Priest Defends Himself Against "Defamation": Public Jokes Reported as "Misconduct Involving Children"
The Substack site is run by two canon lawyers, Jd Flynn and Ed Condon. On November 24, they published an article entitled "St. Jude relic tour suspended over police investigation".
The teaser on X.com stated that Fr Martins was "accused of inappropriate conduct involving children".
Rod Dreher, a journalist and former Catholic, in a later deleted tweet, understood Fr. Martins to be "suspended" for "sexual misconduct." He later added that the original article should have used the word "non-sexual". And, "As we'll all soon know, this is an example of an innocent Catholic priest held up to humiliation and contempt, including by Catholic authorities, in a hysterical overreaction by people eager to believe the worst about all priests."
On Monday, through his attorney, Father Martins accused Condon and Flynn of writing an article that is "defamatory and entirely irresponsible in terms of what it suggests."
Here is the version of what happened on November 21 according to Father Martins' attorney:
On November 21, 2024, Queen of Apostles Parish in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, hosted Fr. Martins to share the relic of St. Jude for public veneration. The parish invited its school to attend. The event was hosted in St Paul church with over 200 students present. All the facts surrounding The Pillar’s reporting happened in front of a large group of people encompassing multiple grades.
As he always does, Fr. Martins began his interaction with the attendees in ‘chit-chat’ dialogue. He is bald and apt to joke about it as a conversation starter.
During his conversation with the older students, he made a comment to a student about her long hair, remarking, ‘You and I have almost the same hair style,’ a comment met with giggles. He then remarked that he also once had long hair like hers, and he joked he would ‘floss my teeth with it.’ Again, his comment was met with laughter.
He then asked the student, ‘Have you ever flossed with your hair?’ Laughing, she shook her head, no. He then said, ‘Well, you have the perfect length for it,’ as he lifted up a lock from her shoulders to show her its length.”
“She giggled along with the others. He was building rapport. The student came home and told her father the story. He, apparently, became infuriated by what he heard, calling the police. The police arrived at the parish during the event and, after questioning the students, left without making any arrests or filing charges. It was only after the outraged father called the police a second time, insisting that they charge Fr. Martins with battery, that the police agreed to further investigate.”
Father Martin's community, the Companions of the Cross, and the Diocese of Joliet halted his ministry pending the results of the police investigation.
PillarCatholic.com published an article on Tuesday that included the attorney's letter and put the original accusation into perspective.
They added that the diocese considered Father Martin's behavior a "potential boundary issue", but obviously "not sexual misconduct."
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