Voice of the Faithful of Westchester

Solidarity for the Victims at St Patrick Cathedral New York

2010-04-02T15:53:00.009-04:00

Outside the Good Friday service a group of the Voice of the Faithful issued a call for Archbishop Dolan to acknowledge the injustice done by the NY clergy to children and to hear their grievances and apologize. Dolan chose to highlight the pope's suffering without a word of recognition of the suffering of the victims at the hands of diocesan clergy.

Francis Piderot led a small group of Voice of the Faithful Catholics as they called attention to the plight of the victims which the New York Archdiocese still fails to acknowledge by opening its files and giving justice to the victims. Piderot compared the small group to the few who were at the cross with Jesus while they were treated with contempt by the guards.

A congenial policeman accosted by the Cathedral security neatly helped the group have adequate space to witness for the Victims.

http://www.best-quality-for-you.com/index.html

Commonweal Editors do not Get It

2009-05-05T11:30:00.003-04:00

Commonweal takes the easy road in its April 29, 2009 "Seeking Justice" on the proposed law in New York advocating the extension of the Statute of Limitations so that justice can be attained by those abused by priests long ago. Never in the forefront in defending victim's rights, Commonweal has been part of exposing bishops and insisting on tranparency in this area as well as others. Who can forget Margaret O'Briens stirring rebuke to the bishops at the Dallas Conference!

Nevertheless, Commonweal many times fail when it is most crucial. For example this is the conclusion to the present editorial: "Eventually lawyers on both sides will have to get out of the way so that the hard work of reconciliation and healing can begin."

If that advice had been followed bishops would still be sending priest pedophiles out to harm more children. Unfortunately, Commonweal in trying to be fair cops out at a crucial time. Does Commonweal have a plan or suggestion of one for reconciliation?

The "Pedophile's Paradise"

2009-02-05T22:33:00.003-05:00

The "Pedophile's Paradise"ALASKA

The Stranger by Brendan Kiley

One spring afternoon in 1977, 15-year-old Rachel Mike tried to kill herself for the third time. An Alaska Native, Rachel was living in a tiny town called Stebbins on a remote island called St. Michael. She lived in a house with three bedrooms and nine siblings. Rachel was a drinker, depressed, and starving. "When my parents were drinking, we didn't eat right," she says. "I just wanted to get away from the drinking."Rachel walked to the bathroom to fetch the family rifle, propped in the bathtub with the dirty laundry (the house didn't have running water). To make sure the gun worked, Rachel loaded a shell and blew a hole in her bedroom wall. Her father, passed out on his bed, didn't hear the shot. Rachel walked behind their small house. Her arms were too short to put the rifle to her head, so she shot herself in her right leg instead.Rachel was found screaming in a pool of blood by her Auntie Emily and flown 229 miles to a hospital in Nome. The doctor asked if she wanted to see a priest. She said yes. In walked Father James Poole—a popular priest, radio personality on KNOM, and, according to allegations in at least five lawsuits, serial child rapist. Father Poole has never been convicted of a crime, but the Jesuits have settled numerous sex-abuse claims against him since 2005, in excess of $5 million, according to an attorney involved in four of those five lawsuits. Exact figures aren't available because some of the settlements involve confidentiality agreements. The Jesuits have never let a single case against Father Poole go to trial.To read the full story click on this url:http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102445625705&e=001nmSmtPQ5OJSus7EnTVuDF4hruFSZFs7CJkjI2HeCRGyBfbw2VAVISb7nWg7icn4oADKzMQPiwr8TmG4e4-4ujqTF9CNHYjzCO8hRXBP7Rhn_lrCb2iR7XzKPVTxAR_xh18YmwBIPKSLjTgeD7n65j_wdXSpQcyISfE57Fugu2NfpuzA0k4-L232HQx8b_pBXlyGDF3u17qU=

Cardinal George must resign.

2008-10-15T12:33:00.003-04:00

UNFIT TO LEAD
DEPOSITION PROVIDES CONCRETE EVIDENCE
VOTF TO CARDINAL: “Step down”

WHAT

The recently revealed deposition by Cardinal Francis George is a clear indictment of his pastoring skills and his inability to lead the people of Chicago. His repeated failures in both the Bennett and McCormack cases indicate a trend to disregard advice from outside clerical circles and continue to follow precedents of deceit, cover-ups and secrecy (imbedded in the clerical culture) in lieu of protecting innocent children from irreparable harm.

Voice of the Faithful, reviewing the concrete revelations in the deposition, has no choice but to ask the Cardinal to step down. We call for his resignation.

We also call for a criminal investigation of the actions within the Archdiocese revealed in this deposition. (325 IL. Comp. Stat. Ann.5/4 (West, WESTLAW through 2003 Reg. Sess.))

We ask, “Where is the criminal justice system in light of demonstrated criminal failings repeated across the country, diocese after diocese? When will Catholic citizens demand morality and justice in our own Church?”

We have seen bishops and other diocesan officials who aided cover-ups and enabled abusers rewarded with greater responsibilities and titles rather than being held accountable for their misdeeds. Does this system of rewards for failure encourage additional cover-ups?

Insincere apologies and large financial settlements are “street theater” whether the apologies come from Cardinal George, his brother bishops or the Pope himself. If no consequences accrue to those engaged in committing, perpetuating, or hiding crimes from Catholic congregations, the behavior continues.

We believe that as Catholics we must exercise our baptismal rights and responsibilities, which include calling for our bishops to be accountable to the people they serve.
With evidence of this latest transgression, and reports of the settlements made in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and so many other dioceses, we have no trust in promises made by the hierarchy who created this breach of confidence. (We also note that Cardinal George was one of the authors of the bishops’ Charter to Protect Young Children, which his deposition indicates he then violated.)

Words of regret and apology, and promises of “unequivocal condemnation,” mean little if they are not supported by action.

http://www.votfbpt.org/VOICE_Sept_2008_FINAL.pdf

Another hundred million plus Cathedral

2008-06-21T23:21:00.005-04:00

The people in the above photo need food not a $115 million monument to bishops. In the fourth century cathedrals appeared for the first time in Christianity. Christians who met in small dwellings and housed were invited to worship in formerly pagan temples. What did the first three centuries have? So we need these montrosities as a sign of unity. Remember at the big functions you will find only a token poor person in those front pews. I know cathedrals are beautiful and all that. But we are talking community not grandeur. And how 4th century is this? And I would like to know how much Catholic charities come from public funds? How accountable are those funds.
None of this happened until Constantine gave all the pagan temples to the bishops and they shamelessly made them Christian churches. I don’t think it is money well spent and to throw in that the church is helping the economy is fishing for straws.
In Rome we have empty Cathedrals. They really are not churches. Ditto for Spain and Montreal.
They are monuments to monarchs. In a terribly corrupt and incompetent church, there has to be greater justification for this kind of expense. All the bishops love this grandiosity.
Above all we have little financial accounting. The next big scandal.
Cathedrals are vestiges of pagan Rome. More Dives than Jesus. They make a mockery out of the Magnificat. A continuation of a Regal Church. They fit right there with the floor length gowns. And Cardinal Hats; another office that has no scriptural base.

Cozzens on the Church Today

2008-05-05T22:13:00.004-04:00

Donald Cozzens gave a comprehensive lecture tonight in Pleasantville on the state of the Catholic church in America. He touched on many things. One of the points he made which is not that well known by Catholics is there are thousands of parishes in the US without priests. Because most of us are in Metropolitan areas where there are more priests per parish, we have no idea of how many parishers there are that have no priest or are sharing one priest for two, three or more parishes. In these cases there is usually a parish director who coordinates the apostolate of the church and many times it is a woman. In some ways this is good because it gives the church an opportunity to get rid of the awful clericalism which has plagued the church for so long whereby a priest feels all powerful and all holy just by virtue of ordination. In this experience we will realize that God comes to his people wherever they are and does not need magic to do it.

Another point, Cozzens made is on the feudalism in the church which persists today despite the fact that we have the most educated laity in the history of the church."Feudalism has a tough time thriving where the laity is educated", Cozzens declared.

Donald Cozzens to Speak at St. Theresa's in Briarcliff Manor on Monday May 5 at 7:30pm

2008-05-03T20:47:00.004-04:00

Priesthood in Crisis, A Church in Trouble:
Is There Light in This Darkness
On Monday (May 5) at 7:30 p.m., Cozzens will speak at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Briarcliff Manor. Fr. Donald Cozzens wrote “The Changing Face of the Priesthood.”

The former seminary president who sparked a national debate on the impact of gays entering the Roman Catholic priesthood is now tackling another sensitive issue, adding his voice to those advocating an end to mandatory celibacy.

"Celibacy used to go with priesthood as fish went with Fridays," said the Rev. Donald Cozzens. "Over the past 40 to 50 years, I would argue that more and more Catholics are questioning the need to link celibacy with priesthood."

Cozzens has written many books on renewal in the church. His is a very thoughtful voice in a troubled church.

Important Talk by Angela Bonavoglia

2008-04-22T23:35:00.004-04:00

Wonderful, stirring lecture by Angela last night at the Larchmont Episcopal Church on Forest Avenue in Larchmont. She pointed out how very few women were prominent at the pope's events and when they were present were either just nuns or in the choir while male clergy dominated the so called "important" people around the Pope.

Angela gave a great synopsis of her book "Good Catholic Girls" and showed how women are really vigorously active in the church in significant ways and how they are pastors and associate pastors in a majority of churches in the US. A wonderful invitation to women to take courage as their sisters are making a difference in the church, despite the deep resistance of the old boys club on the Tiber.

Places for Pope to Visit for the Magnificat

2008-04-18T11:10:00.005-04:00

A picture says a thousand words. The poor will be filled with great things and the rich will go away empty. The pope is seen with the affluent more than he is seen with the downtrodden. Is that because there is no pressure for him to do so? He finally met with victims of clergy abuse after massive demonstrations. Does he need protests for him to visit the poor?

Vatican finally getting it a little bit?

2008-04-09T19:13:00.004-04:00

From Votf:
Vatican finally getting it a little bit?

If what we read in the media is accurate, there appears to be some change in tone emanating from the Number 2 person in the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. He has gone in a few days time from saying in a British newspaper that the Church has already "responded with great dignity" to the clergy sexual abuse scandal -- and that the "clamour created in the U.S. around this scandal is really unbearable" -- to telling the Associated Press yesterday: "[Pope Benedict] will try to open the path of healing and reconciliation" in response to the abuse crisis that has caused "so much suffering for the victims, for the families of the victims and above all to the church ..."

(You can see the stories at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/07/wpope107.xml and at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040801793.html.)

Perhaps the voices of the laity, amplified by the media, are once again resonating with Church officials: Cardinal Bertone’s interview with Associated Press coincidentally occurred the same day Voice of the Faithful’s full page ad appeared in the New York Times.

Of course, the challenge is whether Church leaders can effectively address the unresolved issues of the clergy sexual abuse scandal while also embracing full lay participation in the Church and providing complete financial accountability and transparency. Meeting that challenge could, indeed, transform the Church into one that is governed by compassion, informed by justice, empowered by equality, and animated to act collegially.

Angela Bonavoglia is coming to Westchester on April 21 evening at 7:30pm

2008-03-18T22:01:00.005-04:00

Angela will give a talk on Women in the Church and the Sex Abuse Crisis. Sponsored by the Voice of the Faithful (Votf) of Larchmont. She is author of one of the best books on Women in the Church: "Good Catholic Girls." There is nothing like it. A very well written and fact filled book. In no book can you find in one place so many details about women in the church. She has interviewed leading Catholic women and ther result are as inspiring as they are revealing. The talk will take Place on Monday Evening April 21st at 7:30pm at the The Larchmont Avenue Church
60 Forest Park Avenue Larchmont, N.Y. 10538 For Info. call Peggie Cashman at
(914-834-2183)All are welcome.

Angela Bonavoglia is nationally recognized for her writing about women’s issues and Catholic Church reform.

In the wake of the 2002 priest sex abuse scandals, Bonavoglia’s article “The Church’s Tug of War,” a lead feature in The Nation, drew national attention to Catholic women’s unheralded roles as the leaders of the progressive Church reform movement in the United States.

Those amazing and courageous women are the subject of Bonavoglia's explosive new book GOOD CATHOLIC GIRLS: How Women Are Leading the Fight to Change the Church.

The Pope should be educating the bishops rather than Catholic Universities

2008-03-14T20:46:00.004-04:00

Here comes Benedict on his high horse presuming to have the cure for Catholic universities when his bishops have performed execrably in re-sending pedophiles to abuse children and abusing victims again by humiliating them when they are seeking justice and by denying them compensation for ruined lives. The question that Benedict must answer is admission of guilt by priests and bishops in the U.S. did not come until the secular courts forced them to admit guilt and to give compensation for the victims.

In other words they did not admit anything until they were caught. Before the pedophilia scandal broke in full force in 2002 Benedict and the CDF were in full gear on the inquisition given impetus by the document Ex Corde Ecclesia. They succeeded in creating an atmosphere of suspicion and fear on Catholic campuses while they ignored the flagrant abuse of children by priests and bishops which has been known, but not corrected, in the church for a long time.

In 1967 in the Land of Lakes statement, several Catholic Universities declared that the most effective way to run Catholic Universities was to make them truly professional academic institutions which would respect science while maintaining a Catholic ambiance. The key point was that the Universities would be outside the sphere of Vatican influence which was seen as detrimental to the growth of true learning.

Now Benedict is starting down this ugly road again. What he should do is find ways to protect and nourish children which is the first duty of the church.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031304176_pf.html

Pope Benedict is coming to New York and Egan will be the host.

2008-03-11T23:21:00.004-04:00

New York is one of the few dioceses which has exercised minimal effort in bringing justice to victims of clergy abuse. The Republican Senate, pressured by the New York State Catholic conference has not even let out the Statute of Limitations bill out of committee. The bill was passed in the democratic assembly. Spitzer had not been helpful on this bill. I imagine he was picking his fight according to his constituents.

BXVI is making a big splash in New York next months and he will be greeted by many victims of clergy abuse. While he has made some strong statements about abuse of children to counter criticism about his lack of concern, he still will be headlined by an Archbishop who thinks the people should not be given a financiall accounting of their money, nor redress for their children who have been abused by his charges.

When Benedict comes into town he should be made aware of his shortcomings in leadership. We might be careful about empty pageantry when justices is not served.

The American Catholic Church still resists statute of limitations.

2008-03-02T22:14:00.003-05:00

Commentary - Marci A. Hamilton: Killing abuse suit bill puts children at risk

Filed under: BALTIMORE , Marci A. Hamilton , BA Opinion
29, 2008 3:00 AM (2 days ago) by Marci A. Hamilton, The Examiner
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Under pressure from the Catholic Church, Maryland lawmakers shelved legislation to identify predators among us. With HB858, Maryland was part of a national movement to eliminate statutes of limitations for childhood sexual abuse. This bill offered the hope of a “window” to allow claims previously barred.

Our legal system favors predators over the protection of children. By the time victims are capable of coming forward, the law lets predators escape through the statute of limitations — again and again.

Those predators now live and work near — often with — our children, but we do not know who they are because we keep the courthouse locked against victims.

Perhaps even harder to understand, the Catholic Conference of Maryland killed this bill through lies and misrepresentations about its purposes and effects.
Churches recently distributed handouts to area Catholics making outrageous and dishonest claims.

Priest abused Children, ages 5-11, last year (2007)

2008-02-28T09:31:00.005-05:00

Syracuse Diocese priest accused of abuse in Montgomery County Posted by jcrocker February 27, 2008 Syracuse, NY -- A priest of the Syracuse Diocese has been charged with felony sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child in Montgomery County. The Rev. John W. Broderick, 47, was suspended from ministry early this year for incidents unrelated to sexual abuse, said Danielle Cummings, assistant chancellor and diocesan spokeswoman. She said she could not discuss specifics, but confirmed that Broderick was disciplined for "lack of pastoral judgment." Cummings said she and diocesan officials learned today about Broderick's arrest on Monday. State police in Fonda say Broderick engaged in inappropriate sexual contact last year with at least four children, ages 5 to 11. The victims' family told investigators Broderick was considered their spiritual adviser. Broderick was charged with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of second-degree sexual abuse, all felonies, and four misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was arrested at Holy Name of Jesus Academy in Massena. Cummings does not know the nature or duration of Broderick's relationship with the school. No one answered the phone at the school tonight. Broderick is a native of Endwell and was ordained in 1989. He served at St. Joseph, Camillus; Our Lady of Sorrows, Vestal; and St. Malachy, Sherburne. It's not clear where Broderick has been living since his suspension. Cummings said the diocese received no previous complaints accusing Broderick of sexual abuse. The Syracuse Diocese has removed 23 priests from ministry since 2002 as a result of credible allegations of sexual abuse. About 100 people have accused 50 local priests of sexual abuse since 1950. Diocesan investigations have cleared nine priests.

Donald J. McGuire S.J. Officially defrocked

2008-02-23T21:34:00.005-05:00

Vatican defrocks convicted priest Donald McGuire
By Karoun Demirjian | Tribune reporter
February 23, 2008
A Jesuit priest convicted of molesting students at a Chicago-area Catholic school in the 1960s was officially defrocked Friday.

Donald J. McGuire has been permanently removed from all clerical functions, said a statement from Rev. Edward Schmidt, the head of the Chicago order of the Society of Jesus to which McGuire belonged.

"We are outraged and saddened that any abuse ever took place," Schmidt said. "[McGuire] has terribly abused the trust [the victims], and we, put in him. And the church, by the action taken today, has demonstrated that same belief."

McGuire, a popular priest whose accolades included being a spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa, was convicted in 2006 of molesting two students from Loyola Academy in Wilmette in the 1960s.

Calvert Hall College High School fights extension of statute of limitation

2008-02-22T16:35:00.004-05:00

MARYLAND
The Jeffersonian

Catholics fight bill on abuse

Calvert Hall on e-mail campaign

by Bryan P. Sears
February 21, 2008

A bill that would extend the statute of limitations on sexual abuse
lawsuits is drawing opposition from the head of Calvert Hall College high
school.

Del. Eric Bromwell, a Democrat, is sponsoring a bill that would give
people alleging sexual abuse more time for filing lawsuits.

Opposing the bill is Brother Benedict Oliver, the president of Calvert
Hall, which has not been immune to the allegations of child sexual abuse
that have hit

the Catholic Church nationwide.

Bromwell, who graduated from Calvert Hall in 1994, said people who are
abused "should be able to seek justice."

The bill does not target any religious institution, but Bromwell, who
represents the 8th District, including Perry Hall, Parkville and Overlea,
said the only

open opposition has come from Catholic organizations and institutions,
including Calvert Hall.

Bromwell said he has nothing but positive feelings about his time at the
school.

"I love my experience at Calvert Hall and encourage young people to
attend," he said. "But there were people there when I was who were
convicted of

abuse. I knew people who were abused at Calvert Hall."

Bromwell co-sponsored a similar bill three years ago. The lead sponsor of
that measure has since retired and Bromwell said he wanted to continue to

champion the issue.

Under current law, alleged victims have seven years from the day they turn
18 years old to file a civil suit charging sexual abuse.

Bromwell's bill would extend the deadline to 32 years or age 50.

Additionally, other alleged victims, regardless of age, would have until
Dec. 31, 2009, to file a certificate of merit with the court. The
certificate would have

to include a statement from the alleged victim's attorney and a
psychiatrist or psychologist who reviewed the case and concluded there was
a reasonable

cause for filing the suit.

The bill would also cap damages at $1 million plus legal expenses.

Oliver has e-mailed several former and current Calvert Hall students about
the bill. He did not return a call from a reporter seeking comment.

About a month ago, Oliver and a lobbyist for the Archdiocese of Baltimore
met with Bromwell and asked him not to sponsor the bill, the delegate
said.

Shortly after that meeting, the e-mail campaign began. In one such
message, Oliver encouraged recipients to call Bromwell and Democratic Sen.
Jim

Brochin, who represents the Towson area, and ask them not to sponsor such
a bill.

Oliver wrote that Bromwell and Brochin believe "that the resulting
multiple lawsuits will provide justice to the victims."

Brochin, who has sponsored many sex abuse-related bills since he was
elected in 2002, said he was not going to sponsor a bill to lengthen the
statute of

limitations -- but not because of lobbying from Calvert Hall students and
alumni.

Brochin said he was asked by the bill's supporters to not cross-file it in
the Senate in order to test how much support the bill would receive in the
House.

"I support the bill and would vote for it if it makes it to the Senate,"
said Brochin, adding that a few people had contacted his office to ask him
not to

sponsor such legislation.

Oliver, in his e-mail, wrote that "attempts to provide justice, compassion
and healing to individuals actually and allegedly abused by employees of
the

Archdiocese of Baltimore and/or Calvert Hall have already been made."

Oliver wrote that each victim has received apologies from both the school
and the "highest administrators of the archdiocese."

He added that victims were "offered, and several have accepted, funding
for unlimited counseling by a professional of their choosing."

Oliver said that victims also were offered arbitration with a non-Catholic
judge to arrive at financial settlements that included the payment of the
victim's

legal fees.

It is not clear how many victims there are or how many accepted such
offers.

In 2006, Jerome Toohey, a former priest and head chaplain at Calvert Hall,
was convicted of sexually abusing two boys including Thomas Roberts, an

anchor for CNN. Normally, newspapers to not publish the names of sexual
abuse victims, but Roberts and the other victim, Michael Goles, spoke
publicly

about their cases.

Toohey, 61, of Lutherville, was sentenced to 5 years in jail with all but
18 months suspended.

Roberts said the sentence brought him a sense of relief.

"I'm at peace," he said at the time. "People can learn. To live in the
truth is really nice."

Oliver, in his e-mail, wrote that lengthening the time for filing lawsuits
alleging sexual abuse could have dire financial consequences for the
school.

"Because insurance coverage at the time of the abuse (at least 15 years
ago) was typically limited, Calvert Hall could not now absorb the costs of
multiple

lawsuits and jury-awarded damages," Oliver wrote.

"Besides raising tuition beyond usual percentages, Calvert Hall
undoubtedly would have to reduce or eliminate tuition assistance and
curtail or eliminate

some academic and extracurricular programs. Such measures would result in
a severe, perhaps fatal, decline in enrollment," Oliver added.

Bromwell said he has been the focus of comments in sermons at area
Catholic churches and the issue has tested his faith.

"It's been very difficult over the last three years," he said. "I've heard
from victims about how much this would help. I've heard from opponents
that this does

nothing to help victims and does nothing to protect kids. In this
scenario, I'm going to have to listen to the victims."

More sex abuse allegations against Spokane Diocese boys' ranch

2008-02-16T20:30:00.002-05:00

Last updated February 15, 2008 7:42 p.m. PT

More sex abuse allegations against Spokane Diocese boys' ranch
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Three former residents of a boys' ranch operated by the Spokane Catholic Diocese have filed suit, alleging they were physically and sexually abused by priests and a volunteer.

