Kiddie Porn Arrest of LaCrosse Diocese (Wisconsin) Priest, And a Comment on The Vatican's New Sex Abuse Policy

The Bad Lawyer has marshaled over the last year lots of anecdotal evidence of the widespread "appeal" of kiddie porn in an effort to make the point that this crime is not limited to someones creepy hillbilly uncle Fred.  Here on Bad Lawyer we've seen the arrest ad prosecution of persons from all social classes and all occupations including lawyers, judges, law enforcement, social workers and physicians.

This story at TwinCities.com about Father Patrick A. Umberger a LaCrosse, Wisconisn priest is a slightly more disturbing report, and not because Umberger's a priest.  He is also the webmaster of the Diocese of LaCrosse, Wisconsin!  This is from Todd Richmond's account:

The Rev. Patrick A. Umberger, the Diocese of La Crosse's webmaster, faces one felony count punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and 25 years in prison. Among several images of children that state department of justice agents discovered on Umberger's computer were three photographs depicting boys and possibly a girl in sexual positions, according to the complaint.  Umberger, 59, has served as pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in Onalaska since 2005. He also teaches at the parish's school and serves as chaplain at Aquinas Middle School in La Crosse, according to his website.

The Diocese of La Crosse has stripped Umberger of his duties 'to protect all parties involved,' according to a Thursday statement from diocese attorney James Birnbaum. However, the diocese cautioned the move should not be taken as a sign of Umberger's guilt or innocence.   Umberger, who was arrested Wednesday, was released Thursday on a $10,000 signature bond and ordered not to have contact with children or use a computer. Online court filings did not list a personal defense attorney.

The case against Umberger began when police received a report that he had been acting 'suspiciously' at a Lake Delton water park in July 2009, according to the criminal complaint. A family had told Noah's Ark Water Park employees that Umberger was sitting near a kiddie pool and following boys into the men's restroom, and the employees called police, according to a Lake Delton Police report. Umberger told an officer he had a season pass and was near the restrooms because he had prostate problems and had to urinate often, the report said.

The officer told Umberger that park officials had revoked his season pass and drove him to his car. The officer noted she questioned Umberger for an hour and he never had to use the restroom. Noah's Ark Operations Manager Justin Strayer said in a statement Thursday that Umberger remains on the park's watch list.

Lake Delton officers shared the report with police in Onalaska, who discovered Umberger had a website as well as a Facebook account that listed many young boys as friends. Onalaska police turned the case over to the state Justice Department.  During an interview with a justice department agent Wednesday, Umberger denied any inappropriate sexual contact with children during his 30 years as a priest and said nothing inappropriate happened at the water park, according to the criminal complaint.

Umberger allegedly told the agent, however, that he found people could become sexually attracted to him when they were 12 or 13 years old and he was attracted to boys between the ages of 12 and 15 or older. Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland ordained Umberger in 1980. Weakland resigned as archbishop in 2002 after admitting the archdiocese secretly paid $450,000 to a man who accused Weakland of sexual abuse.

Umberger served multiple stints around central and western Wisconsin, including stops at parishes in Arcadia, La Crosse, Mauston, Wonewoc and Elroy. He describes himself on his website as a self-taught computer user, saying he bought his first computer in 1984 through the mail and never has had a computer class of any kind.

In August 2005 then-Bishop Jerome Listecki, now the archbishop of Milwaukee, named Umberger webmaster for the Diocese of La Crosse and the following year he was named to a committee to select software for the diocese.

Jessica Kircher — an associate of Birnbaum, the diocese attorney — said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that the diocese was not aware of Umberger's alleged inappropriate computer use. Milwaukee Archdiocese spokeswoman Gillian Lester-George said in an e-mail that Listecki was "surprised and saddened" to hear about Umberger's arrest.  'Archbishop Listecki had no previous indication that there were any potential issues that would have prevented Fr. Pat from serving in public ministry,' Lester-George wrote."
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Sometimes perpetrators of these crimes explain themselves, Father Umberger seems to be willing to own what's obvious, he was "attracted" to young boys and was "aroused" by images of these children. 

Here we have the conundrum for my Church which has once again expressed its will that priest be celibate and that the ordination of women is a "grave" crime.  Don't get the connection?  The Catholic Church does that's why it reiterated these ideas as part of it's new expression of policies relating to child sex abuse by clergy. 

My Church is hip to the digital world, but continues to demand that the faithful embrace its fantastic delusion that the sexuality in the male human beings that are its priests can be sublimated to make them more perfect representatives of Jesus Christ on earth.  This, sadly, continues the willful blindness and stupidity by the pathetic old men in the Vatican, and their zealous defenders in the incredibly shrinking world of Catholicism in America and around the world.