Joe Pearce - a response from Ave Maria University, Florida

Joe Pearce - a response from Ave Maria University, Florida

From:"Martin Webster"

"HWF Kemp"
CC:
"Philip Gegan" pegweb758@googlemail.com

"To:H.W.F. Kemp,Editor,'Ave Maria Watch' Web Site [ http://www.avewatch.org/ ],Florida, USA.------------------------------------------------------

Friday 23rd November 2007

Dear Mr. Kemp,

I run out below a response to my Electronic Loose Cannon #21 which was sent on behalf of Ave Maria University by Nick Healey, the university's President.I regret not getting this to you sooner, but Healey's response was sent to a friend of mine, Philip Gegan, who circulated ELC#21 via one of his subsidiary e-mail addresses (a Google account) not his main address.

Because of this -- and because neither Philip nor I anticipated that a response would be sent -- Philip did not go to his Google mail box frequently, and only did so when I gave his memory a job a couple of days ago.I will attempt to send Healey a direct reply to his message, but I do not expect that this will be received by him because on the last occasion I tried to e-mail him I found the Ave Maria University internet firewall had already been programmed to 'bounce' messages from me -- even though I had never previously been in contact with any Ave Maria e-mail address!

If I find that my attempt to e-mail Healey directly is 'bounced', then I will ask Philip to send it on my behalf.I understand that Philip circulated ELC#21 (via separate e-mails issued some hours apart) to eleven of the senior administrators of Ave Maria University. I list these below.

None of Philip's e-mails to these people were 'bounced', so we may assume that the facts concerning Joe Pearce were read by them all. Philip is of the opinion that this was the factor which prompted Healey's response.

As to Healey's comments, it is significant in that at no point does he dispute or deny any part of the substantial amount of factual information I gave about Pearce.Otherwise his response was a really shoddy affair.

He attempted to suggest that my denigration of Pearce was directed mainly at his politial career in Britain before he converted to Roman Catholicism and moved to the USA. This is not merely untrue, it is the reverse of the truth so. In my fourth paragraph I stated:"While Pearce's former involvement for 10+ years on the British racial-nationalist scene and his subsequent conversion to Roman Catholicism and relocation to the USA is not new news, there are very significant aspects of his background relating to his conversion and the accelerated patronage afforded him by the Church which have not been revealed in his misleading accounts of himself.

"The key issues in my essay ALL related to Pearce's dishonest conduct during and after his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church.The way in which Pearce and his R.C. recruiters were able to get the Church in Britain to help him abandon his first wife Gina and place his children by her into a state of bastardy, was perhaps the worst of his heinous acts of deception.

Pearce obtained an "annulment" of his perfectly legal marriage to Gina by the presentation of manifestly false information concerning:(a) his "immaturity" and/or low intellectual capacity at the time of that marriage (an assertion contradicted in Pearce's own account of himself published on the Ave Maria web site);(b) his "vocation" to become a priest (which "vocation" diaappeared directly after he obtained the "annulment"); and,(c) his claimed status as a former star recruit to Northern Irish Protestant para-miliary groups (which status had long since evaporated due to his embezzlement of Loyalist groups' funds).

Pearce's farrago of false information submitted in support of his "annulment" application could not have been subjected to the slightest investigation and could only have been granted as a result of the total naivete and lack of rigour -- or 'nod-and-wink' complicity -- on the part of the Bishop concerned, whose church was and is facing a priesthood vocation crisis.

Are "annulments" granted by the R.C. Church valid even when they have been obtained by false declarations?

Do sins declared absolved by a priest in the confessional box actually become absolved in cases where the 'penitent' has not repented but has merely put on an act to con the priest?But there were other acts of dishonesty perpetrated by Pearce in his new life as a Catholic which I dealt with in ELC#21:

1. His misleading biographical notes on the back of his first book, and in publicity material sent to media book reviewers, which created a scandal prompting his flight to the USA and his recruitment to Ave Maria University.

2. His reportage of himself in 'StAR' -- a magazine which he edits -- in which by clever wording he falsely suggests that his present American wife is his first wife and that their child was their "first child", thereby consigning his real first wife Gina, and his children by her, into what George Orwell described as "the memory hole".

3. His -- and Ave Maria University's -- designation of himself as a "Professor" when he has no formal academic qualifications to support such a description. He has no Bachelors or Masters degree from any university, let alone no Doctorate. Indeed, he did not obtain the British equivalent of American High School 'graduation'.

