A Voice for the Voiceless: Beyond These Stone Walls
An Arizona State University student asked the Editor of Beyond These Stone Walls for an interview about this unique Catholic blog. This is her project submission.
September 4, 2024, Edited by Dilia E. Rodriguez, PhD
From the Editor: Back in July 2024 I was contacted by a remarkable young woman who identified herself as a Catholic student at Arizona State University. She was developing a project on Ethnography, a field of study about the growth of literacy within a community. The literacy she wanted to write about was the growth of faith among a community of believers. She had come across the blog, Beyond These Stone Walls, by Father Gordon J. MacRae in 2021 and found herself to be drawn into it over time. She reported that it has very much impacted her own faith experience, and discovered after three years of reading this blog that this has been true of others as well. The student submitted a list of probing interview questions about how I became the Editor of this blog and what that has meant to me.
Because the student has submitted this project for a grade, she asked not to be named in its publication. The student’s questions and my responses are laid out in a separate post entitled, From Arizona State University: An Interview with Our Editor.
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Introduction
Beyond These Stone Walls is a Catholic blog with a focus on social justice, by Father Gordon J. MacRae. In 1994, Father MacRae was convicted by jury of sexually assaulting Thomas Grover and sentenced by Judge Arthur Brennan to 67 years in prison. Notable figures such as Civil Rights Attorney Harvey A. Silvergate, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dorothy Rabinowitz, and FBI Special Agent Supervisor James Abbott (Ret.) have investigated the facts related to this case and have published their findings, stating that Father MacRae is innocent. In summary, it has come to light that Thomas Grover acted in concert with Detective James F. McLaughlin to extract money from the Catholic Church by falsely accusing Father MacRae of sexual abuse. This is evidenced in part by: a sworn statement from Thomas Grover’s former stepson stating “Grover would laugh and joke about this scheme” and a statement from a former friend of Grover’s that “McLaughlin had me believing that all I had to do is make up a story about Gordon and I could receive a large sum of money as others already had. McLaughlin reminded me of the young child and girlfriend I had and referenced that life could be easier for us with a large amount of money.” (The Media Report). Further, courtroom spectators witnessed Grover’s therapist (hired by his lawyer) coach him to cry multiple times during his testimony by making eye contact with Grover and then “slowly moving her finger down her cheek with a distinct sorrowful frown on her face.” In response, Grover would weep, “in stark contrast to his behavior after his testimony and in the hall outside the court where he was jumping up and down and laughing and joking…” (MacDonald). Additionally, a sting operation attempted by McLaughlin shows he placed his fake calls to Father MacRae from Grover’s contingency lawyer’s office. (MacDonald). These few statements do not cover the plethora of evidence that has come to light of the multitude of unjust actions taken by several figures, within and without the Church. However, Father MacRae’s defense has been taken up by better pens than mine, and this small ethnography is not to prove his innocence, but rather to explore the effects of literacy in the blog and throughout the world. I chose to study this literacy space because I was born into the Catholic Faith and this blog has helped to sustain my faith throughout time.
Assumptions
I hypothesized that literacy works in this community by giving voice to the voiceless, or shining a light where those with wealth and power would rather look the other way.
Beyond These Stonewalls’ literacy acts to give voice to the voiceless, and those who have suffered the trial of sexual assault are among them. One of the reasons I believe in Father MacRae is because of his friendship that developed in prison with Pornchai Moontri. Moontri had experienced as a victim in hundredfold the crimes that Father MacRae had been accused of, thus making their friendship highly unlikely. Moontri was sentenced to 45 years for “murder with deliberate indifference”, for a stabbing that occurred during a fight when he was 18 years old. His stepfather, who had been committing the previously mentioned crimes against him, chose not to hire a lawyer for him, while Moontri’s mother pleaded with Moontri not to reveal what had been done to him to protect her and her husband. Moontri kept his silence for his mother’s sake and was sentenced to nearly life in prison. From there, he was sent to solitary confinement for several years due to repeated fighting. His mother was murdered during this time. One day, he was sent to the New Hampshire State Prison, “dragging behind [him] the Titanic in which [he] stored all [his] anger and hurt and loss and loss and loss — and guilt.” (Moontri). Through a mutual friend, Moontri and Father MacRae were introduced, and a friendship began. Moontri wrote, “By patience and especially by example, [Father] Gordon helped me change the course of my life. He is my best friend, and the person I trust most in this world. It is the strangest irony that he has been in prison for 13 years accused fictionally of the same behaviors visited upon me in the real world by the man who took me from Thailand. I spend my days in school instead of in lock-up now, and I will soon complete my High School diploma. Gordon helped me obtain a scholarship for a series of non-credit courses in Catholic studies at Catholic Distance University. In the last year, with help and understanding, I have completed programs offered in the New Hampshire prison. One day I felt strangely light so I looked behind me, and the Titanic was not there. I parked it somewhere along the way. I have put my childhood aside. Now I am a man.” Moontri wrote these words in 2008 for a Catholic League publication, and though he has been freed and lives in Thailand, remains in close contact with Father MacRae. It is a story of immense loss and pain, and overwhelming beauty, grace, and hope. As an inmate at the time, Moontri had nothing of worldly value to gain from befriending Father MacRae and could have easily held on to his “Titanic”. It is a testament to the goodness of Father MacRae that he helped Pornchai Moontri find hope and new life. It is a testament to Moontri and the human spirit that he was willing to hope, and willing to give this friendship a chance, after having been betrayed on every level by those who by natural law should have protected him. BTWS has often given voice to Moontri’s story, even connecting him with help when he was deported from prison to Thailand, where he previously had nowhere to stay and nowhere to go. For so long, no one spoke up in defense of Moontri, not even himself. But Father Gordon MacRae, and by extension, BTSW, gave him a platform to speak the truth.