In the lawsuit filed Friday in Spokane County Superior Court, the men accuse Morning Star Boys Ranch of negligent supervision and knowingly allowing employees to sexually abuse residents.

A former Morning Star director, the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, is among three defendants named in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. Weitensteiner resigned in 2006. He has denied abusing ranch residents.

The plaintiffs are 39, 48 and 55. They allege the abuse happened in the 1960s, '70s and '80s at the hands of Weitensteiner, the Rev. Patrick O'Donnell and an unidentified volunteer employee.

Morning Star spokeswoman Jenn Kantz said the ranch had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on specific allegations. She said the ranch is a safe and therapeutic place today. The ranch south of Spokane has served more than 1,300 boys with behavioral problems over the past 50 years.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal filings that began in August 2005, alleging abuse at the ranch by Weitensteiner, O'Donnell and other staff members. Thirteen former residents previously sued the ranch over claims of abuse.

In depositions, O'Donnell has acknowledged sexually molesting dozens of boys over three decades. He was named in 66 of the 176 bankruptcy court claims alleging sexual abuse by priests in the Spokane Diocese, more than any other single priest. Last year, the diocese agreed to pay $48 million to settle claims of clergy sexual abuse.

A civil lawsuit against O'Donnell by more than two dozen of his accusers was stayed during the three-year bankruptcy proceeding. The trial could be scheduled later this year.

Sex Abuse Scandal Catches up With Religious Orders

2008-02-08T13:19:00.000-05:00

Religion

Sex Abuse Scandal Catches Up with Religious Orders
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Father Aaron Joseph Cote denies allegations of sexual abuse.

All Things Considered, December 31, 2007 ·

When it comes to sexual abuse, the religious orders have flown under the radar.

About a third of all Catholic clerics serve in religious orders — they’re the Jesuits who teach high school or the Franciscans who serve the poor.

The sex abuse scandal that broke five years ago focused on parish priests and forced dioceses to push big reforms. But when it comes to religious orders, their reforms are voluntary, and the orders are not accountable to anyone. As a result, abuses may go undetected.

Reporting Only to Rome

Father Aaron Joseph Cote — known as A.J. — is a Dominican friar, part of a religious order founded nearly 800 years ago. As a Dominican, he was entrusted with preaching the Gospel and living a contemplative life — until two years ago, when he was sued for allegedly abusing a minor.

Cote’s case is unusual because, if news accounts are any measure, religious orders have escaped much of the scandal that engulfed the larger church.

In a deposition videotaped in August 2006, Cote looks grim as attorney Jeff Anderson questions him. Anderson represents a young man who accused Cote of sexually abusing him in 2001 and 2002.

Anderson: “Do you have a sexual attraction to post-pubescent adolescents?”

Cote: “I refuse to answer on the ground it may incriminate me.”

Anderson: “Do you know the word ‘pedophilia’?”

Cote: “I refuse to answer on the ground that it may incriminate me”

And so it went for the better part of an hour.

Patrick Wall, a former Benedictine monk, served for 12 years at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota. In those years, he heard one confession after another of fellow Benedictine brothers who had abused children. Of 300 monks at St. John’s Abbey, 32 were “perpetrators against children,” Wall said.

Wall finally quit the priesthood in 1998 and began investigating clergy sex abuse for victims and their lawyers.

Wall found no shortage of work: He figures he has investigated two dozen religious orders, ranging from the Franciscans and Dominicans to the Marists and Salesians. Most recently, Wall turned his gaze on Jesuit missionaries sent from Oregon to Northwest Alaska. Last month, the Jesuits settled with more than 110 Eskimos for $50 million.

Wall and others believe the rate of abuse in the religious orders is higher than among the parish priests — although no one knows for certain because the orders are not required to submit their records to anyone in the United States. They report only to Rome. And they are not bound by the charter signed by the U.S. Bishops in 2002 that promised to stop protecting suspected abusers and report them to police.

Wall says abusers from the orders are easier to tuck away. A bishop in San Diego, for example, can transfer a problem priest only so many places. But religious orders are international, which Wall says is convenient.

“You get them out of the state. You avoid any kind of criminal liability because you get them out of the area, so that the statute of limitations can run,” he said. “But you keep them in the family so it just looks like, well, ‘The abbot assigned Father Dominic to St. Augustine’s in the Bahamas.’”

That is pretty much what happened to Father Cote for more than 20 years. Cote denies he has abused anyone, and neither he nor his attorney responded to requests for an interview. In fact, no Dominican official connected to this case would grant an interview — even after several requests over two months.

But videotaped depositions in Cote’s case serve as a rare window into the Dominicans’ world. The depositions reveal a system in which warning signs can go undetected or ignored, and a problem priest can find refuge in new assignments for years.

The First Red Flag

In October 1985, Cote, then a seminarian, led a youth retreat near Washington, D.C.

In a taped deposition last year, Anderson read an assessment from Cote’s file to Father Raymond Daley, who was the leader of the Dominicans in the 1980s. The assessment said that Cote paid too much attention to boys and that he stayed out all night and returned in the morning with a teenager named Will. It said he had two glasses of wine before the service, that his talk on sex discussed oral sex and that he bared his chest during his talk.

When asked if he had any recollection of the assessment, an elderly Daley answered softly, “I do not,” a refrain repeated by Dominican leaders throughout the depositions.

A year after the youth retreat, Cote was ordained and eventually sent to Somerset, Ohio, to oversee two small parishes. His secretary, Jill Sullivan, told NPR that the young cleric instantly captured the hearts of the children. But she soon began to wonder about the youth group he started.

“You never saw any girls,” Sullivan said. “There were only boys. And at a teen youth group, why wouldn’t you see any girls?”

Sullivan started hearing rumors about Cote’s relationship with the boys. And then one morning, she found some papers on her desk — Xeroxes made the night before on the copying machine.

“And I noticed they were of boys, their rear ends, their genitals, and I went to Father A.J. and said, ‘What is this?’ He wouldn’t look at me, and he said, ‘I’ll take care of this. It won’t happen again.’”

Parishioners began to complain about Cote’s conduct with children. According to two parents interviewed under oath, they worried that Cote held sleepovers for boys and might be serving them beer. The parents met with a senior priest in the area, who wrote of complaints to Dominican leaders in New York.

The Dominicans apparently received the letter but now say it is missing. Dominican leaders said under oath they never heard complaints of a sexual nature.

1989: Chimbote, Peru

In 1989, the Dominicans transferred Cote to one of their foreign missions, in Chimbote, Peru.

The pattern began again. Cote launched a youth group for teenage boys, and boys stayed over at the house that he shared with another priest. That priest testified that Cote hugged and kissed the boys with an intimacy that alarmed parents.

Cote favored one boy in particular, who stayed overnight in Cote’s room, the priest said.

The priest said under oath that he reported to the head Dominican in Peru four times. The Dominican leader in Peru — who is no longer alive — wrote the head office in New York that parishioners had witnessed “improper conduct on the part of Father Cote.” But, he added, these complaints were just “hearsay and rumor.”

Anderson, the attorney, asked Father Thomas Ertle, who was the Dominican leader at the time, why he didn’t take action. Ertle said he relied on his fellow friar’s word that nothing was amiss and on the word of Cote.

“He gave me no indication that there was anything immoral in his contact or association with them,” Ertle said of his conversation with Cote.

“And did you rely upon him in Cote’s representation that there was nothing immoral?” Anderson asked.

“Yes.”

Anderson doubts that leaders didn’t know of any sexual abuse or chose to “see no evil.”

“I took the depositions of every official, every provincial and every vice-provincial that presided over A.J. Cote,” Anderson said. “And each of them lied.”

Anderson says the Dominicans are a small order. There are only a few hundred in the U.S. It is a tight-knit spiritual family.

“They live in community, which means they live together, and they report to one another regularly,” Anderson said. “And there is no way that the reports made in Somerset, Ohio, in Chimbote, Peru, and elsewhere didn’t go to the leaders of the Dominican order.”

2000: Germantown, Md.

Soon after the complaints surfaced, Cote asked to leave Peru. Back in the U.S., he moved from one assignment to another for a decade. No allegations surfaced during this period. Then in 2000, Cote landed as a youth pastor at Mother Seton parish in Germantown, Md. There he met 14-year-old Brandon Rains.

Rains testified last year that his friendship with Cote began when Cote “took a special liking to me,” by waving or winking at him from the altar during the Mass.

And Cote eventually spent a lot of time with Rains after his parents learned the boy had begun using and selling marijuana in the ninth grade. Rains’ mother told NPR they felt the only refuge was his church youth group.

“He spent so much time with Father Cote,” she said, holding back tears. “He was like the one safe, positive person in his life that we would allow him to see. Not his friends. We thought that was the source of the trouble.”

She added: “I felt like I just handed him over.”

By midyear, Rains testified, Cote was taking him to a private apartment or hotels to watch pornography. He masturbated in the boy’s presence and persuaded Rains that he should do the same, Rains said.

Rains said Cote did this about 10 times and touched him once.

In August 2003, Rains confided in his parents about Cote’s behavior and filed a report with police in Maryland. His stepfather, Joe McMorrow, says he called the Dominicans, who assured him they would investigate.

“And then, months passed,” McMorrow said. “We had very little contact with the Dominicans; most of it we initiated.”

Something just didn’t seem right, McMorrow said. “One day, I went out on the Web, and I find that A.J. Cote is a youth minister at a Catholic parish in Rhode Island.”

Not the Whole Story

How could this happen?

Father Dominic Izzo, the current head of the Dominican Province, said in his videotaped deposition that he didn’t consider Brandon Rains’ allegation credible.

Anderson asked Izzo what would have made it credible. First, Izzo said, if Cote’s psychological evaluation indicated he was a pedophile. Second, he said, if the police had found concrete evidence of abuse.

“The investigation would have said that yes, this did happen on this date,” Izzo said. “That did not happen. And so we took the advice of professionals.” He said that he sent all the information they had about Cote to the Rhode Island Bishop’s independent review board, and when they did not ask for more information, he considered the matter closed. Izzo recommended Cote be allowed to serve in ministry in Rhode Island.

But Dennis Roberts, the former state attorney general and head of that review board, told NPR he didn’t get the whole story from the Dominicans.

“They didn’t exactly lie to us, but they didn’t tell us the whole truth,” Roberts said.

Roberts’ board gave the green light for Cote to begin ministry in Providence. He said after looking at materials NPR gathered for this story, he was floored by all that the Dominicans had omitted — files from Cote’s seminary days, complaints from Ohio and Peru, the attempts to unload Cote on different dioceses.

Roberts said that his review board had access to all local priests’ files. But with religious orders like the Dominicans, Roberts said, “we don’t have the full package. And therefore in dealing with an issue like Father Cote’s, we really do have to rely on the good faith and forthcoming nature of the disclosures made to us by the order. And here that was not very good.”

In the deposition, Anderson handed Izzo Exhibit 100, a letter dated July 26, 2005. It’s from Catherine Wolf, a teacher in Somerset, Ohio. Wolf wrote that she had just learned that Cote had repeatedly molested a student in the late 1980s. “I believe that Father A.J. is a danger to children,” she wrote, “and should not be allowed to associate with them in any capacity.”

Under the Dominicans’ own policies, they were supposed to report all credible allegations to the police. Anderson asked if Izzo did so.

“Did I supply this letter to the police?” Izzo asked? “No, I did not.”

When asked why not, Izzo said he didn’t recall. “We just didn’t submit it to the police,” he said.

Izzo said he did not consider that allegation credible because it did not come from the alleged victim. He didn’t inform Cote’s parish in Rhode Island, nor did he alert the review board.

Dennis Roberts said he wishes Izzo had.

“What we would have done at that point,” Roberts said, “taking that new information, is tell the father provincial [that] Father Cote was no longer welcome here at that point, [that] the man has to be removed from ministry.”

Cote was just about to attend a church youth retreat in November 2005 when Rains filed a civil suit against Cote and the Dominicans in Washington, D.C. The Dominicans pulled Cote from active ministry.

Four months ago, the Dominicans agreed to settle with Rains for $1.2 million. Based on evidence revealed in the lawsuit, prosecutors in Maryland have reopened a criminal investigation.

2006: Massachusetts

In May 2006 — smack in the middle of the Rains litigation — a woman filed a complaint with the police in Massachusetts.

She claimed that Father Cote had abused her two boys while babysitting. The Dominicans offered their sympathy, but they did not mention this new allegation in their sworn testimony in the Rains suit.

The boys at the time were 4 and 6.

Nun is Found Guilty in Sex Abuse Cases

2008-02-06T21:19:00.000-05:00

February 6, 2008 Southwest News-Herald - Oak Lawn, Burbank, Bridgeview

Nun Is Found Guilty in Sex Abuse Cases

By CHUCK SALVATORE

A nun who used to teach in the Chicago area and now resides in Oak Lawn has been found guilty of sexual molestation.

Sister Norma Giannini, 79, was sentenced to one year in prison and 10 years probation on Friday, Feb. 1, in a Milwaukee courthouse after pleading not guilty in November. Giannini was found guilty of having sexual intercourse with two boys who were 12 years old in the 1960s.

During the 1960s, Giannini was a principal of St. Patrick School in Milwaukee. According to reports, more than 160 allegations of sexual molestation happened during the span of four years.

She most recently lived with Sisters of Mercy in Oak Lawn because of declining health.

“On behalf of the Sisters, I express profound regret for the pain experienced by these two men and their families and anyone else touched by this situation,” said Sister Betty Smith, president of Sisters of Mercy, through a released statement.

The Sisters of Mercy said previously that Giannini was sent to a treatment facility in the ’90s. She also allegedly admitted to the Milwaukee Archdiocese in 1992 about having sexual intercourse with the two boys.

According to reports, one of the boys was a student of Giannini and allegedly had sex with her around 60 to 80 times. The other victim was a paperboy whose route included the convent where Giannini was living. The second victim said there were more than 100 incidents between him and Giannini.

According to the complaint, Sister Giannini stated, “She believed she was in love with both of them.”

Mary Guentner, Milwaukee director of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said that Giannini admitted to the Milwaukee Archdiocese about the sexual abuse that took place, but the Archdiocese never reported it to the authorities. Guentner is not happy with the sentence Giannini received.

“We are glad this is over, but we are concerned that the sentence is different for a female perpetrator,” said Guentner.

According to Guentner, during the trial, the judge had said that what Giannini did was evil and disgusting but only sentenced her to one year in prison.

“Sexual abuse perpetrated by a woman is just as evil as sexual abuse perpetrated by a man,” said Guentner.

Guentner confirmed that in court, Giannini admitted to sexually abusing three other students in Milwaukee and one more in Chicago. The three additional sexual abuses in Milwaukee occurred during the same time period, however it is not known when the abuse of a Chicago boy occurred.

James St. Patrick, 53, and his best friend Jerry Kobes, whom have openly come out as the victims in the case were in court on Friday, reading statements on how this abuse has destroyed their lives.

Giannini was St. Patrick’s seventh- and eighth-grade teacher. He said that the abuse started to occur when he was 12 years old.

According to St. Patrick he filed a complaint with Milwaukee detectives three years ago, and called every week for two years. For two years, St. Patrick said he was given the run around. The former district attorney retired and when a new D.A. was appointed, his case was relooked at.

“My original file was lost, now it seems the former D.A. was for the Catholic Church,” said St. Patrick over the telephone.

St. Patrick is also unhappy with the sentence Giannini received.

“If you look at Fr. (John) Feeney, he received five-years for the same type of abuse. When men sexually abuse someone its rape, when women sexually abuse someone, I don’t know what people call it,” said St. Patrick.

Fr. John Feeney is a former Green Bay priest who was sent to prison in 2004 for sexually abusing minors after being transferred all over the state after allegations arose.

St. Patrick also added that it is unfortunate that sexual abuse by men and women are not looked at in the same way. He also believes that if a man had done to him and Kobes what Giannini did, then it might be looked at as more serious.

St. Patrick said he knows the three other victims who have come out and said they were abused by Giannini. He said those boys were a few grades a head of him but they all knew each other.

As a result of these incidents that occurred years ago, St. Patrick is not a practicing Catholic. Rather, he said, he has his own believes that are formed by his personal experiences throughout his life.

Giannini was principal at St. Clare of Montefalco, 5450 S. Talman Ave., Chicago, from 1983 to 1989. She was also was a teacher and dean at Mother McAuley High School, 3737 W. 99th St., Chicago, from 1972 to 1977. She has lived in Illinois since 1970.

Tom Doyle's Letter and VOTF's response

2008-02-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

VOTF, like any organization , has internal conflicts about direction and policy. Progress is difficult when dealing with the giant that the hierarchy is and the natural tendency of people to remain passive. Tom Doyle and others want VOTF to be more radical while others feel that VOTF is too agressive. How much is our opposition to VOTF an act of our subservience to the hierarchy? So it is always a matter of insight and information.

We should not get discouraged with the internal conflicts within VOTF. This is unrealistic, in my opinion. In any human institution there is the same human nature working. Yet VOTF is the most viable, accross the board, reform group of our times and we should work with it rather than to roam into off the cuff criticisms.

No one has worked harder than Tom Doyle in stopping and preventing abuse of children by the clergy. As he frequently points out, if the bishops listened to him from the beginning much abuse would have been prevented and the hierarchy would have saved a lot of money and reputation. At the same time, the counter attack by the bishops and others in the church has taken its toll on Tom. I understand his disillusionment but he should stay within the church and work for reform. Perhaps his wounds are too great for that to happen.

In the midst of all this we must not forget that VOTF educated so many of us into becoming adults rather than Father knows best Catholics. VOTF will have its growing pains but it is our most visible collective voice in letting unruly clerics know that the gospel comes first over privilege and aristocracy.

Protect an Abuser Get a Promotion

2008-01-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

The cardinal, his men and the McCormack legacy

Cardinal George, Bishop Rassas, Chancellor Lago, Vicar General Canary, Bishop Kicanas

Two years ago this month, the Rev. Daniel McCormack was arrested for molesting boys. He’s in prison now. And the top leaders in the Archdiocese of Chicago who might have stopped him have risen in their church positions.

Keep reading.

Cardinal Francis George
At the height of the sexual abuse scandals in 2002, U.S. Catholic bishops adopted a policy calling for the removal of any priest credibly accused of child molestation. Beforehand, George had argued repeatedly on national television that the “zero tolerance” policy was too stringent. McCormack was first picked up by police in August 2005, but not charged. The cardinal’s review board recommended that the priest be removed from ministry, the archdiocese said. But the cardinal refused. McCormack went on to abuse other children. He pleaded guilty last July and was sent to prison. Four months later, the cardinal was elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Bishop George Rassas
When McCormack was first arrested in 2005, Rassas was the archdiocese’s vicar general. Despite the arrest, he allowed McCormack to receive a priestly promotion. The priest was kept in the West Side parish he served and went on to abuse more children. McCormack was arrested again in 2006. A few weeks later, Rassas was made an auxiliary bishop.

Chancellor Jimmy Lago
As the archdiocese’s chancellor, Lago oversees the offices that handle sexual abuse. After McCormack’s 2006 arrest, Lago told another media outlet that he regretted “that he was on vacation” when the priest was first arrested in 2005. And “not in the loop when a school principal came forward in 1999 with the first allegation against the priest.” Not aware of McCormack? Really? Lago called for a so-called “independent” investigation into how McCormack slipped through the archdiocese’s system. In releasing the report, the tough talking chancellor was hailed as a hero with unquestioning acceptance by the Chicago Tribune. The cardinal bestowed Lago with even greater responsibility in handling abuse. The question not raised: Should Lago have been fired?

Vicar General Canary
The Rev. John Canary was vice rector of Mundelein Seminary when McCormack was studying for the priesthood. Mundelein officials learned in 1992 about sexual accusations against McCormack involving two adult males and a minor. The incidents began in 1988 when McCormack was at a seminary school known as Niles College, where Canary previously worked, according to archdiocesan reports. Canary said the allegations were noted in seminary records, which then “disappeared.” Canary later became seminary rector. In 2006, he was appointed vicar general, a position that became open when Rassas was elevated to auxiliary bishop.

Bishop Gerald Kicanas
While rector of Mundelein Seminary in the 1990s, Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas says he knew about three reports of “sexual improprieties” against then-seminarian Daniel McCormack. Still, Kicanas supported McCormack’s ordination, he recently told the Sun-Times. “It would have been grossly unfair not to have ordained him,” Kicanas said. “There was a sense that his activity was part of the developmental process and that he had learned from the experience. I was more concerned about his drinking. We sent him to counseling for that.” McCormack was ordained in 1994. The following year, Kicanas became a Chicago auxiliary bishop and in 2001, a bishop of Tucson. Two months ago, he was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

When the People do their Job

2008-01-23T20:09:00.000-05:00

BELLEVILLE (IL)
BELLEVILLE NEWS-DEMOCRAT

Bishop apologizes for spending restricted funds; $18,000 to be repaid

'Benefactor' will pay it, Braxton says

BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK
News-Democrat
Jan. 23, 2008

After weeks of controversy between himself and the diocesan finance
council, Bishop Edward Braxton issued a public apology Monday for
approving

spending $18,000 on new furniture and ceremonial garments with money from
restricted funds.

Braxton also announced he had obtained funding from an "outside
benefactor" that would repay $10,100 spent on a conference table and
chairs from the

local "Future Full Of Hope" account and about $8,000 for new ordination
vestments taken from money collected for the Society for the Propagation
of the

Faith. The pontifical fund is dedicated to the poor worldwide and cannot
be spent in the country it is raised.

"While this gift resolves the immediate question concerning restricted and
unrestricted funds, it does not resolve the larger question of the
confusion,

mistrust, misunderstanding, loss of confidence, and even anger caused by
these developments. I regret this very much, and I apologize for anything
I may

have done, even unwittingly, to contribute to this situation," Braxton
wrote.

Braxton, who would not accept questions from a News-Democrat reporter,
promised to work closely with the finance committee's membership of clergy
and

laity "... to ensure that such a problem does not occur again."

The bishop's statement was met with guarded optimism from the executive
council of an influential priest organization, whose members issued their
own

statement urging Braxton to work more closely with all diocesan priest
organizations and to reappoint former Belleville councilman Bill Knapp to
another

term as chief financial officer of the diocese.

"We are hopeful that this crisis can be slowly resolved over the coming
months when the bishop continues to restore trust. Otherwise, his recent
statement

and actions will be the efforts of a classic corporate damage control,"
read a statement from the executive council of the priest Presbyteral
Council.

The statement, sent by the council's chairman, the Rev. Jerry Wirth, also
urged that the oath of secrecy taken by members of the 16-member finance

council be scrapped. Wirth said it was Knapp who raised questions about
the purchases within the finance council. Knapp has said the oath of
secrecy

prevented him from commenting.

In December, the finance council wrote to the U.S. representative of Pope
Benedict XVI, Archbishop Pietro Sambi in Washington, D.C., complaining of

Braxton's use of the restricted funds. Finance Council member the Rev.
Dennis Voss, who has confirmed that the complaint was made, has also
stated

that the propriety of the oath of secrecy will be discussed.

