Good evening. I'm Marni Hughes, and welcome to a special edition
of NewsNation. Tonight,
we are bringing you an inside look at the sex abuse scandals
that rocked the Catholic Church over decades and a system that continues to protect
some of its worst abusers. Tonight, a rare look into a little known
religious order, one that has played a role in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis
throughout the country. Over the next hour,
you will hear reporting from Larry Potash,
longtime anchor and investigative reporter
with our Chicago station WGN. We start with a clergy sex abuse
survivor sharing his story. My name is John Barlow,
and I am a victim survivor
of clerical sexual abuse. ♪♪♪ I just don't want this to happen again to another kid. ♪♪♪ I would
like to see Ted McCarrick die in the prison jumpsuit,
but he's not behind bars and that's where he ought to be. You can't turn these people
loose. It's not fair to society. ♪♪♪ Men are warehoused
in a rural, heavily wooded area to keep them outside
or at least beyond the law. This issue impacts everybody. They are the problem. They're big part of it. But they can fix this. ♪♪♪ This sanctuary hidden in the woods
is run by a religious order. Most people have never heard
of the servants of the paraclete founded in 1947. Its mission is to help
clergy in crisis. They are soon overwhelmed by
priests accused of sexual abuse. Are clergy the best people
to keep an eye on priests? Some suggest it's the servants of the paraclete
aren't helping these priests. They're hiding them. You guys got to do me a favor. Yeah. Yeah. You got to disconnect me
for a minute, okay? Because my sugar is rapidly
dropping. Okay. Okay. Seven. Is it all right? Why don't you sit here?
Yeah, we're doing great. No, I'm good. I just want to take a sip. All right. So I think it's very fair to say I was a much more outgoing, trusting kid. ♪♪♪ The outlook,
the positivity changed significantly
after the incident. Yeah. ♪♪♪ The damage that this does is, is chronic. You have to recognize the fact
that it will live next to you for the rest of your life. And we witnessed you
experiencing it this afternoon. You did? In what way? I sat with you in a hotel room
that I think was smaller than we both
thought it would be. And it was kind of eerily
like a confessional. It kind of had
the exact same look going on. And you got to see firsthand
the unbelievable ball speed with which that can kind of take you over. ♪♪♪ It's unimaginable
how deep and wide this goes. Any time I do talk to somebody
about what I do. Everyone has a story of someone
they knew or a family member and the profound impact that's
had on everyone around them. ♪♪♪ I was raised in Hackensack, New Jersey,
in an Italian-American enclave that was very loving,
very accepting, very helpful. And the church was a central
aspect, physically as well as spiritualally
ofhe neighborhood. School year 9596 would have been
my eighth grade year at Saint
Francis School. McCarrick was scheduled
to visit the church and his duties
as archbishop of Newark. And I had been asked
by the pastotor to be an altar server
at the time. Of course, I thought, you know, I thought
it was a significant honor. Can you discuss the case
of former Cardinal McCarrick? Wow. Theodore McCarrick. You take this oath again. This is a guy who may have completely changed
the framework of things. Theodore McCarrick is
one of the most powerful people in the U.S. church with a direct line
to the Vatican. He has money. He has houses. He has access to anything
that he wants. On the day
he was scheduled to come. We were scheduled for another 3
to 4 feet of snow. And mass was not very crowded ♪♪♪ at that point. He directed that
he wanted to hear hear my confession. ♪♪♪ What's going through your head during this? I would say it's fair
to say that almost a kind of a separation of of might like,
you know, what's happening, but this can't be happening. Yeah. At some point, though, did you tell your parents
what happened? No, no, no. ♪♪♪ My fear was
if I didn't come forward, people would not know
that Theodore McCarrick was so intrinsically evil. And I do believe
that he is intrinsically evil. ♪♪♪ McCarrick is one of the apex predators of the church. ♪♪♪ And that's why the Theodore McCarrick story
is so powerful. Instead of facing the evil, the church authorities
took the lower road. They took the lowest
road possible, and they allowed
the perpetrator to rise. So I think it's fair to say
that he was one of the most powerful Catholics in the world,
not just the United States. ♪♪♪ He spent his entire life
ingratiating himself into rich and powerful
and political circles that made him invincible. And he
thought he was invincible. ♪♪♪ (Camera shutter) ♪♪♪ How many lives! How many children! (inaudible)
That■s where you are heading. Go to hell McCarrick. That■s where you■re headed. Mr. McCarrick, how can you plead not guilty when the church, showed you
to be guilty. Even. In your nineties,
you cannot hide. Do you want to say anything in
defense of yourself? Please. ♪♪♪ You've been doing this a while. Had you ever heard of
the servants of the paraclete? I had not. After having done this
for as long as I have. I had not heard of them. Most people have no idea
that this is where the worst priests in the country
are being sent to live. And it is a place outside of Saint Louis
in a rural, heavily wooded area. ♪♪♪ It's very easy to pass
and to overlook. I think that is my intention. If you
believe in the golden rule, if you believe that
anything that Jesus had to say, I think you have an obligation
to tell the public. ♪♪ Many people had no idea a place like this
could exist. I'm curious how you became involved
in this investigation in the first place.
