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Prominent Detroit priest removed from pulpit

By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER AND MARTHA MENDOZA

today

In this June 9, 2019 photo, Father Eduard Perrone conducts a choir during mass at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin March Parish in Detroit. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit said Sunday, July 7 that it has removed Perrone from public ministry after receiving what it described as a "credible allegation" that he had abused a child decades ago. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

DETROIT (AP) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit said Sunday that it removed a prominent priest from public ministry after reviewing what it described as a “credible allegation” that he had sexually abused a child decades ago.

The Rev. Eduard Perrone was suspended from ministry Friday, a month after The Associated Press began asking the pastor himself, the archdiocese and law enforcement authorities about a former altar boy’s allegations that Perrone had groped him.

Archdiocese officials told Perrone’s congregation at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish during services Sunday that members of the local archdiocese review board found a “semblance of truth” to the accusations, but that they are maintaining a presumption of innocence.


Some parishioners expressed shock when they heard, and one woman walked out of the service to gather herself outside. After Mass, a number of people stopped at the back of the church to ask questions of two archdiocesan officials and pick up a written statement about Perrone.

The pastor is prohibited from representing himself as a priest or wearing clerical attire while the Vatican reviews the allegations, the archdiocese said in the written statement.

The statement also said the archdiocese had reported the allegation to local law enforcement and the Michigan attorney general’s office. The attorney general’s office declined to comment last month, but it has an open investigation into clergy abuse in the Catholic Church in Michigan and charged five men who were priests with 21 counts of sexual misconduct in May.

The Detroit Archdiocese on Sunday added Perrone’s name to its list of dozens of credibly accused priests, many deceased. More than 140 religious orders and Roman Catholic dioceses have released similar lists. Most of those lists were either released or significantly updated since a Pennsylvania grand jury last summer detailed hundreds of cases of alleged abuse.

Perrone, who co-founded a nonprofit group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii in 2002 to support priests facing allegations of abuse or other problems, did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday. At the rectory where he lived, a woman who answered the door said there was “no way” to reach Perrone and asked a reporter to pray for the priest.

Last month, Perrone denied any wrongdoing when the AP asked him about the allegations that years ago, he would invite altar boys to his mother’s lake house where he would wrestle with them in the water for hours. At times, the wrestling turned to inappropriate grabbing and groping, said a former altar boy who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to protect his privacy.


Perrone said it was the first he heard of any allegations against him.

“Never inappropriate touching,” he said. “I never ever would have done such a thing.”

He said other adults were always in attendance when they gathered at the lake house and everyone was “fully clothed.”

Perrone also denied allegations from two individuals that he served wine to minors, but then went on to describe offering wine to a child.

“I mean I may have had wine in their presence,” he said, “but I’ve never given them a drink. In fact one time I remember being with one of our altar boys and his dad in the rectory and I said, ‘Do you want him to have a little bit of this glass of wine?’ that we were drinking and it wasn’t the dad, it was the kid that said, ‘No, I don’t want any of that.’ Never drinking wine.”

Three other former altar boys interviewed by AP said they never experienced or even heard of sexual abuse by Perrone, though one said Perrone struck his head with a book for misbehaving and another said that as a child he was afraid the priest would hit him. They also spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their privacy.

For 25 years, Perrone has presided over his church, known locally as Assumption Grotto, an imposing stone edifice encircled by abandoned lots in downtown Detroit. An archconservative who has criticized liberal values and homosexuality within the Catholic church, Perrone offered Mass in Latin, preaching strict sermons to some-600 congregants on Sundays, often scolding them for not being true believers and for being ungrateful and impure.

In a recent parish newsletter, Perrone wrote about the impact of sexual abuse and other misconduct within the church.

“The real shame is not the publicity of horrid, secret sins but the venting of lewd passion, the foul degradation of the flesh, the mortal sins committed,” he wrote. “Where did holiness go?”