David Clohessy, executive director of the St. Louis-based Survivor's
Network of Those Abused by Priests, whose group called Thursday for
Braxton to

explain the purchases, said, "We're grateful for this decision, but we're
even more grateful for the brave Belleville church employees, both laity
and priests,

who exposed Braxton's wrongdoing."

Clohessy said parishioners who may still have doubts that their
contributions will be spent properly should "avoid donating in cash, and
earmark their

checks for specific projects."

Monsignor John Kozar, who heads the New York office of the Society for the
Propagation of the Faith, said after learning of Braxton's statement: "I'm
very

satisfied and happy that monies that were earmarked for the missions
outside the United States will in fact end up going there." He said he
also hoped that

parishioners continue to donate, and that church officials account for the
money.

Kozar said, "The church wins whenever there is openness."

47 Young Girls Abused by Priest over three decades

2008-01-23T19:52:00.000-05:00

BishopAccountability.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Guilty' 47 Times
Rev. Charles Sylvestre Admits to Decades of Sexual Abuse Involving 47 Girls - Many Still Suffering

By Jane Sims
London Free Press [Canada]
August 4, 2006

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2006/08/04/1718146-sun.html

Chatham -- He wore his priest's collar to win trust and respect in Roman Catholic parishes across the region.

The collar gave him an exalted place in the communities. The collar, many believed, also meant he was just a step away from God.

Yesterday, Charles Henry Sylvestre, 83, of Belle River, was wearing the collar again -- but this time in a criminal court, under the watchful eyes of his 47 sexual abuse victims.

Carol Ann Mieras speaks to reporters outside the Chatham courthouse. She is wearing a shirt featuring a photo of herself when she was 11 years old, a time when she was sexually assaulted by Father Charles Sylvestre, a Catholic priest.
Photo by DEREK RUTTAN, The London Free Press

Balancing himself against the table beside his lawyer, Andrew Bradie of Windsor, Sylvestre stood for 25 minutes as the court clerk read out the 47 counts of indecent assault.

"Guilty," the 83-year-old said feebly, after each charge was read.

Behind him in the packed courtroom, women dabbed their eyes.

Irene Deschenes of London, who along with 10 others asked the court-ordered publication ban be lifted from their names, smiled, leaned forward and put her hand to her ear to be sure Sylvestre was admitting abusing her.

It was the start of a heartbreaking day in the Ontario Court of Justice, as victim after victim -- all women -- came forward to have the abuses described.

For most, their lives were irrevocably changed.

The case, Chatham-Kent Crown Attorney Paul Bailey said, is North America's largest case of non-residential school sex abuse by a Roman Catholic priest.

The case is so large, there was only time to hear from 21 victims yesterday. Justice Bruce Thomas is expected to hear the rest Sept. 22.

The abuse dates as far back as 1952 and extends to 1989 when the victims were between nine and 14. It involved churches in Windsor, Sarnia, Chatham and Pain Court.

Two victims were students at Mount St. Joseph academy in London when Sylvestre was the chaplain in the 1950s.

Twenty-nine of the victims were members of St. Ursula's parish in Chatham.

All are asking why the abuse was allowed to continue so long.

Bradie said while his client acknowledged the abuses in his guilty pleas, his memories of the events have faded.

Bailey described each abuse at the hands of the priest, and noted many times the victims were made to feel "special" by the priest's initial attention.

Many said they were "good Catholic girls" who attended church regularly and were raised in devout families.

Many were offered chocolate bars and pop when they sat on the priest's lap while he groped them and bounced them on his groin.

Many were assaulted after being "chosen" by Sylvestre to volunteer at the rectory or the church to fold bulletins, tidy worship areas, to count the collection.

Some were assaulted on beach day trips Sylvestre organized. Others were groped and fondled in his car.

Some were assaulted during church confession. They were told to stay quiet or they would be punished by God.

Every one was just entering puberty. Some spoke of just "budding." Every one of them had their breasts fondled.

Sylvestre shoved his hands down the pants of some to fondle their genitals, and some were digitally penetrated.

Two of the women said they were raped by Sylvestre.

Lou Ann Soontiens, of Chatham, a victim who had the publication ban lifted, through Bailey, said she had an abortion at 15 after she was impregnated by the trusted priest after years of abuse.

"I feel he robbed me of my childhood and took it away from me," her statement read.

"I believe God should have been there for me."

Bradie told Thomas his client doesn't admit to any sexual intercourse or penetration but to the other described abuses.

Bailey said only a trial could resolve that and, "with some regret," the Crown wasn't prepared to wait any longer to move forward.

The sexual intercourse allegations will be tried at the civil level.

Thomas accepted Bradie's submission and found Sylvestre guilty based on his other abuses of the women.

Many bravely read their own victim impact statements, often through tears and anger. Others listened to Bailey read their words.

Their stories were personal and emotional. They spoke of lifelong struggles with trust and intimacy, self-esteem problems, rebellious angry pasts, addictions and depression.

Some were suicidal.

Many expressed shame and guilt when their stories weren't believed.

Some said they thought, "I was a child and I did nothing wrong," said Joanne Morrison, 46, of White Rock, B.C. "I will not hide behind shame or guilt anymore."

Only two, who confided in parents and were supported, said they had little if any long-term fallout from the abuse.

The case led to an unprecedented response by the Roman Catholic diocese of London yesterday, with Bishop Ronald Fabbro issuing an apology to the victims and their families for the abuse and "for the failure of the church to protect the victims and their families from Father Sylvestre."

Fabbro is to preach a mass Sunday at St. Ursula's church in Chatham where he will formally apologize.

Many of the victims are seeking civil remedies.

Yesterday, London lawyer Barbara Legate filed a lawsuit on behalf of 22 women, naming not only the diocese but school boards, nuns and Sarnia police.

BISHOP APOLOGIZES

The Roman Catholic Diocese of London issued a statement yesterday in which Bishop Ronald Fabbro expressed his regret for Rev. Charles Sylvestre's abuse:

I sincerely apologize to the victims and their families for the abuse that they endured at the hands of Fr. Sylvestre, and for suffering the consequences of that abuse over the years. I apologize as well for the failure of the Church to protect the victims and their families from Fr. Sylvestre. The abuse of minors has been a scourge in the Diocese of London that must end, and I pledge myself as the Bishop of London to do my utmost to end it.

How the lives of three women, including Irene Deschene, right, were turned inside out by their abuse as children.

Reminder: VOTF meeting on Monday Jan.14 at 7:30 pm

2008-01-11T21:25:00.001-05:00

Reminder:
VOTF meeting on Monday Jan.14 at 7:30 pm
in the Larchmont Avenue Church
Jennifer Lowry, Assistant District Attorney for Westchester County, will be speaking about sexual abuse in Westchester.

This is a one-time opportunity for us to hear from the D.A's office, to become more informed and to ask relevant questions. Please invite friends to this meeting as the more people who understand these important issues the greater chance we have of reforming these NY State laws.

PURPOSE: To Reform the NYS Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual
Abuse during the 2008 session of the NYS Legislature.

Fr. Tom Doyle reminds us:

It is essential to support legislative changes in the law by:
extending the Statutes of Limitations well beyond the limited number of years common to most states and
by passage of a "window" of a year or more to enable persons who have fallen outside the Statute to come forward and initiate cases.
Current research shows that at least 1 in 5 American children have been sexually abused. Meanwhile, many of their predators are legally shielded by state statutes
of limitations!!

Help protect the children of New York; become more informed and help change the law!

For more information google NYS Assembly and NYS Senate.

Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia

2008-01-07T23:05:00.000-05:00

Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia

Richard Owen in Rome

The Times (UK)

January 7, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3142511.ece

Pope Benedict XVI has instructed Roman Catholics to pray “in perpetuity” to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. All dioceses, parishes, monasteries, convents and seminaries will be expected to organise continuous daily prayers to express penitence and to purify the clergy.

Vatican officials said that every parish or institution should designate a person or group each day to conduct continuous prayers for the Church to rid itself of the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy. Alternatively, churches in the same diocese could share the duty. Prayer would take place in one parish for 24 hours, then move to another.

Vatican watchers said that there was no known precedent for global prayer on a specific issue of this kind. There are about one billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

The instruction was sent to bishops by Cardinal Cláudio Hummes of Brazil, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy. He told L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that he was acting in the Pope’s name. The Pope wanted Catholics to pray for the “mercy of God for the victims of the grave situations caused by the moral and sexual conduct of a very small part of the clergy”, he said.

Officials said that the prayers were in addition to support for legal action against paedophile priests by their victims and a code adopted two years ago by the Vatican to try to ensure that men “with deep-seated homosexual tendencies” do not enter seminaries to train for the priesthood.

Cardinal Hummes said that the aim was to put a definitive stop to a scandal that had damaged the image of the Church and forced US archdioceses, including Boston and Los Angeles, to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the victims. He said that the scandal was exceptionally serious, although it was probably caused by “no more than 1 per cent” of the 400,000 Catholic priests around the world.

When the paedophile scandal erupted in Boston five years ago, Pope Benedict XVI – or Cardinal Ratzinger as he was then – accused the media of exaggerating the crisis. He later took a tougher stand and was said to have been behind the statement in 2003 by Pope John Paul II to a meeting of American churchmen in which he said: “The abuse which has caused this crisis is rightly considered a crime by society and is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.”

When Cardinal Ratzinger stood in for the dying John Paul II at the Good Friday procession of Easter 2005, he stunned the faithful by deploring publicly “how much filth there is in the Church, even among those in the priesthood”. A month later he lifted the legal protection that the Vatican had given to Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who was accused of sexual abuse of youngsters. Maciel was banned from saying Mass or speaking in public.

However, Cardinal Bernard Law, who was Archbishop of Boston when the scandal broke, was transferred to a post in Rome and remains a respected figure – despite accusations that he did not take strong enough action in dealing with abuse in his diocese.

The Pope, who is preparing an encyclical on the social effects of globalisation, gave a homily at St Peter’s yesterday on the feast of the Epiphany in which he deplored the West’s “search for excess and the superfluous”. He said: “The conflicts for economic supremacy, and the scramble for energy and water resources and raw materials, render difficult the work of all those who strive to construct a more just and united world. We need a greater hope, which allows us to prefer the common good of all to the luxury of few and the poverty of many. Moderation is not only an ascetic rule, but a way of salvation for humanity.”

Church crisis

$660m The amount paid out by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic archdiocese to 500 victims of sexual abuse

$2bn The amount estimated to have been paid out across the US

4,392 The number of priests alleged to have abused children in the US in the past 50 years

10,000 The number of Americans who say that they were abused

100 The number of allegations of abuse made in Ireland between1962 and 2002

21 The number of priests involved

6 of the 21 Irish priests involved died before any allegations were made against them

3,000 The number of allegations of abuse received by the Australian group Broke Rites by 2002

Have your say

As a priest I would say that prayer is always fitting -- however, as a VICTIM OF CLERLGY ABUSE I would say it is not enough. Eight months before ordination I was raped as a deacon by one of the priest in the parish. I reported to my supervisor -- come to find out my supervisor had been diagnosed 13 years earlier (1957) with a psychopathological personality and like playing with mentally ill teenaged girls. He was still active when I was raped (1970). IN the fall of 2001 I had a flashback. Since then I had to follow my conscience and leave ministry. As a priest I could no longer represent bishops who covered up and failed to take responsibility for their own actions. What the Vatican needs to do is remove those bishops who have brought as much (if not more) scandal to the church.

Rev James F Moran, Alexandria, USA/Virginia

Two items:

To Paola of Milan, this has NOTHING to do with homosexuality. There are millions of gay men who have NOTHING to do with minors. The great majority of child abuse is male against female child.

On to the issue.... Out of touch is putting it mildly. Why isn't this Pope calling for the removal of the bishops who kept the abuse hidden and did nothing at the time it was occurring? THAT is something he has full control over and could do something positive to show the Church takes responsibility for the actions and the concealment.

But, I won't hold my breath till it happens. SO much easier to push the responsibility to the parishioners and to God to clean up the Pope's act.

Thomas Denney, Austin, Texas

While I commend daily communication with God, I must remind the leaders of the Catholic Church that communication is a two-way street. It's not just speaking, but listenning as well. If they desire to succeed, they need to listen to what God has said in His Word, the Bible. For example, the idea of "forced celibacy" for priests is considered a doctrine from hell in 1Timothy 4:1-3: "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to ...doctrines of demons, 2 ..., 3 forbidding to marry,". Besides, the Apostle Paul clearly states that church leaders are to be the "husband of one wife" in 1Timothy 3:2. God has made us sexual beings and being married, having sex within the context of a marital,monogomous relationship between a man and a women is blessed by God, not considered "unspiritual". I believe you'd see a lot less abuse if they followed this truth. For some, Paul does suggest (not command) to remain single in 1Cor. 7

Mike Hill, Aberdeen , Idaho USA

The Pope's appeal is welcome. Divine power will lead to the unmasking of some of the perpetrators, perhaps give some of the victims greater courage to speak out, and enable those who might damage children to withstand their temptations.

Many people assume there is some link between celibacy and paedophilia, but the vast majority of paedophilia assaults are perpetrated by family members: stepfathers, elder brothers, Mum's new boyfriend, favourite uncles etc.

Those churches which have a married clergy - Anglicanism and Methodism - have hardly been immune to child abuse cases, although the media have homed in on the Catholic church to an unprecedented degree. Even Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) says he thinks the Catholic Church has been unfairly treated by the media in this respect.

The appalling repeat-repeat-repeat cases in some US and Irish dioceses have not really been paralleled to the same extent at all in the UK. But even one case is bad enough...

Bernard O'Callaghan, Chorley, England

Is it too cynical of me to point out that if prayer helped it would not need to be perpetual? No, I don't think it is.

Gatz, Chelmsford, UK

The pope does well to call attention to this issue and to as catholics to address it through serious community prayer.

Allowing priests in the Latin rite to marry wouldn't solve anything. The number of priests who have been involved in paedophilia (less than 1%) is lower than the global overall statistic.

Chris Dela, Cambridge,

As ever the Pope either misses the point or is, much more likely, a hypocrite when his answer to child-abuse in this church is for Catholics to "pray in perpetuality" or for candidates with deep-seated homosexual tendencies to be banned from entering the seminaries (scurrulously suggesting homosexuals and paedophiles are one and the same thing) . The inability to see that allowing men to fulfil their perfectly human sexual needs within a loving relationship with a male or female partner, possibly in the context of marriage and children or a pax is the only way forward highlights what many of us have known for a long time: that ultimately dangerous, irrational dogma still rules.

Paola, Milan, Italy

Praying is talking to yourself. The best solution to this perverted priests problem is fire them and make them get real jobs. An even better solution would be to close down the entire Catholic religion, which after all is nothing but childish nonsense.

BobC, Margate, Florida

It's not about God, it's about people. Jesus did not die for some people, but for all to give hope that each human can have the chance to go to heaven. And the fact that some do not choose God and, what's more, make awful harm to others, means that these people consciously choose hell.

Pope shows that he is really interested in this matter and he is not going to hide away from it.

Monica, Warsaw

Slow Healing in the Church

2008-01-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

ROBERT C. BORDONE AND ROBERT J. BOWERS
Slow healing in the Catholic church
By Robert C. Bordone and Robert J. Bowers | January 1, 2008

AS THE CATHOLIC community continues the difficult process of healing and reconciliation in the wake of abuse scandals, church closings, and critical social issues, the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to avoid Boston on his US visit next spring is a missed opportunity. A face-to-face meeting with Catholics in Boston would have signaled a desire to begin honest and open dialogue on the hurt, anger, separation, and alienation many still feel.

If history teaches us anything, it is that avoidance of conflict rarely leads to reconciliation or healing. Failing to face those on the opposite side of the breach tends to breed more resentment, bitterness, and misunderstanding. The resulting alienation poisons people's hearts, stunting generosity and feeding cynicism that leads to hopelessness.

Years after the revelation of clergy sexual abuse, the Catholic community struggles to understand how such crimes could have happened - and been tolerated by the church hierarchy. In the wake of the Boston Archdiocese's church closings and hurtful statements made during the gay-marriage debate, the Roman Catholic Church finds itself at a crossroads. The leadership of the church and those aggrieved by it can continue down the current path - a slow but constant parting of ways. They can pretend that the hurt never happened, clinging desperately to the fallacious notion that "time heals all wounds."

There is another way. Church leaders and Catholics on all sides of the divide can choose to engage with each other openly, honestly, and courageously. They can examine the hurt and listen to the aggrieved, in order to begin the too-long-delayed process of healing and reparation. It is the only way to mend the breach.

Examples abound of people coming together across bitter divides through such a deliberate, difficult, but liberating process. After the brutal injustice of apartheid, the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa brought the victims and perpetrators of that evil system together to find ways to move forward. Closer to home, criminals and victims are brought together by groups such as the Restorative Circles in Concord and the peacemaking circles led by ROCA Inc. in Chelsea. These gatherings convene criminal offenders, their victims, and members of the community to examine what can be done to repair the harm. The Public Conversations Project of Watertown enables conversation among conflicting groups over tough social issues, including facilitating dialogue between pro-life and pro-choice forces. The Catholic Church should look to these examples and take similar steps to heal its own deep rifts.

Over the past 18 months, we have worked to develop a model for genuine listening, open dialogue, and honest exchange that can help Catholics move from bitterness and resentment to renewed understanding, from pain and separation toward peace and reconciliation. The Office of Outreach and Reconciliation at the Paulist Center has worked with teams of students at the Harvard Law School Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program to bring together church leaders and disaffected Catholics to discuss the hurt, broken trust, and intense disappointment felt by many of the faithful.

The project aims to combine the solutions-oriented approach of truth commissions with the best spirit of open, facilitated dialogue. Participants agree to be respectful of each other, while at the same time vowing to speak truths that can be hard for others to hear. The project presents a hopeful path forward, and has already enjoyed the support of a cross-section of Catholic constituencies, including the vicar general of the Boston Archdiocese, Father Richard Erikson, and other members of Cardinal Sean O'Malley's cabinet.

The creation of this reconciliation program is a valuable first step toward reconciliation. The leadership of the church - including the cardinal - along with Catholics who feel the most alienated, should take the next step and join in these dialogues.

Hope is found in active listening and active participation, not in avoidance and recrimination. Only when we can engage one another, unafraid of what needs to be said and must be heard, can we open the pathway to peace and reconciliation. Then, perhaps one day, we all might approach true forgiveness, and live the peace and justice sought by all of us who call ourselves Catholic.

Robert C. Bordone is the Thaddeus R. Beal Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. The Rev. Robert J. Bowers serves as consultant for Outreach and Reconciliation at the Paulist Center of Boston.

Marci Hamilton finds the Bishops inept Again!

2007-12-27T21:29:00.000-05:00

Toward the Future: The Lessons of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Report, and the Ways in Which We Can Protect All Children From Sex Abuse
By MARCI HAMILTON
----
Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007

Recently, the National Review Board for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released the results of its five-year study evaluating how the hierarchy has handled clergy abuse since the public first learned of its scope and prevalence from the Boston Globe in 2002. The report is just what one would expect from any corporation undergoing a scandal; It details new programs, promises to do better in the future, and admits the problem is complex (which, translated, means that the Bishops have not put the problem behind them, not by a long shot).

As I read the report and reflected upon the last five years, I had very mixed feelings. On the one hand, every American (and even world citizen) should be grateful to Providence (as well as the Globe) for revealing the scope of child abuse and cover-up within the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church. We really did not know, let alone understand, the gravity and extent of the scourge of child sex abuse society-wide until we saw it entrenched in the one institution everyone had trusted - Catholic or not. This was the religious institution whose clergy every lawyer hoped would testify on their side, after all! The point could not have been made more clearly than by the scandal in the Church: Children are being sexually abused everywhere, and the ones not to trust are often the ones we trust the most.

There is another quite different lesson to be learned from the 2007 Bishops' Report, too, however: The bishops are not a terribly important element in the solution to society-wide child sex abuse. Yes, they have instituted programs to protect children, but it was well-known long ago in the public sphere that such programs are crucial. And they have created their Victims Assistance Programs and appointed Directors. Though victims and their families have not found these programs terribly helpful or supportive, at least they exist. Yet, it simply does not matter what program the hierarchy creates for the victims it has generated. Why? Because its victims count for such a small number of child sex abuse victims overall. Even perfect care for all of its victims puts barely a dent in the larger problem.

The Bishops might have been leaders in the national movement to right the laws that affect child sex abuse survivors, but they have chosen to take the opposite path. If public records are accurate, the New York Catholic Conference is paying well over $100,000 per year to lobbyists and public relations firms to defeat legislation that would make it easier for victims (both within and outside the Church) to get to court, by reducing the barriers created by the statute of limitations. That is just another signal that they are part of history on this problem, not the future..

The Bishops do not stand alone in proposing solutions that do not touch the vast majority of the problem. We have Megan's Law public reporting statutes, pedophile-free zones, and increased sentencing for molesters, but we still have not made the changes necessary to identify the many predators currently living among us. As I have discussed in previous columns such as this one, the statutes of limitation on child sex abuse must go. At the same time, there needs to be a concerted effort to turn the insights gleaned from the Church's clergy abuse problems into aggressive plans to stop the problem in the future.

Ultimately, It Will Take Private and Public Institutions and Legislatures, to Win the War Against Child Sex Abuse

We are at a promising turning point for our children. It will take the actions of private and public institutions as well as legislators to turn the tide on child sex abuse. The National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University is one organization that holds out hope for the future. President Bush just signed legislation granting $1.22 million to the Center, which is engaged in groundbreaking work. Director Victor Vieth explained part of the Center's mission, which is centered around education and more education: "[W]e will provide training to over 10,000 child protection professionals, will assist dozens of universities in implementing model undergraduate or graduate child protection curricula, and will grow our forensic interview training program--a program that will positively impact a million children by the end of this decade." Vieth's vision includes a call to eliminate child sex abuse altogether in several generations, through programs and multi-tiered education. That is the clarion call needed to right the wrongs now so deeply embedded in the psyche of this society.

The Training Center is part of NAPSAC (the National Association to Prevent the Sexual Abuse of Children), of which I am a Board Member. NAPSAC also houses the National District Attorneys Association, a point that highlights another crucial element in making this world a safer place for children: We need prosecutors who are sensitized to these issues and inclined to protect the children, not the adults who ask them to keep their "dirty laundry" hidden.

With these private and public projects and legislators with the guts to roll back the statutes of limitations on child sex abuse so we can identify the perpetrators among us, we can become a country that is truly proud of its commitment to children. Words, reports, and individual institutions will never be enough; it will take passionate action on the part of many.

Bob Hoatson's Letter to the National Review Board

2007-12-27T10:08:00.000-05:00

Judge Michael Mertz, Chairperson
National Review Board
Office of Child and Youth Protection
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 Fourth St, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20017

Dear Judge Mertz and Members of the National Review Board:

As a priest, survivor of clergy sexual abuse, and advocate for hundreds of
survivors of clergy sexual abuse, I feel I must respond to your
recently-released

report to the Catholic Faithful of the United States regarding the
protection of children, teenagers, young adults, and vulnerable adults in
the American

Catholic Church. Unfortunately, I neither share your optimism nor agree
with your conclusions.

