"A Question of Integrity"

"Michael Rose and the American College of Louvain"

The Crisis Magazine essay on Goodbye! Good Men, by Brian Saint-Paul, has been posted at their website:

.... Rose makes very serious charges in Goodbye, Good Men, both about Louvain and Father Windsor. One would think that in the course of his investigation, he would have checked every side of the story to make sure his allegations were well-founded. But one would be wrong. Rose relied almost exclusively on the word of Kellenyi alone. While Rose did tell me he talked to "a couple guys who are off-the-record right now," their anonymity makes their stories impossible to verify. Anonymous sources are notoriously unreliable, since they have nothing to lose by fabricating a story in order to settle a grudge. When I asked Rose if the two anonymous sources corroborated the claim that the senior seminarian was a homosexual who tried to pressure Kellenyi into an intimate relationship, Rose replied, "All I would say is this: What’s in the book was more or less corroborated by those two."

But doesn’t "more or less" mean "no"? Since the two sources are neither quoted nor even alluded to in the section, it’s unlikely they agreed with Kellenyi’s claim. After all, Rose uses anonymous quotes throughout the rest of the book. If the two really had offered support for the charges against Louvain, why wouldn’t Rose have used their statements?

In the end, we’re forced to conclude that Rose based this entire section on the testimony of one named individual—an expelled seminarian who clearly had an axe to grind. Rose never talked to Father Windsor, current rector Rev. Kevin Codd, or any representative of the seminary. And he certainly never talked to Rev. Pat Van Durme, the then-seminarian Rose accused of being a homosexual (though again, he did not name him). Now a priest in New York, Father Van Durme is going public with his outrage at Rose’s allegations.

So, what would Rose have learned if he had contacted the accused parties? A great deal, actually....

This is all very disappointing. And I hope Rose doesn't threaten to sue me, for giving aid and comfort to anybody who dares to criticize his book, his sources, and/or his research methodology — even if they agree with his general thesis.

(Thanks Mark.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 09/04/02 09:02:00 PM
Categorized as Classic.