One Shoe Drops: WJU to pay $2,300,000 for grant fraud

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wheeling issued a press release on August 3, 2015, entitled Federal grant fraud claims settled with Wheeling Jesuit University.

The key provisions of the announcement are: (a) “Wheeling Jesuit University will pay the United States the sum of $2,300,000 to settle claims that it misused grant funding awarded by [NASA].” (b) “Grantees must use federal money for the purpose for which the grant was given, and for nothing else. The rules are clear.” (c) “[T]he United States was prepared to pursue” the criminal allegations against Wheeling Jesuit University if university officials did not sign the proffered agreement. (d) “The agreement does not preclude criminal charges against individuals involved in the grant fraud.”
The individuals to whom the government refers include J. Davitt McAteer and possibly other members of the then board of directors.  It is unlikely that any university employees will be indicted because they have cooperated with the federal grand jury.

The 25-page affidavit signed on 2/16/12 by a NASA Special Agent at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said WJU’s fraudulently billed expenses range from McAteer’s salary, which surged from $130,300 in 2006 to $230,659 by 2008 to cellphones, computers, and salaries for other staff including a secretary in Davitt McAteer’s Shepherdstown private law office 220 miles from the campus.

Accused homosexual predator and then board member Thomas F. (Tommy) Gleeson, S.J., will not be indicted because he died on 11/7/14.  Gleeson was one of the “Three Tricky Trustees” who illegally fired President Julio Giulietti, S.J., for no stated reason.  In October 2009, SNAP picketed against WJU because of WJU’s ongoing harboring of Gleeson.

The school’s same-day press release euphemistically states that their $2,300,000 payment will not include any “private donations.”  The truth is that all funds are fungible.  Wheeling Jesuit University has just incurred a substantial liability.

WJU has steadfastly refused to issue a public apology to President-Emeritus Julio Giulietti, S.J., who was fired when he began probing into the NASA theft, and concurrently attempted to reduce the enormous $230,659 salary of J. Davitt McAteer.

Will J. Davitt McAteer (’66) become the first WJU Hall of Honor inductee to wind up in the hoosegow?  Stay tuned.

Michael J. Fahy
Quartus

Visit to Wheeling

Recently back from business in Brussels and then another back from Columbus, OH, when I passed through Wheeling. Spent some time on campus to discover that Fr. Giulietti's portrait does not appear on the wall of the hall of "X's" leading to the president's office. Portraits of other presidents who met a similar fate as Fr. Julio's appear on the long row. I am told by a Jesuit in DC that Rev. William George was sent to rescue the college's accounts, but that he feels frustrated by the lack of any serious response by alumni or former board members to any fundraising outreach.

There is some connection here. Fr. Julio's non-appearance on the long wall of X presidents is probably one big reason even benign alumni are not interested in supporting the school. I heard many locals have switched to supporting West Liberty University's sports teams. Others to charities more local to them. Probably another reason is that many do not believe the school has any future past three years.

Rev. George, put up Fr. Julio's portrait. It just might make your life a bit less dismal.

-Larry Catraro

$19,600,000 Judgment Against Jesuit Hierarchy

Jesuits teach that our lives must promote justice.  Last week, justice taught the Jesuits a $19,600,000 lesson about covering up Jesuit sodomy.  The Jesuit hierarchy never seems to understand that openness and reform promote peace and justice much more effectively than Jesuit secrecy and cover-up.  Jesuit silence, cover-up, and stonewall secrecy too often result in lawsuits, campus raids by law enforcement officers, and multi-million-dollar settlement costs.  Where do all those Jesuit dollars come from anyway?

Last week, Jesuit officials were ordered to pay $19,600,000 for settlement of a Chicago civil lawsuit brought by six victims of Jesuit homosexual pedophile Donald McGuire.  Previously, on 2/11/9, a Chicago federal judge sentenced Jesuit Donald McGuire, then age 78, to 25 years in prison (in excess of federal sentencing guidelines) for homosexually assaulting young boys.