What sparked the interest? I got a call from an alleged
victim of priest sexual abuse
who saw me in a documentary about the John Wayne Gacy case
that had something to do with sex trafficking.
Some stories that I had done. And so I think he felt that I would be a good person
to maybe look into this. And in the conversation, he brought up this compound
in the middle of the woods. And I went, wait a minute, what aI the only one
whwho is notamiliar with this? And I started asking around. I had met anyone who had heard
of this compound in the woods that houses the worst sexual abuse of priests or accused sexually
abusive priest in America. And so I thought
people need to know about this, because one of the biggest problems in this decades long story
is the issue of transparency. And you found secrecy. This place is shrouded
in secrecy. How difficult was it as you
started to peel back the layers and get answers to uncover
what was really happening here? Well, I'm still not sure I know
what's going on inside there. We talked to a lawmaker
who's been trying to pass legislation to say,
let's regulate this place. Let's
find out what they are doing. I mean, this is not too far
from a school. I doubt many of the people
in that community know it's even there. What kind of oversight is there? There doesn't seem to be a lot, but we don't really know
for sure because it's the church
watching the church, in a sense, and the critics in this story
say, let's have an outsider take some control of this
so we know what's going on. Right.
And the church doesn't respond. Church doesn't respond. The Vatican doesn't respond. This order doesn't respond. And one of the alleged victims
that we talked to said, if this is such a great idea,
why isn't the church getting out in front of everyone and saying,
look what we're doing. This is a great idea.
Nobody says that. Nobody says anything. Yeah. But you talk to victims and
their abuse dates back decades. It is physically hard
for them to share their stories. How difficult was it for you to convince them
to speak out on this? Well, the victims that I spoke
with have been active. They're activists. Most do not. Most don't even come forward. So it's it's it's difficult
to find victims willing to talk. And it just shows you
that this problem of kids being abused by priests and religious clerics is way
bigger than anybody realizes. Up next, a
safe haven hidden in the woods. Inside the religious order
providing a secret sanctuary
for clergy members in trouble. And the new calls to bring
their identities to light. ♪♪♪ I'm Marni Hughes with a special
of NewsNation. When case
after case of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church
became public. Accused priests and other members of the clergy
were shunned by the community. But around the country, programs
within the Catholic Church dedicated to renewal and healing
opened up their doors. Called Servants
of the Paraclete. Almost like secret societies,
hiding some of the worst abusers from the rest of the world. Today,
there is still one standing that we know about in a wooded area
in Missouri. Again, here's Larry Potash. ♪♪♪ Why do they call you the fixer? There's a fixer in every diocese
and every religious order. All my assignments
were following priests and religious
who sexually abuse kids. And I was to clean up
after them. Did you ever feel dirty
doing that at any time? At some point you go,
this is never going to end. So for me to be authentic,
I got to go. ♪♪♪ What is your mission now
in life? Basically,
listening to survivors and giving them
a little modicum of hope. I didn't understand. It was pervasive
in every diocese and in every religious institute
across the world. ♪♪♪ So the kind of two to ago
and I can do both. One is dates, dates, dates,
and the other one is kind of this like origin story
that they tell about it. I'm Kevin Louis O'Neill. I'm a professor at the University Toronto
and director for the Center for Diaspora
and Transnational Studies. ♪♪♪ So Father Gerald
Fitzgerald found the servants the lead in 1947
because he recognizes at this time
in the American church history, there is no support for priests. He is a hard nosed Roman
Catholic priest from Boston who had these incredible ideals
that he wanted to pursue, to minister,
to those who minister. And so the real vision of
the organization is really to support
priests being priests. ♪♪♪ So if you're looking at the time
of Father Fitzgerald, you're going to see a period
where he really believed in the spiritual exercises, that we're going to make
that priest get back to his spirituality,
that we're going to change his behavior
by improving his prayer life. He has absolutely no faith
or trust in therapists and social workers
and psychiatrists. Fitzgerald is very clear
that one could pray one's way out of these problems,
whether it's a failing vocation, alcoholism or other
kind of struggles in one's life. ♪♪♪ The first renewal
center opens up in New Mexico. He's able to purchase
2000 acres of land on which sits the ruins
of a Franciscan monastery. So there's
a bit of infrastructure. Within the first few years,
priests begin to show up not for alcoholism
or lack of faith, but because of credible accusations against
