Nutty Times

Fr. Maurice Nutt, Redemptorist

After my wife and I were received into the Catholic Church, back in 2000, our parish priest suggested that we prepare for Confirmation by attending RCIA, the "Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults".  Foolishly I agreed.

It was nine months long and a total joke.  It was run by a liberal nun in a pants suit and her cadre of parish supporters, and it made sure that absolutely nothing Catholic was taught to any of us.  It was a shocking wake up call that the Church so lovingly described by Chesterton and Belloc had taken quite a few steps backward.

One of the things Sister Liz (that was her name, God rest her rebellious soul) made us do was go to a Mass at "the Rock" church on the near North Side.  The only difference between what went on in RCIA at our parish and what was going on at the Rock church was, while the latter made me just as miserable, it didn't last nine months, but only for about two or three hours.

That's right.  The Mass went at least that long, because the pastor, a certain Fr. Nutt, a charismatic preacher, was working the crowd for all the "amens" he could get, and took about a thirty minute recess for "the sign of peace" in the middle of the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  The "sign of peace" became a party with high fives and shouts of laughter and Fr. Nutt traveling all over the nave, visiting every single parishioner and yukking it up.  While the consecrated host sat patiently on the altar.

In my opinion, he was clearly and obviously an egomaniac.  Had I still been an atheist, and had Fr. Nutt been given a TV show where he was shouting at people and "faith healing" them, I would have chalked him up as just another brash and shallow phony, like the televangeslits of my youth who so turned me off to the Christian Faith.

Not long after that, Fr. Nutt disappeared in one of the first sex scandals to hit the archdiocese of St. Louis.  (See details below).

Now, fifteen years later, he's worming his way back to respectability.  He was recently invited to speak at McKendrie College in nearby Lebanon, IL.

SNAP has issued an open letter to McKendrie's president, James M. Dennis.  It's worth quoting in full ...

Feb. 19, 2015

Dear President Dennis:

We are appalled that a priest who’s been accused of sexually harassing at least three young men was allowed to speak at your university last month. We believe you owe your students, staff, alums and the public an apology and an explanation. And we believe you should punish those who are responsible.

Please keep in mind these undisputed facts about Fr. Maurice Nutt:

--Fr. Nutt was sued by at least three adults (not kids, whose memories may be more suspect),

--Fr. Nutt’s accusers were police officers (presumably somewhat more credible than just any adult),

--Fr. Nutt was also accused in at least one lawsuit of inviting an officer to watch child pornography, and

--At least two of sexual harassment lawsuits settled out of court,

--Fr. Nutt resigned his post as a St. Louis Police Commissioner,

--Fr. Nutt took “an extended sabbatical from St. Louis and his parish after the officers' allegations were made public,”

--Fr. Nutt kept a very low profile for several years,

--Fr. Nutt was later sent to work next in a low income minority community in Memphis, and

--though he’s a St. Louis native, Fr. Nutt has not been allowed to work in St. Louis since.

Now, consider these serious and credible allegations against Fr. Nutt (as reported by the Associated Press):

--One officer said Fr. Nutt “assaulted him by touching and trying to kiss him,”

--Fr. Nutt threatened to have an officer fired if he reported the sexual harassment,

--At least two officers alleged that Fr. Nutt had made unsolicited intimate overtures to them,

--One officer accused Fr. Nutt of boasting that his power on the police force could positively influence the officer's career,

--Fr.  Nutt told one officer “to begin meeting regularly with him at the church for priestly counseling sessions,”

--After the first meeting, the lawsuit claims, “Nutt took (him) from the church's meeting room to Nutt's home, where (he) was invited to watch pornographic movies showing sex acts involving men and boys,”

--After he "refused Father Nutt's overt sexual advance," the lawsuit alleges, Nutt "became increasingly aggressive" in later meetings, inappropriately touching and trying to kiss (him), and

--"All of these advances were unsolicited and unwelcome," the lawsuit said.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reports that Fr. Nutt “made more than a dozen late-night phone calls to two officers, touched one of them on the thigh and made overtures to both. The officers reportedly made charges without knowledge of the other's complaints.”

Yet this man was held out as last month a decent man and acceptable speaker at McKendree University? Why would you endanger your staff and students like this? What if, now or years from now, Fr. Nutt sexually exploits or harasses an 18 year old McKendree student or a 22 year old McKendree staffer he meet and befriended on last month’s visit to your campus?

Don’t pull the “forgiveness” claim here. Forgiveness is a private choice. Giving a speaker a forum at a college is a public act. And when that opportunity is given to a man who allegedly sexually harassed his underlings – and invited one of them to watch child porn - that’s an irresponsible act. (We can forgive a drunken school bus driver. But it’s morally wrong to give him keys to another school bus. And we can forgive Fr. Nutt. But it’s morally wrong to give him access to young people who are uninformed about his past misdeeds.)

No one’s claiming Fr. Nutt should be hungry, homeless or unemployed. But neither should he be given chances to be around vulnerable young people or held up as some sort of role model for them.

Fr. Nutt had no business being on your campus, much less in such an exalted role.

And please don’t try to chalk this up as some sort of “slip up” or “oversight.” This decision involved either deceit or recklessness.