Another assumption I made prior to conducting my research was that Father MacRae had never recanted at any point. In my research, I discovered that while maintaining his innocence throughout the Thomas Grover trial, after he had been found guilty and sentenced by Judge Arthur Brennan to a life sentence in prison, Father MacRae accepted a post trial plea deal for one to two years served concurrently with the existing sentence for the remaining charges of sexual assault from Thomas Grover’s brothers and others who had made claims for money. His lawyer had deserted him and was not present for his sentencing and advised him by phone that he had no choice but to take the deal. Under the crushing grief of having just been sentenced to life in prison and being deserted by his counsel, his bishop, his diocese, and virtually everyone else, he accepted the post-trial deal to end this (MacDonald). This realization was at first difficult for me to accept, until I remembered a Saint, who in similar straits of grief and despair also signed a plea deal after receiving the death sentence. Though Father MacRae had not been sentenced to immediate death, he had been sentenced to die in prison, a similarly crushing fate. The Maid of Orleans, Saint Joan of Arc, is known for her valiant bravery and her choice to remain faithful to God in the face of fiery death. However, a lesser-known fact about her is that she despite maintaining her innocence throughout the trial, she recanted temporarily after hearing her sentence read. “After refusing to submit to the church, her sentence was read on May 24: She was to be turned over to secular authorities and executed. Reacting with horror to the pronouncement, Joan agreed to recant and was condemned instead to perpetual imprisonment.” (Sullivan). But this was not the end of their story. St. Catherine and St. Margaret reproached then Joan of Arc for recanting her statement. Fortified by heaven, St. Joan of Arc again defied the authority of the court and maintained her innocence. She was then burned to death at Place du Vieux-Marche in Rouen, on May 30th, at 19 years old, while beholding our Lord on the Crucifix (Sullivan). For the entirety of his prison time, Father MacRae has maintained that he is innocent, despite horrific living conditions for several years due to his refusal to admit guilt.
Blogger Emma King writes, “Her fear is understandable, and makes her less of an icon and more of a person to us. She shows us that trust in God is difficult at any moment in life, but when alone and faced with a torturous death, it is near impossible. Joan’s human weakness, then, points not to our own human existence, but to God’s faithfulness and mercy.”
Methodology
For my research, I interviewed the editor of Beyond These Stone Walls, Dr. Dilia E. Rodríguez, through email. Additionally, I analyzed one post by Father MacRae that exemplified literacy being used to give a platform to unpopular truth.
Data Analysis
Father MacRae wrote, “In the Absence of Fathers: A Story of Elephants and Men” describing the problem of Fatherlessness in our society, and its effect on both humans and animals. He described how “the U.S. has less than five percent of the world’s population, but twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners” and that eighty percent of the young men he has met in prison grew up in homes without fathers. I found this article to be deeply poignant because the world’s prevailing wisdom is that a father is not needed. Adults’ desires take precedence over children’s needs for their mother and father. But it is not politically prudent to draw attention to this. It goes against the narrative that adults have the right to children, and to make up any “family” desired. It is politically incorrect to state that children have the right to a mother and father, and that they suffer immensely when they do not. Father MacRae wrote that, “There is an unexpected freedom in being who and where I am. I can write the truth without the usual automatic constraints about what it might cost me.” He has lost nearly everything, but by losing so much he has gained the ability to say in the public forum the inconvenient truth. He has the ability to preach to a global Church, sermons unfettered by the court of public opinion. In receiving these words, the Church Militant is revitalized and reminded of the importance of fathers. Saint John Paul II wrote, “the history of mankind, the history of salvation, passes by way of the family.” Now, Father MacRae acts as a Father to those in prison.
Conclusion
From analyzing the constellation of voices surrounding BTSW, I have seen how powerful literacy is in sharing the truth when the majority do not wish to acknowledge it. In a world inundated by information and besieged by evil, God reveals He works in mysterious ways and in the most unlikely places. Many comments on Father MacRae’s articles are profound and touching, sharing how many readers have been following Father MacRae’s journey for over a decade. They share how Father MacRae’s writings have touched their hearts and their lives and given them hope again.
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Editor’s Note: Read the interview with Editor Dilia E. Rodríguez at From Arizona State University: An Interview with Our Editor.
Bibliography by Author
“Alarming New Evidence May Exonerate Imprisoned Priest.” TheMediaReportcom. Accessed 25 June 2024.
Cavins, Jeff, et al. The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. Ascension, 2018.
“Joan of Arc: Model of Strength.” Catholic Exchange, 29 May 2014.
Moontri, Pornchai. “Conversion Story for 2008.” Catholic League, 20 Mar. 2017.
MacDonald, Ryan A. “The Post-Trial Extortion of Father Gordon MacRae.” Beyond These Stone Walls, 8 Nov. 2023.
MacRae, Fr. Gordon J. “Pornchai Moontri: Bangkok to Bangor, Survivor of the Night.” Beyond These Stone Walls, 3 Apr. 2024.
Sullivan, Missy. “Joan of Arc Is Burned at the Stake for Heresy | May 30, 1431.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks. Accessed 10 Aug. 2024.