Burke seeks to keep priest in prison
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has written a letter to three churches warning that one of their former pastors, the Rev. James Beine, will soon be released from prison – and asking anyone who might be able to put him back behind bars to come forward.
The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Beine’s conviction on charges of exposing himself to three students at a St. Louis grade school, where he worked as a counselor, in the 2000-2001 school year. The court held that the law was unconstitutionally broad.
On Friday, the high court ordered Beine’s release; authorities said it could happen by Tuesday.
Burke asked the pastors of St. Peter in St. Charles, St. Andrew in Lemay and St. Francis de Sales in St. Louis to read his letter at all Masses next weekend. Beine served in the three parishes between his ordination in 1967 and his removal from ministry in 1977.
The letter will be printed in next week’s archdiocesan newspaper, the St. Louis Review, and Web site, according to spokesman Jamie Allman. It is the first time Burke, as the leader of the St. Louis archdiocese, has taken such public action against a priest.
“I offer my heartfelt apologies to any victim of James Beine,” Burke wrote in the letter, “and I encourage anyone who has been a victim of James Beine, or of any other member of the clergy, to contact the Archdiocese or the law enforcement authorities.”
Lawyers on both sides of Beine’s case have said it would be unusual, even rare, for the court to order him freed on an appeal bond while the attorney general’s office is seeking a reconsideration. But that is what’s happening.
Lawrence Fleming, one of the defense lawyers, said it shouldn’t be a complete surprise. “This is an unusual case,” he said. “Keep in mind this guy has been locked up for three years” for something the court ruled was not a crime.
The release order sets bond at $5,000 and says he must be confined at home. Beine was living in Highland when he was arrested.
Meanwhile, state and federal officials were working to find new charges, or to renew old ones, to keep Beine in jail.
Federal prosecutors in Illinois are re-examining a charge of receiving child pornography that they dropped in 2003 after Beine was convicted on a similar federal charge in St. Louis. A federal appeals court threw out that conviction in 2003, saying the evidence was improperly seized. The Illinois case involved different evidence.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and the head of her office’s sex crimes unit, Ed Postawko, said they were still examining cases Friday.
“We’re looking at everything we can,” Joyce said. “Based on my investigation and the very many people who have called reporting conduct on his part, he appears to be someone who’s a danger to the community.”
Postawko said prosecutors have also been in touch with counterparts in other jurisdictions.
After Beine’s conviction was overturned, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests sent a letter to Burke, imploring him to work to keep Beine in jail.
“Personally visit every parish where Beine worked and emphatically remind the parishioners that they have both a civic and moral obligation to report anything they know about these crimes to the police,” David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director, requested in the letter. “Place notices in the diocesan paper and church bulletins with this message.”
Allman gave the organization partial credit for inspiring Burke.
“This decision was made solely by the archbishop and his advisers,” Allman said. “But when (Burke) got the SNAP letter, he took it very seriously. There’s no question SNAP’s suggestions were well taken.”
Although Cardinal John Joseph Carberry suspended Beine from the ministry in 1977 amid allegations of sexual abuse, Beine has never been laicized – or returned to the lay state – by the Vatican.
Once a man is ordained, he is a priest for life unless the Vatican says otherwise. The bishop of the diocese where he was ordained can take away only the priest’s ability to perform the duties of a priest, but he remains the priest’s authority. When Beine is released, Burke will technically be responsible for him, say canon law experts.
“It’s not unlike a marriage – the diocese and the priest have a mutual responsibility for each other for better or for worse,” said Ladislas M. Orsy, a professor of canon law at Georgetown University.
Beine and the archdiocese were sued at least eight times in the 1990s over allegations of sexual abuse. Two of the cases were settled for a combined $110,000.
Beine’s was included in a group of names the archdiocese recently submitted to the Vatican for laicization.
Reporter Tim Townsend
E-mail: ttownsend@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8221
Reporter Robert Patrick
E-mail: rpatrick@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-621-5154