The $19,600,000 is not punishment for the Jesuit homosexual pedophile; rather it punishes the Jesuit hierarchy for attempting to cover-up that hideous crime by denying responsibility, avoiding accountability, manipulating the truth, and hiding behind lawyers.  The Jesuit hierarchy totally failed to embrace their student victims with compassion, care, openness, and truthfulness.  Their victims became their enemy: defiled and ostracized.

"The amount of the settlement is reflective of the magnitude of misconduct by the top Jesuit officials," said an attorney for the victims of the Jesuit hierarchy.  The 40-year-long cover-up of the ongoing homosexual attacks on young boys was concealed as a matter of high-level Jesuit policy.  Among the individual Jesuits named in the settlement are several Jesuit provincials, provincial assistants, Jesuit university presidents, Jesuit high school principals, and not one Jesuit whistle-blower!  The Jesuit vow of obedience to superior Jesuits has been corrupted and bastardized.

Chicago's Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) said this is "a settlement that, by its size alone, shows that [Jesuit] officials are terrified of having to testify in open court about their complicity.... And it's a settlement that should make parents pause before sending their youngsters to Jesuit schools."

The Jesuit policy of secrecy, cover-up, and silence resulting in that $19,600,000 payout involved Jesuits at Loyola University, Marquette University, and Jesuit high schools.  But that same Jesuit modus operandi has been pervasive at Wheeling Jesuit University in recent years.

When SNAP picketed Wheeling Jesuit University's ongoing harboring of accused homosexual predator Thomas F. (Tommy) Gleeson, S.J., that WJU secret was exposed for the first time.  How did WJU respond?  WJU Interim President J. Davitt McAteer, arrogantly told the press on 10/13/9: "We at Wheeling Jesuit University, and I personally, am happy to have Father Gleeson serving as a valuable member of our Board of Trustees and Board of Directors.  We have no plans to suspend Father Gleeson, nor conduct any investigation."

WJU's Interim President considered the accused homosexual predator "a valuable member of our Board of Trustees" because Tommy Gleeson had cast the deciding vote to fire WJU President Julio Giulietti, S.J., on 8/5/9; thus allowing McAteer to appoint himself Interim President on that same day so that he could conceal and cover up his financial shenanigans questioned by the 8/3/9 NASA audit report.

In keeping with the Jesuit code of silence and secrecy, Jesuit Provincial James Shea, S.J., on 10/24/9, refused to require full disclosure of Davitt McAteer's oversight of the NASA debacle, and the cascade of ensuing events.  The Jesuit hierarchy never seems to learn that openness and reform promote peace and justice much more effectively than Jesuit secrecy and cover-up.

The dishonorable Jesuit policy of stonewall secrecy, cover-up, and silence resulted, on 2/16/12, in a massive raid by federal agents on Wheeling Jesuit University's office and McAteer's office seizing files, computers, and cellphones.  Earlier that day a NASA agent, under oath, said he believes WJU and McAteer committed multiple felonies of theft and fraud!

On 4/14/12, Vicki Smith, the tenacious writer for the Associated Press, concluded her reporting of the federal theft and fraud accusations by noting: "The school's board never publicly said why Giulietti was let go."  WJU remains silent about their reason for firing him because WJU's keep-a-lid-on-it mind-set has the same underpinnings as the high-level Jesuit policy revealed in last week's Chicago civil case.  President Julio Giulietti, S.J., was fired on 8/5/9 so that he would not probe into WJU's financial shenanigans questioned by the 8/3/9 NASA audit report.  There has been no effort by WJU to issue an apology to Fr. Julio for what WJU did to him.

As the federal investigation continues toward possible indictments, Wheeling Jesuit University continues to operate under the Sword of Damocles.

Mike Fahy
Chicago

Only two years and two months into the job, WJU's new president is replaced!