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» No more Sunday games for Detroit Catholic parish, school sports teams

No more Sunday games for Detroit Catholic parish, school sports teams

Catholic News Service | Michael Stechschulte | May 17, 2019

A coach kneels in prayer Oct. 13, 2018, during a high school game at Hurley Field in Berkeley, Mich. As part of a new pastoral note encouraging Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit to keep Sunday as a day of holiness, rest and family togetherness, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron introduced a new policy requiring Catholic parishes and schools to stop scheduling athletic games and practices on Sundays. CNS photo/Tim Fuller, courtesy Archdiocese of Detroit


As part of a new pastoral note encouraging Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit to keep Sunday as a day of holiness, rest and family togetherness, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron introduced a new policy requiring Catholic parishes and schools to stop scheduling athletic games and practices on Sundays.


“In shifting away from the hustle of required sporting activities on Sunday, we will reclaim this holy day and create more time for families to choose activities that prioritize time spent with each other and our Lord,” Archbishop Vigneron wrote in “The Day of the Lord,” released May 15 as the fourth in a series of teaching notes supporting the themes of his 2017 pastoral letter, “Unleash the Gospel.”

The policy, which goes into effect Aug. 1, is not meant to lessen the archdiocese’s commitment to youth athletics, said Father Stephen Pullis, director of the archdiocese’s Department of Evangelization, Catechesis and Schools.

“At the synod, the question came up about how we can best live our life as a church together, to bear witness to the world about what we believe,” Father Pullis told Detroit Catholic, online news source for the archdiocese. “What came through very clearly was that athletics are a wonderful part of the life of our local church, but they’ve also in some ways taken a disproportionate amount of time and attention for families.”

He added, “We really needed to say that Sunday is about being for and with the Lord, for and with the family, and for and with those in need.”

High-Tech Homeless Man In Detroit Accepts Credit Card Donations On A Cell Phone

January 28, 2016 7:46 AM

This homeless man stays under the 8 Mile overpass on I-75 and accepts credit card donations. (Photo: Mike Campbell/WWJ)


DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Volunteers in Detroit and across the nation spent the night counting the homeless, and one of those men who lives in the cold is dealing with it in a, shall we say, unusual way.

He calls himself “Honest Abe” and he panhandles not just for pocket change, but also for the donor’s credit and debit cards. He accepts cards with a reader attached to his cell phone.

His real name is Abe Hagenston and he’s been homeless in Detroit for seven years or so. The 8 Mile overpass on I-75 is home.

Looking at that bleak, gray freeway facade with the wind whipping through, one could imagine he’s happy about the relatively mild winter metro Detroit has experienced so far this year.

Not so fast.

“It’s not really that easy, what we’re lacking is snow,” Abe told WWJ’s Mike Campbell. “Of course, there’s no snow removal. I used to look forward to that, doing some shoveling.”

Without the extra cash, he hasn’t made enough money this winter to buy new eyeglasses, he said, and he could use a new prescription.

But as a bonus, with the extra time Abe says he and a group of fellow homeless have organized themselves “like a union” to panhandle in shifts. He also used the extra time to figure out a way to make donations more efficient. Don’t have any change in your pocket? No problem.

“I take VISA, MasterCard, American Express,” Abe told Campbell. “I’m the only homeless guy in America who can take a credit card. It’s all done safely and securely through square.com.”

Square readers attach to credit cards and basically turn a smartphone into a card reader. They cost about $10 and square providers charge vendors a fee per transaction. In the case of itunes, the charge is 2.75 percent per transaction.

It’s unknown how many homeless occupy Detroit — or how many people have trusted Abe with their credit card information — but last year’s count of people who live on the streets of Detroit included a rough estimate of 2,700.

This year’s count isn’t ready yet, but people like Stacy Brackins, a case manager with mental health agency Detroit Central City spent the night cruising around town with gloves, hats, sleeping bags to count homeless men and women and try to encourage them to seek shelter.

Hundreds of volunteers were involved in the count. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the number of homeless in Michigan had declined 6 percent in the most recent report. There were an estimated 578,424 people experiencing homelessness across the country in 2014.

How many homeless were ready to accept offers of warmth and shelter in Detroit Wednesday night? Some were, others were not.

“Some, they just don’t want to come inside — they want their freedom,” Brackins told the Detroit Free Press.