4. Continually rehearsing deceptions about his pre-Catholic life in interviews with R.C. Church and Florida newspapers, in lectures to Catholic audiences on and away from the Ave Maria campus.

5. Setting himself up as a champion of small-scale private enterprise of the type advocated by G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, when he fact he is reliant on the patronage of Tom Monaghan, the billionaire owner of the international Domino's Pizza franchise, the principal benefactor of Ave Maria University, a man whose claims to have received "personal visits from the Blessed Virgin Mary" are tactfully not disputed by Mr. Healey -- or Pearce!

Healey does not address himself to a single one of these issues, all of which relate to his life as a Roman Catholic and none to his life as a racial-nationalist activist.We can well understand Healey's reluctance to grapple with such isssues.

It must be very embarrassing to have that it was he who was responsible for recruiting Pearce to the staff of Ave Maria University.

Healey does not wish to admit that his judgement was faulty and that he recruited a cad, a fraud, a con-man and a humbug whose life in politics -- after a brief flash of teenage idealism -- and then in religion, has been driven by ego and the quest for financial patronage.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Webster.

===========================================

From: Philip Gegan

To: Date: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 8:57 PM

Subject: Fwd: Joseph Pearce---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Nick Healy To: Philip Gegan Date: Oct 22, 2007 7:13 PM

Subject: RE: Joseph Pearce

Dear Mr. Gegan,

I received your email forwarding the "Electronic Loose Cannon No. 21" on Joseph Pearce.

If your and Martin Webster's intent was to discredit Mr. Pearce so as to jeopardize his position with Ave Maria University I am afraid you have failed.

I was the one who first interviewed and then hired Mr. Pearce at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

There was never any attempt by him to hide or gloss over his background. Indeed, on more than one occasion he has shared his conversion story with students, faculty and staff.

The few additional details furnished by Mr. Webster strengthen my conviction that only the grace of God could have wrought such a change of heart.

Mr. Webster's final effort at denigration was particularly inapt.

As a self-confessed racist and atheist, could Mr. Webster really be concerned with the soul of Mr. Pearce?

St. Thomas More suffered martyrdom rather than renounce the ancient Church. Richard Rich committed perjury for the governorship of Wales. Would Mr. Webster say to St. Augustine "Šbut for Hippo?"

Mr. Pearce has renounced the racism and nationalism which still (apparently) consumes Mr. Webster.

We will pray that Mr. Webster will similarly renounce hatred and regain his own soul, and in doing so discover the peace and joy offered by Christ.

Very truly yours,

Nicholas J. Healy, Jr.

President

Ave Maria University

-----Original Message-----

From: Philip Gegan [mailto:pegweb758@googlemail.com]Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 6:13 AM

To: Nick Healy

Subject: Joseph Pearce

Dear Sir,

Thought you might be interested in this. Any comments, just let me know.Philip Gegan

Electronic Loose Cannon No. 21
Thursday 11th October 2007[Slightly evised edition completed 15th October 2007]Published in tandem with the Electronic Watch on Zion
EDITOR: MARTIN WEBSTERPostal address: Mail Box ICR, 44 The Common, IP22 2QP, United Kingdom.Mobile: 07932 049019Whatever became of Joe Pearce?More 'Chesterbollox' fromSaint Joseph of Barking[snip]=================================================================
AVE MARIA OFFICIALS CIRCULATED BY PHILIP GEGAN:1) Michael Dauphinais michael.dauphinais@avemaria.eduDean of Faculty / Associate Professor of Theology2) Fr. Robert McTeigue Fr.Robert.McTeigue@avemaria.eduAssociate Dean3) Nick Healy nhealy@avemaria.eduPresident 4) Douglas Bushman douglas.bushman@avemaria.eduDirector / Professor5) Tony Beata Tony.Beata@avemaria.eduController6) Jack Sites jack.sites@avemaria.eduSenior Vice President Administration 7) Fr. Eamon McManus Fr.Eamon.McManus@avemaria.eduSpiritual Director8) Carole Carpenter ccarpenter@avemaria.eduVice President for University Relations9) Bill Maguire William.Maguire@avemaria.eduDirector of Mission/Outreach 10) Catherine Dailey catherine.dailey@avemaria.eduDirector of National Founders11) Mercedes Cox mercedes.cox@avemaria.eduAdministrative Assistant to the Dean of Faculty