The overall tone of the report is of concern to me. There is no
acknowledgment of the "epidemic" of clergy sexual abuse that has been
exposed and

continues to be exposed to this day. The National Review Board was
established because the bishops of the country were incompetent to act
legally,

ethically, and morally toward those who were abused. My experience,
research, and immersion in the recoveries of survivors indicate that the
climate and

culture that created the problem in the beginning are still in place and
very much the prevailing practices. The Catholic bishops of the United
States, for the

most part, have never been held accountable for their illegal, immoral,
and unethical methods and practices.

It is understandable why you would be hesitant to confront your bosses.
Governor Frank Keating was "eliminated" as the first Chairperson of your
group, and

perhaps you fear the same response if you act wisely, independently, and
transparently. It is clear to me that you will never have the authority to
act as you

need to act.
As for the "diversity of the Board," which you noted in the second
paragraph of your report, there are no survivors or survivor-advocates on
the Board, there are

no "experts" in the field of clergy abuse survivors, such as Fr. Tom Doyle
or Dr. Richard Sipe, and there are no parents or family members of
survivors on the

Board. What do you mean by diversity; that there are men and women on the
Board? That does not equal diversity as it relates to the mission and
purpose

of the Board or the needs of survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

As for the accomplishments that you listed:

1) Safe environment programs are well and good. However, they do not
guarantee that bishops are not transferring criminal abusers around their
diocese and

inter-dioceses.

2) Diocesan procedures to respond promptly to allegations do not guarantee
that bishops treat survivors with care, compassion, and honesty. There
still is a

climate of secrecy, cover-up, and lack of transparency in diocesan
offices, especially that of the bishop.

3) Publishing reports of credible allegations is great, except it does
nothing for the vast majority of survivors who cannot report their abuse
because they have

had bad experiences with Church authorities, are too damaged to come
forward, or are thoroughly convinced (rightly so!) that the Church is
similar to a Mafia

-like organization that simply protects its own.

The Board has not reached out in any way, shape, or form to survivors to
ask them what they think, feel, and believe about the Church's attempts to
clean up

its act. Survivors' advocacy groups, such as Road to Recovery, Inc., SNAP,
and others are not included in your deliberations or those of the bishops.
As for the research projects that have been conducted or are currently
being conducted:

1) The current study, Causes and Contexts, has been carefully nuanced to
avoid an analysis of what needs to be known. It was made clear to me at a
Voice

of the Faithful Conference workshop that this study has eliminated the
most important focus groups: survivors, survivor families, and survivor
experts and

advocates. It also will not include a key group that can provide
invaluable information; namely, priest-survivors who have lived in the
seminary system, been

abused in the seminary or clerical system, and know the "inner workings of
the system."

2) It is clear to me that the Causes and Contexts study will not expose
the clerical culture and sexual dysfunctionalism of the seminary/rectory
system;

rather, it will skirt (again!) what has to be uncovered if the Church is
going to recover from its addiction to power, authority, sex, and
clericalism.

3) Please do not spend time on perpetuating the "pity party for priests."
You seem to want to give deference in research reports to priests who
covered up,

remained silent, and very often saw the sexual abuse of children taking
place. My experience in the religious life and priesthood leads me to
conclude that

almost no religious brother, sister, priest, or deacon is immune from the
knowledge of, participation in, or looking the other way from the sexual
abuse of

children.

4) Your report apparently ignores (again!) the ongoing needs of survivors.
I work with over 200 survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Many are not
healed, will not

be healed, and cannot access treatment because of unreliable or
non-existent policies and programs of dioceses. For example, one survivor
met privately

with a bishop who promised the survivor that he would finally get the
house he has wanted for his family and him. The bishop promised him a
substantial

settlement, separate from the "mass settlement" that was being negotiated.
When the survivor went to his "settlement meeting," he was told he was
part of

the mass settlement and that he was scheduled to receive a settlement much
lower than he was promised. Because he felt betrayed, this man's PTSD was

triggered, the pain returned, and he spent his entire settlement on drugs!

5) In New Hampshire at the beginning of December, clergy abuse survivor
Leeland Eisenberg held hostages at the campaign headquarters of Hillary
Clinton.

During the previous months, he phoned every psychiatrist in New Hampshire
looking for a therapist who would accept third-party payments from the

Archdiocese of Boston. None would accept the payments! So, Lee took to
drinking and drugging to help his head stop spinning, and ended up in
Hillary

Clinton's headquarters to bring attention to the state of mental health
care in his State.

Your report said nothing about the ongoing needs of survivors, such as
housing, food, mental health care, and a host of other needs. If you ask
some of us

who are "in the trenches," we will tell you what needs to be done.

While I am not confident that you will respond to this letter in any
meaningful way, it is my hope that "something will get through"
eventually, so effective

change can take place in the midst of the evil and corruption.

Sincerely,
Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.
Founder and President
CC: Members of the National Review Board
Teresa Kettelkamp, Director of the USCCB Office of Child and Youth
Protection
Members of the Bishops' Committee on Child and Youth Protection

Priests Accused of taking children out of class to abuse them when they were children.

2007-12-22T14:04:00.000-05:00

Saturday, Dec 22, 2007
Posted on Thu, Dec. 20, 2007
Two men allege molestation in lawsuit against former priest, Catholic diocese
By JOE LAMBE
The Kansas City Star
Two men sued a former Roman Catholic priest and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on Thursday for alleged molestation when the men were altar boys.

John Doe B.B. of Kansas, 52, contends that the Rev. Thomas Reardon sexually abused him in 1968 in the St. Elizabeth rectory in Kansas City after his mother asked the priest to explain “the facts of life” to the 12-year-old boy.

John Doe M.D., 46, of Missouri and his wife contend that Reardon, now 65, abused him at St. Gabriel’s parish in Kansas City when Doe was in the fifth to eighth grades.

According to the lawsuits, Reardon kept the boys quiet by persuading them that the acts were a normal part of life or even beneficial.

Reardon, who has 14 other abuse-related lawsuits pending against him in Jackson County, has denied ever abusing children. He declined to comment Thursday. His attorney did not return phone calls.

The lawsuits allege that the diocese was at fault in part for negligent supervision, including covering up Reardon’s actions for years. The church also committed fraud and intentionally inflicted distress by portraying Reardon as a responsible priest, the suits contend.

The diocese has not seen the lawsuits, has not learned the plaintiffs’ names and is not in a position to comment, a spokeswoman said in a written response. Reardon has not worked as a priest since 1989, she said.

David Biersmith of Kansas City, president of Voice of the Faithful, a church reform group, read statements from the two plaintiffs at a news conference announcing the lawsuits. Describing himself as a former close friend of Reardon’s, he said he attended seminary with him many years ago. Reardon, he said, was a charming man who could easily manipulate children.

Doe M.D. wrote that he felt he had been violated, lost his innocence and more: “I lost my faith, I lost respect for myself as well as others,” Biersmith read. “I feel I have lost a part of my life.”

According to Doe M.D.’s lawsuit:

Reardon first abused him in the St. Gabriel’s rectory after calling him out of grief counseling class when the boy was in the fifth grade. Reardon kept calling him out of classes for more abuse in the rectory and sometimes gave him money and alcohol. He also molested him in the sacristy before the start of Mass.

Doe B.B.’s written statement said that he did not tell anyone of his abuse at age 12 because he was too scared. He now understands that to end such sexual abuse in the church, people must come forward.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, urged other abuse victims to do the same. He said one of these plaintiffs finally came forward after a recent media account about Reardon and another priest.

Last month, The Kansas City Star revealed widespread allegations of abuse against Reardon and Monsignor Thomas O’Brien, whom many adolescent boys called the “party priests.”

Other lawsuits against both men detail accusations of rape, sodomy, oral sex and masturbatory acts. The lawsuits allege a pattern of molestation that began in the early 1960s with O’Brien and continued with Reardon through the 1980s.

The lawsuits contend that the priests used their positions of power to prey on youngsters, plying them with alcohol, groping them and sometimes offering money for sex.

Since 2004, a dozen men have sued O’Brien, 81, who denies all the allegations. Those and the 16 lawsuits against Reardon make up the bulk of at least 32 pending Jackson County lawsuits against priests or former priests.

As of last month, priest sex abuse cases nationwide had cost the Roman Catholic Church at least $2.3 billion since 1950.

Thursday, Clohessy said that the church needed to take stronger action against the priests’ co-workers and supervisors — “the people who drove the getaway car.”

A diocese statement issued Thursday says that every suspicion or report of abuse is now taken seriously and reported to the state. Any credible accusation against a priest or any other church worker means that person is dismissed, it said.

“The ongoing goal of the diocese is simple but clear: to do everything humanly possible to address past acts of sexual abuse and to protect children and young people in the future,” the release said.

Clohessy called the reforms too weak and said they did not hold high church officials accountable for past acts.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@ Go to KansasCity.com for video of attorneys for two men whose lawsuits claim they were sexually abused.

Votf Response to the National Review Board Report

2007-12-22T13:58:00.000-05:00

VOTF Response to National Review Board Report
December 13, 2007 - Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) supports the work of the National Review Board (NRB) as detailed in the report they presented Dec. 13 to the "Catholic Faithful of the United States”. Their report highlights that the clergy abuse crisis is far from over and that much still needs to be accomplished. We are anxious to see the results of the recently initiated on-site audits being conducted by the Gavin Group. These independent audits will be a better indicator of exactly what progress is being made by the bishops. In addition we need to audit the safe environment program at the parish level to be truly effective.

“The report correctly points out the need for: a greater understanding of victimization and its consequences, due process for priests, and an appropriate role for the Church in the supervision of offenders,” said Mary Pat Fox, VOTF President. “We await the issuance of the Causes and Context Study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and we urge the Bishops to cooperate fully with the researchers. We ask the NRB to push for a quicker resolution to all allegations of abuse. At present it takes upwards of four years for the Church to make a decision as to the truth of an accusation. We must speed up this process so that all victims and priests may receive swift justice,” said Fox.

National Review Board issues Five-year Report on Church Handling of clergy sex abuse of Minors. Frank Douglas comments.

2007-12-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

From PRNewswire-USNewswire, 12.13.2007.

My comments are in red. [brackets]

* * *

National Review Board Issues Five-Year Report on Church Handling of Clergy Sex Abuse of Minors

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The National Review
Board (NRB), a lay body appointed by the president of the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to review the church’s handling of
the sexual abuse of minors by clerics, cited accomplishments and challenges
in a five-year report made public December 13.

Judge Michael R. Merz, NRB chair, commended church efforts to date, but
said the problem is complex.

[You can be sure that if Judge Merz didn’t commend the bishops’ effort to date, the bishops would replace him in a New York minute.]

“Church efforts for prevention, healing, and vigilance will be demanded
for the rest of our days,” Judge Merz said. “The price of this crime is
steep both in the pain felt by victims and the shadow cast on the
reputation of innocent Catholic priests. Most priests never have abused a
child or even someone’s trust in them, but they bear shame by association.
It’s not right, but that’s the fact.”

“Bishops have taken a strong approach to dealing with this crisis,”
Judge Merz said. “Sexual abuse of children is not a problem in the church
alone, but bishops as moral leaders must stand in the forefront of
protecting children. The NRB is proud to collaborate with the bishops in
the protection of children and young people.”

[The judge repeats the bishops’ sickening argument that “everybody does it.”

It is patently untrue that the bishops have taken a strong approach. The vast majority of them have not published the names of perpetrators and those credibly accused on diocesan websites. The vast majority have not visited parishes where abuse has taken place. The bishops have made no attempt to bring religious orders (Jesuits, Dominicans, Salesians, etc.) under the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, inadequate though it may be.]

The report is addressed to the U.S. Catholic faithful and is “a record
of accomplishments, unfinished work, and challenges that lie ahead,” it
said. The report praised the USCCB audit process by which “dioceses and
eparchies have been audited to assure the implementation and maintenance of
the standards established” in the Charter for the Protection of Children
and Young People, which the bishops created in 2002.

“Those audits provide substantial evidence of the bishops’ efforts to
protect children and respond to the abuses of the past and present. As of
2006, 98 percent of the dioceses and eparchies are participating in the
audits. Those audited are in full compliance with the standards” set for
the audits, the report said.

[The audits are a sham. They are managed and controlled by the bishops. If the bishops were really serious about protecting children, they would allow audits by an independent agency. The audits are a tool of the bishops to continue the cover up.]

The report also noted that “over six million children have participated
in educational programs and over 1.6 million background investigations have
taken place” as part of diocesan safe environment programs.

[The focus should not be on children, but on priests, bishops, and seminarians. Why have we heard nothing from the NRB about sexually active priests and bishops? Why have we heard nothing about what is being done in seminaries, particularly in the “purple palaces” where many have reported overt and extensive sexual activity taking place among seminarians with participation by some seminary faculty?]

However, the NRB urged an expansion of the audits to measure “the
quality of the work that the dioceses and parishes are doing.”

“The Board is encouraging the USCCB to do random audits of the parishes
and to work toward establishing best practices in educational programs,
victim care, background checks, and investigation of allegations,” the
report said. “During 2007, to provide a model to study for the future, a
number of dioceses volunteered to pilot audits at the parish level. The NRB
fully supports and encourages these parish audits.”

The report cited six challenges which the Board said “are not easily
resolved since they involve extremely complex issues.”

“One of the most significant issues is the need for a greater
understanding of victimization and its consequences. Discussions with
victims provide evidence of serious needs that still must be addressed in
order for the victims and their families to find the healing that they
need,” the report said.

“Another set of issues relates to the relationship of the Church to its
priests, the vast majority of whom are not involved in the scandal, but
many of whom feel alienated from both the bishops and the laity.” In
addition, “there is a particular need to provide appropriate protection and
restoration for those accused but later found innocent.”

[Is it really true that the vast majority of them were not involved in the scandal? How many priests knew of brother priests who spent inordinate time with young boys? How many knew of brother priests who habitually brought young boys to their rooms in the rectory?]

The board called for “greater speed in the process of determining
credibility of allegations and consequent responses, as well as
determination of an appropriate role for the Church in the supervision of
offenders.”

[Offenders are criminals. Why is there no mention here of the proper and appropriate involvement of the police and other appropriate law enforcement agencies?]

It also noted that parishes “also become victims of sexual abuse.
Members of parishes experience both a sense of betrayal or outrage over
accusations that lead to the removal of a pastor or associate. Often
parishioners do not know how to respond to victims and their families and
agonize over the lengthy process of determining appropriate responses. This
is an area that needs much more attention.”

[The outrage and sense of betrayal should be over the criminal acts of the perpetrators, not removal of the perpetrator from a parish.]

The NRB also cited the need to keep church members better informed on
the positive responses the Bishops have made and more active observers of
the programs and processes in their parishes and dioceses.

“Such communication is vitally important since the work of the National
Review Board is strengthened by vigilant parents and parishioners who
investigate the presence and quality of the programs in their parishes and
dioceses,” the report said. “The obligation to provide safe environments
that prevent damage to children, young people, families, parishes,
dioceses, and the Church rests with all Catholics.”

[The obligation to provide safe environments will rest with all Catholics when all Catholics have access to information about allegations of sexual abuse against priests, bishops, and seminarians. Currently only bishops have such access. Thus in the secrecy-obsessed culture of the hierarchy the obligation rests only with the bishops. Experience has shown that the bishops, their counterparts in the religious orders (the religious superiors; the provincials) AND THE POPE CANNOT BE TRUSTED.]

The full report can be found on the Web at
http://www.usccb.org/nrb/nrbreport2007.pdf.

SOURCE U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Chaplains, sexual abuse and what the military knows.

2007-12-16T17:36:00.000-05:00

Ensign P. recalls struggling during his third year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. His mother was dying of an illness back home, and his grades dropped so low in 2004 he was put on academic probation. Raised a Roman Catholic, the 20-year-old cadet started counseling with a military chaplain, Navy Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Mathew Lee. When Lee invited him to dinner off campus, Ensign P. thought it was an honor—officers don't usually socialize with Academy students. In fact, it was an ambush. Lee took the cadet to his apartment after dinner, poured him rounds of beer and Scotch, then began undoing the man's pants. Testifying softly in a military court earlier this month, Ensign P. said the chaplain engaged him in oral sex. Though he asked Lee to stop, for a few dreadful moments he felt too stunned to move: "This is a guy who knows all my darkest secrets."

More than 2,700 military chaplains minister to U.S. servicemen and cadets on bases around the world. Like that between psychologists and their patients, the dynamic between chaplains and the men and women they counsel tends to be marked by an imbalance of power. Chaplains often outrank the people who go to them for help and exert a spiritual authority that, as in Lee's case, can be exploited. During 11 years in the military, Lee sexually abused at least three men, according to his own admission (all three were identified in court only by their ranks and an initial). A judge at Marine Base Quantico in Virginia this month sentenced him to 12 years in prison and discharge without pay or benefits (under a plea agreement, he will serve only two years). In a disturbing twist, Lee is HIV-positive and admits to withholding that information even from men with whom he had consensual sex.

But while the vast majority of chaplains minister dutifully, Lee isn't the only sinner. According to court filings and an archive recently published by the group Bishop Accountability, up to 60 military chaplains have been convicted or at least are strongly suspected of committing sexual abuse over the past four decades, sometimes against the kids of military personnel. Their cases are a side act to the broader scandal of sex-abusing priests in the Catholic Church. But there may be a correlation. In a number of the cases reviewed by NEWSWEEK involving Catholic chaplains, complaints of sexual abuse were made to their churches well before they joined the military, but were never brought to the military's attention. "I've seen many instances where men were encouraged or allowed to go into the military and their own bishop did not disclose that they had something suspicious in their past," says Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest and former Air Force chaplain.

Doyle might be the country's most knowledgeable source on the priest sex scandals. In the mid-1980s, he coauthored an internal report for the church on its molestation problem, and has since served as an expert witness in dozens of cases, including that of Michael Miglini of Dallas. Miglini describes being raped when he was just 14 by a military chaplain who had previously served as the pastor in his church and remained friends with the family. After getting therapy in college, Miglini brought a civil suit that was ultimately settled against the Dallas Diocese, the Military Vicariate and the chaplain. In the process, his lawyer uncovered complaints made against the chaplain by other church members that the military says it never saw.

For some victims, it can take years to realize they were exploited. Susan Loomans was a troubled cadet at the Air Force Academy in Colorado when she sought help from a Catholic chaplain. In their first session in 1985, he had her sit on his lap. (Loomans and Miglini are among only a few victims who talk publicly about their ordeals; most aren't named in court filings.) Within weeks, she says, he'd compelled her to engage in a sexual relationship that lasted nearly two years. Most of the time, Loomans thought what they were having was an illicit relationship. It wasn't until she returned to the Academy as faculty, and saw how vulnerable first-year cadets are, that she realized he'd manipulated the power differential.

So far, there's no suggestion that Lee, 42, engaged in sexual abuse before going on active duty in 1996. Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., where he served as an associate pastor, says no church would knowingly refer sexual abusers to the military. "Under the policies of virtually every diocese, they would have to attest that someone is in good standing and can serve as a priest," Gibbs tells NEWSWEEK. In court, Lee said little about his past but explained why one of his victims, Cpl. M., succumbed to his advances. "He felt intimidated by my rank and position," the chaplain said. But Cpl. M. also felt mad. Within weeks, he reported the incident to officers at Quantico, who carted Lee to jail.

© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.

Abuse in Indianopolis Diocese recalled in deposition.

2007-12-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

Ex-priest admits abusing boys
In deposition, Harry Monroe describes using drugs, playing sex games while serving in Indianapolis Archdiocese
By Robert King
robert.king@indystar.com
December 14, 2007

A former Catholic priest has admitted to lewd behavior or sex acts with at least five boys during his tenure with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, according to records filed this week in a case that goes to court Monday.
Harry Monroe, the subject of 13 sexual abuse lawsuits that name him and the archdiocese as co-defendants, said he no longer contests the allegations against him but can't remember specifics about all the incidents, alleged to have taken place from 1974 to 1984.
Yet the cases may never move to trial.
In a hearing scheduled for Monday in Marion Superior Court, Judge David A. Shaheed will consider the archdiocese's request to dismiss one of the first lawsuits filed. The church argues that, like the statutory limit for criminal charges in the cases, the statute of limitations for lawsuits has expired.
Pat Noaker, the attorney representing all 13 plaintiffs, said the statute shouldn't apply in the case to be heard Monday because his client learned only recently that the church knew of Monroe's predatory habits early on.
The attorney for the archdiocese, Jay Mercer, could not be reached Thursday. Archdiocesan spokesman Greg Otolski said he could not comment on the litigation and had not seen Monroe's pretrial deposition.
In that deposition, Monroe gave his first formal response to the allegations. He described his decade as a priest as a time filled with drugs, alcohol, pornography and sex games with adolescent boys at parishes in Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Tell City.
According to the deposition, Monroe said church officials knew he was taking boys into his private parish living quarters and on overnight camping trips. He also said church officials heard a recording of him having a lewd conversation with a boy during one of his first parish assignments in Indianapolis.
The Indianapolis Star reported on the case last year and included interviews with several of the men who said Monroe abused them. Many of their accounts are corroborated by Monroe's deposition. Some of the victims and their families told The Star they complained to the archdiocese about Monroe as early as 1981.
A letter filed with Monroe's deposition seemed to show that the archdiocese kept giving Monroe parish assignments with access to children after it recognized his conduct was a problem.
The 1982 letter from then-Indianapolis Archbishop Edward T. O'Meara assigned Monroe to his final priestly appointment, in Tell City. The address for Monroe listed on the letter is at the House of Affirmation, a California center that attempted to rehabilitate sexually abusive priests.
Monroe said that to his knowledge, no one in the archdiocese ever called police to report his abuse.
Each time Monroe was transferred, Noaker said, the archdiocese failed to warn his new parish of his abusive nature.
Nothing to lose

In June, Monroe, who spent seven hours under oath answering questions about his past, said he was broke, in poor health and living with his domestic partner in Nashville, Tenn. He said he can no longer afford an attorney. Now 59, Monroe said there was much in his life that he regrets, particularly his behavior with young boys, and that he had "nothing else to lose" by answering the questions.
"I'm trying to be as honest with you as I know how to be," Monroe said during the deposition. "I just want to get this past me."
He blamed much of his behavior on his use of alcohol, marijuana and powerful drugs such as Valium that led him to behave erratically, including riding a motorcycle naked on Southern Indiana roads. He said it also factored into his actions with boys.
He said he remembered playing games with two boys from St. Catherine's in Indianapolis, including "running around naked, putting shaving cream on people's privates and stuff like that." He said they later blackmailed him, asking for money to keep the abuse quiet, an allegation the plaintiffs' attorney denies. The payoff Monroe said the two boys demanded: less than $50.
Monroe made the payment but said he remembers feeling "crushed" by this early rejection.
"I thought we were close," he said.
In another instance during the deposition, Monroe said he made an agreement to give a boy a hunting knife if the boy would allow Monroe to perform oral sex on him. He admits to having sexual contact with another boy at St. Catherine's that amounted to "probably just touching."
Frequently struggling with his memory, Monroe said he probably had engaged several other boys in sexual horseplay. But he issued the caveat that his heart problems and bypass surgery had left holes in his long-term memory. Handed photographs and copies of his parish assignment letters, some of the details came back to him.
At some moments during the deposition, Monroe expressed remorse. He said his mother died from knowing the grief her son had caused. Yet he also said his behavior was a byproduct of his substance abuse and his own immaturity, saying he never intended to hurt anyone.
"When I would drink and use drugs, I kind of reverted to adolescence myself," he said. "I never thought of myself as an adult, which is just tragic for them."
At one point in the questioning, Monroe said he recognized that, in a room with attorneys for the archdiocese and the plaintiffs, no one else was on his side. "Everyone here is covering someone else's rear end, and I'm covering mine," he said. "If I drop dead right now, it would probably benefit everyone."
Removed from priesthood

Archdiocesan officials say they dismissed Monroe from the priesthood in 1984 because of sexual misconduct allegations. Monroe testified in June that he was never laicized, or formally returned to being a layperson. Shortly after his dismissal, he sought work with the Catholic Diocese of Nashville but was turned down.
Monroe said he bounced around several jobs, including one as an overnight desk clerk on a psychiatric ward serving adolescent patients at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville. Then, he said, he spent 15 years doing crisis intervention for adults at the Parthenon Pavilion, a Nashville psychiatric hospital.
Monroe could not be reached Thursday. The Nashville phone number he gave at his deposition was disconnected. A man who answered the number Monroe gave for his domestic partner said he did not know Monroe.
Asked during his deposition whether he ever recognized how destructive it might be for the adolescent boys to be having sexual contact with an adult male, Monroe said he did. But at the time, he said, he didn't recognize it as taking advantage of them.
"If I could take my life and turn it around," he said, "I would do it in a heartbeat."

