St. Mary MacKillop Coalition

10/27/2025

For several years the Coalition received reports that Fr. Ed Fride, pastor of Christ the King Ann Arbor, had physically struck/punched male minors and had requested that they do the same to him. Until now, there have been no public first hand accounts of his actions (detailed in the episode below). To our knowledge, the Diocese of Lansing is aware of Fr. Ed's past behavior, but he was never suspended or asked to step away from ministry. While we don't know the intentions of Fr. Ed's behavior, we agree with the comments of the podcast hosts & guest. It normalized inappropriate contact between priests and minors, and primed a community for further sexual abuse by Fr. Pat Egan. Certain environments are conducive to abuse because of low boundaries/lack of clear behavior standards between authority figures and the people they are supposed to serve. Christ the King Ann Arbor is one of those environments...one that the diocese has done nothing to correct.
Episode 32: Mark Harburg–Covenant Community Kids – Apple Podcasts

Podcast Episode · Covenant Community Kids · 23/08/2025 · 1h 14m

09/18/2025

08/17/2025

The Coalition believes that it's important to be a voice in support of survivors. Fr. John Rocus spent the last several years of his life causing immense suffering for the victims of alleged child ra**st, Fr. Richard Lobert, by continuing to facilitate the grooming of his parish & publicly declaring Lobert's innocence. He maintained a close relationship with Lobert & encouraged lay families in his care to do the same. He was asked by the Coalition & many others to have mercy on clergy abuse survivors and consider their suffering. He refused. We take no pleasure in anyone's death. That said, we are truly relieved that Fr. Rocus can no longer continue to hurt survivors of clergy abuse or put more children in danger.

08/04/2025

We recommend that The Pillar and other news orgs start talking about the dysfunction at the seminary instead. In the past 20 years how many priests ordained at SHMS asked to leave or expressed a desire to leave seminary & were coerced to stay? How many men from the Lansing diocese (Ralph's home) were prayed over and told what their vocation was despite their own discernment? How many were given the impression that making the "wrong choice," despite their feelings & mental health, would be catastrophic for their life? How many of us have had to deal w/ priests harboring a great deal of anger, resentment, & mental health issues because of it?

Did the seminary follow the protocol laid out in its handbook?

07/25/2025

We are grateful that the archbishop took this step to protect not only seminarians, but lay persons who will live under their future pastorates. We have had concerns about Ralph's theological perspectives for years. Numerous people have reported being harmed by it directly or indirectly. It was scandalous that Ralph was ever allowed to be a faculty member at the seminary, and we welcome his termination as a step in the right direction towards the possibility of a spiritually and emotionally stable priesthood.

The dismissal of Martin and Eduardo Echeverria, who had both critiqued what they perceived as doctrinal ambiguity under Pope Francis, is already generating controversy

07/02/2025

🛑 It Isn’t An Affair.

Too often, adult clergy sexual abuse is mislabeled or misunderstood.
Join GRACE on July 16 for a powerful and FREE webinar that sheds light on the real dynamics of power, consent, and spiritual authority in these situations.

Featuring: Amy Stier & Emily Petrie
📅 : July 16, 2025
⏰ : 1:00 PM EST
Live Webinar | FREE to attend

Learn why understanding power differentials is essential for a faithful and trauma-informed response.

Register now – https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KkvYJOICT3KFB6UZAPQj4Q #/registration

06/19/2025

"No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns’ care......We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability,” he added.

Excavation crews begin sealing off site in Tuam, Co Galway, before full-scale dig starts on 14 July

05/10/2025

The Coalition would like to remind Fr. Johnathan Perrotta that according to court documents, The Diocese of Lansing, The Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Richard Lobert accepted that the plaintiffs complaints were true in order to file the current appeal. Sir, you are not being honest with your flock.

05/08/2025

Thank you for your mercy towards survivors in the Diocese of Lansing. We are truly grateful to see the army of advocates () who have come together to say no more. We expect to hear an announcement of the cancellation of this event because it is the just thing to do. "...whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me."

05/06/2025

We want to thank Dan Sealana for initially drawing attention to this. It is inconceivable that any parish in the Diocese of Lansing would host a party on parish property in honor of a priest (Fr. Richard Lobert) who was suspended indefinitely after accusations of sexually assaulting minors. This party is scheduled to take place on May 10th from 5:30 to 8PM at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Brighton, MI. Fr. Johnathan Perrotta, why are you allowing violations of safe environment to happen on your parish property? Why are you allowing a retired priest and friend of Richard Lobert to facilitate the continued grooming of your parish? You are literally throwing a party for the wolf in the pasture. We encourage you to call Holy Spirit Brighton and ask them to stop putting children and vulnerable adults at risk. 810-231-9199

04/22/2025

Francis was pope for 12 years. That's roughly 4,380 days that he could have enacted a universal no tolerance policy for the entirety of the church.....or strengthened the definitions of vulnerable adults and spiritual abuse. Survivors, some of the least of these, cried out to him for years and received little to no help. That is a significant portion of the legacy he leaves, & certainly adds sadness & confusion to his teachings regarding vulnerable populations.

Pope Francis, a humble reformer who sought to make the Catholic Church more inclusive much to the ire of some conservatives, has died.

The pope's death comes one day after he greeted thousands in St. Peter's Square after Easter Mass in his open-air popemobile − and just weeks after an extended hospital stay in which he battled bilateral pneumonia and other health issues.

04/05/2025

We sincerely hope that his death brings some measure of relief to his victims, & the church body which was utterly scandalized by this. He not only sexually abused minors, he orchestrated the sexual trafficking of seminarians. He was ultimately such a calculating and self serving individual, that he positioned himself within clergy abuse reform efforts in order to ensure they would be ineffective. His continued position as a priest of prominence after known accusations against him was one of JPII's greatest failures.

He rose to power despite church officials’ knowledge of sexual-abuse accusations against him.