Either there was deceit - a college staffer knew about Fr. Nutt’s past and kept it hidden. Or there was recklessness – a college staffer didn’t bother to “google” Fr. Nutt before bringing him to campus.

In either case, apologies and explanations, by you, the president, are in order. You can’t “un-do” Fr. Nutt’s visit. But you can ameliorate the harm and danger caused by it. The best way to do this – and to prevent future similar actions that endanger your students – is to publicly discipline those responsible for bringing Fr. Nutt to your campus.

We look forward to hearing from you.

David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790,SNAPclohessy@aol.com, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

***

Fr. Nutt's website is here.

And no matter how you slice it, sex can not be compartmentalized.  It is an expression of who we are and how we relate to God and to others.

Lyle Talbot and Show Business

In April we will begin performing my comedy murder mystery Cleaver It to Beaver - which means that I have to write it soon.

This also means that I have to research the series on which my mystery will be based, Leave It to Beaver.  Yesterday we watched an episode featuring Gilbert Bates, a neighbor of Beaver's and a sometimes friend / sometimes enemy.  Gilbert is portrayed by Stephen Talbot, whose real-life father Lyle Talbot also appeared on several episodes of the series.

"Lyle Talbot!" I thought.  "I worked with Lyle Talbot!"

Well, sort of.

I held the curtain for him when he'd make his exits and entrances for Camelot! at St. Louis' Westport Playhouse in 1980.  Talbot portrayed the magician Merlin.  He was 78 at the time, and my mother was excited to hear that I was working as a stagehand for a show he was in.  He was, apparently, at one time a kind of matinee idol - at least that's what I gathered from my mother's admiration of him.

Indeed, Talbot's career spanned the better part of the 20th century, from traveling tent shows to early talkies in Hollywood to appearances on any television show you can imagine.  Talbot made his first film in 1931, and over his career worked with Mae West, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, the Three Stooges, and even appeared in a few famous and famously bad Ed Wood movies.  He was the first screen actor to portray Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor, and the first to portray Commissioner Gordon of Batman and Robin's Gotham City.  He was a founder of the Screen Actors' Guild, and appeared in television shows from the days of the George Burns & Gracie Allen Show to Charlie's Angels and Who's the Boss?

Talbot lived to be 94 and one of his sons founded salon.com.  He was married four times, but the fourth one lasted for 40 years.

Lyle Talbot and I may have crossed paths only as he was making his way on and off stage for a six-week run in a show that closed 35 years ago, but having even a remote connection with someone with such a storied history is something that can only happen in show business.

Talbot as Commissioner Gordon with Batman & Robin.

Talbot as Lex Luthor

Lyle Talbot as I remember him.  You could see he'd make a great Merlin the Magician.

Maybe the World Doesn't Hate Us Because We're Christian - Maybe It Hates Us Because We're Stupid and Incredibly Narcissistic

Yeah, OK, "Devout Catholic" is great, "Young Catholic" is great, "Chastity" is great.

But give me a break.

This is from The Chastity Project ...

“The first few months we dated, I never knew he drank. I would have never guessed it because, after all, he went to mass every Sunday. One time, he invited me to go out with his friends. He kissed me when he was drunk. I felt so dirty after. No girl grows up dreaming one of her first kisses would be in a dive bar with a wasted boyfriend."

The article goes on to point out the dangers of alcoholism and binge drinking, and God bless them for that.  But the above quotation, which the author claims is from a "true story, retold with permission" reeks of the kind of Unreality that you only find at suburban Masses.

I'm assuming the "retelling" is what makes me retch.  I hope so.  If it's a direct quote, we're in trouble.

I mean, are there really young Catholic women who think that going to weekly Mass means absolutely anything at all when it comes to judging someone's character, or even how serious a person is about his Faith?  And are there real people who really say, "He kissed me when he was drunk. I felt so dirty after."???

How far this is from Reality - from any maturity, from anything but a weird kind of 1950's version of a Hallmark movie - this is what bothers me.  Yes, alcoholism is a problem, and chastity is a key virtue, and it's great that some Catholics take their Faith seriously ... but this is not an example of taking your Faith seriously.  This is not an example of being "mature in Christ".

This is an example of a puerile banality that is far more make-believe than fiction.

And even if this is a fictional quotation, made up by the author, we're still in trouble.  On what planet does this kind of contrived and artificial approach to life and dating actually work?  Who is this quotation trying to reach, trying to appeal to?

And, by the way, why on earth would you go to a "dive bar" if getting kissed there is so offensive to you?

It would kind of be like this ...

The first few months we dated, I never knew she was a guy in drag.  I mean, she carried a rosary.  The hairy legs were a give away, but still.  And then when she lifted up her skirt and showed me her mail genitalia at that gay bar on the East Side ... well, who wants your first glimpse of the naked flesh of your lover to be at a seamy gay bar on the East Side?  I felt so cheap.  No guy grows up fantasizing about his first moment of intimacy occurring at a gay bar on the East Side. 

... only worse, only more stupid, only more mindless, only more inane.

Maybe the world doesn't hate us because we're Christian.  Maybe it hates us because we're stupid and incredibly narcissistic.