them in terms of sexual abuse. ♪♪♪ Part of Fitzgerald's
solution to the problem was to create distance
between society and the priest who could not
manage his sexuality. So for those
who are irredeemable, completely incorrigible,
let's put them on an island. The history of the island
is a series of mishaps. It does not support priests. It does not become the vision
of what he wanted it to be. It was a good idea, but it was a 19th century idea
and a 20th century world. The official position is priests are celibate and holy
and they're chaste. But if we have this island
over here that we're specifically funding with the people's money
in order to isolate these really severe sex offenders,
that doesn't jive with the position. So that's why they made him
sell it. Fitzgerald begins
with the first renewal center in New Mexico and expands
to a second in Santa Fe. And then demands begins to allow
for the service, apparently to open renewal centers
throughout the United States. They were bringing people in
from from all over. Right. He would put them
through the six month program and then Father Fitzgerald would write a letter to other
bishops and say, I have a priest that has a need
to be able to find a new home. Are you willing to take him? And they did. And that's why
it became a washing machine for some really bad people. By the mid 1990, as the
servants, the paraclete enter and a very intense
period of litigation. The New Mexico facility closed
because they've been caught taking these dangerous men
and letting them go out and do weddings and funerals and Sunday
masses. ♪♪♪ The servants paraclete don't have deep pockets
to begin with, but they are named in a number
of different lawsuits. They do provide clear evidence that bishops
in the United States and the Vatican itself
knew about clerical sexual abuse since the 1950s and yet didn't make a public statement
until the 1990s. That is
a half century of silence. ♪♪♪ This is not a mistake. This is a very calculated method
to to the madness here. I wouldn't be surprised
if many of the people in the community had
no idea that they were there. At an absolute bare minimum. Church officials shouldn't say,
Here are the priests who are staying here. ♪♪♪ The least church officials can do is say,
and here is ere they are. Keep your kids away. Sometimes those priests
are allowed to go disappear in communities where no one knows
they're there. Brother Robert was a Irish
Christian brother who had multiple assignments
across the United States. ♪♪♪ Tragically, he's not alone. Other priests who were sent to
the parish elites to allegedly be monitored and supervised
forever leave the facility. The real question is
how in the world do they allow him to walk? That's what scares me. ♪♪♪ You went there. What was it like being there? I know it was challenging getting near the property,
getting anyone to talk. But what was
your sense when you arrived? It looks like a summer camp. Maybe it looked like seventies
ranch houses in the middle of the woods
next to a farm. You would never know it
driving by. And even if you went down
the one road to get there, you could probably drive by it if there wasn't a sign
and nothing, anything of it. There are several homes in
and around that area and the order has tried to purchase the homes because
apparently they see a need. And we saw them going in and out
of some of these homes. We were able to set up there
because there was one neighbor
who refused to sell to them. And he
let us set up on his property. So that's how we were able to get the video and the access
that we did, because this compound has many signs
saying no trespassing. And we respected that. But we were able to approach
some of the either the brothers from the order
or some of these clerics who were there being treated,
whatever that means, going back and forth from one part
of the compound to the next. If there are registered
sex offenders, why have they not served
any time? Have they served
any time for their crimes? Usually not. Because what happens when young people are abused,
it often takes decades for them to come to the realization. And by that point, the statute of limitations
criminally have long expired. Still ahead, a compound
raising concerns for nearby communities. But even lawmakers
can't seem to get answers. ♪♪♪ Welcome back to
a special edition of NewsNation. I'm Marni Hughes in Chicago. For the victims of Catholic Church abuse, it's
not just about getting justice. It's about making sure
what happened to them doesn't happen to anyone else. And that is why this compound in Missouri
has so many concerned. A group of accused abusers
living together free of consequences
while so many still suffer. Here again is Larry Potash. How did what happened to you
impact your faith going forward? You know, that's a really tough
question to answer. And the short answer is
I just don't know. ♪♪♪ I was sexually abused over
a period of about four years, roughly starting at age 11
or 12 by my parish priest. It's such a typical story. He ingratiated himself
to our whole family and would come over for dinner
and that type of thing. And eventually I started volunteering