Without a search for candidates, Wheeling Jesuit University, on 3/7/13, replaced President Rick Beyer with President-elect Jim Fleming, S.J., effective 7/1/13. A search committee was not formed.

Rick Beyer's abrupt resignation and the simultaneous appointment of Jim Fleming took place as a non-agenda item at a 3/7/13 meeting of the WJU Board of Trustees. On the WJU website, Board Chairman Mimie Helm said Rick Beyer quit "in part to spend more time with his family," and that the Board's "unanimous choice for president was Fr. Fleming."

The Associated Press today released only a perfunctory story based upon the WJU website. More to come?

The Big Elephant in the corner of the room that no one talks about is William J. Ihlenfeld, II, U.S. Attorney in Wheeling, West Virginia. Plea bargaining is ongoing. Rick Beyer has not spoken publicly about the federal investigation since his 4/18/12 letter saying WJU had hired "a former United States Attorney," but did not identify him. Openness?

Five C.E.O.s in less than four years
8/5/9 fired ---- Julio Giulietti, S.J.
8/5/9 to 2/8/10 ---- J. Davitt McAteer [WJU Hall of Honor member and accused felon]
2/8/10 to 1/1/11 ---- Francis Marie Thrailkill
1/2/11 to 7/1/13 ---- Richard Allen (Rick) Beyer
7/1/13 ---- James J. (Jim) Fleming, S.J.

James J. Fleming, S.J., has been employed by WJU since 7/1/10 in the capacities of (1) President's Chief of Staff; (2) WJU Executive Vice President; and (3) Chief Officer for Mission and Identity. Berkeley educated (indoctrinated) Fleming is (or was) a member of the Catholic Worker Organization which promotes, inter alia, the Marxist notion of redistribution of wealth. Teaching Marxist redistribution of someone else's wealth seems to come easily to some Jesuits who have taken a vow of poverty.

In May of 2012 eight members of the Catholic Worker Organization, claiming to be nonviolent advocates of peace and justice, were arrested and jailed after violently storming Chicago's Prudential Building during Chicago's NATO Conference.

-Mike Fahy

Bishop Bransfield, Stay Home

I was in Brussels only to come back to Washington to discover the complaints about Bishop Bransfield are as hot as ever. The large National Catholic Reporter newspaper issued a statement of importance to the college. Why? Because it is Bransfield who is keeping the college afloat. As soon as he falls - and it is coming through a quiet investigation in Philadelphia - the college will have no more sugar daddy.

See what the newspaper printed earlier this week:

"This week, all of America's Catholic prelates are invited to the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Almost all of them will certainly show up.
Consider West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield, also accused of molestation. He should be disinvited from this week's meeting.

In April, Bransfield was accused of abuse by a man who testified about another child-molesting cleric. During that same trial, another man, also under oath, said Bransfield had a lewd conversation with him. And the prosecutor in the case disclosed that Bransfield had been accused, in a separate instance, of fondling a child years earlier.

Despite a pending criminal investigation into these allegations, Bransfield refuses to step aside during the probe.

In light of this, Bransfield should be told to stay home this week."

Larry Catraro

Animal House

Just when you thought Wheeling College could not get any worse -- another police investigation. The College's Saint Thomas More Hall is now dishonored as Animal House.

Click this morning's story in the Wheeling Intelligencer:

"WJU Menage a Trois in Student Lounge Draws a Crowd."

Chronological list of Wheeling's Sex, Crime & Dishonor after Fr. Julio's open-minded and Jesuit  based administration was slammed shut 37months ago: 

10/14/9 - WJU picketed by SNAP (Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests) because of WJU's ongoing harboring of accused homosexual predator Thomas F. (Tommy) Gleeson, S.J.

12/18/9 - Sexual harassment lawsuit filed against WJU & J. Davitt McAteer.

9/29/10 - WJU's pedophile-professor-priest, Felix Owino, convicted of aggravated sexual battery of an eleven-year-old girl.

