Accuser: Priest's return a mistake

Case is test of bishops' policy

February 27, 2004

BY JIM SCHAEFER, DAVID CRUMM AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

He admits he was at least 16. He agrees the sex was consensual.

But in light of the Catholic Church's zero-tolerance policy on sex abuse by clergy, John Jaruzel can't understand why it's OK for the priest he says abused him to return to work.

The Rev. Brian Bjorklund's reinstatement to active ministry this week apparently is the first case in which the Vatican has overruled the U.S. bishops' promise to remove any priest who ever had sexual contact with boys or girls under age 18.

Even as Catholic bishops across the United States brace for today's release of a report on the extent of 50 years of abuse -- which was supposed to have been a milestone in moving on from the crisis -- Vatican officials are making it clear that the Americans' zero-tolerance policy, approved by the bishops in 2002, doesn't really mean zero anymore.

It is a turning point in the crisis, said Dr. A.W. Richard Sipe, the pioneering Catholic therapist, researcher and author now based in California who began studying clergy sexual activity decades ago.

"The case is very important because it shows how the church is going to operate in these cases," Sipe said.

The Vatican cleared Bjorklund, 64, to return to active ministry as a Navy chaplain in California -- not because the sex didn't happen, but because of Jaruzel's age at the time of the alleged incidents.

Jaruzel, 45, who lives in Denver, complained last year to Archdiocese of Detroit officials that Bjorklund abused him in the mid-1970s, starting when he was 16 and the priest was in his late 20s.

At the time, the Vatican said, church law held that 16 -- not the 18 of today -- was the age of majority.

Case closed.

Jaruzel said that isn't right.

It signals "the church back-sliding on their promises," he said in an interview after the Vatican ruling on Bjorklund. "It's kind of like the first step in a huge process that puts us back into the stone ages . . . where terrible things are happening again."

Auxiliary Bishop Walter Hurley, Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida's point man on the abuse crisis, said church officials had no choice but to reinstate Bjorklund.

"If in fact that was the law at the time, then people are entitled to be judged by that law," Hurley said Thursday. "That doesn't mean that, if they did this, it was right. It just means you cannot inflict certain penalties on them. . . . Is it a violation of trust? Oh, certainly it is. Is it a misuse of authority? Yes, it's all of those things."

Hurley added that Jaruzel's complaint was the only one lodged against Bjorklund, who Hurley said has served faithfully in the years since. Church officials still believe the complaint is credible but will not delve into it further because there is no legal standing.

Bjorklund could not be reached for comment. Joe Maher, a Redford businessman who runs a support group for priests, said Bjorklund has denied Jaruzel's claims.

Maher applauded the decision to reinstate the priest.

"It's not a loophole. It's law. This is church law. And Rome is going to follow church law," Maher said. "I hope that this reinstates a bunch of priests that have been accused.'

Hurley said he did not know of any other accused priests in metro Detroit who could be affected by the Bjorklund decision.

"Standing on legal loopholes'

Nationally, a broad array of legal challenges brought by church lawyers defending accused priests await Vatican rulings. The Bjorklund case shows that Vatican officials won't strictly follow the American bishops' under-18 policy.

"Once again, the church is standing on legal loopholes, rather than on its moral principles," said Sipe, an expert on clergy sexuality. In his view, if Bjorklund had sexual contact with Jaruzel at age 16 or 17, the priest should not be returned to active ministry.

"Finding this legal loophole does not change the fact that this activity changes people's lives," he said.

Jaruzel will carry the legacy of that sexual activity for the rest of his life, Sipe said.

"I think at this point, the church should stick to its zero-tolerance policy and take greater responsibility for what their priests are doing," Sipe said.

David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said that Bjorklund's reinstatement is a serious error in judgment.

"The fact that the incident was years ago doesn't mean this priest is magically cured, and the prudent assumption would be that he's still dangerous and there may be other victims who have not come forward," Clohessy said.

"Often, when a priest is suspended, other victims breathe a sigh of relief. But, if there are any still out there in this case who've been silent, they have some serious soul-searching to do -- and hopefully they'll find the courage to do what this first brave young man did and come forward to tell their stories."

Although Bjorklund's legal victory at the Vatican has chipped away at the U.S. bishops' zero-tolerance pledge, most Vatican officials are reluctant to publicly criticize the bishops' policy.

A 219-page report on the abuse crisis, issued this week by a group of scholars who met at the Vatican, criticized the zero-tolerance standard as too strict because it would leave abusive priests unsupervised. However, on Thursday, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Pope John Paul II's spokesman, was cautious about the report.

On the one hand, the Vatican report was only "a free discussion from eminent personalities" in medicine and psychiatry, he said. "It does not reflect the opinion of the Holy See."

On the other hand, he said, "The Holy See will study the report and see what comes of it."

Jaruzel said he blames the pope. In dealing with the crisis as a whole, John Paul II "fell flat on his face on this issue, and he is responsible. Even though we're dealing with a whole bunch of individual sinning men and women, they were part of a system, and the system was perpetuated by bishops and cardinals."

Long-lasting damage

His family were members of St. Michael in Pontiac for many years when he started working there part-time as a boy.

Bjorklund, he said, was actually the second priest to abuse him during his teenage years. The Rev. James Wysocki, the young associate pastor of St. Michael in the early 1970s, carried on a sexual relationship with him for more than a year starting at age 14 or 15, Jaruzel said.

Wysocki, who faces similar allegations from at least one other person, has been relieved of his ministry and is awaiting a Vatican trial. He could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Sometime around 1975, Jaruzel said, Wysocki introduced him to Bjorklund, who was part of a core group of priests who hung out together socially. Bjorklund was assigned to campus ministry at Oakland University in Rochester.

Jaruzel said he started getting invitations from Bjorklund to visit his campus residence, which he accepted. "Little by little, that led to sex," Jaruzel said. He met Bjorklund about once a month for oral sex throughout his senior year in high school, he said.

By the time Jaruzel was in college, he was struggling with his spirituality.

"The sexual side, I mostly dealt with fairly quickly and got over it," he said. "It took me years to get over some degree of reconciling having a faith."

He said it was hard to process the teachings of the church, sometimes delivered at mass by the very men with whom he was sinning.

"As far as can happen with a 16-year-old, it was consensual sex," he said. "The greater issue is what do you call it when you have sex with your boss or your doctor or somebody who has control over you?"

In later years, he told friends and family. Some of them urged him to complain to church officials, but he declined. Openly gay as an adult, Jaruzel said he witnessed another gay man in Denver accuse a priest and lose.

"The bishop, the parents, the newspaper crucified this guy," Jaruzel said. "How could he say anything bad about super Father Joe? . . . That's what I was trying to avoid."

Jaruzel finally came forward last year after reading about Wysocki's suspension in the Free Press.

No longer a Catholic, he is now a practicing Methodist.

"I gave them a year to deal with this issue using their own system," he said, "and to me they totally failed at that effort."