Hey, I am a “Psychoblogger!”

I have arrived!  The wonderful folks at the Saints Peter and Paul Mission in York Pennsylvania have declared me to be a “Psychoblogger”! The schismatic church with a bent towards hiring priests involved in scandals involving sexual deviance with children is unhappy with me!.  Their current “priest” is Virgil Tetherow, who was convicted on charges related to child pornography found at St. Ann’s Church in the Diocese of Scranton. He admitted to having child porn on his computer and pleaded out to lesser charges in a plea bargain.  You should check out the newspaper coverage or go to the court-house and read the material there. Despite their protestations to the contrary, Tetherow’s statements and his conviction are a matter of public record.

Another “Chaplain” at this mission was Father Marshall Roberts, a priest implicated in the Society of St. John child rape scandal. It seems that the people of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Mission like their priests a little on the kinky side, especially when it comes to underaged boys. The altar boys better remain vigilant!

I seem to have raised the ire of a couple of the people involved with this cult-like organization that appears to have no problem attracting predators to their ultra-conservative brand of Catholicism. I guess they can’t be too discriminating when selecting a priest for their breakaway mission. It is not a problem that their priest likes looking at photos of naked boys, no big deal! Tetherow seems to be comfortable will the pre-Vatican II Latin rite, and I am sure he loves the proximity to small children and parents that teach them that Father Gabriel is God’s representative on earth and needs to be obeyed unconditionally.

The first point of contact is with the author of the hit piece on me.  David Drew seems to be the desperate letter writer, frantically trying to clear the reputation of the child porn perusing priest at the mission. He completely ignores the facts of the case in which Father Tettherow acquired his criminal record. Instead, he attacks me personally. I understand Dave, your argument is so weak you have to go after me. I can live with that.

David Drew was kind enough to make several assumptions about my “personality disorders.” To quote his rambling prose:

Baumann sufferes from a severe personality disorder. His moral pretensions are transparent. He is a coward affecting the role of a man boldly confronting demons. For courage to be virtuous, it must be accompanied by both justice and prudence. Bauman has neither. He is a psychological criple from his own admission. I am not a psychiatrist but I did serve as medical officer in the U. S. Navy and was specifically trained to perform psychiatric evaluations, diagnoses, and referrals on naval personnel. Administering a MMPI to Mr. Baumann would not tell us anything new. But that is the least of his problems. He suffers from mortal sin from which he will not repent. He has lost the faith and he is losing his soul. I am not a priest, but this is self-evident to any Catholic.

I do like the way he makes sure that he tells people he is not a psychiatrist and he is not a priest. I get the feeling he is not a lot of things. Not only is he adept at long distance diagnosis, but he can also detect mortal sinners in a single bound. I somehow feel his sense of medical ethics may be a little slanted. Tell me, Doctor Dave, do you offer all of your patients one-stop psychiatric healing and mortal sin absolution at Hanover Hospital? I wonder how your bedside manner is with those patients who you deem unworthy?  For the record, Dr. Dave and I have never met, and he has never done a proper medical assessment of me.  I will forward his letter to the hospital administrators to see if they agree with his assessment of my condition.

The other person who has been sending me subtle threats and accusing me of was Dave Romeo, the keeper of the “Ultimate Service Provider” website and the person who hired Father Tettherow to be the priest at Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission in York. Dave was quick to accuse me of slander, call me a coward (a theme that his buddy Dave Drew drew heavily upon in his open letter). Father Tettherow is listed as an ultimate service provider in the “Priest” category. He has claimed that he has investigated the claims against Tetherow and deemed them to be without merit. Well, thank goodness for that!  I wonder if the list is composed of members of the church?  Perhaps you have to pay a fee to become an Ultimate Service Provider.  I will need to look into that further!

I could end this post with some assumptions about the Daves, but I won’t. Why lower myself to their level? Instead, I will offer this. If you have proof that your priest is not guilty of the crimes he was accused of committing, including the charge to which he pleaded guilty, I will gladly apologize to him for any comments I have made in this blog. If someone at the Diocese of Scranton set him up and you can prove it. I will happily publish that as well. I will even go to Scranton to publicly protest the mistreatment of anyone they have set up.  Somehow I think that officials of the Diocese of Scranton cannot pull off the framing of a priest.  There are so many discontented people within that organization that I have no doubt someone would have come forward with details of the conspiracy.

In the interim, I will be looking into the connection between the Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission in York, Pennsylvania and the priests that have been removed from ministry because of their sexually deviant behavior. I will also be getting copies documents connected with Tetherow’s run-in with the law through the Freedom of Information Act. I may even detour through York on my way north for the holidays and sit in on services to watch the priest do his thing. It won’t be far off my route. Look around the congregation and if you see me, come over and say “hello.”  I am a lovely person!

One last note, I do not have a problem with Catholics as you stated in your literary temper tantrum. I have a problem with the hierarchy that protects pedophiles. To me, there is not a lot of difference between the ordinaries in their diocesan mansions and the outposts of conservative Catholicism that operate outside of diocesan rules when it comes to supporting predator priests. If you are giving quarter to a pedophile, you are fair game.   As long as these men support a potential threat to the children of the York community in the person of Virgil Tetherow (the guy goes by more than one name) the families of that community should be vigilant.  If there is an incident, people like Dave Drew and Dave Romeo should be held accountable for bringing the threat into the community.