Attention should also be focused on Women abused as youths by priests.

2007-12-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

Women abused as youths by priests deserve equity
By PAT KINNEY, Courier Business Editor

WATERLOO --- A victim of child sex abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church says women in her position deserve as much attention as their male counterparts.

Rosalyn Zieser believes society tends to focus on male victims of clergy sex abuse --- possibly because such reports have been more prevalent. She also thinks some may consider the thought of male priests abusing boys more aberrant than priests abusing girls.

Zieser was born in Iowa but lives in Unity, Wis. She said she is glad she went through the claim and settlement process in her own case.

"I gained through it. I wouldn't have otherwise. It helped me think things through. I remembered a lot more things."

Zieser, an author in her early 70s with six grown children, has lived in Wisconsin since 1976. She said she was abused at age 10 by the Rev. Patrick McElliott in the late 1940s when he was at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Monti in Buchanan County.

After leaving that congregation, McElliott served as pastor of St. John's Catholic Church in Waterloo from 1954 to 1963. More recently, he has been the subject of suits alleging abuse during his tenure there, many of which were settled over the past two years. McElliott died in Waterloo in 1987.

"I know I did all I could to fix this for myself," Zieser said following her settlement last spring.

"I hope it'll give some courage to others. It opened up all the old wounds. But now, they'll heal better."

Having gone through therapy provided by the Archdiocese of Dubuque as part of her settlement, and looking back, Zieser believes women may be able to take additional steps to make the process less difficult.

"I would not go through the litigation process again without having been in therapy already and remaining in therapy during the process," she said.

Some women also may feel more comfortable having a female therapist, attorney or other professional help.

"Maybe not all women would feel they need that," Zieser said.

Attorneys

Two Waterloo attorneys who worked for many people making claims within the Dubuque archdiocese said they helped draw attention to the suffering of female as well as male abuse victims.

Tom Staack and Chad Swanson represented a comparatively high proportion of female clients in two sizable settlements. By comparison, in other regions of the country an overwhelming portion of cases reportedly involved male victims.

"I think we did a lot to change the perception, in this area, that the problem was just one that dealt with boys. From that perspective, I thought we were doing a good thing," Staack said.

Swanson said 12 of the 29 victims involved in the two settlements were women.

"In our first settlement we had eight females and in the second group we had four," he said.

Swanson said he and Staack are pursuing additional abuse claims with male and female clients.

"We do recognize the individual needs that can be specific to a person's sex," Swanson said.

The portion of abuse cases reported by women in the Dubuque archdiocese is significantly higher that even an adjoining diocese.

Attorney Craig Levien in the Quad Cities has represented victims in a number of abuse cases in the Davenport diocese and was involved in a major settlement recently. He said the overwhelming majority of the nearly 100 individuals he worked with are men.

In the area of clergy sex abuse in general, Levien said, the victimization of women has been "even more underreported" than abuse of men.

"And it's been significantly underreported by men," he said.

Other views

Others say women deserve attention.

"Every other female victim I've spoken to indicated there is a definite difference in the way female victims are treated in comparison to male victims," said Heather Smith of Waterloo, co-founder of the Northeast Iowa chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

Her conversations have been with victims involved in other settlements in other states. Her own abuse occurred in another state.

"I think society as a whole, whether it's clergy abuse, whether it's by incest, or whether it's by rape, it's perceived as more horrific if it's a male victim," Smith said.

Despite that perception on a wider scale, officials within the Archdiocese of Dubuque say they have not heard other clergy sex abuse survivors here complain of disparate treatment based on gender. Those officials also note Dubuque Archbishop Jerome Hanus has had a policy of appointing women to leadership positions on the issue. The archdiocese has male and female victim assistance coordinators; the two directors of archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children have been women; and six of the 12 members of the Archdiocesan Review Board on clergy child sex abuse are women, including its chair.

Archdiocesan officials point out victims pursuing claims always have the option of choosing their own attorney, male or female. They also noted psychologists used for testing and evaluating victims as part of the claims process are cleared with victims' attorneys.

Three nationally recognized figures on clergy sex abuse can't pinpoint whether clergy sex abuse victims of one gender are systematically treated better than the other. But they acknowledge differences exist in the circumstances and handling of cases with male and female victims.

"I'm not sure about disparate treatment in the judicial system, but there's certainly the feeling that female clergy sex abuse victims tend to get considerably less attention than males," said Dave Clohessy, national director of SNAP.

"I think male-on-male sex crimes are viewed as inherently more salacious, titillating, outrageous. I'm not saying they are. I'm saying they're viewed that way."

Tahira Khan Merritt, an attorney in Dallas, says the majority of cases involve male victims. She has represented a number of clergy sex abuse victims and also served as a special prosecutor in a major criminal proceeding against a priest.

"I would say 90 percent of them are male victims," she said, though she doesn't think they are handled particularly differently.

Merritt, though, notes "jury bias in every case," which may reflect society as a whole.

For example, Merritt said she is representing one of several teenage victims impregnated by a priest and must overcome biases in that case.

"It's kind of like, did they seduce him? All those kinds of things you don't have to deal with if it's male-on-male," she said.

Meanwhile, Merritt said homosexual abuse may be considered more of a taboo and more terrible, especially in the view of different ethnic cultures.

Gender issues

Dave Lewcon, a clergy sex abuse survivor from Massachusetts, provides counseling and support as a victim advocate with Merritt's clients. He says support group meeting attendance indicates the number of actual abuse incidents may be more evenly divided by gender than actual suits indicate.

"I would say the overwhelming majority of those attending were women, definitely," Lewcon said.

Clohessy reports in his group a 50-50 split between male and female victims.

"The bishops claim it's 80 percent boys, but I think those figures are highly suspect," Clohessy said.

"I think, among some older Catholic parents, if Sally has been assaulted by a priest as a girl, dad puts his arm around her and says, 'I'm sorry,'" Clohessy said.

"If Johnny is sexually assaulted, there's a slightly higher chance that the dad puts his arm around Johnny and says, 'We're going to do something about this.'"

Some pastors receiving abuse reports may have acted similarly, Clohessy suggests. He also notes that, nationally, male victims have received some of the larger settlements.

The settlements are "all fundamentally far from perfect" and can be judged with a variety of standards, Clohessy said.

Smith, with the Survivors Network in Northeast Iowa, said how damages are determined in group settlements can raise difficult questions.

"How can they walk a mile in my shoes? How can they live with devastation, and the changes in personality, and the effect it has on my daily life?" she asks.

"No one else can know that. And how can they say what happens to me is less damaging than what happens to whomever?"

Similarly, Smith suggests a perception exists that women in general can be victims, but not abusers --- despite the fact many boys were abused by nuns.

"Whether the victim is male or female, the effects on males and females are just as devastating," Smith said.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com.

From the Commonweal Blog on Cardinal Law

2007-12-07T21:16:00.000-05:00

Posted by Barbara
on December 7th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
What is or ought to be the bitterest irony is that the Church was forced to conform its conduct to the law, and really, its own teaching by none other than the “dictatorship of relativism” that the Church so loves to sneer at. If Law had been the superintendent of the Boston school system he would be in jail — or more likely, and to what ought to be our greater sorrow, he would have acted differently.

And next in line for repulsiveness is the fact that the Church was granted a good faith exemption by the state from child abuse reporting laws in order to protect priests from being forced to break their vows of confessional secrecy, and that exemption was used to hide the sins of the confessors and protect them from the consequences of their crimes against some of their most vulnerable sheep.

And yet, the irony of this, and its impact on the credibility and authority of the Church is simply lost on many in the Church, who to this day reserve their greatest moral outrage for the Boston Globe.

The Heat is Still on in LA

2007-12-07T20:02:00.001-05:00

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The District Weekly

THE MICHAEL BAKER TIMELINE: A FEW DETAILS

Rachel Powers
Thu. December 06

On Monday, when Will Swaim and I first wrote about admitted child molester
Michael Baker and his plea deal, we knew relatively little about his
personal

history: simply that he had done terrible things, that some of those
things had taken place in Long Beach, and that church officials had
allowed him to retain

everything that he had ever needed to abuse children (chiefly clerical
authority, access to minors, and a succession of positions throughout the
southland.)

There are still a lot of gaps, but we've learned a few things:

In December of 1986, 21 years ago, Baker met with Cardinal Mahoney and
confessed to his attraction to children, and to his abusive relationships
with two

different boys over a 7 year period. (Baker later described Mahoney as
having been "very solicitous and understanding" during the meeting.) After
a 5-month

stay at a residential treatment facility for priests with such
difficulties, and with orders to avoid minors, Baker went back to work.
Over the next 14 years he

served in at least 7 different parishes.

In 2000, after the church was forced to make a confidential $1.3 million
payout to the family of two boys who had been victimized by Baker at the
ages of 5

and 7, Mahoney gave up. Baker was "laicized"-defrocked-and sent on his
way.

Criminal charges were brought against Baker and dozens of other priests in
2002, then dismissed in 2003 due to the Supreme Court's reinstatement of
the

statute of limitations. We'll know more about those charges and how Baker
came to the attention of prosecutors soon.

There are reports that in 2003 Mahoney finally notified the police of
Baker's crimes. But at the same time the Archdiocese, directed by Mahoney,
began to

vigorously fight subpoenas of clerical personnel files.

Baker wasn't arrested again until January of 2006.

Just a few of the lingering questions: Did Mahoney actually report the
abuse, and if so, why did he wait for three years? What brought on the
crisis of

conscience? And doesn't the law (never mind personal morality) require
that church officials alert the authorities to violent, habitual
offenders? Does the

record support the church's claim that it was hoodwinked by Baker's
alleged insistence that he was on good behavior?

Archdiocese of New York Coloring Book on Predators

2007-12-06T22:44:00.000-05:00

Of Interest...
Thursday December 6, 2007
from the New York Post
December 4, 2007—A new coloring book being distributed by the Archdiocese of New York teaches children to protect themselves from adults – including, apparently, priests – who cannot stay within the lines.

Although priests are never explicitly the villains of “Being Friends, Being Safe, Being Catholic,” the female guardian angel who narrates the morality tale warns on one page that an altar boy should never remain alone in a room with any adult unless the door is open.

“If a child and an adult happen to be alone, someone should know where they are, and the door should be open or have a big window in it,” the smiling angel says in the panel as she floats above an altar boy donning his church smock, apparently in a church sacristy, as a man who seems to be a priest looks at him.

The coloring books have been distributed to 300 schools and 400 religious groups.

Edward Mechmann, director of the archdiocese’s Safe Environment program, which commissioned the books, said church officials were wary of targeting priests directly.
“We are in the business of dealing with kids, and we don’t want to rob them of their innocence,” he said. “We wanted to be fair to the priests so we weren’t stigmatizing them.”

But advocates of those who have been abused by priests complain that the church must more clearly point the finger at the most likely perpetrators preying on children.

“Too much is made of the creepy stranger, when predators are actually most often the adults we have taught kids are trustworthy,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “It does seem as though church officials are still reluctant to admit that, in fact, their own clergy can be – and are – predators.”
In the book, after a series of dire warnings about strangers bearing gifts and online predators wishing to meet children, priests are finally mentioned – but as part of a word search for a list of adults that can be trusted.

Even a comic book aimed at older kids avoids a clear indictment of a member of the clergy. In that story, a parent at the school preys on female students.

Advocates said they were not questioning the motives of the archdiocese, headed by Edward Cardinal Egan, but said that church officials were so careful, they missed the heart of the matter.

“No matter how you try to teach children about child sex abuse, if you don’t point out that it is the priest, the teacher, the Boy Scout leader, who have a position of real power and trust over children, you have missed the point,” said Michael Dowd, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse.

The coloring book was first reported in Newsweek magazine.
jeremy.olshan@nypost.com

Rudy's Friend: The Accused Pedophile Priest

2007-12-05T10:16:00.000-05:00

December 4, 2007 by Michael Clancy

Many Voice readers may be aware of Rudy Giuliani's longtime friendship with Msgr. Alan Placa, a priest accused of not only molesting four minors on Long Island but covering up other child abuse cases that he was supposed to investigate for the Catholic Church. Wayne Barrett wrote about Giuliani and Placa in June in a larger article about Rudy's campaign on his supposed Catholic record.

Special grand jury reports from the Suffolk County Supreme Court, which were released in 2003, shed more light on Placa's alleged misdeeds with little boys.

A little background on Placa from the Barrett story:

Alan Placa is not just a major figure in Giuliani's marital life: He baptized both of Giuliani's children, and though already stripped of his priestly powers, he was given special dispensation from his bishop in Long Island to preside at Helen Giuliani's September 2002 funeral. A month earlier—despite still-pending allegations that he'd groped four minors in Long Island's Diocese of Rockville Center—he was hired as a three-day-a-week consultant at Giuliani Partners, where he remains today. Michael Hess, the managing partner of Giuliani's firm and the city's former top lawyer, represents Placa in the ongoing cases. When first reached by a reporter at Giuliani Partners, Placa claimed that he was only visiting—a falsehood quickly reversed by a firm spokeswoman....Indeed, even if one assumes that America won't be offended by the contradiction between Giuliani's marital choices and his professed Catholicism, that will almost certainly change as the country learns more about his best friend, business associate, and lifelong link to the church. New York papers have reported some devastating details, drawn largely from a Suffolk County grand jury report issued in 2003
.

Placa was the Catholic clergyman identified as "Priest F" in the grand jury report, according to Richard Tollner, one of his accusers who testified before the grand jury, and various media accounts.

The three-page section of the report that deals with Placa says that he started abusing an altar boy in his first assignment as a priest:

"Once, when he was working at the rectory on a slow evening, the boy was in the office watching TV, Priest F came in and asked if he could join him. He pulled a chair up next to the boy and put his right hand on his thigh. Slowly his hand began to creep up towards the boy's genital area. Alarmed, the boy covered his crouch. After Priest F's efforts to push his arm away failed, Priest F gave up and left. The boy remembered that Priest F was very nervous. He never told anyone at the time because he didn't think anyone would believe him"

In his next assignment, "Priest F" did not relent:

"Priest F was cautious, but relentless in his pursuit of victims. He fondled boys over their clothes, usually in his office. Always, his actions were hidden by a poster, newspaper or a book. He talked continuously as he fondled them. Everyone in the school knew to stay away from Priest F."

A footnote in the report about one of those instances of alleged abuse contains an absurd but heartbreaking detail: "One of the victims remembers the first incident of abuse taking place when preparations were underway to attend a right-to-life march on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision. The students were making banners with Priest F's help. It was a banner that was used as the foil on this occasion."

Literally fondling boys under a right-to-life banner. Wow. It's an irony that you might have to be Catholic to appreciate.

Monsignor removed from Brooklyn parish after admitting misconduct from 30 years ago

2007-12-04T21:49:00.000-05:00

Monsignor removed from parish after admitting misconduct from 30 years ago

BY PETER KADUSHIN and ALISON GENDAR

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2007/12/04/2007-12-04_monsignor_removed_from_parish_after_admi.html

A Brooklyn monsignor has been yanked from his parish after admitting "inappropriate behavior" with up to five young people more than 30 years ago, authorities said.

Msgr. George Zatarga, 65, admitted allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a relatively new priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn in the late 1970s, according to a letter the Bishop of Brooklyn Nicholas DiMarzio sent to Zatarga's flock.

A law enforcement source said investigators also were checking out more recent abuse allegations. Zatarga served as chaplain at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn from 1971 to 1979, and chaplain at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens from 1979 to 1989.

An adult victim broke the silence with a call to the diocese's toll-free sexual assault hotline two weeks ago, authorities said.

Zatarga admitted the misconduct and resigned over the weekend as pastor of the American Martyrs parish in Bayside, Queens, a post he had held for the past two years.

None of the alleged abuse took place at American Martyrs, said diocesan spokesman Frank DeRosa. Diocesan officials declined to name where Zatarga worked when the alleged assault occurred.

"The faith is great but something obviously went wrong," said a parishioner at American Martyrs, who gave his name only as Michael. "There's a problem in the church right now and something needs to be done. It is unacceptable that he could do something like that."

Zatarga is at a counseling center outside of the diocese, and the allegations have been turned over to the Brooklyn district attorney's office for investigation, DeRosa said.

The statute of limitations for sexual abuse is five years, law enforcement sources said.

He has been placed on administrative leave, meaning that he cannot present himself as a priest, wear clerical garb, celebrate the Mass or administer sacraments publicly. He will be allowed to celebrate Mass privately.

Zatarga was ordained in June 1968. He left Archbishop Molloy to serve Christ the King Church in Queens from 1989 to 1999. He served as the vicar for senior priests - ministering to retired priests from 1999 to 2005 before coming to American Martyrs.

Other American Martyrs parishioners said Zatarga was known for taking month-long vacations, including a ski trip to Colorado, and for an offbeat sense of humor.

The article above is complete.

If Boston Archdiocese can do it, why not New York?

2007-11-27T21:44:00.000-05:00

Hub diocese releases reports criticizing its parish closings
Cardinal's lay panel reviewed use of funds; Sale of 1 church is also examined
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | November 16, 2007

The Archdiocese of Boston, in an unusual act of public self-scrutiny, is releasing two reports highly critical of how the church handled several aspects of the parish closings process over the last several years.

The archdiocese is publishing in its weekly newspaper, the Pilot, a report by a lay panel, the Parish Reconfiguration Fund Oversight Committee, which was handpicked by Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley to review the use of funds generated through the closing of parishes. Even though O'Malley chose to establish the committee, its members said that O'Malley's former aides were not forthcoming with financial information and not responsive to advice from the panel.

The second report, by a retired judge picked by the lay committee to review the sale of one closed church in East Boston, sharply criticizes the archdiocese for its handling of that transaction. That report, being posted on the Pilot's website, describes how the photographer who purchased St. Mary Star of the Sea Church bought the building last November for $850,000 and then sold it three weeks later to an evangelical congregation for $2.65 million.

The archdiocese says it decided to publish the documents in the interest of transparency and because of commitments to the committee, which was headed by David Castaldi, who was a leader of the lay reform group Voice of the Faithful. Archdiocesan officials said they would not dispute the criticism, but instead pointed out that they have replaced the allegedly uncooperative officials and have changed their real estate procedures so that the problems would be less likely to recur.

The report acknowledges the improvements and praises the archdiocese for its recent steps toward financial transparency, which have included what the committee described as "outstanding" and as "the most complete financial disclosure of any diocese in the United States." The committee also said it perceived a "new policy of openness" at the archdiocese after O'Malley last year brought in the Rev. Richard P. Erikson to replace Bishop Richard Lennon as the archdiocese's vicar general and banking executive James P. McDonough to replace David Smith as chancellor.

In an interview yesterday, McDonough said the committee members "have done fine service" for the church and acknowledged that "there were mistakes" in the handling of the East Boston sale but said "no one here benefited from those mistakes." He also said the current administration is committed to listening to laypeople.

The reconfiguration committee reviewed the handling of $66 million garnered by the archdiocese since 2004 through the sale of closed church buildings and the seizure of the treasuries of some closed parishes. It alleged that until a year ago, the archdiocese was characterized by "a culture with excessive concern that outsiders not be permitted knowledge of church policies and business affairs" and said the committee often received information too late to offer any advice and that when it did offer recommendations, they were often not heeded.

The committee also criticized the archdiocese for financial policies that it said rewarded parishioners who challenged their closings and punished those who did not, by allowing funds from contested closings to go to nearby parishes, but taking the funds from uncontested closings for use by the central administration.

But, the committee said, "the transparency in church business affairs introduced by Cardinal O'Malley and his selection of a new archdiocesan leadership team offer hope."

The retired judge who scrutinized the East Boston transaction criticized the archdiocese for failing to protect against flipping, as the quick turnaround sale is called, and for failing to inform its own finance council that the evangelical church had at one point offered the archdiocese a higher price than the photographer.

The judge, Kevin M. Herlihy, said the archdiocese was willing to lose money in order to prevent the building from falling into the hands of the evangelical church, but said the archdiocese's failure to then write a restrictive deed preventing such usage was "unfathomable" and that the archdiocese's conduct "arguably constituted malfeasance, a dereliction of duty."

McDonough commissioned his own review of the East Boston sale that reached similar conclusions, finding that the archdiocese's real estate policies were "clearly deficient." McDonough said he has since put into place new policies requiring better communication and more attention to restrictive covenants in real estate transactions.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

The Child Molestation Prevention Plan Part 1.

2007-11-26T13:19:00.000-05:00

1. Tell Others The Facts
What are the first three facts you can tell others? Fact one: Today, 95 percent of child molestation can be prevented. We have the knowledge to stop it. Fact two: Today, living in the United States, there are 39 million adults who have survived child sexual abuse. Fact three: Today, more than three million American children are victims. Most of them are children, struggling alone, believing there is no adult who can help them. To help prevent child molestation from happening to the children closest to you, begin by telling others the basic facts.

But why you? Shouldn't stopping sexual abuse be left to professionals - physicians and therapists? Better yet, shouldn't the police and the courts take care of it?

Professionals - physicians and therapists - can never put an end to sexual abuse; neither can the police or the courts. Why? Because they come on the scene too late. By the time they get there, the children have already been molested. Only you can get there in time.

There's a bigger reason why the professionals and the courts can't put an end to sexual abuse. They have no permission to talk to a child about sex - unless, of course, they talk to the child after the fact, after the child has already been sexually abused or has abused another child. Only you can talk to your children before anything happens, before any damage is done - to anyone.

Not In My Family

What if you are certain there has never been a child molester or a molested child in your family? You are probably wrong.

Unfortunately, most of today's children will never tell. They feel ashamed that this has happened to them. They are protecting their abuser because he or she is part of their family. They are protecting other members of their family - saving them from the pain of knowing.

In spite of the millions of victims in our families, many people stick to their mistaken belief that child molestation has nothing to do with them.

An estimated one in 20 teenage boys and adult men sexually abuse children, and an estimated one teenage girl or adult woman in every 3,300 females molests children. Although that's well over five million people, most families mistakenly believe that as far as molesters go, there has never been one in their family, and what's more, there never will be. Add together the child victims, the adult survivors, and the abusers, and that's 15 out of every 100 Americans who have been either a molested child or a molester.

To help prevent child molestation from happening to the children closest to you, begin by telling others the basic facts.

We Start By Speaking The Same Language

If we're going to work together to stop child sexual abuse, we have to speak the same language. We have to mean the same thing when we say "child molester," "child molestation," and even "child."

Moreover, all of us have to understand the basic facts: What exactly is child molestation? How many of our children are sexually abused? How seriously are they damaged? What are the characteristics of a child molester? What causes someone to sexually abuse a child? Which of our children are most at risk?

A child molester is any older child or adult who touches a child for his or her own sexual gratification.

Child molestation is the act of sexually touching a child.

A child is a girl or boy who is 13 years of age or younger.

What's the age difference between a molester and a child? It is five years, so a 14-year-old "older child" sexually touching a nine-year-old is an example. This is the accepted medical definition.

Sometimes, a professional will consider that a molestation act has occurred when the older child is only three years older - a sixth-grader with a third-grader, for instance. The crucial element here is the lack of equality between the two children; the sixth grader is clearly bigger, more powerful, and more "adult-like" than the third-grader.

We avoid definitions that are ambiguous by sticking to the medical definition. We define "child molester" as an adult or child, who is at least five years older than the child he or she has molested.

Telling Others The Facts

If we're going to protect our children from sexual abuse, all of us have to understand exactly what we mean by the act of sexual abuse. Why? Because one of the greatest obstacles we face is people's fear of the facts about child molestation.

For instance, some people who have no idea that sexual touch is vastly different from hugging are afraid to hug a child - especially one who isn't theirs - because someone might think they are child molesters. You can calm their fears by telling them this fact: Hugging is not molesting. Sexual touch is when an adult fondles the child's chest, buttocks, or genitals with the direct purpose of sexually exciting himself or the child.

Can you tell your husband that fact? Can you tell your sister, your cousin, or your best friend? If you can, then you can easily tell others all the rest of the facts.

The less people know, the more anxiety they feel, and the more they want to run away or pretend that today's estimated three million sexually abused children don't exist. Every fact has a calming effect. By telling the people closest to you the facts, you can help those same people become strong adult protectors of the children closest to you.

How Many Children Are Sexually Abused?

Three million children! I don't believe it. How can you possibly know that there are exactly three million child victims?" As you begin to tell others the facts, this is the first question they may ask you. The answer: Of course, we don't know exactly.

Children seldom tell. Those millions of children are a secret. They are the secret in family after family after family. Even adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse seldom tell. What we do know from studies of adult men and women is that the number is at least three million. At least three million children are molested before they finish their 13th year. In 1998, there were 103,000 reported and confirmed cases of child molestation. For comparison, at the height of the polio epidemic that struck children in the 1950s, there were 21,000 cases reported in a year. For rubella, there were 57,000 cases reported. For child molestation, those numbers of reported and confirmed molestations are only the tip of the iceberg. For every case reported there are at least two and maybe three more cases that never get reported.

That's why we may never know the exact number of child victims. We do know that if we use the conservative estimate that two in every ten little girls and one in every ten little boys are victims (based on the population reported in the 1999 U.S. Census statistical abstract) well over three million children are victims.

Take a moment to think about that. Three million children is a staggering number of children. That's 46 National Football League stadiums packed with children who are, today, being sexually abused, and who believe they have no adult to go to for help.

How Severe is the Damage?

Some people will say that sexually touching a child does no harm. Some adults will even tell boy victims to "act like a man" and "stop whining." Other adults are unsympathetic about the experiences of adult survivors. They will say that, no matter what happened in childhood, that is the past. You're an adult now, so get over it.

The facts are that sexual abuse does harm the child and that the damage often carries over into the child's adult life.

Studies show that this damage can include:

difficulty in forming long-term relationships;
sexual risk-taking that may lead to contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS;
physical complaints and physical symptoms;
depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicide;
links to failure of the immune system and to increases in illnesses, hospitalizations, and early deaths.
In addition to the tangible physical and emotional damage that sexual abuse does to the child, that terrible secret that is held so close by two or three family members can go on to tear at the fiber of the family in generation after generation.

Who Is The Child Molester? Who Causes So Much Damage To Our Children?

We want to introduce you to a sexual abuser of children. Keep in mind that far more men than women are abusers. In fact, approximately one out of 20 men, and approximately one out of 3,300 women are sexual abusers of children. Let's look at a man who has molested children. We'll call him George.

George's Story

George was a typical teenager. In his twenties, George emerged from his shell, got married, and had two sons. His parents were proud of him, of the family he had established, of the values he taught his children.

During his thirties, he was promoted to a new position in his company every two or three years. More money, more responsibility, more travel, more stress.

One day when George was on the road, his wife got a call. Her husband was three states away. He'd been arrested in that state for child molestation. By now George was 43.

His wife remembers smiling into the phone. She had a flash image - her telling the story about this mistake. "Can you imagine? Poor George, - the most conservative man in the world." - and how their friends would laugh. She repeated her husband's name, including middle name. She spelled out the first, middle, and last name. His wife was sure it was somebody else with a similar name. After she was convinced that her husband was the George in custody, her next emotion was fury. Who would falsely accuse a fine man like her husband? Would the lawyer's fees bankrupt them? What would his boss say? After 20 years of marriage she knew George, knew he was the last man in the world who would ever. . . .

But did she know George?

Like most people, George's wife, when she considered child molestation at all - thought about it only as a sin or a crime. Her husband was simply not a criminal. He had never even had a traffic ticket. He was a regular hardworking man with a great sense of responsibility. If anything, he was a law-and-order guy. He was, like many husbands, concerned for his family's safety. He was their protector.

His religion was an important part of his life. Their religious beliefs were important to both of them and to their children.

And besides that George couldn't be a child molester, she thought, because they had a vigorous and happy sex life.

Through the months that followed, George's wife and his parents received several shocks. He confessed. Yes, he had sexually molested the 10-year-old girl who accused him, the daughter of a man who'd been his friend since high school. Then she found out there had been other victims. He had molested 23 little girls. The number included two nieces, one the daughter of his wife's sister and, the other the daughter of his own sister. He had also molested several daughters of close friends. His two nieces he had molested over a period of years. Both nieces kept the secret from everybody in the family. In a further shock to his family, he also confessed that when he was 17 and she was in grade school, he had repeatedly molested his stepsister. She also never told.

George's larger family is, of course, destroyed. Neither his sister nor his sister-in-law will ever forgive him for sexually abusing their daughters. They also shun his wife. No matter what she says about her innocence, they believe she knew all along and allowed him to molest. His parents are shocked. Both are devastated by their failure to protect George's young stepsister and their grandchild.

An Unsuccessful "Success Story"

Now that you've read about George's 26 years of molesting, what do you think? Is this a success story? His family says yes.

George's wife believes George when he says he's learned his lesson. He's glad he's going to jail. He deserved to be punished. It's as though jail will be his salvation. Now, it's over. He will never touch a little girl again. In her mind, this severe (and deserved) punishment of a flawed man with a good core is all that is needed.

His minister believes George too. He's prayed with him in his jail cell.

The judge hates these cases. Thank goodness the law is clear. He listens to the parade of character witnesses. George is a stellar employee, a person who does good work with the adults in his community, full of remorse, a changed man. The sentence is long - 20 years, to serve seven.

In George's case, in that old-era way of doing things, we used every old strategy to stop him.

George was a religious man. He knew that molesting a child was a sin. After his arrest, George's wife found a Bible in his car's glove compartment. Sometimes, when he was fighting his strong desire to sexually touch a child, he would recite certain passages and he would use the power of his deep religious convictions to stop that desire. Religion - in George's case - saved a few little girls from being molested. Still, he molested 23 little girls.

George was arrested and sent to jail. This strategy may have prevented more little girls from becoming victims; it did protect his nieces from George molesting them again. Still, he molested 23 little girls.

Many of the people around George believe that George's case is a success. After all, George's molesting has been stopped. He's been arrested; he's been put in jail. Many of the little girls have gone into therapy. So we have punished the child molester, we've treated the victims.

At the core, sending molesters to jail as a solution will always fail our children. Why? Because in order for a molester to be jailed, the criminal justice strategy requires that our children be sexually abused. Without a victim, it can't make a move.

It's the same with treating the victims. As a strategy, it's ineffective until after our children are sexually abused.

What we find horrifying in George's case is the waiting. All the adult protectors of those 23 little girls had to wait, powerless. First, they waited while 23 little girls were sexually abused. Then they waited for a little girl to tell an adult. But that wasn't the end of the waiting. They also had to wait for one of the 23 little girls to tell an adult who was willing to report the case. While they waited, they allowed George to go on molesting little girls for 26 years.

George's family did the best they could, given their options in the old era. Today there is no reason why George's story should be repeated.

Why? Because we have new information all of us can use to stop people like George before he molests 23 little girls.

New Information - A Typical Child Molester

When George's neighbors heard of the first accusation, they took his side. They didn't know who this 10-year-old girl from another city was, but they knew George. Some of them knew his parents.

When he admitted that he had molested so many little girls, their shock reverberated in their stories: "He was the last person you would imagine." "A very unusual case." "I've known this guy since grade school, it's unbelievable."

Everyone who knows George is sure of one thing: George is nothing like a typical child molester.

After all, he comes from a good home. His wife comes from a good home. George and his wife, their two children, and both sets of grandparents live near each other and go to the same church. He was baptized in the church and still attends regularly. He pays close attention to the rules. He pays all his bills a week before the due date. He has a college fund for his two sons. He rotates his tires. He drives within the speed limit.

George's wife and his neighbors believe that it's impossible - or extremely unusual - for an ordinary man in an ordinary family, a hard working responsible, husband and father of two, a man with high moral standards to be a child molester. They mistakenly believe that his family life, his acts of responsibility, his education, his moral values all protect George from becoming a child molester. In fact, they believe that those same things protect his family - and their families' children - from any connection with child molestation.

Is this an unusual case? If you lived in George's community what facts could you tell? You could repeat this fact: George's case is not in the least unusual. George is the typical child molester. He's married, educated, working, and religious.

Most people will tell you that this couldn't be right.

It is.

Researchers asked the 4,000 admitted child molesters in the Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study to answer questions about their lives. These abusers were men aged 18 to 80.

How does George compare? George is typical.

First of all, he's married, just like 77 percent of the more than 4000 child sexual abusers in the Child Molestation Prevention Study. George is religious, like 93 percent of the abusers. He's educated. More than 46 percent had some college education and another 30 percent were high school graduates. Like 65 percent of the admitted abusers, George was working. Numerous studies of adult victims have sought to link child molestation victims to lower social class and lower family income. All have failed. Child victims and their abusers exist equally in families of all income levels and classes. And, now from the study, we know that child molesters are as equally married, educated, employed, and religious as any other Americans.

TABLE 2

Contrasts: Admitted Molesters vs. All American Men

Admitted Child Molesters
American Men

Married or formerly married
77%
73%

Some College
46%
49%

High School only
30%
32%

Working
69%
64%

Religious
93%
93%

Sources: The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study and the 1999 U.S. Census Statistical Abstract

Note: All people in both groups were at least 25 years old.

Examining The Facts With Care

Is it possible that the profile of the child molester is this: a man who is married, educated, working, and religious?

Yes. However, we all have to be careful at this point. We have to ask the next question: What does this mean? To answer that we come to another finding from the Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study.

Rather than causing a person to molest, being married, educated, working, and religious is who we are as Americans. These are the facts. It's crucial that everyone understands them. In order for adult protectors to stand as a barrier between their children and a child sexual abuser, the protectors have to know what a sexual abuser of children looks like. He looks like George.

And he looks like a lot of other people you know. In analyzing the reports of the 4,000 admitted child molesters researchers found this: in their outward characteristics, matching percentages of child molesters to percentages of all American men, the average child molester closely matched the average American man.

They matched all the outward characteristics listed in Table 2.

Which Ethnic Groups Molest Children?

Are there ethnic groups in which child molestation does not occur? Probably not. Results from the Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study suggest that each ethnic group studied has child molesters among them. Once again, the percentages bear a resemblance to the U.S. Census. (See "The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study" for further details about ethnic groups).

TABLE 3

Ethnic Groups: Admitted Molesters vs. All American Men

Admitted Child Molesters
American Men

Caucasian
79%
72%

Hispanic/Latin-American
9%
11%

African-American
6%
12%

Asian
1%
4%

Native American
3%
1%

Sources: The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study and the 1999 U.S. Census Statistical Abstract

Note: 3,952 men who admitted to molesting children were compared to American men of various ethnic groups. Asians were under-represented in the complete sample of 15,508 men. They were 1.2 percent. Native Americans were over-represented in the complete sample. They were 3 percent. Both groups had child molesters in proportions equal to their percentages of representation in the complete sample.

Which Children Are Molested?

Children are most at risk from the adults in their own family, and from the adults who are in their parents' social circle. In fact, 90 percent of abusers target children in their own families and children who they know well. Furthermore, research suggests that the risk is across the board: Child molesters come from every part of our society, and so children from every part of our society are at risk.

TABLE 4

Which Children Do Child Molesters Target?

CHILDREN IN THE FAMILY

Biological Child
19%

Stepchild, Adopted or Foster Child
30%

Brothers & Sisters
12%

Nieces & Nephews
18%

Grandchild
5%

CHILDREN IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Child Left in My Care
5%

Child of Friend or Neighbor
40%

CHILDREN WHO ARE STRANGERS

Child Strangers
10%

Source: The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study.

Note: Since sexual abusers of children often molest children in more than one category, the categories total more than 100 percent. The same child molester may have molested his biological child and his stepchild, therefore, we cannot say that those two categories combined represent 49 percent, but must say that they represent a lower number.

Notice that only 10 percent of the child sexual abusers report that they molest a child who is a stranger.

Let's put the facts together:

Child molesters exist in every part of our society.
They molest children close to them, mainly children in their family or children in their social circle.
Most child molesters, 90 percent, report that they know their child victims very well.
We want you to look carefully at that last fact on the list. While there are several facts that you will use as part of The Child Molestation Prevention Plan, this is the most important.

To save the greatest number of children in the shortest possible time, we must turn the current focus of our efforts upside down. Right now, 90 percent of our efforts go toward protecting our children from strangers, when what we need to do is to focus 90 percent of our efforts toward protecting children from the abusers who are not strangers - the molesters in their families and the molesters who are the friends of their families.

And we must ask the next important question: What causes the one member of the family who molests to be so different from the rest of his or her family? To end nearly all child molestation we must focus on the cause.

Shock, disappointment and disbelief follow popular priest allegations.

2007-11-23T17:51:00.000-05:00

Residents rally around priest
Many support Salerno after abuse allegation
By Sumathi Reddy

Sun reporter

November 20, 2007

By 8:30 a.m. yesterday, the first sign had already gone up.

"God bless father Michael Salerno

We love and support you!"

An Open Letter to Rev McGuire from the father of two Victims.

2007-11-21T16:31:00.000-05:00

This open letter to Rev. Donald McGuire, S.J., was written by the father of two of McGuire’s victims.

I am posting this letter with the author’s permission.

* * *

OPEN LETTER TO:

November 21, 2007

“Reverend” (?) Donald J. McGuire

The Most Dangerous Priest in America

Oak Lawn, Illinois

Congratulations! You have successfully accomplished much of the work of your spiritual mentor, Lucifer. For at least 40 of your 46 years of Satan inspired priesthood you have ruined the lives of countless of young boys and their family’s with your forced pedophilia. A special place in Hell waits, unless before death, you repent and seek forgiveness. I never imagined so much evil could exist in one individual as it does in you, Donald McGuire! You as well as your cohorts, the Jesuits, have known of your deviant lifestyle for decades, yet have done nothing to stop it. With so many male prostitutes available for your perverted pleasure why do you target young innocent boys from decent families for your lewd and lascivious behavior? Is it because your deranged criminal mind only finds joy in murdering the souls of your countless innocent victims through your evil behavior?

In my October 8, 2007 letter to Judge James L. Carlson in Walworth County (WI) asking for revocation of bond and incarceration, as you certainly deserve, I noted how you have made a mockery of the Sacraments of Holy Orders (Priesthood) and Penance (Confession) as you often molested young boys (including mine) in the confessional. Since then, I’ve discovered your Sacramental Mockery #3 extends to Matrimony (Marriage) - You deliberately drove wedges between husbands and wives and to create an opportunity for you to essentially kidnap our sons for your world wide perverted sexual encounters, including in the convents of Mother Teresa, and continued to traumatize them. Also, your sexual abuse of our younger son, while you were in Phoenix to witness the Marriage of our oldest son (your earlier victim) is unconscionable. Sacramental Mockery #4 (Baptism) – Your eager willingness to baptize our three youngest children and stay at our home was obviously a deceptive ploy to sexually abuse our oldest son again, and again. Sacramental Mockery #5 (Eucharist) – On retreats you typically reserved the Blessed Sacrament in your bedroom at night, where you also sexually abused my sons and other boys. How much more demonic can you be? I can only pray that through your fraudulent and sacrilegious priesthood somehow this Sacrament was invalid.

You dare to tell the few supporters you have left that my sons’ motivation in filing a lawsuit against you and your co-conspirators (the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus) is “for the money”. Even the Archdiocese of Chicago is getting on this bandwagon. If not money, which “medium of exchange” do you suggest as a trade off for the lonely, silent depression and shame you’ve put my two sons through for the past 19 years and 7 years respectively? It’s still far from being over, if ever. What about the constant, painful reminder we as parents feel that we ever allowed a then, unknown psychopathic child predator into our lives that destroyed forever the innocence of our sons? Are we supposed to sit around a campfire, hold hands sing Kumbia and hope all is forgotten? Whatever the final outcome, it will not have been worth the ongoing tears, anguish and humiliation that you, Donald McGuire, have caused. Certainly you know by now there are multiple criminal complaints filed against you in various counties where your despicable crimes were committed. The U.S. Attorney of Northern Illinois is prosecuting you for your malfeasants (Case #07CR 716).

What baffles me, Donald McGuire, is how in the twilight years of your life you don’t acknowledge your obvious guilt, apologize to the multiple victims, now young men, and their families and help us all begin the healing process. Even Jeffery Daumer, who ironically, had the same criminal defense lawyer, Gerald Boyle, as you did in your Wisconsin trial, sought and received partial forgiveness from some of his victims’ families before his untimely miserable death. You say: “I’m losing friends because people don’t know my side of the story” and “my lawyer says I can’t talk”. You’ve had ample opportunity to tell your story, yet you remain mute with a disgusting smirk. Why? In fact at your sentencing on July 18, 2006 in Walworth County, (WI) you swore on the Bible: “I wish I ignored my lawyers’ advice and testified in my own behalf. Given the opportunity for a new trial I swear I will not remain silent”. Your multiple motions for a new trial were all denied on November 1, 2007. So, now’s your chance; let’s hear your story. Also, you won’t have your lawyer at your side on Judgment Day. What will you do then? You never got permission from parents of your victims to introduce them to gay pornography or to impose your deviant sexual fantasies on them. Why do you now need permission from your lawyer to be contrite? Please let us know when you get the OK from your lawyer to apologize – then do it!

J.R.C. - father of: Victims 5 & 10 (see NPR.com for details, Search - Donald McGuire)

- aka: John Does’ 117 & 118 (Cook County, IL – Civil Case #2007L011952)

Next Monday at 7:30pm. Save the date. Crosses: Portraits of Clergy Abuse, shows the huge, personal price paid by survivors of clergy sex crimes.

2007-11-15T20:05:00.001-05:00

On Monday, November 19 at 7:30pm Carmine Galasso, photographer and writer, will speak about his new book: Crosses.Location: Larchmont Avenue Church in Larchmont For more information: Call 914. 834. 2183 or 914.235.2123

With portraits taken over a period of two to three years, here are also the accounts of children, now as adults themselves and in their own words, of a childhood blighted by the violation and horror of sexual abuse at the hands of a member of the Catholic clergy. From countless interviews, emails and phone conversations they recall their experiences of an abuse of power – be they priest, monk or nun - which has followed them into their adult lives.

Clohessy Calls UCCB election "a sad day for the American Catholic Church."

2007-11-14T22:52:00.000-05:00

TUCSON (AZ)KVOAKicanas elected bishops' VP, draws fire from criticAssociated Press -November 13, 2007TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Bishop Gerald Kicanas has been elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, normally the post leading tosubsequent election as president.Kicanas follows Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who on Tuesday was elected president of the conference.Kicanas led the Tucson diocese through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization proceedings during 2004 and 2005 in response to a priest sex abuse scandalthat resulted in a wave of lawsuits.The election of both George and Kicanas drew criticism from the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, David Clohessy, whocalled it "a sad day for the American Catholic church. It's top two officials have terrible track records on child sex abuse and cover-up."A call to a spokesman for Kicanas seeking comment was not returned immediately.

Snap distraught because wrongdoers (like Cardinal George) in the church hierarchy seemingly get rewarded and promoted.

2007-11-13T08:56:00.001-05:00

Survivors Network of those Abused By PriestsP.O. Box 6416, Chicago, Illinois 60680-6416312-455-1499
November 12, 2007: Election of USCCB officers
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, (314 862 7688, 314 503 0003 cell)
We are distraught because wrongdoers in the church hierarchy seemingly get rewarded and promoted.

