Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 19, 1990 TAG: 9003192545
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
Ritter had moved to the area from the comfort of a college teaching job with the vague idea of being "useful to the poor." But as more and more runaways began showing up at his door, the outlines of his mission grew clear.
"Hundreds of kids - urban nomads, as I had begun to call them - were coming to what my friends and I now termed Covenant House," Ritter wrote later. "So many kids, so many lost, dying kids came to Covenant House in those early years. We did what we could - which was to provide a clean bed, some food, somebody safe to be with. Mostly we loved them and the kids knew that."
Twenty years later, Covenant House has grown to an international network of runaway shelters, and, with an annual budget of more than $85 million, a phenomenon among private charities. Presidents, senators, even such revered figures as Mother Teresa, dropped by its shelters to visit and be photographed with Ritter and the troubled youths he called "my kids."
"It is absolutely the largest non-profit fund-raiser in the city of New York, and the largest child-care agency in the country. Like a rocket ship it went off," said William Treanor, executive director of the American Youth Work Center, a youth advocacy agency in Washington.
But now, the priest hailed as a national hero in former President Ronald Reagan's 1984 State of the Union address, has seen his reputation tattered and the very survival of Covenant House threatened.
In the past three months, Covenant House has been rocked by one sensational allegation after another. Donations are reported to have plummeted, although Covenant House denies this. Ritter, steadfastly maintaining his innocence and integrity amid the spreading scandal, recently resigned from the organization, which is under investigation by N.Y. Attorney General Robert Abrams and the provincial office of the Franciscan Order.
The problems began in December with the first of several accusations that Ritter preyed sexually upon young men who had turned to Covenant House for refuge from the streets. More recently, attention has focused on reports of possible financial misdealings, including a secret trust fund worth almost $1 million that was aimed, in part, at hiding the size of Ritter's income.
Fresh allegations surface almost daily, followed by Covenant House's denials of impropriety.
Last Tuesday, New York Newsday cited internal memos indicating Covenant House had impeded an investigation of the brutal murder of one of its clients by denying that it had any connection with the victim. This occurred, Newsday reported, despite the fact that the client's picture had appeared on the first page of its 1989 annual report.
Covenant House responded by accusing Newsday of "innuendo and misrepresentation" and suggested that unidentified people had attempted to "bribe street kids with drugs and money to lie about Covenant House" and make it appear that the organization had interfered with the investigation.
Last Wednesday, the Village Voice reported that Ritter had awarded interior-decorating and renovation contracts worth more than $200,000 to his niece and her husband. Ritter's lawyer, Stanley Arkin, responded that the relatives had gotten the job only because they had been the lowest bidders.
With such accusations, long-standing concerns about Covenant House's methods - accusations often dismissed during its heyday as backbiting on the part of its smaller social service competitors - also are getting new attention.
Critics long have contended that Covenant House's short-term shelters, which may have more than 150 beds, are less effective than smaller facilities. They note that the locations are usually in the heart of the urban "combat zones," drawing runaways toward instead of away from the destructive environments.
In New York city alone, however, as many as 500 teens a night seek shelter with his organization, noted James Harnett, Covenant House's acting president. Facing so great a need, debate over such details as the size of the facilities Covenant House offers, he said, is "kind of an academic and professional argument."
Covenant House's problems first became public in December when Kevin Kite, a former prostitute, asserted that he had received special favors and money in exchange for having sex with Ritter, 63. Ritter denied the charges and produced Kite's father, who publicly branded his son a liar.
But several other clients soon came forward with stories similar to Kite's. It also was revealed that Covenant House officials gave Kite a new identity by using the baptismal certificate of a 10-year-old boy who had died of cancer in 1980. The dead boy's parents were outraged when they learned of the switch.
The Franciscans ordered Ritter to take a leave of absence for "rest and recuperation" as the order investigated some of the charges. Ritter resigned from Covenant House Feb. 27, and organization officials said he was not available for comment.
This month, Covenant House's scandals took another twist when the New York Times reported that Ritter had set up a trust fund of almost $1 million, ostensibly for work with runaways. However, none of the money was spent on programs. Instead, it was used for loans to two Covenant House board members and Ritter's sister, the newspaper said. The board members subsequently resigned.
Ritter also has acknowledged using $140,000 from the tax-exempt trust to cover his own expenses and conduct his ministry. The trust, which most board members were unaware of, was created years ago with part of Ritter's own salary. He said he was concerned that his critics would attack him for earning so much, so he used the trust to make his pay seem to be far less - $38,000, rather than the actual $98,000.
by CNB