at the church and to repay me r volunteering, he would take me
on out of town trips and it was always on those
trips that he molested me always when it was just the two of us
and I was just terrorized. I had no idea
what was going on or what what to do. Years later, I ran into him
in the Saint Lou airport and he looked at me
and he looked pretty scared. He started walking
faster, faster, and I kept calling out his name
louder and louder. And I had the presence of mind
to realize that these TSA people might think
I look a little unhinged. And so I just stopped
and I just said, Look, I was abused as a kid
by that guy right there. And I said,
I haven't seen him in 25 years. And I said, And I'm just walking
away, so no need to worry. A little old lady who I never met just reached out
and grabbed my arm and said, Good for you. ♪♪♪ Eventually, then
when I was around 30, that's when I had my first memory
of the abuse. Shortly after that,
I found out that he had also molested
three of my brothers. It absolutely just shattered our family. ♪♪♪ That was followed several years
later with the disclosure that my brother
had been accused of molesting kids. ♪♪♪ It created an enormous rift
in our family that never has been healed and I don't think ever will be. ♪♪♪ Had you ever heard of
the servants of the paraclete? I hadn't
until you all called me. And then I looked
and did a little research. ♪♪♪ What was stunning to me, I think, first of all, was that
there was such a place and that there was such a place
that did not have clinicians present. My sense of Dittmer right now
is that it is its own kind of island
where men are warehoused either to endure or wait through their own
processes of litigation or to keep them
out of sight and out of mind. ♪♪♪ My concern is that
there's nothing regulating this. I think this was something
that flew under the radar for quite a bit of time. ♪♪♪ It's about keeping people safe. It's about keeping communities
safe. If this is a treatment for sexually deviant behavior, then
let's ensure that these people are getting treatment
rather than just housing them. ♪♪♪ If there's
no licensed therapists, if there's no physicians,
psychologists, psychiatrists, no one there to regulate this, then we have no idea
what they're even doing. (inaudible) ♪♪♪ I'm oftentimes frustrated and irritated by
what goes on. But, you know,
I'll just keep fighting it. I'll keep pushing
and I'll keep bringing it up. My name is Larry Potash
and with WGN TV in Chicago and we're in Dittmer today, we were wondering
if there was someone we could talk to
about the center. All right. Can we talk to you, sir? Can we talk to you for a second now? Is there no supervisor here or do
you wish not to speak with us? Okay.
Is there anybody else there? Okay. Thanks. ♪♪♪ I hope as we tell the story
and people become aware of it, that we're going to help them
change. We have a huge, huge
responsibility. Can't change the past. But with the knowledge
that we have now, we're accountable
to do something different. ♪♪♪ We're getting phone calls every day from survivors. There's
so much to be done still. And so that's motivating. If you channel the sense
of outrage and moral outrage that we should all have
at something like this, you can channel it to change. I would say that that is sort of
the conscious decision I made. ♪♪♪ I can certainly say, though,
that I'm heartbroken. I just don't want this to happen
again. To another kid. ♪♪♪ Did these victims
expect justice? Do they expect accountability? I think that's
what motivates them. I, I suspect their expectations are low at this point
after all these years. But I think they continue their
fight and raise their voice so that others may feel
the courage to come forward after all these years, people
who may, for whatever reason, feel
the need to keep it a secret. What was the reaction? You showed a little bit of it
on camera, but from the people
who were there. They didn't want any part of us
whatsoever. They did not want
to speak to us. You could see them
walking away, driving away. I called them a number of times. And it makes you think
after everything the church has gone
through in the headlines, you think you'd have a different
public relations approach to say, This is what we're doing
and we're proud of it, and let me tell you
what we're doing. But they don't do that. I'm curious what questions
you're still asking that you don't have answers to. What's the what's next here? When you think of all the big
problems in this country, all the congressional hearings we've had about steroids
in baseball and there's no congressional
hearing about this ever even now, after all these years and
after everything that's happened we see in Missouri,
they won't even vote on a bill to shed some light
onto what this place is doing. Three times they've tried. Maybe this time
we'll see something different. Up next, the Catholic Church has handed out
apologies, but one watchdog organization
says that doesn't go far enough. What they say
true accountability looks like. ♪♪♪ I'm Marni Hughes with NewsNation
and a special report, Sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members s has beeneported in
every single state in America. More than 6000 have been
