What a better place to find evidence of concealing clerical child abuse but in a newly opened secret archive. Karen Liebreich began digging in a previously closed archive and recounts her findings in “Fallen Order”. Liebreich tells the sordid story of the Piarist Fathers origins and things not remembered.
One of those things not remembered is how a child abuser rose to become the General Superior of the Order. This sounds like foder for the Darknet but the story illustrates how the cover up of child sexual abuse occurs in roman circles.
Father Stefano Cherubini Sch.P. was a rich roman lawyers son who was first reported to be sexually abusing boys in Naples in 1629. In classic cover up language, the founder of the Piarists, Father Joseph Calasanz Sch.P. writes: “ it seems best to me, that if we are allowed to be the judges of this case, we will not permit it to come into the hands of outsiders”.
Instead of being punished to a life of prayer and penance, Cherubini was promoted and became General Superior in 1643. Complaints against Cherubini, then at the Piarists Roman School, continued. Instead of facing the issue, Pope Innocent X dissolved the religious order only to have Pope Alexander VIII resurrect the Piarists in 1656.
So when you read the newly released LA priest files of the Piarist Fathers and sense a cover up, know that the Piarist cover up reaches back to the 17th century with the founder of the order.
Find the LA priest files here: