Media Contacts: Miles C. Davis, 910/962-7225 [email protected]
Mimi Cunningham, 910/962-3171 [email protected]
Wilmington, NC -- Nearly a decade ago, Paul Wilkes, a well-known religious author, brought the issue of priesthood pedophilia to the pages of New Yorker magazine. "Unholy Acts," told the story of Father Ron Provost's tainted career as a Catholic priest, and revealed years of child molestation carried out by a trusted and supposedly-spiritual leader of a small parish in Worcester, Mass. "Then, priesthood pedophilia was -- for the most part -- swept underneath the rug," said Wilkes in an interview this week from his UNC Wilmington office.
As Wilkes wrote in his 1993 article, "Every bishop in America is painfully aware of the existence of not only the convicted but also the accused and the suspected pedophiles among his priests."
"But the bishop faces a conundrum unlike any confronting an employer in the secular world. A priest is a priest forever; his bishop must provide for him, forever," said Wilkes. "In addition, a public revelation of a priest who is only suspected, and not actually accused, of abusing children could open the diocese to a civil suit for defamation of character. And, because ordained priests are becoming something of an endangered species, any bishop is reluctant to remove a priest from the active ministry."
"Unholy Acts" chronicled Father Provost's life from a shy seminary student to a seasoned parish priest who -- in the end -- was convicted through the testimony of a shy, blond-haired boy who took the witness stand. In the end, investigators revealed nearly 20 years of child pornography that Father Provost had personally photographed.
"His last words to that anguished, frustrated mother as he was about to walk free were still haunting to me: 'I'd love to apologize.' His photograph and those words seemed an apt metaphor for the way many of us perceive the Catholic Church in these distressing times: distant, unconnected, not meeting its people eye to eye; pretending that somehow the embarrassments of the moment will pass, and the Church will once again reign supreme, without being called upon to confess its own sins and do something about them."
In addition to his New Yorker article, Wilkes is the author of such well-known books as The Good Enough Catholic, Seven Secrets of Successful Catholics, Beyond the Walls: Monastic Wisdom for Everyday Life, In Mysterious Ways: The Death and Life of a Parish Priest and his most-recent, Excellent Catholic Parishes: The Guide to Best Places and Practices.
He has written and lectured extensively about the role of religious belief in individual lives as well the place and impact of religion in public life. An active Catholic lay person, Wilkes is currently a visiting lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Wilkes can be reached at 910/962-7225 (w), 910/815-0694 (h), e-mail [email protected].
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