credibly accused, a number that is likely even larger
due to cover ups from inside the church and also victims
who have never come forward. Terry McKiernan is the founder
of Bishop Accountability. Let's talk about the servants
of the paraclete in Dittmer, Missouri. It's a place
I had never heard of. Were you aware of this place,
this compound existed? Oh, certainly. It's a very, very important place in the Catholic Church
and in the whole geography and geography
of the abuse crisis. And it's been
in operation for many years. Some have warehousing functions
like the facility in Dittmer. Others are attempting
to treat priests. This is all really changed
in recent years because I think there's there's
more acknowledgment that. Treating priests
and returning them to ministry is a very bad idea. How does the church reconcile
the treatment of priests that they have taken out of different dioceses
from across the country, but also keep secret
how they're treating them and then where they go
after they've been there? I am personally and professionally not surprised
that there are expressions of transparency
and accountability that aren't consistent with the practice
of church institutions. So and
this is a perfect example. If you want to know
where priests who have not been laicized, who have not been
released from the priesthood, but are accused of abuse, where they are,
what they're doing, almost always you're going to encounter the problems
that Larry encountered. So you could argue that Dittmer
is is a place where the priests are under lock and key, except
we don't know that they are. And there is some indication,
as you know, that they aren't. Are there more Dittmer■s
that we don't know about across the country. When the Vatican decides
not to laicized a priest who has, in their judgment,
offended. They will allow a diocese
to carry on with its policy
of keeping the priest out of ministry
and housing him someplace. But we almost always don't
know where that place is. And that's a that's a problem. And that's a problem
that transcends the whole Dittmer situation. I would estimate that we're probably looking at
something like 1000 priests who are still priests but are prevented
from ministering. At least we hope so. Which
begs the question of oversight. Why have there
not been congressional hearings about this? There are congressional hearings
about almost everything else. This seems that important. Yeah, I agree. And survivors
have for many years been calling
for something like this. I think it's our politics. I think it's the position
of religion in the country. Perhaps.
You look at Washington and they can't
get out of their own way. Is there much hope
that they'll do something constructive
and important in this regard? I'm not sure. It is brave and courageous. The victims who have come forward to share their stories,
what does justice look like for them?
What is accountability? So many survivors that I work
with and talk with really want everything to come out. What they mean by
that is all of the documents. Once you can look over
the bishops shoulder and in effect,
see him signing that letter that sent that priest off
to another parish or another diocese sometimes
to do exactly the same thing. Once you can see that the problems
with this institution that they weren't before arey and change,
I think, becomes more likely. So a library, a database,
a place that compiles research
and information, also numbers. There are documents from all
states of accused priests. What percentage of priests
in the Catholic Church have been accused
of some type of abuse? It's a really interesting
question, and it used to be that people thought it was about
4% on the basis of a report that the church itself
did back in 2004. Pope Benedict, happy memory, once was quoted as saying
that it's less than 1%. It's clearly climbing above 6%. And our best guess
is that the correct number, least for the United States,
is probably about 10%. It's a pretty scary number. And I think it's important to remember that different priests
do different things. So when we think at 10%,
we're not saying that every single person in that 10% is doing some of the terrible things
that we find in the Illinois attorney general's report. But abuses, abuse, and it needs to be noted. Still ahead, many of these cases date back decades, but predators
within the Catholic Church are still being exposed
every year. ♪♪♪ Thank you for joining us for this special edition
of NewsNation. I'm Marni Hughes. A bombshell report from the
Illinois attorney general just this spring found
the state has corroborated more than 1900 Catholic sex
abuse claims against children. Some of those cases go back
years. Other victims are still
to this day finding their voice and as a result of this series, have more victims come forward,
even confidentially to you. I've received some messages of people who say
that they have been abused in the past. We spoke with attorneys. Some who do not necessarily appear in the piece
who say they get calls every single week of people
saying that ththey have been
sexually abused by priests. And that's just kind of how
this works. It's people coming forward
many years after the fact.