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Hundreds Gather for Unveiling of Satanic Statue in Detroit

Nash Jenkins @pnashjenkins July 27, 2015

Matt Anderson

The bronze monument was unveiled by the Satanic Temple in Detroit on July 25, 2015

The "largest public satanic ceremony in history"

A little before midnight on Saturday, a crowd of around 700 gathered in an old industrial warehouse a few blocks from the Detroit River for what they’d been told was the “largest public satanic ceremony in history.” Most of them professed to be adherents of Satanism, that loosely organized squad of the occult that defines itself as a religious group. Others came simply because they were curious. After all, Satanists exist in the popular psyche as those who casually sacrifice goats and impregnate Mia Farrow with Lucifer’s child; if this ceremony was indeed unprecedentedly big, who knew what could be in store?

The reality of the event — and of the contemporary Satanic movement at large — was tamer, and, if the Facebook pictures speak the truth, harmlessly festive: a cross between an underground rave and a meticulously planned Halloween party. They were there to publicly unveil a colossal bronze statue of Baphomet, the goat-headed wraith who, after centuries of various appropriations, is now the totem of contemporary Satanism. The pentagram, that familiar logo of both orthodox Satanists and disaffected teens, originated as a rough outline of Baphomet’s head.

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Detroit prayer event puts Muslim community on edge

By JEFF KAROUB - Associated Press | AP – 11 hrs ago

The exterior of Ford Field in Detroit is shown Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, the day before …

DETROIT (AP) — A group that counts Islam among the ills facing the nation began a 24-hour prayer rally Friday evening in an area with one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States.

The gathering at Ford Field, the stadium where the Detroit Lionsplay, is designed to tackle issues such as the economy, racial strife, same-sex relationships and abortion. But the decade-old organization known as TheCall has said Detroit is a "microcosm of our national crisis" in all areas, including "the rising tide of the Islamic movement."

Leaders of TheCall believe a satanic spirit is shaping all parts of U.S. society, and it must be challenged through intensive Christian prayer and fasting. Such a demonic spirit has taken hold of specific areas, Detroit among them, organizers say. In the months ahead of their rallies, teams of local organizers often travel their communities performing a ritual called "divorcing Baal," the name of a demon spirit, to drive out the devil from each location.

"Our concern is that we are literally being demonized by the organizers of this group," said Dawud Walid, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter, which last week urged local mosques and Islamic schools to increase security. "And given the recent history of other groups that have come into Michigan ... we're concerned about this prayer vigil stoking up the flames of divisiveness in the community."

TheCall is the latest and largest of several groups or individuals to come to the Detroit area with a message that stirred up many of its estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims. Recent visitors have included Florida pastor Terry Jones; members of the Westboro Baptist Church; and the Acts 17 Apologetics, missionaries who were arrested for disorderly conduct last year at Dearborn's Arab International Festival but were later acquitted.

As with many other Christian groups, TheCall and its adherents believe Jesus is the only path to salvation. While they consider all other religions false, they have a specific focus on Islam, largely in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, terrorism overseas and fear that Islam, which is also a proselytizing faith, will spread faster than Christianity.

TheCall is modeled partly on the Promise Keepers, the men's stadium prayer movement that was led in the 1990s by former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney. TheCall's first major rally was in September 2000 on the national Mall in Washington, drawing tens of thousands of young people to pray for a Christian revival in America. Co-founder Lou Engle has organized similar rallies in several cities, including a 2008 event at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium two days before Election Day to generate support for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California.

Theologically, Engle is part of a stream of Pentecostalism that is independent of any denomination and is intensely focused on the end times. Within these churches, some leaders are elevated to the position of apostle, or hearing directly from God.

Muslims weren't the only ones concerned about Friday's event. A coalition of Detroit clergy led a march of about 150 people from a city park to the football stadium Friday evening, around the time the rally inside was scheduled to start.

"We chanted 'Stop the hate, spread the love. Stop the hate, spread the jobs,'" the Rev. David Bullock told The Associated Press after their hourlong march and prayer rally.

He described the outdoor prayer rally as "very non-violent, very peaceful," and said there was no trouble with anyone entering Ford Field for TheCall.

