November 7, 2009 Dear Fellow Parishioner, As a Parishioner of St. Thomas More for the last eighteen years, it is with some genuine concern that this letter is being written. On the morning of September 12, an article was sent to me which had been posted in that day's edition of the Connecticut Post. The article was about an indictment of the former executive director of the Pierre Trouissant Project in Haiti on nine counts related to charges relating to child molestation. The devastating indictment indicated that Douglas Perlitz had used money that had been raised largely through the efforts of Father Paul Carrier, who has been an active homilist at St. Thomas More, especially in the last two years. Perlitz allegedly used funds from The Haiti Fund to purchase electronics and other inducements for these children in order to purchase their silence from this abuse. Perlitz was a student when Father Paul Carrier was the Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry at Fairfield University. Father Carrier was removed from his position at Fairfield U. in the spring of 2006 and devoted himself to raising money in Parish's including St. Thomas More for his favorite charity—the Haiti Fund. In the allegations, Perlitz was also the recipient of wire transfers from the Haiti Fund to personal accounts. On the morning of September 16, at 8:30 am, I place a call to Father Furey's private phone number and left him a message: please remove Father Paul Carrier from being involved with the Confirmation Class Masses at St. Thomas More and make that announcement this weekend. Father Furey did not return that call.. Father Furey announced at the first Mass for the Confirmation Class aspirants on August 30 towards the end of the Sunday 5:15 Mass that Father Carrier would have a continuing role as the lead homilist for this group of students. Father Carrier was scheduled to celebrate the 4:00 and the 5:15 Mass on Saturday, September 19. In the Ct. Post article, it was indicated that the Jesuit Provincial was not willing to volunteer the location of Father Paul Carrier. There was also a phone number that was provided at the end of the article if there was information of interest that could be provided in the continuing investigation of matters relating to the Perlitz investigation. I called the number which is 203-773-2029 and left a message that Father Carrier was to say the Masses at St. Thomas More on the same afternoon as the article appeared on September 19. When I arrived for the Mass, Father Bob Post was standing with vestments on in the vestibule of the Church. When the Connecticut Post article was brought up to him to see if he had read the devastating article, and Father Bob responded, "You don't believe everything you read in the media do you?" My response was somber: " in this case, you don't get an indictment from a grand jury without compelling evidence of wrongdoing." Douglas Perlitz was arrested in Colorado on September 16, where he was living and escorted on Thursday, September 17 with a federal marshal and incarcerated after arraignment in the Federal Courthouse in Bridgeport on Friday in Federal prison in Rhode Island. Father Bob then startled me when he said that he couldn't talk to me about this subject because he was under a gag order. "A gag order?" was my question, isn't that usually connected to a court proceeding? A court didn't direct your silence did it Father Bob? I then explained to the lector that Father Carrier had been identified as the "religious leader" in the indictment for having signed a pro-Perlitz letter in the spring of 2008 supporting Perlitz. Despite the knowledge of the problems for Father Carrier in Haiti, Father Carrier continued to raise money at our parish after he was removed from his role as the Chairman of the Haiti Fund. He raised money at Fairfield University and other parishes including St. Thomas More after he was removed for his favorite charity. I asked Father Bob whether Father Furey had noticed him of my phone call this morning asking that Father Carrier be removed from all contact with the Confirmation aspirants. Father Bob turned his back and said that I can't talk about it because there is a "gag order on me." Father Furey and Father Bob both spurned my request that weekend that this subject be addressed immediately. On Friday, October 2, the second Connecticut Post article came out indicating that the Jesuits had identified the location of Father Carrier. He was living in a private home in Fairfield County. If Father Carrier has nothing to hide, why would he be hiding is the question rumbling inside me. There isn't anyone who has heard Father Carrier deliver a homily that wouldn't have been memorized by the eloquence and passion with which he spoke about our Faith. At 3pm, Father received an email from me asking him to not delay in addressing this issue about removing Father Carrier from our Confirmation Formation program, about reporting to the parish on the money raised under false pretenses, for the Parish and its staff transparently participate in volunteering information to the special agent working on the Perlitz investigation, and for Father Furey to distance himself from the investigation and consider hiring an outside counsel to handle the Parish investigation. Father Furey responded via email to thank me for my concerns and that he was passing the information to the head of the Finance Committee, Peter Franks. I called Peter Franks home, got his cell phone number and awaited his call. At 8pm on Friday, October 15, Peter Franks called my home and we spent 45 minutes on the phone. My call was the first he had heard of any problems with Father Carrier. Peter and I discussed a process whereby he would serve as a contact person to collect the information from the parishioners, or we would also provide the phone number for the Special Agent, Rod Khattabi, to parishioners that wanted to provide evidence of money being provided to the Pierre Trouissant Project or the Haiti Fund that may have been raised through second collections or direct