Pope Benedict has chosen several bishops and cardinals who ‘severely mishandled’ abuse cases, including Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco (now a Cardinal in a high level Vatican post), Bishop Nicholas DiNardo of Galveston-Houston (recently made a cardinal), Bishop Jaime Soto (from Orange County, named Sacramento’s bishop), and Bishop Walter Hurley of Detroit (now Grand Rapids bishop).
The US bishops have also been supported and promoted wrong-doers. In 2004, they elected Spokane Bishop William Skylstad as their leader, even though he sought bankruptcy protection to avoid having to testify in potentially embarrassing civil trials about how much he knew and how little he did about abusive priests. In 2004, they elected Chicago Cardinal Francis George as their vice president, even though he let a convicted molester work in his archdiocese and live in his mansion. Now, US bishops seem poised to promote George again, despite his duplicity in the recent child molestation cases involving Fr. Donald McGuire, Fr. Daniel McCormack and others.
Other candidates for USCCB positions are similarly compromised and corrupt.
We urge the Pope to avoid promoting complicit bishops, even if it means digging deeper into the pool of rank-and-file parish priests, rather than elevating corrupt auxiliary bishops or bishops into higher positions. We also urge America’s bishops to nominate and support candidates for USCCB offices who have NOT engaged in widespread cover ups of clergy sex abuse cases.
Church officials can’t have their cake and eat it too. They can’t claim they want victims to come forward while promoting the very men who stiff-armed victims, deceived police, stonewalled prosecutors, misled parishioners and protected predators for years. They can’t claim they’ve ‘learned’ and ‘reformed’ while honoring and promoting the very men who continue to be reckless, secretive and recalcitrant.
This kind of callousness rubs salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of many victims and Catholics who are still in pain because of abusive priests and complicit bishops. It fuels the already intense helplessness and pessimism many victims and Catholics feel about the prospects of a safer church. It deters victims, especially those trapped in shame and self-blame, from reporting their predators and thus protecting vulnerable kids.
And it shows that, despite decades of scandal and a plethora of promises, bishops still refuse to truly reform.

CONTACT
Barbara Blaine of Chicago, SNAP President 312 399 4747 9606
Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688
David Clohessy of St. Louis SNAP National Director 314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915
Barbara BlainePresident312 399 4747snapblaine@gmail.com Survivors Network of those Abused by PriestsSNAPnetwork.org
Mark your calendar: 2008 SNAP National Conference July 11-13 in Chicago

Give Victims More Time to file Sexual-Abuse Claims By Marcia Hamilton

2007-11-12T20:55:00.000-05:00

UNITED STATESNewsdayGive victims more time to file sexual-abuse claimsBY MARCI A. HAMILTONNewsday Issue: November 9, 2007Who would have thought that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa, could be a place where girls could be physically andsexually abused by one of the dormitory matrons?Winfrey, after all, has been a vocal and active advocate for survivors of child abuse, having experienced this horror as a child herself. You can only imagineher anguish when she heard that the institution she created to nurture girls was doing the opposite.There is a lesson here for everyone: Those who abuse children typically select careers close to them. Whether they choose to be teachers, dormitorymatrons, clergy or Boy Scout leaders, they position themselves to have the greatest access to children.They are scheming and devious to serve their sexual compulsions. Even when the one who is supporting the organization is especially sensitive to childabuse, as is Winfrey, these are people who are very hard to identify.The situation at Winfrey's school could have been worse. After one girl came forward, others followed, and the matron was stopped. But all too often, victimscannot make that public announcement, and the predator and abuse persist, with the abuse spreading to ever more victims.Figuring out who the child abusers are is an intractable, but not impossible, problem. It's incumbent on all of us to find ways to identify predators working withor caring for our children. Because if they aren't identified, they will continue their perverse ways.In the United States, during the past 20 years at least, we've been trying to devise ways to protect our children from predators: Megan's Laws, which createpublic lists of convicted sex offenders; pedophile-free zones, which theoretically keep known predators at a distance from children; and longer prisonsentences and harsher penalties.But there is one key problem with each of these "solutions": They are predicated on the fact that we already know who the predator is.The statistics, though, show that we usually don't know. Only 10 percent of survivors ever report the abuse to authorities.The law has worked to shield predators' identities by keeping victims out of the justice system. Short statutes of limitations - the arbitrary deadlines imposedby legislatures for the filing of lawsuits and prosecution - have been endemic in the law governing childhood sexual abuse, and have shut the courthousedoors to survivors of child sex abuse.All too often, survivors are incapable of pursuing legal action before the state's filing deadline expires. In New York State there's a patchwork of limitations,depending on the offense, some as short as seven years following the abuse. But in many cases victims need decades to understand what happened tothem, and even longer to come forward to loved ones, let alone the authorities.If we don't give the survivor the time he or she needs to file a lawsuit, we may never learn who the vast majority of the predators are.A whole cadre of abusers arrogantly assumes that they will never be made to pay for their actions, because they know the statutes of limitations dramaticallytilt the playing field against the victim. Only by lengthening and eliminating the statutes of limitations governing child sex abuse can we increase thelikelihood that we will learn the identities of more child predators.The safety of our children also demands that expired statutes be waived so that the backlog of unidentified perpetrators will then be publicly identified.In 2002, California passed a one-year window, allowing past victims to file complaints. More than 300 previously unnamed predators were publicly identifiedonce their victims were no longer stymied by an artificial deadline. In July, Delaware put a two-year window into effect.Here in New York similar legislation, introduced by Assemb. Marge Markey (D-Maspeth), has been passed by the Assembly for the past three years with nomeaningful opposition. Sadly for survivors, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) has inexplicably blocked its movement each time.Markey is planning to put the measure forward again in January. This legislation should be a no-brainer - unless the legislature is inclined to assist thoseentities and individuals who would cover up their own complicity in child abuse. That's a move no elected official should ever be permitted to make.Eliminating the statutes of limitations for child sex abuse is the only tool available to increase the public's knowledge of perpetrators. It will identify not onlythe perpetrators but also the survivors who need our support - when one victim steps forward publicly, others soon follow. That is exactly what happened inCalifornia and at Winfrey's school.It's a shameful fact that most states have had such short statutes of limitations on childhood sexual abuse that the victims have been foreclosed from justicewhile predators enjoyed a system that protected their interests.California and Delaware are showing the rest of the country the more heroic and noble path to follow. New York and the other states must get in step.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Marci A. Hamilton is a professor of public law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and author of the forthcoming "Justice Denied: What America MustDo to Protect Its Children."

Events in Westchester this week and next.

2007-11-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

Reminder - 2 interesting events

The Upper Room

On Wednesday, November 14, at 7:30 pm Sr. Chris Schenk will speak on Back to the Future: Trends and Traditions - Shaping the Future of the Church.

Location: the Greek Orthodox Church in New Rochelle

For more information: 914.712.0060 or 216.228.0869

Voice of the Faithful - Larchmont

On Monday, November 19 at 7:30pm Carmine Galasso, photographer and writer, will speak about his new book: Crosses.

Location: Larchmont Avenue Church in Larchmont

For more information: 914. 834. 2183 or 914.235.2123

Is the Church really this blind? Jason Berry on George becoming head of Catholic Bishops.

2007-11-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

Is the Church really this blind?
Chicago's archbishop is an example of a church hierarchy that still hasn't learned the lessons of the abuse scandal.
By Jason Berry November 11, 2007
In 2004, Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, proclaimed that after two years of relentless investigations into priests who sexually abused children and the bishops who protected them, "the scandal is history."For reporters weary of the scandal's emotionally draining subject matter, Gregory's sound bite invited a retreat. The bishops pointed to the "youth protection charter" they had developed, laying out guidelines for removing predator priests and for treating victims responsibly. They released data showing that they had identified about 4,400 abusive U.S. priests. They had a reform agenda, it seemed, and promised new vigilance in protecting children rather than clerics. In the months that followed, the sexual abuse crisis receded as national news, though civil litigation and criminal prosecutions continued to make occasional headlines.

Chicago Cardinal fails to observe charter on sex abuse again. Local head of Jesuits at fault also.

2007-11-11T15:16:00.000-05:00

When and what did archdiocese know?
ABUSE Dad says complaints in '02 told of priest sharing bed with son, 'overwhelming' 2nd teen with sex talk
November 11, 2007
BY SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH Religion Reporter/shogan@suntimes.com
A concerned dad notified the Archdiocese of Chicago in December 2002 that the Rev. Donald McGuire was sharing a bed with his son and "overwhelming" another teen with porn and sex talk.
Letters sent by the dad to the archdiocese also mention a third teen.

Clergy Abuse is not just a few. Over 5,400 by the Church's own count which is considerably below the real number.

2007-11-06T20:09:00.000-05:00

In this link you will see some of Carmine Gallasso's moving pictures.

AlterNet is pleased to present the above multimedia show from Crosses and an interview with David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
Nina Berman: There are many cases of individuals who are part of companies, or armies for that matter, who commit horrible crimes, and, invariably, the response by the institutional leadership is ... Well, it's just a few bad apples. How do you respond to the statement that the clergy sex abuse is just a few bad apples?
David Clohessy: First of all, no matter how you look at it, the word "few" is inaccurate. The church's own inadequate, inaccurate self-survey indicates at least 5,400 priests are proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesters. That's just the ones they acknowledge. Second, the crux of the crisis is the complicity of bishops, not the abusive priests. It's not "some bad apples." It's the barrel and the men who built and oversee the barrel.
Put another way, bishops cover up abuse because they can. Victims, parents, witnesses and Catholics who could call 911 instead report clear or potential abuse to church officials, giving those officials the time, knowledge, incentive and opportunity to hide the crimes. Those who instead turn to the justice system -- either criminal or civil -- often fail to expose predators and protect kids because of the archaic, arbitrary and dangerously restrictive statutes of limitations or because of timid, deferential or inept police or prosecutors. In either case, bishops end up, again, with the chance to abuse their power, protect their reputations, hide their assets, circle their wagons, consult their lawyers, and activate their public relations maneuvers and plans.
It is these men, the bishops, and their nearly unchecked power, that is the problem, not the "bad apple" priests.

The Need for those Abused to have Healing.

2007-11-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

Too many of us are still uncomfortable with the pedophilia scandal. We mistakenly feel it is a threat to our faith not considering the need for healing for those abused. It is important for those abused to speak out so that others may come forth and have healing. As the conclusion to this story points out: "At the time of the 2006 settlement, Cummins said it was "very reassuring" to him when other victims later stepped forward.

"If young kids see that people stand up and say, 'This happened to me,' then it will be easier for them when it happens. And that's what we should take away from it," Cummins said."

Career newsman abused by priest praised for courage
By PAT KINNEY
Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier (IA) Business Editor
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/11/06/news/metro/0511352f9bbec64f8625738b004e4272.txt

WATERLOO --- A Waterloo attorney for deceased veteran Iowa-born NBC News correspondent Jim Cummins praised his courage in bringing the first of what became a series of clergy child sex abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque.

"He was willing to put his name on the line. He felt very strongly about it," Waterloo attorney Tom Staack said of Cummins, who died Oct. 26 of cancer at age 62.

Theologians Support Voice of the Faithful

2007-11-05T22:39:00.000-05:00

THEOLOGIAN PETITIONVoice of the Faithful Has the Right to ExistDrafted by Dr. Thomas Beaudoin, Dr. William Clark, S.J. and Dr. Anthony Massimini
As Catholic theologians, we support the rights and responsibilities of lay Catholics, acting in the grace of their spiritual gifts, to gather in the Spirit of Christ, who dwells within the whole Church.
Their gifts are God's empowerment and blessing of the laity's unique voice for the renewal and up-building of the Church and the world.
These rights and responsibilities of lay Catholics are part of official Catholic teaching, and we encourage all Catholics to read the documents of Vatican II.
Thus, we fully support the right and responsibility of Voice of the Faithful to meet in prayerful discernment of the signs of the times, and to present to the hierarchy for confirmation and implementation what their sense of faith requires them to voice.
"Christ … fulfills His prophetic office … not only by the hierarchy who teach in His name and by His power, but also by the laity …." (Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, n. 35)
"They [the laity] are, by [reason of] knowledge, competence or outstanding ability which they may enjoy, permitted and sometimes even obliged to express their opinion on those things which concern the good of the Church." (Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, n. 37)
"While preserving intact the necessary link with ecclesiastical authority, the laity have the right to establish and direct [apostolic] associations, and to join existing ones …. [B]y their expert assistance they increase the efficacy of the care of souls as well as of the administration of the goods of the Church." (Vatican II, Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, n. 19, 10)
Signatories: Dr. J. Matthew Ashley, University of Notre Dame Dr. Richard J. Beauchesne, Emmanuel College, Northeastern University Dr. Tom Beaudoin, Boston College Dr. Eugene C. Bianchi, Emeritus, Emory University Dr. Francis J. Buckley, S.J., University of San Francisco Dr. Francine Cardman, Weston Jesuit School of Theology Dr. William Clark, S.J., College of the Holy Cross Dr. Anne Clifford, Duquesne University Dr. Richard Clifford, S.J., Weston Jesuit School of Theology Dr. Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Boston College Dr. Marie A. Conn, Chestnut Hill College Dr. Paul Crowley, S.J., Santa Clara University Dr. Nancy A. Dallavalle, Fairfield University Dr. James Dallen, Gonzaga University Dr. Margaret A. Farley, Yale University Divinity School Mary Kathleen Flannery, SSJ, Chestnut Hill College Dr. Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Fordham University Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz, University of Toledo Dr. Roberto Goizueta, Boston College Dr. Thomas H. Groome, Boston College Juliann Kriege Heller, Ph.D. Candidate, Boston College Dr. David Hollenbach, S.J., Boston College Dr. Harold (Bud) Horell, Boston College Dr. Karen L. Howard, Merrimack College Dr. Mark Jordan, Emory University Dr. James F. Keenan, S.J., Weston Jesuit School of Theology Dr. Alice Laffey, College of the Holy Cross Dr. Paul Lakeland, Fairfield University Dr. Brian F. Linnane, S.J., College of the Holy Cross Dr. Robert Ludwig, Depaul University Dr. Carole McCollester, O.P., Loyola University, New Orleans Dr. Gary Macy, University of San Diego Bette Manter, Th.D. Candidate, Harvard Divinity School Dr. Anthony Massimini, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design Dr. Robert Masson, Marquette University Dr. Vincent J. Miller, Georgetown University Dr. Paul Misner, Marquette University Dr. Catherine M. Mooney, Weston Jesuit School of Theology Dr. Margaret Mary Moore, Theology and Life Institute, Inc. Maureen Beyer Moser, Ph.D. Candidate, Duquesne University Dr. Theresa Moser, R.S.C.J., University of San Francisco Dr. Timothy P. Muldoon, Mount Aloysius College Dr. Frederick Murphy, College of the Holy Cross Catherine T. Nerney, SSJ, Chestnut Hill College Dr. Maureen O'Brien, Duquesne University Dr. Kenneth L. Parker, Saint Louis University Dr. Richard Penaskovic, Auburn University Dr. Gaile M. Pohlhaus, Villanova University Dr. Barbara Quinn, R.S.C.J., University of San Diego Dr. Jane Regan, Boston College Dr. Alan Revering, Quincy University Dr. Ann R. Riggs, Rivier College Dr. Virginia M. Ryan, Rivier College Dr. John R. Sachs, S.J., Weston Jesuit School of Theology Dr. Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School Dr. William M. Shea, Saint Louis University Dr. Vincent M. Smiles, College of St. Benedict and St. John's University Dr. Leonard Swidler, Temple University John Switzer, Ph.D. Student, Boston College Dr. Terrence W. Tilley, University of Dayton Dr. John Topel, S.J., Seattle University Dr. David Tracy, University of Chicago Dr. Paul Turner, Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO Dr. Edward Vacek, S.J., Weston Jesuit School of Theology Dr. Sally M. Vance-Trembath, University of San Francisco Dr. Cristina Vanin, St. Jerome's University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Dr. Terry Veling, St. Thomas University, Miami Dr. Johann M. Vento, Georgian Court College Dr. Win Whelan, St. Bonaventure University

The Lay Vocation and Voice of the Faithful

2007-11-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

Here is an article by Thomas P Rausch, S.J published four years ago. It is very pertinent with reference to the importance of VOTF for the Laity. The rest of the article can be accessed by clicking the link.

The Lay Vocation and Voice of theFaithful
By Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., SEPTEMBER 29, 2003
O ne unanticipated effect of the sexual abuse scandal that has been convulsing the Catholic Church in the United States is a growing realization on the part of the laity of how little real say they have in the government of their church. This was first brought home when many who were aware of situations of abuse went to the authorities and later found that nothing had been done. But as Catholics began talking to one another about their frustration, they began to realize that while this was the most serious case of not being heard, it was not the only one.
What is becoming more evident to many lay men and women is that there are no institutional checks and balances that allow them some say about how authority is exercised in the church, whether at the parish, diocesan or universal level. They have no way to address the problem of an incompetent pastor or an authoritarian bishop, no say over their appointment, no way to bring their own concerns and experience to the decision-making processes of the universal church. There are no structures of accountability. Without them, many feel that the church is treating them as children. And they are more and more coming to see the present crisis as calling the laity to adult status in the church. This was clearly the intention of the Second Vatican Council in its concern to articulate a theology of the laity.

Bishop Murphy Acts Against Children Again

2007-11-03T20:41:00.000-04:00

Advocacy groups slam bishop on sex-abuse bill
BY EDEN LAIKIN eden.laikin@newsday.com
9:33 PM EDT, November 2, 2007

Members of two local advocacy groups have protested against Bishop William Murphy for using the pulpit to speak out against legislation that would give victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits and seek criminal prosecution.Despite the fact the bill has been stalled in the State Legislature for three years, the two groups said that during the annual Red Mass in Suffolk County -- for members of the legal profession last month -- Murphy questioned whether legislation that would extend the criminal and civil statutes of limitation was intended "to profit lawyers more than victims."The bill would extend the criminal statute in child sex abuse cases by five years, giving the victim until the age of 28 to report the crime to law enforcement. It would also open a one-year window for past victims to file civil lawsuits.

Attorney Charles Molineaux urges the church to cease its opposition to extending statute of limitations.

2007-11-03T20:20:00.001-04:00

In a strongly worded speech Molineaux said the Church should take the lead rather than resist bringing justice to those abused by the clergy. The speech by the St. John U graduate was remarkable in that it was given in front of Archbishop Chaput and others who oppose changing the statute of limitations. Here are excerpts. The entire speech is available by clicking the link.

"......In his speech, Molineaux said there are recognized exceptions for suspending or extending the fixed time in which to bring a lawsuit for an injury, he said. These include delayed discovery of the injury or the minor age or mental incompetence of the person potentially bringing the claim. Molineaux mentioned repressed memory of sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder as relatively recent arguments for extending the statute of limitation. "Initially, many loyal Catholics were appropriately skeptical in reaction to what seemed yet more psychobabble to prop up lately appreciated actionable facts," he said. "But there have just been too many verifiable cases which have emerged in different states and dioceses to ignore this development." If the mission of the church is to lead people to Christ, the institutional church should be more than merely apologetic toward victims of errant churchmen, said Molineaux. Quoting the Second Vatican Council document "Gaudium et Spes," the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, he said: "The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons and not the other way around, as the Lord suggested when he said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." Molineaux said that the "crisis has always had two distinct aspects: abuse and cover-up. The abuse aspect involved a tiny percentage of priests; the cover-up aspect involved a majority of bishops. The overriding policy of the cover-up bishops -- some behaving criminally -- was the protection of the institutional church, its physical assets and the careers of its churchmen." "The institutional church has only acted in response to the legal compulsion of the secular courts and/or in response to media pressure and public outrage," he said. He urged the church to cease its opposition to extending statute of limitations. "Protecting the fiscal and physical assets of the institutional church from justice, via outmoded and arbitrary statutes of limitation, is not a consideration when it clashes with the mission of the church -- the bringing of men to Christ, by word and example," he concluded. "The institutional church should not dodge moral responsibility by invoking pragmatic rules as to the timing of lawsuits or by stalling with secrecy the production of record evidence," he added......"

Judge Criticizes As Dishonest Report from San Diego Diocese

2007-11-03T16:26:00.000-04:00

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Judge's tears, rebuke close case
The San Diego Catholic diocese's eight-month-old bankruptcy case drew to an emotional close yesterday with the judge shedding tears and scolding the church for being “disingenuous” in reporting its finances to parishioners as part of a campaign to fund a $198 million settlement with victims of sexual abuse.Judge Louise DeCarl Adler said she had planned to grant the diocese's request to dismiss the bankruptcy without comment.But then she got a packet in the mail from her former parish asking to help pay the settlement.The mailing, which was recently sent to parishioners in the diocese, included a financial breakdown she said was less than candid.Adler said there is ample property the church could sell or mortgage to fund the settlement, citing parking lots, houses and other holdings listed in court documents.The diocese could have settled the claims without seeking bankruptcy, she added. “Chapter 11 is not supposed to be a vehicle, a method, to hammer down the claims of those abused,” she said.

Priest Finally in Jail after abuse of 5 year old

2007-11-03T11:13:00.000-04:00

Ex-priest begins jail term in child-abuse case
BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO mailto:alfonso.castillo@newsday.com?subject=Newsday.com
10:33 PM EDT, October 29, 2007

A Long Island mother smiled outside a Riverhead courtroom Monday, confident that four years after former Catholic priest Barry Ryan struck fear into her 5-year-old son's heart, Ryan now felt terrified as he began his 2-year jail sentence."He deserves to be scared," said the mother of the boy whom Ryan confessed to sexually abusing in 2003. Their names are being withheld to protect the boy's identity. "Now it's time for him to live looking over his shoulder, like my little guy had to do."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liprie30,0,702708.story?coll=ny_home_rail_headlines

Episcopal Bishop Censured for not acting on pedophilia

2007-11-01T21:05:00.001-04:00

"PENNSYLVANIA BISHOP CHARLES E. BENNISON INHIBITED!Special ReportBy David W. Virtue http://www.virtueonline.org/ 10/31/2007The Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles E. Bennison has been inhibited from ordained ministry and must cease all episcopal functions as bishop after November 3 diocesan convention. The Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori inhibited Bennison Oct. 31 from all ordained ministry pending a judgment of the Court for the Trial of a Bishop. The Title IV Review Committee earlier issued a presentment for conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy against Bennison on October 28.The Committee found there was enough evidence to send Bennison to trial on two counts of the presentment centering on accusations that when he was rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Upland, California, he did not respond properly after learning sometime in 1973 that his brother, John, who worked as a lay youth minister in the parish, was having an affair with a 14-year-old member of the youth group. John Bennison was married at the time, according to the presentment."

On November 19 at 7:30pm at Larchmont Avenue Presbyterian Church, 6 Forest Avenue Carmine Galasso to speak on "Crosses: Portraits of Clergy Abuse"

2007-10-30T18:38:00.000-04:00

This talk is sponsored by Voice of the Faithful of Westchester

New book shares portraits of abused
By LESLIE BRODY, STAFF WRITER
The Record (NJ)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

A new book by Carmine Galasso, an award-winning photographer at The Record, focuses on the scars of hidden wounds inflicted long ago by predatory priests and nuns.

"Crosses: Portraits of Clergy Abuse" contains black-and-white photos of 30 adults who endured excruciating ordeals as children. In detailed interviews, they share graphic memories of sexual abuse, brutal rapes and intimidation by the authority figures their families trusted most.

