The Michigan Attorney General today released a fifth report generated by the state’s Clergy Abuse Investigation task force concerning the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids. Fifty-one priests were named in the report, along with the church they were affiliated with at the time of at least one of the allegations. The way these priests were moved around the national and international Catholic church checkerboard, I imagine this was hard to put together.
No charges were filed as a result of the report due to statute of limitations, death of the priest, and/or reluctance of survivors to testify.
A report on the Diocese of Saginaw is expected next spring and the final report on the Archdiocese of Detroit is expected before the end of 2026. Number 7 ought to be interesting to cross-reference with names bandied about (but never adequately investigated) in the OCCK case.
Yes, one way or the other, #7 could be very interesting indeed.
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Oakland County is part of the Archdiocese of Detroit, which covers six counties in southeast Michigan: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Lapeer, St. Clair, and Monroe.
The Church will be whipping out that check book.
They better be. Michigan has been very accomodating to these types over the decades. And, according to rank hearsay, Nessel herself believes the OCCK was THE priest. Not “a” priest–“the” priest. I imagine if this is the case, his name and possibly those of his priest “associates” will be somewhere on that list allegedly to be release sometime in 2026. On her way out the door.
The one thing I remember about police interaction with my dad over the decades was that then Commander Don Studt of the Birmingham PD would bring him lists of deceased priests and asked if our family knew any of them. One or two of the fiction-y type books written about these crimes way back when, posited the involvement of a priest. A priest was alleged to be involved with suspect Gary Smentowski, who killed himself in 1978 and whose name was turned in to high school classmate Garry Gray when he was assigned to head the OCCK task force in 2005. I know there is another suspect related to this crew who, last time I checked, is still living, but police lost interest very quickly. As you know, they don’t listen to me, either.
Next time vote for somebody with the stones to address public corruption, not just issue reports about bad priests survivors have been talking about for decades, with no acknowledgement. Defending child victims means rooting out the rot that allowed these crimes to go unpunished and ignored so this shit gets shut down as it happens, not fifty years later.
All these cops got their “participation trophies” for their involvement. Here, according to a reader who knows all too well, is what survivors get:
“[A] lifetime of guilt, shame, gaslighting, self recrimination, substance abuse, nightmares, scars, people calling us liars and other marginalization. Not to mention a lifetime of illnesses, mental and otherwise, resulting from trying to forget, and/or feeling our bodies trying to purge the legacy of toxicity.”
Hey Cathy, I tried to post this and we had tech issues. I deal with sex abuse victims daily and they rarely come forward. Also, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” is a true story. It is not fiction or based on fact. The Phantom was a killer who stalked couples in Texarkana in the post World War 2 era. He was never caught. The town shows the film annually at their outdoor theater. Although the killer is over 100 and is likely dead, the police still address the crowd and ask for tips. Compare that to the OCCK debacle.