WFAA seems to be dragging old news for something to promote, and last night there was nothing better than a year-old priest-pederast story. The news peg is a lawsuit filed by three plaintiffs, but that happened two months ago. Moreover, one FrontBurnervian notes that Bert Shipp’s story seemed heavily tilted in the plaintiff’s direction:
In late May 2006, Bishop Grahman arrived at 9:00 a.m. Mass (quite to the surprise of the congregation) and announced that Msgr. Johnson had been removed as our pastor (of some 21 years) and suspended because of allegations of inappropriate conduct with a child. The bishop was pretty direct about what was alleged and when the alleged abuse occurred. A couple of weeks later, the parish community was informed in no uncertain terms that the allegations had been “verified” and that Msgr. Johnson had been removed from the priesthood. WFAA reports that Johnson was “allowed to resign” and that he is being permitted to enjoy a “peaceful retirement.” That’s not the way our parish saw it — we were told he’d been suspended, and then removed from the priesthood. That’s not what I’d call a resignation, and it is certainly a far cry from what WFAA portrayed.Of course, one wonders what WFAA would have the Diocese do with Msgr. Johnson beyond what has been done. He was removed from his position, and his position as a priest was stripped from him. I suppose he could have been drawn and quartered on the Cathedral steps, but the Church stopped doing that sort of thing a long time ago.
