Bruce Ritter (February 25, 1927 – October 7, 1999) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

and one-time

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

who founded the charity

Covenant House Covenant House is a large, Catholic, privately funded agency in the Americas, whose primary purpose is to promote Catholicism. It provides shelter, food, immediate crisis care, and other services to homeless and runaway young people. Covenant Ho ...

in 1972 for homeless teenagers. By the 1980s, it had grown to an $87 million agency, operating numerous large centers in New York and six other major United States cities, as well as locations in Toronto, Canada, and Latin America. In 1990, Ritter was forced to resign from Covenant House after allegations of sexual and financial misconduct. It was one of the most widely publicized cases of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. However no charges were filed against him. Independent investigation commissioned by the charity found none of the allegations of sexual misconduct can be proved beyond any question, but that cumulative evidence was extensive. He also left the Franciscans, but retained his priestly faculties. He retired to a small town in upstate New York.

Early life and education

Bruce Ritter was born in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Hamilton Township. His father died in 1931 when he was four, and his mother struggled financially during the Great Depression of the 1930s, raising five children on a

widow's pension A widow's pension is a payment from the government of a country to a person whose spouse has died. Generally, such payments are made to a widow whose late spouse has fulfilled the country's requirements, including contribution, cohabitation, and l ...

and a series of odd jobs. Ritter graduated from

Hamilton High School West Hamilton High School West is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grade located in Hamilton Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States, operating as one of the three secondary scho ...

in 1945, worked briefly in a local industry, and joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

near the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In 1947 following the war, he took the name Bruce when he entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals. He transferred for a time to explore

monastic life Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of Christians who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural ex ...

as a

Trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

, but returned. Ritter was ordained as a Franciscan in 1956. He completed his

doctoral thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

on ''The Primacy and the Council of Florence'' at the Conventual

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

in Rome in 1959, but never revised or published it in an academic journal. After a series of short-term teaching assignments at a variety of Franciscan institutions, Ritter arrived at Manhattan College in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

to teach theology in 1963.Wosh, Peter J. Wosh
House: Journey of a Faith-Based Charity''
pp. 13-35.

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 M ...

, 2005. . Accessed January 17, 2018.

Lower East Side ministry

In 1968, Ritter had given a commencement speech at the College attacking American society for becoming grievously disconnected from the teachings of Jesus. Ritter had been praised by the students for his speech, but challenged that he ought to practice his preaching. Ritter resigned from the college, and began a new ministry on the Lower East Side of New York City. He recruited a fellow Franciscan

, Father James Fitzgibbon, to move to this troubled neighborhood and initiate what he described as a "ministry of availability" to the poor. The

Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York ( la, Archidiœcesis Neo-Eboracensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroug ...

assigned Ritter and Fitzgibbon to the local

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

, St. Brigid's Church. It had been designated as an experimental parish, in that it was structured around a team ministry. The Franciscans lived in a tenement building on East 7th Street, which Ritter described as a place where he washed his dishes in the bathtub and paid $90 a month in rent. Although poverty was the main focus of Ritter's teaching, he soon found a more pressing issue, as he had moved into a high crime neighborhood plagued by heavy drug use. The friars were not immune to this situation, and their apartment was frequently broken into and robbed. One time, Father Bruce's religious habit was taken by the thieves. Gradually they accumulated a following of young volunteers who moved to the

East Village, Manhattan The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street on the north and Houston Street on the south. The East Village ...

, and surrounding apartments in an effort to live in community, and to effect social and political change. Although Fitzgibbon eventually left the ministry, several other individuals, including Adrian Gately, Patricia Kennedy, and Paul Frazier proved instrumental in defining the early years.

Covenant House

By the early 1970s, Ritter decided to concentrate on sheltering homeless youths. The issue of "runaways" was receiving considerable national media attention;

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

appeared to be a magnet that attracted many homeless youths. He formally incorporated his ministry as

in 1972 and received his first grant from the New York City Addiction Services Agency to support his work. Ritter soon began acquiring other properties and opened a series of boys' and girls' group homes, primarily in the Greenwich Village and East Village neighborhoods. In 1976, he announced plans to open a multi-service center for youths near the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving about 8,000 buse ...

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. He began to gain considerable publicity by claiming that he was rescuing youths who had arrived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and had been lured into the child pornography and prostitution trades. By the late 1980s, Covenant House had moved away from the small group home approach and opened large shelters with training programs in seven United States cities, as well as in Canada (e.g. Toronto) and Latin America. Its budget approached US$90,000,000, and it spent three times what the federal government did on runaways. He called the teenagers in the Covenant House "my kids", "nice kids", and "gorgeous kids". Ritter wrote two books, ''Covenant House: Lifeline to the Street'' (New York: Doubleday, 1987) and ''Sometimes God Has a Kid's Face'', which detailed his experience in starting up Covenant House and provided his perspective on homeless teenagers. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan praised Covenant House in his State of the Union address for their efforts in aiding homeless and runaway youth. In 1985, Ritter served on

US Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Edwin Meese Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974), the Reagan pre ...