5/14/11 - Convicted felon Milorad Blagojevich's good friend and campaign manager, David Wilhelm, awarded an honorary degree by Wheeling Jesuit University.

6/25/11 - J. Davitt McAteer inducted into WJU Hall of Honor.

2/16/12 - Federal agents raid WJU's office and V.P. McAteer's office at WJU seizing files, computers, and cellphones. NASA agent, under oath, believes WJU and McAteer committed multiple felonies!

9/27/12 - WJU's Saint Thomas More Hall dishonored as Animal House. Menage a trois in student lounge draws a crowd. Police investigate.

Where did this info come from?

Where did these facts come from? Why now?  Might the end be near?  CLICK HERE.

- Larry

NASA Special Agent believes WJU committed five federal crimes

Click here to see the affidavit of the NASA Special Agent who established probable cause for the 2/16/12 massive federal raid on Wheeling Jesuit University.

The NASA agent believes that Wheeling Jesuit University committed five federal crimes: Theft (18 U.S.C. 666); Major Fraud (18 U.S.C. 1031); Conspiracy (18 U.S.C. 371); False Claims (18 U.S.C. 287); and Wire Fraud (18 U.S.C. 1343), [¶ 6, p. 2].

The affidavit also implicates the WJU Board of Directors in criminal activity. To wit: "Documents obtained thus far also evidence knowledge and intent by the Wheeling Jesuit University Board of Directors to circumvent the [law] and improperly divert Federal Government funds for the purposes of sustaining Wheeling Jesuit University in its general, non-federal program educational areas." -- ¶ 16, p. 9.

The 25-page affidavit is followed by nine pages listing locations and items to be seized.  The identities of the two suspected perpetrators: Redacted Subject #1 is J. Davitt McAteer, Vice President of Wheeling Jesuit University; and Redacted Subject #2 is Wheeling Jesuit University.

If you have any questions, please ask them in the commentary section.

The End is Near

The incestuous relationship between Wheeling College and Bishop Michael Bransfield is over, for ever.  The funds he donated to the college were nothing other than the down payment for the property which he knows in heading toward bankruptcy.  The "Davitt" case is bad enough. But the sexual antics of "sugar daddy" is too much even for a hardened lawyer like myself to hear. Well, almost too much.

Some years ago, Bransfield is alleged to have said on the phone to the man in the Philly courtroom: "I'm going to have Stanley put you on a train and come down and see me sometime."  If this is true, then he needs to wire his resignation to Pope Benedict by COB today.

The arrogance this bishop of the RC Church had to humiliate the Sisters of the Visitation by denying them the right to sell their own property to the college.  The arrogance he had, out of jealousy, to demand Fr. Giulietti's dismissal.

What goes around comes around.  The rats are leaving the ship.

- Larry

Feds probe NASA fraud by WJU & McAteer

A Federal Grand Jury probe is focusing on NASA fraud by Wheeling Jesuit University and by WJU Vice President J. Davitt McAteer. The investigation appears to center on whether WJU diverted taxpayer dollars via fraudulent billing expenses.

Witness affidavits supporting the warrants for the 2/16/12 raid upon the WJU campus will be kept secret for another 60 days. Yesterday (4/12/12) U.S. Magistrate James E. Seibert denied McAteer's motion to have that information unsealed. Wheeling Jesuit University also argued unsuccessfully to have the witness affidavits unsealed. The U.S. Attorney expects more current and former employees of Wheeling Jesuit University to appear before his grand jury.

"The reputation of Mr. McAteer and Wheeling Jesuit University have been thrown into question by publicity surrounding the search," saith McAteer's criminal lawyer. So who is to blame for WJU's most recent bad publicity -- McAteer or the courageous whistle-blowers who are testifying before the grand jury?