Bullock said he and other Detroit area clergy have received calls this week asking about TheCall. He said he has told them to research Engle.

"They didn't know. People are really shocked by the rhetoric in his sermons. We are going to send a different message that the God we serve loves everyone."

Engle declined interview requests from the AP, and one of his representatives referred calls to Apostle Ellis Smith of Detroit's Jubilee City Church. Smith, who appeared with Engle and other Detroit-area clergy in promotional videos filmed at Ford Field, considers himself a point-person for TheCall in Detroit.

Smith told the AP that fears of the event taking on an anti-Muslim tone are overblown. He said attendees won't be "praying against Muslims," but rather "against terrorism that has its roots in Islam."

"We're dealing with extremism," he said. "We're against extremism when it comes to Christians."

Still, in a pre-event sermon he delivered Oct. 9 at a suburban church, Smith called Islam a "false," ''lame" and "perverse" religion. He said it was allowed to take root in Detroit because of the city's strong religious base. That's why TheCall event is "pivotal," he said.

"That's why I believe it's by divine appointment: Detroit is the most religious city in America," Smith said in the sermon, adding later, "What I'm saying to you is Detroit had to happen because we have to break these barriers that have hindered in so many ways."

The sermon was archived on the online sermon library Sermon.net.

Smith on Thursday said he was offering his personal perspective that Islam is "a false religion, as many others are."

He said the main focus of Friday's gathering is "loving God, loving God's people."

Dawn Bethany, 43, said she is attending with about 70 others from Lansing's Epicenter of Worship, where she is the church's administrator. Bethany said she believes the event will be a "monumental spiritual experience," and "the negativity is a distraction from seeing who God is." God, she said, "is love."

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Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit and AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.

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Jeff Karoub can be reached at http://twitter.com/jeffkarou

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Students Evacuated From Detroit School After Explosive Device Detonated

Wednesday, March 03, 2010


DETROIT — A student threw a homemade explosive device in the hallway of a school on Wednesday, causing it to leak fumes and forcing the school's evacuation but not injuring anyone, authorities said.

The student from the Phoenix Multi-Cultural Academy was taken into police custody for questioning, Detroit Police spokesman John Roach said.

The school district released a statement saying the device consisted of a plastic bottle that contained household cleaning supplies. It said the device released smoke after it was thrown.

Roach said the device released "powerful fumes" and likely some liquid, and that the bomb squad recovered its remains.

The pre-kindergarten-through-8th grade school with 540 students was evacuated and students were transferred to the nearby Roberto Clemente Learning Academy.

Detroit Public Schools' spokeswoman Jennifer Mrozowski said the district would not be identifying the student taken into custody.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, met before the start of the current school year with security experts, community leaders, parents and students to discuss safety and security in and around schools. Several shootings last year and 2008 raised safety concerns.

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Source:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587840,00.html
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Airline Passengers See Tighter Security

Photo (Courtesy)http://cdn.sheknows.com/graphics/airline-passengers-checked-as-baggage.jpg

Joan Lowy and Joshua Freed AP



(Dec. 26) -- Extra pat-downs before boarding. No getting up for the last hour of the flight. More bomb-sniffing dogs. Airports worldwide tightened security a day after a passenger tried to light some kind of explosive on a flight into Detroit.

The Transportation Security Administration wouldn't say exactly what it was doing differently on Saturday. It didn't need to.

Passengers getting off both U.S. domestic flights and those arriving from overseas reported being told that they couldn't get out of their seat for the last hour of their flight. Air Canada also said that during the last hour passengers won't be allowed access to carry-on baggage or to have any items on their laps.

The extra vigilance came after a man flying from Nigeria to Amsterdam to the U.S. tried to ignite a device just before the plane landed in Detroit on Friday.

"The extra measures apply worldwide on all flights to the U.S. as of now and for an indefinite period," said Judith Sluiter, spokeswoman for the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism.

Jennifer Allen encountered the tougher security on her way from Amsterdam to Detroit on Saturday. Her Northwest Airlines flight on Saturday was on the same route disrupted by the attempted attack a day earlier.