's Commission on Pornography. In 1988, Ritter received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.

Allegations of sexual abuse and financial improprieties

In December 1989, Kevin Kite accused Ritter of having sexual relations with him after meeting him in New Orleans and flying him to New York City to live at Ritter's expense. Kite claimed that he had an eight-month-long sexual relationship with Ritter. He also alleged that Ritter diverted up to $25,000 in Covenant House money to finance the affair. Ritter denied Kite's story, although he said he helped get Kite a scholarship at Manhattan College. In December 1989, the ''New York Times'' reported the father of Kevin Kite said his son was "a chronic liar and thief with a 'personality disorder' and a history of hurting those who try to help him." Covenant House officials said they paid Kite's board at Manhattan College, gave him pocket money, and bought him a computer. They also said a Covenant House contact in upstate New York provided Kite with papers that allowed him to take the identity of Tim Warner, a young boy who died of leukemia in 1980. On January 24, 1990, the ''Village Voice'' reported that John Melican, 34, of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, had recounted that from the time he was 16, he had an intermittent 13-year sexual relationship with Ritter.Philip Nobile, "Body and Soul: New Allegations About the Secret Life of Father Ritter," ''Village Voice,'' 24 January 1990 Melican repeated his claims to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and the '' Seattle Times'', which published them in early 1990. The ''New York Times'' reported that a third man, Darryl Bassile, 31, had approached the paper in mid-January to say he too had had sexual relations with Ritter when a youth. He had complained earlier to the Franciscan friary in

Union City, New Jersey Union City is a city in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census the city had a total population of 68,589,Robert M. Morgenthau Robert Morris Morgenthau ( ; July 31, 1919July 21, 2019) was an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County (the borough of Manhattan), having previously served as United States Atto ...

or state attorney general

Robert Abrams Robert Abrams (born July 4, 1938) is an American attorney and politician. He served as the attorney general of New York from 1979 to 1993 and was the Democratic nominee for the 1992 United States Senate election in New York. Early life and educ ...

. A report prepared for Covenant House by Kroll and Associates and the law firm of

Cravath, Swaine & Moore Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (known as Cravath) is an American white-shoe law firm with its headquarters in New York City, and an additional office in London. The firm is known for its complex and high profile litigation and mergers & acquisiti ...

cited fifteen cases of reported sexual contacts between Ritter and youths sheltered at Covenant House or young adults working there as volunteer counselors in what was called the Faith Community. The report did not specifically say all were male, but those who have come forward publicly with allegations about sexual activities have all been male youths. The report said, "The cumulative evidence discovered by Kroll in the course of its investigation that Father Ritter engaged in sexual activities with certain residents and made sexual advances toward certain members of the Faith Community is extensive." Its preparation was supervised by Robert J. McGuire, a former

New York City Police Commissioner The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department and presiding member of the Board of Commissioners. The commissioner is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the mayor. The commissioner is responsib ...

and then senior managing director of Kroll. Additional allegations surfaced concerning financial improprieties and administrative irregularities at Covenant House. Charles Sennott, a reporter for the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

,'' broke the story, and it became a tabloid sensation into the early months of 1990. The earlier report also cited a number of minor financial irregularities, but added that fundraising was professionally and efficiently managed. Despite mounting a vigorous public relations defense and denying any wrongdoing, Ritter was forced to resign from Covenant House in February 1990. Ritter left the Franciscan order, but retained his priestly faculties by being

incardinated Incardination is the formal term in the Catholic Church for a clergyman being under a bishop or other ecclesiastical superior. It is also sometimes used to refer to laity who may transfer to another part of the church. Examples include transfers ...

into a

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

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. Eventually he retired to the small town of

Decatur, New York The Town of Decatur is located on the eastern border of Otsego County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 U.S. census, it had a population of 353. It is named after the popular early-American naval hero Stephen Decatur. History Early set ...

. From 1990 until the end of his life in 1999, he celebrated

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

privately in his home and attended retreats. Ritter died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

at the age of 72.Wosh, ''Covenant House''

References

Sources

* ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' (October 22, 1999). "In Quiet Fields, Father Ritter Found His Exile; After Scandal, Covenant House Founder Had a Simple, Solitary Life Upstate". * Sennott, Charles M. (1992). ''Broken Covenant''. New York:

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

. . * Steinfels, Margaret O'Brien (December 13, 1992). "The Priest and the Runaways", ''The New York Times'' book review. * Wosh, Peter J. (2005). ''Covenant House: Journey of a Faith-Based Charity''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. .

External links

"Obituary for Father Bruce Ritter"
''New York Times'', 13 October 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Bruce 1927 births 1999 deaths Covenant House Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in the United States Conventual Friars Minor United States Navy personnel of World War II People from Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey People from Trenton, New Jersey Catholics from New Jersey 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Hamilton High School West alumni