Judge I mean.