On February 16, 2012, federal agents seized files from McAteer's WJU campus office, and from his home office in the eastern panhandle. Agents of NASA and other federal agencies from all over the country converged upon the campus, and simultaneously upon McAteer's eastern panhandle estate. In Wheeling, they took all the WJU files and WJU computers from the 3rd and 4th floors of the National Technology Transfer Center (one of the Byrd buildings). Then they confiscated all the private files and computers belonging to Davitt McAteer.

J. Davitt McAteer, Vice President of Wheeling Jesuit University since 2005 (and Interim-President-Emeritus), was recently inducted into WJU's Hall of Honor.

William J. Ihlenfeld, II, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling Division), recently implemented the Northern District Financial Crimes Task Force (Racket Squad).

To the Associated Press, WJU's Richard Beyer referred all questions to Michelle Rejonis who refused to discuss the matter. Well, no change there; same old stonewall still in place. The McAteer/Shea agenda of stonewalled silence and secrecy following the August 2009 firing of WJU's President Julio Giulietti, S.J., continued through multiple scandals ensuing thereafter. Now the Cardinals have come home to roost.

For more details, click these news reports from Jackson, Mississippi and from Wheeling, West Virginia, and from Blithe Spirit.

Mike Fahy
Quartus

The painful truth finally is surfacing

Just before Easter, I had lunch in Washington with a Wheeling College faculty member.  He was secretly in the DC area seeking interviews for a job.  He told me that the college's president, Mr. Beyer, had finally admitted to the employees that the college is in a precarious condition.  The student body has dwindled.  Even with investing lots of borrowed money to hire new recruiters, over the third year the college did not come close to the number of new students it needs to cover costs.  (Not counting the drop-outs.)  Not many high school students are interested in attending the college even when the school is giving away entrance.  Its final drawing card, that it is a Jesuit college, had been erased with the debacle of the unjust firing of Fr. Giulietti.

More news: Joe Bock, director of development, and elder brother of the Bock on the Wheeling Board - nepotism if I ever heard of it - was fired by Mr. Beyer. The great hope did not produce much of anything.  Where is Fr. Julio when you need him?

Finally the Jesuits.  Jesuit sources in DC say that the Order agreed on a few colleges they expect to "go under" over the next three to five years.  Wheeling is the first candidate.  When will they admit this publicly?  When will Mr. Beyer fess up to the employees?   What plans does Bishop Bransfield have for the former Jesuit school?

These facts add further nails to the coffin.

- Larry

Feds raid McAteer office at WJU!

When Fr. Julio was fired, I immediately linked Davitt McAteer to the NASA scandal as a reason for firing WJU's President. Now the Feds have seized files from McAteer's campus office, from his home office in the eastern panhandle, and perhaps from his Morgantown office (rent paid by WJU). Click HERE and HERE for newspaper accounts.

BACKGROUND:

On 8/3/9 NASA issued an audit report critical of WJU. Only hours later that day, Gerard Stockhausen, S.J., sent an e-mail notice of the meeting where Julio Giulietti, S.J., was surreptitiously fired in absentia, sans debate. The intensive clandestine campaign to fire the president was launched by and spearheaded by J. Davitt McAteer; this according to statements later issued by board member Rudolph L. DiTrapano, Sr. Coincidental? In my Chicago, we have a saying: 'There are no coincidences in politics.'

We now know that Mount de Chantal real estate was the bishop's reason for firing our president. But that may not have been the only reason. There is ample evidence to conclude that at least one person wanted to prevent Julio Giulietti, S.J., from delving into the NASA mess, and that person was J. Davitt McAteer.

As VP for Sponsored Programs, Governmental Relations and Legal Advisor, McAteer was responsible for the Center for Educational Technologies and also the National Technology Transfer Center. McAteer has accumulated considerable personal wealth from taxpayer dollars. A NASA honeypot is certainly not beyond the scope of reasonable inquiry.

Why else would McAteer be appointed acting president? Who appointed him acting president? That question has never been answered by anyone. The Wheeling Intelligencer has never reported his appointment, and has never reported the critical NASA audit report.

