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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 30 July 2019
Priests accused of sex abuse turned to under-the-radar group

By MARTHA MENDOZA, JU- The group's current and for-
LIET LINDERMAN and GA- mer leadership did not re-
RANCE BURKE spond to questions from the
Associated Press AP. In 2003, the fledgling
DRYDEN, Mich. (AP) — The group won backing from in-
visiting priests arrived dis- fluential Roman Catholics,
creetly, day and night. including Father Richard
Stripped of their collars and John Neuhaus, the editor
cassocks, they went unno- of a conservative Catholic
ticed in a series of tiny Mid- journal who served as an
western towns as they were unofficial adviser to Presi-
escorted into dingy ware- dent George W. Bush, and
houses and offices. Neigh- Cardinal Avery Dulles, the
bors had no idea some of son of a former U.S. Secre-
them might have been ac- tary of State. Dulles was a
cused sexual predators. preeminent conservative
For nearly two decades, Catholic theologian.
a small nonprofit group Maher met with Vatican of-
called Opus Bono Sacer- ficials in Rome, and had vis-
dotii has operated out of its from them in his group's
unmarked buildings in rural Michigan offices.
Michigan, providing mon- Father Eduard Perrone reads under an umbrella in Warren, Mich., Friday, June 7, 2019. Still, since 2002, Opus Bono
ey, shelter, transport, legal Associated Press has played a little-known
help and other support to role among conservative
hundreds, perhaps thou- lationship with the group. were forced out after Mich- cused of sexual abuse, and Catholic groups that por-
sands, of Catholic priests But Opus Bono successfully igan's attorney general offered sympathizers a tax- tray the abuse scandal as
accused of sexual abuse. forged networks within the found Opus Bono had mis- deductible, anonymous a media and legal feeding
And while powerful clerics church hierarchy. used donated funds and method of sending money frenzy. These groups con-
have publicly pledged to The Associated Press unrav- misled contributors. A third to specific accused priests. tend the scandal maligns
hold the church account- eled the continuing story co-founder, Father Eduard When serial pedophile Ja- the priesthood and harms
able for the crimes of its of Opus Bono in dozens of Perrone, was abruptly re- son Sigler, a former priest, the Catholic faith.
clergy and help survivors interviews with experts, law- moved from ministry earlier was sent to jail for abus- Opus Bono established it-
heal, some of them ar- yers, clergy members and this month after the AP be- ing dozens of minors, Opus self as a counterpoint to
ranged meetings, offered former employees, along gan asking about an alle- Bono was there for him, the Survivors Network of
blessings or quietly sent with hundreds of pages gation that he had sexually with regular visits and com- those Abused by Priests
checks to this organization of documents obtained abused a child decades missary cash, said a former and other groups that have
that backed the abusers, through Freedom of Infor- ago. Perrone denies the employee. When another accused the church of try-
The Associated Press has mation requests. allegation. Over the years, priest, Gregory Ingels, was ing to cover up the scandal
found. In recent months, two of Opus Bono brought on as criminally charged with and failing to support vic-
Catholic leaders say the the group's founders, Joe employees or advisers at abusing a teen, Opus Bono tims of clergy misconduct.
church has no official re- Maher and Peter Ferrara, least three clergymen ac- made him a legal adviser. q

Last slave ship: Alabama

files federal claim of ownership

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) commission said in a state- tion of slaves, an Alabama
— Alabama has filed a fed- ment that the action is an plantation owner made
eral court claim to owner- attempt to prevent salvag- a wager that he could
ship of the wreckage of ers from disturbing the ship bring a shipload of people
the last ship known to bring or taking artifacts from it. from Africa to the United
enslaved people from Af- James Delgado, a maritime States. In 1860, the Clotilda
rica to the U.S., a move the archaeologist who helped smuggled more than 100
archaeologist who helped lead the team that found enslaved people to the
find the ship says will bolster and verified the wreck as U.S. The ship was then tak-
protection of the site. that of the Clotilda, said en into delta waters and
The so-called admiralty Monday that the state is burned to avoid detection. This Jan. 2, 2018, file photo shows the remains of a ship that
claim presented by Ala- taking appropriate action The captives were freed could be the Clotilda, the last slave ship documented to have
bama in federal court and called the court step after the Civil War. Unable delivered captive Africans to the United States.
asks a judge to declare "another tool in the historic to return to Africa, they set- Associated Press
the state the true owner preservation toolbox." tled a community that's still
of the Clotilda, which was "This wreck is nationally im- called Africatown. National Geographic Soci- our nation. It carries a story
discovered earlier this year portant, for the events that Earlier this year, a research ety and Search, Inc. to find and an obligation to meet
in state waters. The claim, took place on it and for its team announced the dis- and identify the wreckage. every opportunity to plan
which was filed Friday, also association with the very covery of the remnants of "We are charged with en- for its safeguarding," said a
seeks to ensure that the Al- long and terrible trade in the Clotilda along the banks suring this tremendously recent statement by Lisa D.
abama Historical Commis- human lives," Delgado said. of the Mobile River. The Al- important archaeological Jones, executive director
sion has the exclusive right Decades after the United abama Historical Commis- find is preserved and pro- of the Alabama Historical
to the site. The historical States banned the importa- sion had worked with the tected for Africatown and Commission.q