donations to Father Carrier. Peter Franks said he would get on the collection of money which came from the second collections and it was determined that transparency was extremely important. Father Furey then called my home at 10:15 on Friday night and asked me: "Mr. Nowacki why are you going about it this way? Why didn't you come to me first?" My response was blunt and to the point: two weeks ago you were called. You never returned the call. Father Bob was asked about that call, and nothing had been communicated to the Parish. I then explained that Fairfield University sent an email to the students and the alumni on Monday, September 21, and they appointed an outside counsel to investigate whether any University funds had been donated to the Haiti Fund, and to also see how much money had been raised for this cause over the years. Father Furey ended a very solemn conversation with the words, "I understand." The special agent and I spoke the next morning about the late night phone call from Father Furey. It sounded to me like Father Furey, as a three decade friend of Father Carrier, needed to meet with the special agent. Father Furey got an email from me suggesting a meeting with Rod Khattabi. On Saturday, I reached out to Peter Franks to see if he was planning on addressing matters this weekend to ensure full transparency. Calls to Peter Franks went unreturned but his wife said that he was at a baseball game for their son and then heading out for a Boy Scout weekend. Father Furey received an email from me saying that either he needed to address every Mass this weekend in a fully transparent way or that I was prepared to do so at every Mass. At 3:55, Father Furey and I greeted one another in the back of the church. Deacon Blier witnessed our exchange. What wasn't known at that moment is that Father Furey had a meeting in the sacristy with a group of Parish Council members, with Galen Tate, and others prior to my arrival. We are citizens as well as parishioners. It is our duty to report information to a lawful investigation if we so desire to assist in seeing how our money was used in the second collections and how our donations made directly or indirectly to Father Carrier were used.. Agent Khattabi was looking for account numbers from our checks to assist his investigation of the money trail to see if there are multiple accounts where money was being hidden. The remarks that were prepared by me were to address what our parish should know: that Father Carrier should not be involved with our Parish at this time until his role in the money issues of the missing funds from the Haiti Fund was resolved, of describing how parishioners who wanted to volunteer information on the back of their checks to either Peter Franks or directly to Rod Khattabi, and that Father Furey and the staff needed to allow for an independent investigation to be done about how the second collections may have been used to help fund the Haiti donations raised in our Parish. Father Furey made an innocuous announcement at the beginning of the 4pm Mass, about how "a" parishioner had raised issues about fundraising at the Parish for the Haiti Fund, indicated that there would be a transparent investigation of church funds used to support that cause, and that if there was information to be contributed by any parishioner to call the Parish Office. Father Furey made no mention that Father Carrier would no longer be with our Confirmation group. Father Furey didn't distance himself from the investigation. He instead was going to enlist the assistance of the Parish staff, who reports to Father Furey rather than use an independent person like Peter Franks or Rod Khattabi as a resource for collection of information. When I arrived for the 4pm Mass, Father Furey did indicate to me that I did not have permission to address the congregation. It was important for Father Furey to address matters in a forthright and transparent matter. However, my eyes locked squarely with his when I said, that I don't need his permission to tell the truth. I said that if he didn't address the issues that I would do so after the Apostolic Blessing. It is important that we keep our children safe and that public pronouncement could have come from Father Furey. Father Furey could have had people call someone other than the Parish Offices. He instead wanted to control the process which he needed to distance himself from in this particular case because of his close relationship with Father Carrier. When I stood up to speak, Father Furey said that I didn't have permission to speak. He didn't know what it was that I was going to say. Within a minute of asking those with small children to leave because of the subject matter being a sensitive one, Galen Tate started to play the organ over my words. Father Furey then waved everyone out of the church while I tried to indicate that unbeknownst to us that there was money raised at our Parish to support the Haiti Fund even though Father Carrier was no longer associated with the cause. The indictment of Douglas Perlitz wasn't referenced by Father Furey's remarks. It was an attempt to bury the painful truths which have been such a source of discomfort for many of The Faithful who have stood by our Church leadership despite many years of hidden misdeeds. By the time that I walked to the back of the church, there was a police officer awaiting me. Someone had actually been instructed to call the police to remove me from the private property where I have been a faithful parishioner for 18 years. When I asked on whose authority was Officer Gorton suggesting that I was trespassing, he again repeated that they had been called to remove me from the property. When the officer put his hand on my elbow, I asked him to remove it, but continued to speak with a group of interested parishioners as to what it was that Father Furey didn't want anyone to know in detail. There were a number of Parish Council members in attendance who came to the defense of Father Carrier. All of us like what we know about Father Carrier was my