"They patted you down really well," said Allen, 41, an automotive engineer from Shelby Township, Mich. "It wasn't just a quick rub, it was a slow pat. They went through everything in your bags, went through the pockets in your pants, the pockets of your coat."

Other passengers said security officers went through their luggage more thoroughly. For the last hour of the flight on Saturday, they had to keep their seat belts on and couldn't use electronic devices or get up to go to the bathroom.

Sarabjit Dhillon, 35, of Sterling Heights, Mich., was returning from a visit to India with family. Even her three young children got a pat-down.

"They had to open each and every item. They didn't tell us why they were doing it, they just said the United States wanted them to do it, to check everything," she said.

The incident on the flight from Amsterdam is a reminder that securing U.S. airports is only part of the solution, said Elaine Dezenski, who until recently was managing director of the Global Security Initiative at Interpol and also used to work for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"More and more it's not about what happens in the U.S. airports, it's what's happening outside the U.S. and how the system can or cannot be infiltrated," she said.

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the airport police dogs, which are trained to detect explosives, were out on Saturday. Airport spokesman Perry Cooper said the extra effort was at the request of the TSA.

Passengers flying to the United States from London's Heathrow said they received text messages informing them the could carry only one piece of hand baggage onto the plane.

Italy's civil aviation authority, ENAC, said its extra measures for passengers leaving for the U.S. included increased passenger and baggage searches. It said the extra measures were requested by the TSA and will initially remain in place for 72 hours.

The general alert level at Schipol airport in Amsterdam was not immediately raised after the incident, and security procedures for other flights remained unchanged, Sluiter said.

Schiphol is one of Europe's busiest airports and tranports passengers from Africa and Asia to North America. It has been testing full body scanners for about a year that allow security staff to see the outline of a passenger and potential weapons beneath their clothes, and intend to roll out a more complete program next year, said airport spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang.

Passengers in Brussels, where the EU is based, were advised to reach the airport three hours before departure to allow time for a second security check at the boarding gate.

In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, airport operators said they would apply tougher security checks on flights destined for the U.S., but that they did not plan tighter security rules for other flights.

Officials in the Mideast and in India said they were maintaining their current procedures, which they said were already high.

Little was different at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, where the man's trip originated. Soldiers impassively stared at those passing into the departure terminal Saturday. Others sat and talked among themselves, loaded rifles tossed over their shoulders.

Passengers moved quickly through security, waiting only for immigration officers to examine passports and visas. A battered X-ray machine quickly passed over suitcases and shoes. Federal airport authority spokesman spokesman Akin Olukunle said the airport had no bomb-sniffing dogs but were considering getting some.

Associated Press Writers Arthur Max in Amsterdam, Corey Williams in Detroit, Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria; Paisley Dodds in London; Ariel David in Rome; Melissa Eddy in Berlin; and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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Source:http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/airlines-say-transportation-security-administration-has-new-rules-for-passengers-in-seats/19294497?icid=mainhtmlws-main-ndl1link1http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fairlines-say-transportation-security-administration-has-new-rules-for-passengers-in-seats%2F19294497.
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Autopsies Planned in Marathon Deaths

AP
posted: 4 HOURS AGO


DETROIT (Oct. 19) - Autopsies are expected after three half-marathoners died during the Detroit marathon.

Officials say 36-year-old Daniel Langdon collapsed at about 9:02 a.m. Sunday between the 11- and 12-mile markers and 65-year-old Rick Brown collapsed at 9:17 a.m., near where Langdon went down.

Officials say 26-year-old Jon Fenlon collapsed at about 9:18 a.m., just after finishing the 13.1-mile half-marathon in 1:53:37.

Autopsies are planned for Monday.

Rich Harshbarger, vice president of consumer marketing for the Detroit Media Partnership, told the Detroit Free Press emergency personnel were on the scene within seconds.

More than 19,000 people were registered to participate in the 32nd Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-10-18 17:39:07
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Source: http://news.aol.com/article/detroit-marathon-deaths/722031?icid=mainhtmlws-main-ndl1link4http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fdetroit-marathon-deaths%2F722031
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