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Welcome to These Stone Walls
“There is no segment of the American population with less civil liberties protection than the average American Catholic priest.” William Donohue, Ph.D., President of the Catholic League for Religious & Civil Rights (NBC’s “TODAY,” 10/13/05.)
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Exodus 20:16
“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, 1742.
On September 23, 2009, Father Gordon MacRae marked fifteen years in a cell in the New Hampshire State Prison. Father MacRae is 56 years old. The crimes for which he was accused and convicted are claimed to have occurred when he was between 25 and 30 years old. Brought with no evidence or corroboration whatsoever, the claims were accompanied by lawsuits settled by his Diocese for hundreds of thousands of dollars despite evidence of fraud.
In 2005, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Wall Street Journal published an account of the travesty of justice by which Father Gordon MacRae was convicted (see “A Priest’s Story” above). It is a story, as described by Father Richard John Neuhaus in First Things magazine, of “a Church and a justice system that seem indifferent to justice.”
Father MacRae maintains his innocence of these crimes, and could have left prison over 12 years ago had he accepted any of the “plea deals” presented to him before trial. In the years since the panic-driven and selective release of files and other accumulated claims and demands for money – but no evidence – some began to take a closer look under the surface of the case against Father Gordon MacRae. What is found there is troubling to anyone concerned for the state of due process, justice, and liberty in America.
The late Cardinal Avery Dulles and The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus encouraged Father MacRae to write. Cardinal Dulles wrote in 2005:
“Someday your story and that of your fellow sufferers will come to light and will be instrumental in a reform. Your writing, which is clear, eloquent, and spiritually sound will be a monument to your trials.”
In 2006, Cardinal Dulles asked Father MacRae to contribute “a new chapter to the volume of Christian literature from believers who were unjustly imprisoned.” Fr. MacRae’s writings from prison have appeared in First Things, Catalyst, The Catholic Response, online at PriestsinCrisis.com and numerous Catholic blogs, and now here at These Stone Walls.
These Stone Walls and Father Gordon MacRae’s defense are sponsored by The National Center for Reason and Justice (www.ncrj.org), and endorsed by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and numerous organizations dedicated to correcting injustice and wrongful convictions in the American criminal justice system.
These Stone Walls is dedicated in memory of Avery Cardinal Dulles and Father Richard John Neuhaus under the patronage of St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Pio of Petrelcina. All were champions of truth, justice, and fidelity.
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Just wanted to express my support. I’m keeping you in my prayers. Reading your story and blog reminded me of St. Paul’s letters from prison, the clarity and inspiration. Your blog is a blessed voice of sanity in a too often insane world. May the Lord watch over and bless you always. Steve