In an 8/31/9 article entitled WJU Debacle: Who did it, How they did it, and Why they did it, I answered the question, Why did they do it? in part:
"Perhaps the goal was not to fire Julio Giulietti, but to put Davitt McAteer in the president's office to cover up the NASA mess (In this scenario, Julio Giulietti was merely collateral damage). The troika gave McAteer that job for a reason. He was VP for Sponsored Programs, Governmental Relations and Legal Advisor. That means he was responsible for the Center for Educational Technologies and also the National Technology Transfer Center. Immediately preceding the board action against Julio Giulietti, NASA issued an audit report critical of WJU. That timing cannot be dismissed as merely coincidental! And the report cannot be dismissed as merely a $4,000,000 clerical error OK'd by the man in charge, (guess who?) Davitt McAteer. The entire $4,000,000 inappropriately charged to NASA was attributed to salaries for administrators. That means, (guess who?) Davitt McAteer. For certain, Julio Giulietti has not been president long enough to be responsible for the increased debt caused by this NASA mess. NASA issues the audit report critical of WJU, and immediately McAteer replaces Giulietti! Sounds like fertile ground for a grand-jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorney."

On 8/14/9 I e-mailed a letter to J. Davitt McAteer responding to his letter of the same day to alumni. I wrote in part: "The Intelligencer details a long list of impressive accomplishments for his brief tenure. Why did WJU fire him? Please tell us the truth. To do otherwise would be tantamount to character assassination of a good and decent Jesuit who acted honorably. No matter how sordid you believe it is, the truth is better than that in which you are now mired [a reference to the NASA scandal]."
McAteer has never responded to my letter.

On 10/24/9 I wrote an Open Letter to Father Provincial James Shea, S.J. regarding WJU's growing list of scandals. In part, I wrote:
"NASA issues the audit report critical of WJU, and immediately McAteer replaces Giulietti! The public perception is clear: WJU has been placed between avaricious men and a pile of money. Remedy: a restoration of accountability to the NASA program by requiring full disclosure of Davitt McAteer's oversight of the NASA debacle."
Shea has never responded to my letter.

It would appear that the U.S. Attorney now shares my desire for full disclosure.

Magna est veritas et praevalebit!
(Truth is mighty and shall prevail!)

Mike Fahy

Another Nail in the Coffin

I was on business in Belgium last week and returned to discover that a power-hungry member of the Wheeling College administration has fallen.

Some back ground. Fr. Julio sacking was against the will of the full board of directors.  It was orchestrated by a small group of narrow thinking, fearful, jealous and power-hungry people – not all men – who could not bear change.  Of the three Jesuit trustees who voted in the darkness of secrecy to overturn the will of the board, two have been discredited.  We wait for the fall of the third, who all know, has not born the heat of just labor for a long time.

Yet there were others behind the scenes to design the ignominious sacking of a good man. One is Mr. J. Davitt McAteer, then a VP for Sponsored Programs, mostly federal programs with NASA.  Board members tell me that Fr. Giulietti was aware that Mr. McAteer acquired an outrageously high salary for his position especially while the college was struggling for solvency.  Father was supported in his decision to limit McAteer’s salary and investigate questionable practices with NASA grants.   Mr. McAteer complained to some board members (who did not like Father Julio) that he was unjustly persecuted; that his salary was just for the money he brought in; and that if he left his position the college would lose its federal (NASA) funding.  At that time, college employees monitoring the federal grants noticed irregularities under the VP’s nose.  NASA questioned the college on its monitoring of its funds which were under the direction of Mr. McAteer.

The day of Fr. Julio’s demise, it was Mr. McAteer who was immediately appointed by unknown board members as acting president of the college.  Insult to injury for Fr. Julio and the college community!  Some close to events then remark that Mr. McAteer wielded his unjust authority brutally against Fr. Julio and anyone who questioned his authority.  Sadly, the Jesuits did not intervene.