response. However, it is what we don't know sometimes about people which can hurt us. Father Carrier was a friend of mine too. What disturbed me about Father Carrier is that Father Furey in mid-August was forwarding my email address to Father Carrier who seemed elusive about getting together so that I could make a special donation to his beloved Haiti project. Now it was clear to me why he was elusive. It turns out that Father Carrier hadn't been involved with the Haiti Fund since May 2008, yet was not acknowledging that fact. Nor was Father Furey who allowed him into our Parish to raise money for a cause he was no longer affiliated with for over a year. This is more than a small oversight by Father Furey if he knew that Father Carrier was no longer affiliated with the Haiti Fund and Project Pierre Trouissant. What did Father Furey know and when did he know about Father Carrier's departure from the Haiti Fund is something that Father Furey needs to be transparent about. Having the police called was not a reaction to something said by me, it was a preplanned event. What was not revealed to me until I picked up an incident report on the following Thursday from the Darien Police Department was that Father Furey was directed to do so by none other than Bishop Lori. Silence dissent by calling the police on the eve of the Connecticut Supreme Court decision which mandates that the Diocese of Bridgeport must open the files. While the Diocese is appealing the decision, they intend to continue silencing the voices of dissent. On Saturday night, October 3, I posted a message on the Bridgeport Bishop's blog. It never got posted. It was intercepted by Joe McAleer the Diocese Media Mogul. When I called the Bishop's Office on Monday, I called Joe. Joe said the matter wasn't a Diocese matter because Father Carrier doesn't work for the Bishop. Yet, he was asked, it isn't a Diocese issue if he was invited to raise money for a cause with which he wasn't affiliated? At the point in time that the Diocese office was saying Father Carrier wasn't their concern, the Bishop two days before was silencing my voice revealing that there is another scandal brewing for Bishop Lori and the Diocese. It is terribly sad that the Church believes that secrecy is sacrosanct. While Father Carrier is entitled to the presumption of innocence, the longer that he remains in hiding the better. As for my being banished from St. Thomas More? It took three phone calls to fix. One to the Connecticut Post, one to the American Civil Liberties Union and one to Joe McAleer to say that a meeting needed to be set up to avoid a much larger financial problem with the Diocese. On Saturday, October 10, a meeting was held with Father Furey, and three others to resolve my reinstatement. A letter was issued with the caveat that I would not "create further disturbances." In that meeting, the group asked me to refrain from talking to the media. That was a possibility if there was a public apology given, there was an announcement that Father Carrier would until further notice be sequestered from contact with our children, that the Parish announce the money that had been raised was done under less than forthright circumstances, and that the Parish had hired an outside counsel to oversee the processes of the money that had been raised for the Haiti Fund. My suggestions were not well received by the group. They refused on all fronts. Therefore it was my decision to continue to talk to the media. However, before anything was published, it was my feeling that the Parish Council and Fathers Furey and Post be given one last opportunity to hold a Parish meeting to discuss a complete and honest reporting to the Parish of their knowledge of who knew what and when. Absent that, a copy of this letter will be shared with Joshua Fisher on Monday. Joshua and I have been in dialog for weeks. Joshua actually believes that Joe McAleer is going to have a meeting with the Darien Times. Joshua is a great guy, but he hasn't learned much from how Joe McAleer was less than transparent with the Father Fey scandal in Darien's other Catholic Church. Not sure about you, but this writer is tired of apologizing for the secrecy issues of the Catholic Church. Secrets are not the kind of transparency which the Church needs to demonstrate to restore confidence that the Truth is important to authenticity. It is time for the Parish Council to level with us. The Parish Council reports to the Parishioners, not the dictates of the Diocese. What everyone is not aware of is that the Diocese has hired an attorney to represent all of the Diocese personnel that want the protection of the Bishop's use of our funds to defend secrecy. This protection extends to the members of our Parish Council according to Special Agent Rod Khattabi. There is no reason for secrecy if you have nothing to hide. There is much more of this story to be told, but everyone now knows of that which has been withheld from you in hopes that our leadership would step forward to do the right thing. They haven't. If you believe such a meeting should be held by our Church leadership, a petition will be in the vestibule of the Church next weekend November 14 and 15. That is, if this wouldn't be classified as a disturbance. I am sure that someone else could hold the clipboard and wouldn't be sanctioned. The Darien newspaper will have the chance to publish this story when they have the time and interest to do so. However, now that the issues are out in the open, perhaps it would be a good time to have an open dialog and stop hiding behind the disguise of secrecy. It has been four weeks since my meeting with the St. Thomas More leadership. A sufficient time has passed to feel comfortable that there is never going to be a meeting unless the Parishioners petition its leadership to host such a meeting. It might be a good session to have with our children who are getting ready for Confirmation to demonstrate how difficult it is to do the right thing. Sincerely, Michael Nowacki 319 Lost District Drive New Canaan, Ct. 203-966-6474 203-273-4296 | 
