Crime and Cover-Up

TRANSCRIPT

As the old saying goes, first there's the crime, then there's the cover-up. Here in Detroit, the plot of the cover-up thickens every day. And just so we're very clear, the reason we keep reporting on this unfolding scandal is to show you how the wicked men in the Church operate.

They allow moral crimes to carry on, and, when they get discovered, they go into cover-up mode, destroying lives, careers, you name it — anything necessary to keep the lid on and not let donors find out just how crooked they are. In the ever-widening scandal of the self-admitted gay music director of the archdiocese, we have a good number of updates related to the cover-up of the whole affair by archdiocesan senior personnel. 

First, we want to inform you that the former music director, Joe Balistreri, has had attorneys reach out to us and say he's in the process of filing suit. They demanded we take down and retract our reporting, which we have absolutely zero intention of doing. Everything we have reported has been thoroughly vetted, and we stand by every single syllable. Moreover, as you'll hear in this Vortex, we have even more information revealing the cover-up of all this.

As a quick aside, if you feel like you want to help out our efforts here financially, please feel free to donate. Lawyers are expensive, as you know. And here's another point about being sued: When you are sued and accused of something, you get the right to interrogate anyone connected with the case, and, in this case, that would be a slew of officials at the archdiocese — up to and including Abp. Allen Vigneron, as well as top senior clergy (who are all part of this cover-up).

So yeah, we've been trying to get that crowd under oath and on the record, under threat of perjury, for years. And if this goes forward, brother, you better believe that's going to happen. Archbishop, swear under oath, under threat of perjury, what you knew and when you knew it. Same with you, Msgr. "Bugs" Bugarin, and your accomplices in crime — Msgr. Halfpenny and Bp. Battersby.

And remember, when you lie (if you lie), you can go to prison. We'll keep you posted on this as it rolls along. Now to the cover-up, but as a refresher on the "crime" aspect of it. The self-outted gay music director, Balistreri, had been reported in writing to Abp. Allen Vigneron for hitting on a college-aged student, trying to get him in bed.

On information, Balistreri and his gay lover of 15 years had even taken the young adult male to Cedar Point amusement park and had relayed to him the following points:

• The "gay gene" is connected to the creative gene, so it's okay if you're a gifted, creative person and gay 
• His spiritual director, Fr. James Bilot had told Balistreri that being gay and acting on it was okay, and the Church teaching was wrong (again, this is what Balistreri was repeating to the young man)
• Balistreri and his gay partner were perfectly fine if the other one was having sex with other men

All of this was relayed in writing to the archbishop. Likewise, a copy of that letter was sent to Fr. Michael Suhy. That was all in mid-November 2019.

The archdiocese human resources department, headed up by Chantale Stevenson, met with Balistreri with Fr. Stephen Pullis as an eyewitness. In a couple of meetings, Balistreri denied everything and then later admitted he did live with another gay man.

The archdiocese's official position became, "He denied it; we can't do anything." And this is where the cover-up aspect begins. Father Suhy had to go. He knew too much because he had been included on all the original allegations and letters. Now, for the record, Church Militant knows the identity of the young man and his family, and we have absolutely no intention of disclosing that information.

His family has been through enough, but we will simply put it out there: The archdiocese's response of "We can't do anything" did not go over well with them. Enough said.

As Fr. Suhy continued asking questions about all this, it was decided by Vigneron that he had to be silenced. So an involved plan was put into motion to make him appear incompetent. Assoicate pastors were secretly fabricating charges and reporting them back to hitman Msgr. Michael Bugarin and Bp. Gerard Battersby.

Eventually, having amassed their phony case, they dropped the hammer on him in November 2020, almost one year to the day that Fr. Suhy first became aware of the allegations of homosexual harassment. However, as is normally the case with cover-ups, they need to expand because more people find out about things, and they start asking questions.

It's got to be tiresome always living a lie and in constant cover-up mode. So let's go to the parish where all this began — Our Lady of Good Counsel, a wealthy parish and one of the gems in the archdiocese of Detroit crown (lots of money). Some of the office staff, for example, are paid well in excess of $100,000 for pretty normal, run-of-the-mill duties, like bookkeeping, for example.

Having a scandal related to charges of alleged homosexual harassment by a top archdiocese employee erupt at a parish like this would not go down well — especially with a pastor in place who knew the whole story and was talking.

Some of the archdiocese's wealthiest and most influential donors attend the parish, including Judge Michael Talbot, who has a few secrets of his own. You'll recall in the case of convicted felon Fr. Robert DeLand of Saginaw — grooming and harassing and trying to sexually assault young adult males — Talbot went to officials investigating the case and, throwing around his authority as a Michigan appellate judge, tried to have the case killed. He failed.

DeLand was eventually thrown behind bars. Talbot was also on the case of Fr. Eduard Perrone, another case where he tried to steer the justice train right off the tracks. He's also enlisted with the archdiocese's law firm, Bodman, which has likely collected millions of dollars defending the archdiocese's many foul deeds and shielding them from public eyes.

We mention him just as an example of some of the influential parishioners at the parish. Father Suhy was well liked by many parishioners, but like any pastor, when he arrived, he experienced some blowback from staff loyal to the previous pastor. But the cover-up of this case actually came to involve the parish school and principal Melissa Hunt.

Hunt and Suhy enjoyed a good relationship — both dedicated to increasing the Catholic profile of the school. That, completely aside from the current scandal, had not won her many friends at the chancery, and her commitment to orthodoxy in education made her a marked woman.

Bishop Gerard Battersby, members of the parish tell us, made it pretty clear a contract was out to have Hunt removed as principal. But when all this scandal started leaking out, her position became even shakier. Her job was on the ropes when archdiocese human resources put her on what is called a "professional development plan." It was clear she was being set up to be terminated.

Sources tell Church Militant that Hunt lawyered up and began pushing back, but the writing was on the wall. But when the scandal erupted, the archdiocese of Detroit thugs needed people on staff to side with them and join in the effort to get rid of Fr. Suhy. Likewise, anyone who was siding with Fr. Suhy also had to go.

Bishop Battersby and others (like the gay-friendly Vigneron associate Msgr. Halfpenny along with Msgr. Michael Bugarin) started enlisting help in this regard, and, just like that, Principal Hunt went from a woman whose head was on the chopping block to actually being selected as a "2021 Amazing Catholic Education award winner."

Hunt, says fired faculty member Huy-Linh Dang, completely collapsed and was part of his firing for also asking too many questions about the scandal. Sometimes events beyond your control happen, and conspirators have to switch tactics pretty fast. That's when mistakes can happen.

In this case, that's exactly what happened. The cover-up wasn't covery-up enough. A trail of bread crumbs, tracing right back to the archdiocese of Detroit, came into focus. What's being exposed is a cover-up of an extensive gay-priest network here, presided over by Vigneron and his gay-friendly thugs.

And as one final (but very telling) point about cover-ups, Church Militant has it on very good information that a plan is about to be executed that is filthy rotten. We have to be somewhat circumspect here because, as we said earlier, we are being extraordinarily careful, exercising an abundance of caution to keep the identity of the young fellow who told his parents about the alleged homosexual harassment protected.

Although we know the exact details, we can't share them in precise terms because it would reveal his identity. That said, a top Vigneron aide, who is a member of the clergy, is ready to offer a job to the young man at his parish, thus buying his silence in all this.

We are reporting this specifically — and for no other reason than to let Abp. Vigneron know — we are aware of every step your crooked chancery rats are taking in trying to cover this up. It. Won't. Work.

Your chancery and parishes have too many decent and honest people in them who have simply become fed up with lies to cover up the gay network. We are at this moment collecting affidavits and investigating multiple charges that do touch on this case but that are far more explosive and go to the very core of decades of corruption here.

And don't forget, Your Excellency and staff, if that Balistreri suit goes through, we're going to have you under oath.