Now Mr. McAteer is in deep trouble.  Loads of files from his campus office and home office have been seized by federal authorities so they can examine his seemingly illicit practices with federal moneys.  See: HERE

Mr. McAteer, the feds have caught up with you.  You are another nail in the college’s coffin.

-by Larry Catraro

The Mount is Gone!

Last month I found myself in two places far appart one from the other: Wheeling, WV and Zurich, Switzerland.  There are surprising connections between them.


First Wheeling. The Mount is gone!  The wrecking ball and tractors were driven onto the former property of the Sisters of the Visitation.  Under great security, information silence and noise, they knock down all the building except the gymnasium.  I saw it for myself.  Someone shucked into the property to take pictures which later appeared publically.  Other than that, silence.  I wonder why?  Evidently the ownership of Wheeling Hospital wanted its actions and plans kept secret.  As if in contemporary America that could ever happen!


The sadness and anger is not only for the city of Wheeling and the Mount's graduates. The sadness and anger is alive for the college.  The entire city knows that the former president, Fr. Giulietti, had negotiated transparently with the Sisters a just and satisfactory agreement that Wheeling College would to purchase the property in a payment that would stretch out over an agreed upon time.  The Sisters would remain in their community house for as long as they wanted.  Their cemetery, resting place for almost 80 Sisters, would be maintained.  Their more than 150 years of educational excellence would continue next door.  Father won the agreement of a highly polarized board that allowed him to continue forward in discussions with the Sisters. Contacts in Washington, who want to remain anonymous, tell me that it was the ownership of Wheeling Hospital that pulled some archaic-ecclesiastical-slight-of-hand to pressure the dysfunctional Jesuit Trustees to stop the conversation leading to a legal, just and educationally viable negotiation.  


Another proof that Fr. Giulietti's plan to integrate the Mount into Wheeling College, with the agreement of the Sisters of the Visitation, ran foul to the desires of the ownership of Wheeling Hospital.  Father is exonerated from a false accusation once again.
Now Zurich. My business trip coincided with a well publicized conference held at a Benedictine monastery in Switzerland. The conference was organized so that media specialists, who cover Church affairs, could dialogue with Church leaders from Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany and other West European nations about how journalists encounter the Church.  Swiss news media reported the top Abbot of the Benedictines, Abbot Notkre Wolf, as saying about the Church: "There is not point in hushing thinks up.  We need openness and transparency, and a clarification of facts."  


Would that American Church officials be honest enough to offer clarification of facts about three points: why the silence over the Mount's destruction?  What plans are in the works to use the property?  And what about the common perception that Fr. Julio's transparent, just and successful negotiations with the Sisters were a threat to others.  


Maybe the ownership of Wheeling Hospital could benefit from a trip to Zurich.


Larry Catraro

In Memory of Bishop Schmitt

The beloved Bishop Bernard Schmitt, retired and loved Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, died peacefully on August 16, the day before his birthday.  Bishop Schmitt had a good relationship with Wheeling College, especially with Fr. Giulietti whom he thought was smart and knew what a Catholic and Jesuit institution should be.  That friendship led Bishop Schmitt to include WJU in his will as part of his desire to assist catholic education in his beloved West Virginia.  Not long after Fr. Julio was foolishly fired from the college, Bishops Schmitt changed his will so that no funds would be left to the college upon his death.  The Sister of the Visitation were also in Bishop Schmitts will.  But when they were not allowed by the local bishop to sell their property to their friendly neighbors and shortly departed West Virginia, they too came out of the will.  This in not news to those who were close to Bishop Schmitt.

Let's shift topics.  According to friends working at a West Virginia bank, the present president, Mr. Byer (I forgot what number president he is since there were so many over the last eight years!) is full of strange news.  He's broadcasting that the college is ready for a gigantic burst of new students.  People who know money, WJU and the Tri-State area are perplexed.  They wonder where this fellow's mind might be. From where will these students come from?

