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.

WJU Professor Gets Sabbatical in the Pen

FAIRFAX, Va. (2/18/11) -- Rev. Felix Owino, WJU Associate Professor of Philosophy, was sentenced today to five years in a Virginia penitentiary after which he may be deported to Kenya.

The professor-priest-pedophile has been incarcerated without bond since his 7/8/10 arrest. On 9/29/10 he was convicted of aggravated sexual battery of an eleven-year-old girl.

His five-year sentence was suspended except for nine months, so he will remain in prison for two more months. Judge Michael F. Devine said the suspended sentence is required by Virginia sentencing guidelines.

After he is released, Owino will be on probation for five years. He will also be required to undergo alcohol counseling and sex offender treatment. Owino was also ordered to remain abstinent from alcohol, to register as a sex offender, and have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.

Owino is not a U.S. citizen, so he faces likely deportation to Kenya for the sex felony conviction. He has hired a separate immigration attorney to fight his deportation. Owino was ordained in 1992. He joined the faculty of Wheeling Jesuit University in the fall of 2008 and taught there until his incarceration prevented him from teaching last semester.

Owino did not exactly apologize when given the opportunity to speak before sentencing by Judge Michael F. Devine. Instead he quoted scripture, and called out, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, treat me like you do your highest servant.... Rescue me, God, my helper."

His attorney, Joshua Wilson, told the judge that Owino has a problem with alcoholism which began when Owino taught in Uganda, and continued during his two years at Wheeling Jesuit University. Judge Michael Devine responded that Owino’s problems extended beyond alcoholism and told Owino, “There is something terribly wrong with you that you need to get fixed, if it can be fixed.”

Wheeling Jesuit University has never issued a statement that Professor Owino has been fired, saying only that he “was on summer break” when arrested for the felony which WJU euphemistically called his “alleged behavior.” Could not WJU have at least referred to Owino’s grotesque felony as misbehavior rather than behavior? WJU’s attitude toward this sexual abuse felony has been severely assessed by David Clohessy’s 9/7/10 posting criticizing WJU’s “shamelessly self-serving news release” and WJU’s “herculean efforts to duck and dodge and distance themselves from a credibly accused predator.”

Credibly accused homosexual predator Thomas F. Gleeson, S.J., the WJU Trustee who cast the decisive vote to fire WJU’s last Catholic President, is still at large.

Mike Fahy
Quartus