Buried as a priest in good standing?

Buried as a priest in good standing?

asterisk needed

From the day I found out Fr. Christian’s burial was preformed as “a priest in good standing” by Archbishop Burke himself, it has continually been an irritant reminder of the absolute two faced stance they have taken on my case.
Side one: During my mediation they repeatedly apologized to me while we were all in the same room.
Side two: (when they left the room) My first request was for a public apology from the Archbishop. They answered, “That will NEVER happen!”
Side one: They said, “We are so sorry and we believe you.”
Side two: Archbishop Burke preformed the funeral and buried him as a priest in good standing, praising Fr. Christian as an excellent priest just six weeks before. Did Monsignor bold face lie to me, my wife and family along with my lawyers? Or did Archbishop Burke bury a known pedophile as a priest in good standing?

Suffice it to say, the examples go on. I have decided to try and get this travesty of justice reversed. My first step is to contact the new Archbishop with the letter below.

If you too feel the need to contact the Archbishop about this subject PLEASE write him at:
Archbishop Robert Carlson
4445 Lindell Saint Louis, MO 63108 (If you want proof he got it send it return receipt requested)
Thanks in advance to all those who write.

My letter:
Dear Archbishop Robert Carlson, Your predecessor Archbishop Raymond Burke buried my abuser Fr. Norman H. Christian as "a priest in good standing" even though the St. Louis County Police had been conducting an in-depth investigation of my abuse for the 30 months just before his death. Members of Norman's family testified on my behalf. Also, Father Christian had been removed from the ministry in 1995 after an allegation of abuse of a minor over 20 years earlier was brought to the diocese. With all of the evidence found by the St. Louis County Police Department, your own investigators, and even the testimony of his family that proved that Fr. Christian was a serial sex abuser & pedophile, how can you allow your Church to bury this man as a representative of God? This is an obvious misrepresentation of what your Church publicly states as your position on priest sex abuse. What are your members to believe when you ask for their trust, but you violate very public promises?

This status is very offensive to me and many others. It offers no healing, only a good dose of re-victimization.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a quote from the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “Archbishop Robert Carlson learned from sex abuse mistakes of the past.” If this is true, what have you done to correct your mistakes? And now, as the leader of the Catholic Church here, what will you do to correct the mistakes made here in St. Louis?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

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