One natural location would be the catholic schools in Pittsburgh.  Fr. Giulietti smartly cultivated those catholic schools so that many seniors went to attend the college only to find that he was fired.  Most of them left by mid-year.  No others have arrived since.  The leadership of the catholic schools in Pittsburgh seem not willing to point their students toward WJU.  My Pittsburgh acquaintances say they feel it is no longer a Jesuit school although some dysfunctional and retired ones live there. Duquesne is the only catholic school on their radar.

Does not Mr. Beyer and his aids realize that billing WJU as a source of Jesuit values is no longer true? The card that made the school unique and worthy of parental sacrifice is non-existent.  The "Jesuit charted and values" were wiped out with the departure of its last Jesuit president.
The tuition at the college is very high in a region that is financially damaged.  Why would financially strapped families send children to an expensive school that has lost its soul?  West Liberty University, here we come!

There is more. According to local business sources, Mr. Beyer has been using needed depreciation funds to plug a deep and wide red hole in his budget.  What will he do the next time?  What is left to pilfer?

The mediums of false advertizing and financial plugs are at the brink.

Larry Catraro

Tim Murphy (Class of 1974) probes Solyndra scandal

9/14/11 - Congressman Tim Murphy (Wheeling College Class of 1974) seeks Solyndra truth by aggressively interrogating an Obama administration official -- hear Tim here on video (3:12 minutes) of Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations grilling of Department of Energy's Jonathan Silver.

"Who's fault is it? ... What do you do for a living? ... Stop throwing your staff under the bus." Excellent hard-hitting examination.

A new Jesuit foothold in Vietnam

Please read the article. CLICK HERE.

There were and are dysfunctional board members and mentally disturbed Jesuits who wanted to blame the college's decades long problems on him. We all know now those accusations were proven rancid and without substance.  Fr. Julio's resilience is incredible!

- as published at the National Catholic Reporter

Easter Season

         The Easter Season continues for some weeks so it’s fitting to recall some of the struggles of the players involved in the weeks following the Passion of Christ and his return to his Father. (I went to a Jesuit high school so I know about these things.) First there is Peter who betrayer his best friend, Jesus.  For days Peter stayed hold up out of fear for the local Jewish religious authorities who had Jesus tried and condemned and insisted on his murderous execution.  Jesus meets him by the water’s edge.  I imagine they had a lot to talk about.  Can you imagine Peter’s tears?  His words?

          Then there are those religious authorities who were gloating over their success in having that dangerous man Jesus wiped out.  After all, Jesus’ way of seeing the world, his preaching and actions seemed so alien to their compulsion to maintain the status quo.  Their fear of anything new and different frightened and threatened their religious purity.  They needed at least to silence him but better to have him executed.  And at no time did those religious authorities allow Jesus to speak, to defend himself.

          At no time was Fr. Julio ever able to speak and to defend himself in front of modern local and provincial religious authorities.  When some board members, never happy with his or any Jesuit’s appointment as president, could not silence him legally, they turned in the dead of night to religious authorities to carry out their nasty act.  Such an action is what thinking people expect from Iran and North Korea.  It is that narrow and dysfunctional mindset and behavior that troubles so many alumni and friends of the college.  Do these religious authorities or new administrators think we are so foolish as to believe their actions helped the college?  Or helped to model for students and neighbors an honest, legal, ethical – need I say moral – behavior?

          Without tears shed as Peter shed tears, the religious authorities keep the college shackled.  Without those tears Wheeling College will remain under populated, unable to attract alumni dollars and will ultimately surface to be the first of the 28 Jesuit colleges to be cut loose.

Larry Catraro

Gleeson SJ in Philadelphia: inquiring student minds at work

CLICK HERE to see the full article at Blithe Spirit the Blog.

WJU Board Member in Trouble Again

CLICK HERE to see details on St. Joseph's University Student Newspaper.