Patricia Anne Cahill, for example, recalls how the priest who pursued her would take off all his clothes, except for his white collar. If she tried to flee, he locked her naked inside a cold, dark closet. She was only 5 or 6.

Galasso calls his subjects victim/survivors, and spent three years traveling the country to record their faces and memories. For many, the abuse had relentless consequences, including depression, drug abuse and sexual confusion. Some were shunned by their families. A few attempted suicide.

This scandal got widespread public attention only in recent years. In 2004, a study commissioned by Catholic bishops reported that 10,667 Catholics had accused 4,392 priests of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002. Experts believe that victims who spoke up are only a small fraction of those assaulted. Catholic dioceses have been forced to pay more than $1 billion to settle victims' legal claims.

The emotional and spiritual fallout can't be quantified. Galasso's book aims to make sure it's not forgotten.

Q: This is such a disturbing subject; what attracted you to it?

I grew up Catholic, went to Catholic school through high school, and never experienced abuse in any way and never saw it ... but it interested me on a personal level. I have always enjoyed photographing people who are victims in some sense, particularly victims who then rose up and were healed either by themselves or by some sort of help. ... That said, I really wasn't prepared for the depths of the damage.

Q: How many of these people lead happy lives now?

Some of them may think that they're living normal, healthy lives and I guess maybe they are ... but I could see they're still hurt, at the very least, and angry.

Q: A few of these subjects describe their own offenses as adults, such as grand larceny, drunken driving and domestic violence. One shot the priest who molested him. Do you find yourself excusing their bad behavior?

I don't excuse it but I understand it. Maybe it's a symptom.

Q: How has this project affected your attitude toward the church?

I'm not really religious, I don't really even go to church. But I cross the George Washington Bridge every day, and lots of times I'll say a little prayer before I cross the bridge, or talk to my father, who's been dead for many years. These are spiritual things. I'm so angry at the church for the way they treated these people. The act [of abuse] is horrible in and of itself, but then what the church did after that is like another abuse. The bishops would shuffle [pedophile] priests from parish to parish and they would do the same things at the next parish. ... It's the ultimate betrayal for Catholics.

Q: Do you worry about backlash from Catholic readers or your family?

Sure. I'm not looking for a confrontation with anybody. ... I ended the book with the picture of the damaged angel. Some people might see that as depressing, that there will be no good out of all this. ... The angel's missing a wing and an arm, it was really beaten up. But it's holding a child very beautifully. Despite the beating it took, it's still standing.

Q: Did you ever wrestle with whether to believe the subjects' stories?

There are 30 people profiled; I could have done 3,000. Their stories had to be compelling and there had to be something that made each one believable to me. Almost all of them had been to lawyers. I would say maybe a third to a half of those who pressed charges had settlements with their archdioceses so far. However, I didn't want to show just people who had payouts, I wanted to show some who got screwed again because of the church hiding behind the statute of limitations.

Q: Walk me through a picture.

Let's go with Johnny Vega [of Paterson]. This was one of the first times he was able to summon the strength to drive by the church [where he was raped as a child]. I wanted to photograph the church [reflected] on his car window. The church almost looks like the evil empire. The layer of the shadowy empire, the church, is over him, showing it still holds some sort of weight. This is a guy who went through many changes, because he was a little kid who was horribly abused and raped, and it was a very nasty physical thing. The priest was a very big, brutal guy -- scared the hell out of him and his friends.

Johnny thinks he's over it. My opinion is no.

Q: What do you hope the overall impact of the book will be?

There are still people who refuse to believe this happens. This is a truth, a fact, and I want people to know it. What makes this "special," if you want to use that word, is that this abuse comes from the person who should be the most highly trusted person in their community – a priest or a nun. So many of these people, when I interviewed them, said the priest is the closest thing to God on earth ... They really believed that, and that was the cause of so much tumult and confusion. That the person who was the most trusted person in their life could do such a thing – it caused a lot of these people to think they were the bad person, that they caused the priest or nun to go to hell. ... It's a really deep wound.

One of the reasons I went with "Crosses" as the title is that it's a cross they have to bear their whole lives.

All are welcome. For more information call Peggy Cashman (914 834 2183)

Portland Archciocese wants victims to give names.

2007-10-29T15:08:00.000-04:00

As the article points out the diocese knows the name of every victim who sues them but wants to intimidate victims from suing. One would think charity would replace lawyering. Read the article.

Kenneth E. Lasch a True Pastor--Euge!!

2007-10-28T19:36:00.000-04:00

Saturday October 20, 2007This is a statement of my formal acceptance of the 'Priest of IntegrityAward' that is to be conferred on three priest, I among the three, at theAnnual National Conference of the Voice of the Faithful at Providence, RI onSaturday, October 21st. It will be delivered in my absence by Ginny Hoehne,whose sone was abused by a priest in the Diocese of Cleveland.On March 21st, 1985, my life as a Roman Catholic priest, pastor and humanbeing changed forever. It was the day on which Mark Serrano revealed that hehad been molested and raped by one of my predecessors, James Hanley, in thevery same rooms I then occupied as the pastor of St. Joseph Parish inMendham, New Jersey. James Hanley also sexually abused at least 18 otheryoung boys and men that we know of. I suspect there are still others whohave yet to come forward.Shortly after Mark's disclosure, I made a preferential option for victims ofsexual abuse by clergy or religious. In essence, I made a commitment to Markand through Mark to all victims of sexual abuse that I would stand with thempublicly and privately and would never act in their name or on their behalfwithout consulting them.Moreover, I committed myself to data-based decisions as opposed topower-based decisions. By that I mean that all my decisions and actionswould be based on hard and soft data rather than on force or fear or power.Church leaders tend to use force, fear and power rather than data andpositive affirmation to enforce their teachings and decisions about thespiritual wellbeing of Catholics. But even when they accompany theirdecisions with data, they limit dialogue in such manner that stifles thepursuit of truth. In effect, truth is what they define as truth regardlessof the facts. They have deleted the ancient notion of 'sensus fidelium' fromtheir theological lexicon.My experience as vice chancellor and bishop's secretary and then asexecutive secretary for pastoral ministry in the Diocese of Paterson foralmost thirteen years opened my eyes to the vagaries of the clericallifestyle including clandestine sexual relationships and allegations ofsexual assaults against minors and adults. However, it was not until Mark'sdisclosure and my subsequent experience as a victims' advocate that my eyeswere opened to the depth of deceit, manipulation of facts and legalmaneuverings by many bishops and their 'advisors' that ultimately led to themost notorious cover-up of crime by a religious institution in modernhistory. Incidentally, may I suggest that had more women been involved indeliberative decision-making at the highest level of church governance, thistragic scandal of sexual abuse would have had a very different history andin the words of the psalmist, justice and compassion would have been theoverriding mix that would have brought this terrible chapter to closureyears ago.I would be addressing these words to you in person today but for the factthat I myself at the tender age of 70 have found it necessary to be engagedin therapy for what I will call sub-post traumatic stress syndrome.Twenty-two years is a long time even for someone as experienced and defiantas I to face a wall of silence interrupted only by periodic stonewalling andexcuses by those who had the power to heal but chose instead to use thatpower to re-victimize those whose wounds were still raw by prevarication andequivocation.The first general clergy meeting in our diocese following the now historicdisclosures of sexual abuse in Boston was convened not to condemn the horrorof sexual abuse but to inform priests of their canonical and civil rights ifthey should be accused. In that assembly were priests who did indeedsexually abuse young men after plying them with alcohol but because theirvictims were over 16 years of age at the time of the assault, they wereconsidered 'consenting adults.'In a subsequent dialogue with priests at their tri-annual convocation, thebishop referred to incidents of clerical abuse as allegations or in cases ofproven abuse, moral lapses. The bishop was careful to distinguish betweensin and proven criminal misconduct. Priests were invited to reach out totheir brother priests against whom allegations had been made as an act ofcharity. No mention was made of their victims.In a confidential report addressed to the National Conference of CatholicBishops on June 9, 1985, Father Tom Doyle, OP, JCD, noted canonist andformer secretary to the Apostolic Nuncio, Ray Mouton, Esquire, and FatherMichael Peterson, M.D., warned the bishops that the Church in the UnitedStates could suffer losses in excess of one billion dollars if they did notaddress the issue of sexual abuse by clergy with integrity and transparency.The report was 'deep sixed' (buried) by Cardinal Bernard Law despite hispromise to introduce it at a general meeting of the bishops.Notwithstanding the often-expressed opinion among some including bishops'attorneys, editorial writers in the Catholic and secular press, who continueto state that victims are interested more in money than in justice, let thembe reminded that from the earliest allegations until the present, victimssought an acknowledgement of the crimes perpetrated against them, a sincereapology, a full accounting of their handling of the allegations and a firmcommitment that no child or young adult or any man or woman would ever besubject to any sexual assault by a priest. It was the bishops who turnedimmediately to their attorneys and after protracted and painful negotiationsthat included stonewalling and endless delays came to financial settlementsthat were protected by legal gag orders, ostensibly for the protection ofthe victims when in fact they were for the protection the Church. And ofcourse, the bishops have disclosed little about church attorney fees.Some may say this is all history and I say it is still the modus operandi ofmany American bishops and their advisors. The bishops may have followed theletter of the law in the implementation of the Dallas Charter but they havefallen far short of the spirit of the law and surely of the Gospel. As lateas six months ago when I asked to speak with my bishop, his attorney said itwas not in his best interest to speak with me. To which I replied, "Indeedit is not in his best interest, but it is in the best interests of theChurch."I have used the term 'many' in my references to bishops because I do notwant to assume that every bishop should be painted with the same brush.However, where are the 'good bishops' who should be holding their brothersaccountable? Who are they? Where are they?Please be clear that the majority of men and women sexually abused bypriests were 16 years or older. The canonical age of majority was not raisedto 18 years of age until the mid-eighties. In as much as many of theallegations were made by adults whose abuse took place prior to themid-eighties, they do not come under the Dallas Charter and Norms.Therefore, know that there are priests who have been guilty of sexualmisconduct who are still functioning as "priests in good standing!"In the meantime, bishops issue edicts about how to wear the stole and limitthe role of lay ministers at Eucharist. The world is burning and bishops arepiddling in the pond.Now that I have gotten that off my chest, again—I want to turn briefly tothe positive.I want to praise victim/survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and religiousfor their undying courage and say them once more from the depth of my heart,"I am so very sorry for what you have endured and continue to endure. Thepain that I have endured as an advocate does come close to what your andyour families have suffered. I am so very, very sorry!"To my brother and sister advocates, do take care of yourselves. Do notresort in anger to hateful epithets or to vindictive language in yourpursuit of justice. Hold our bishops and their advisors accountable but donot bash them. Remember, data-based processes are more effective thanpower-based processes. Do your homework. Keep abreast of the latest studieson child abuse and the most recent insights of experts in psychology.Continue to lobby your elected officials providing them with solidinformation on sexual abuse and arm yourselves with examples of miscarriagesof justice by both church and civil officials.To my brother priests: I know there are more of you who have stood withvictims even though for whatever reason, you declined to speak publicly.While I do not question your decision to remain silent, I ask you to searchyour heart and soul and ask you to at least speak in private to your bishopto let him know what you know and to assure him that your loyalty depends onhis accountability as well as yours.To my brother priests who knew and still know who's doing what with whom,it's never too late to take a courageous stand for justice and integrityeven at the risk of a loss of a few perks or worse. In the words of DietrichBonhoffer, "There are no cheap graces." The clerical system is broken andclerical privilege is on the way out.To members of the VOICE of the FAITHFUL, take the words of Bill Casey andDavid O'Brien in their recent article, Shared Burden, to heart: "VOTF, it isour conviction, provides [the] opportunity at a particularly critical momentin U.S. Catholic history. Since the sexual- abuse crisis exploded in 2002,the bishops have taken some significant steps to prevent future abuse, butthey have failed to address what we think are the underlying causes of theworst scandal in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.Bishop are unlikely to open up the decision-making process unless there arestrong, independent Catholic organizations working to make the church'spastoral planning, personnel policies, and financial operations moretransparent, honest and accountable." [Commonweal, October 12, 2007] ( Forthe full text of the article, click 'Notes, Quotes & Comments' on mywebsite. )I dream of that day when our bishops will speak as vehemently against theslaughter of the innocent souls of those who have been sexually abused by apriest or religious as they do about the death of a child in the womb.I dream of that day when bishops, priests, deacons, religious and lay peoplewill once again consider their common baptismal call to be one people ofGod, sharing in the joys and pains of the entire Body of Christ, indeed ofthe world, as the most significant sign that Christ is indeed alive. I dreamof that day when transparency will replace secrecy, when truth will behonored not by exception but by rule, when integrity will be the umbrellavirtue that authenticates the gospel without equivocation.Until that day, my words remain firm: "There will be no forgiveness andhealing until there is justice; no justice until there is the fulldisclosure of truth; no disclosure of truth until there is fullaccountability."We are not there yet but we must not let hope die.I am deeply grateful for and humbled by the honor you have conferred on me.Kenneth E. LaschDiocese of Paterson

Gerald Renner exposed Maciel of Legionnaires of Christ

2007-10-26T10:37:00.000-04:00

G. Renner; Respected Journalist

By RINKER BUCK

Hartford Courant Staff Writer

October 25, 2007

courant.com/news/local/hc-ctrennerobit1025.artoct25,0,6787278.story

Gerald Renner, who won international recognition for his pioneering reporting in The Courant on allegations of sexual abuse within a Roman Catholic religious order, died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 75 years old.

Renner joined The Courant as the religion writer in 1985, after serving as editor and director of Religion News Service in New York and vice president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Earlier, he worked as a reporter in the U.S. Navy, at a newspaper in Pennsylvania and for United Press in Washington, D.C.

Until his retirement in 2000, Renner wrote hundreds of Courant news and feature stories on religious topics.

Around The Courant newsroom, Renner, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, was known for his encyclopedic reach on topics touching all faiths, whether profiling a Bloomfield rabbi returning to his native Belarus to provide a proper burial for Jews massacred by the Nazis or chronicling the growth of Islam in America. Interfaith issues, attempts at canonizing new saints and the acceptance of gays and lesbians in churches were recurrent themes in Renner's work.

He reached his widest audience with a series of articles and a book he co-wrote about the Legionaries of Christ, a secretive and conservative Roman Catholic order whose American headquarters is in Connecticut.

Renner learned of the Legionaries while traveling in Rome for The Courant in 1989, when Archbishop John F. Whealon of Hartford pointed out the headquarters of what he called "that controversial, conservative religious order that has a seminary in Cheshire."

Intrigued, Renner, after returning to Connecticut, began researching an article about the rapidly growing order, which was founded in Mexico in 1941 by the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado and enjoyed close relations with the Vatican. He published his first Courant article about the order in 1996 and teamed with writer Jason Berry of New Orleans, the author of an early book about sexual abuse by Catholic priests, to produce an in-depth story on Maciel in The Courant the following year. The article documented how, after decades of silence, nine former seminarians from Mexico and Spain accused Maciel of abusing them in European seminaries from the 1940s to the 1960s.

"I did the reporting from Mexico, while Jerry did the reporting in the U.S. and dealt with Rome," Berry said. "Jerry was particularly a delight to work with because he was trained like a laser to get the facts, but never at the expense of being unfair to people."

Renner and Berry teamed up again to write a book, "Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II," which was favorably reviewed after it was published in 2004. The book argued that Pope John Paul II had protected Maciel and that the church covered up other reports of sexual abuse by priests. "Vows of Silence" was credited with helping to force the Vatican to remove Maciel from the active priesthood in 2006.

The Rev. Richard McBrien, a University of Notre Dame theologian, who was interviewed by Renner several times, said: "Renner, Berry and The Courant blew the whistle on the priestly pedophilia crisis way before anyone else in a really groundbreaking way. The Legion people were very upset but they couldn't lay a glove on Renner because the facts were so solid."

Before the 1997 story ran, The Courant was under great pressure from the Legionaries and its law firm.

"Jerry had incredible resolve and was always focused and argued for his story in a gentlemanly way," said Stephanie Summers, who edited the 1997 piece. "During all these conferences with Courant lawyers and editors, he was both the iron man and the wit."

That wit came in handy when Renner was assailed by sources unaccustomed to tough reporting on the religion beat. In the late 1980s and early '90s, Renner worked on a series about Brother Julius Schacknow, a cult leader from Connecticut, who proclaimed that he was Jesus Christ reincarnate, and had also amassed a real estate empire.

"One day, while Renner was interviewing Brother Julius in the New Britain bureau, the cult leader asked Renner, `If I blinded you right now physically, would you believe that I'm God?'" fellow reporter Dan Jones recalled. "Jerry didn't miss a beat and said, `No, I'd have you arrested for assault.'"

Among friends, Renner was known as a doting grandfather who loved telling stories about his offspring and who wrote a heartfelt and often hilarious Christmas letter every year.

Renner, a native of Philadelphia, served in the U.S. Navy from 1951 to 1955, part of that time aboard the battleship USS Missouri. He was the recipient of the Templeton Prize awarded by the Religion Newswriters Association and was also recognized by the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists for investigative reporting.

He lived in Norwalk with his wife, Jacqueline Breen Renner. In addition to his wife, he leaves behind four daughters, a son and 10 grandchildren. Magner Funeral Home in Norwalk is handling arrangements, with calling hours Friday from 5 to 8 p.m., and a service at St. Thomas the Apostle in Norwalk on Saturday at 10 a.m.

The article above is complete.

LA diocese fights back in unsigned website

2007-10-25T11:48:00.000-04:00

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has a website which they are advertising nationwide. However, there is no acknowledgment that it is the diocesan website. Who are they trying to fool? I guess it pays to advertise.

From la-clergycases.com/

On July 16, 2007, Judge Haley Fromholtz approved a settlement agreement between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and 508 individuals who alleged they were sexually abused. Here you can read news, commentary and documents regarding the settlement.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s July 15 statement that an “agreement in principle” had been reached..
Cardinal Mahony’s July 16 statement following Court approval.
Pastoral Letter, July 18 Media Coverage of the Settlement Claims of Innocence Missing in Coverage?
Dave Pierre of NewsBusters makes the point that among the priests whose cases were included in the settlement are some who have adamantly denied the charges against them and against whom there was little or no evidence. These claims of innocence have been “virtually invisible” in media coverage. Read Mr. Pierre’s coverage. Request for Clarification Denied by Times
The Archdiocese requested that the Times clarify and correct two items in its settlement coverage. The Times denied the requests, of course. Read the Archdiocese request. Read the Times response.

Here is a 2005 report from Snap on the LA diocese.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/calif/la_files_recount.htm

Boston Priest Accused in NY Suit by Former Seminarian

2007-10-24T23:21:00.000-04:00

Boston bishop is named in lawsuit
Ex-student says he was forced out
By Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff, 11/22/2002
Boston Auxiliary Bishop Emilio S. Allue, during his years running a seminary for Catholic teenagers in New York, expelled a high school student who had reported being sexually molested by a Catholic brother at the school, according to a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court.

Snap demonstration tomorrow morning at Giuliani office, for hiring an accused pedophile priest, at 5 Times Square

2007-10-23T19:02:00.000-04:00

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Dear Friends,
We will be holding a press conference on Wednesday, October 24th, at 11:00 AM outside of Rudy Giuliani's offices. Giuliani has Monsignor Placa working for him. Placa has three allegations of child sexual abuse against him, has been removed from ministry by his bishop and has actively covered for other predators. We feel it is dangerous for this man to be given such a prominent position.

The offices are located in Times Square. Please try to join us- call Barbara Blaine for all the details at 312-399-4747.

Thanks for the help.
Barbara Dorris

Disciples in Action Votf in Providence RI Convention Center Oct 19, 2007

2007-10-21T21:04:00.000-04:00

Contrary to news of its demise, Voice of the Faithful is alive and well as demonstrated by its conference Oct 19 in the Providence Convention Center. From all accounts the people who showed up were determined to build a better church and do not intend to stop anytime soon. As has been reported there are discussions as to the direction Votf should go in at this juncture of its existence. Richard McBrien, theology professor at Notre Dame gave the keynote address in which he advised members to keep "hope alive" and talk to the bishops as "Bush should talk to Iran" and other leaders to keep the lines of communication open.

There is a view which states that although celibacy is not the cause of the sexual abuse scandal, it can be a contributory factor when it is mandatory. O'Brien said that the question of celibacy is quite legitimate since many Catholic priests are married (in other rites) and were married during half of the church's history. Votf is asking the church to take a look at this question. Some others like the fiery, internationally respected, Edwina Gately opted for a more confrontational approach since "bishops treat us like children and ignore us, especially women." "Don't be afraid of them", she urged.The superb advocate and victim himself, David Clohessy urge the crowd to be persistent in seeking justice for survivors and be as wise as serpents in their dealing with pastors and bishops. The workshop on how dioceses hide enormous amounts of money in their financial reports was a blockbuster eye opener. The financial scandal seems to have enormous legs. If the major progressive Catholic publications were present I did not see them though their wares were in a mutual booth. Maybe they were busy covering more relevant events. More on the convention will follow.

Salesians as Record Pedophiles?

2007-10-18T19:14:00.000-04:00

The Salesians: Record Holder Pedophiles
GUEST BLOG: By Joey Piscitelli
City of Angels
Thursday, October 18, 2007
http://cityofangels3.blogspot.com/2007/10/guest-blog-salesians-record-holder.html

(Editor's Note: Civil cases involving the Salesians Religious Order were not part of the $660 million settlement in LA last July. Jury trials on calendar so far regarding Salesians: Nov. 5 cases involving Father Titian Miani; January 28th cases involving former priest, Jesus Dominguez. Attorneys meet this morning for a status conference on cases involving Brother Ernie Martinez.)

"The Salesians fight every victim tooth and nail, an utter disgrace to all Catholics."
By Joey Piscitelli

There is no Catholic Order’s abuse record that I know of that comes close to the Salesians of California. The record number of accused and convicted sex abusers from Salesians of California is by far the largest, and the longest list in the state. In addition, there is no Catholic Order that I know of that fights victims so vehemently and apparently as hatefully as the Salesians based in California.

New Cardinal criticized for "abysmal" record dealing with clergy sex abuse

2007-10-18T12:41:00.000-04:00

David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said DiNardo had an "abysmal" record dealing with clergy sex abuse issues in Sioux City, Iowa, and showed no improvement in Houston.
"We're disappointed by this choice and believe Catholics should be disappointed, too," he said.

Good Catholic Girls by Angela Bonavoglia

2007-10-17T22:31:00.000-04:00

For me the best book on the pedophilia crisis and the rise of women in the church is GOOD CATHOLIC GIRLS: HOW WOMEN ARE LEADING THE FIGHT TO CHANGE THE CHURCHHarperCollins/ReganBooks, 2005. The documentation of individual women theologian's struggle with the Vatican is nowhere treated with the detail found here. For example the story of the harassment by the CDF of the great Fordham theologian, Elizabeth Johnson, is told here in great detail. You cannot find this anywhere else. It is a book every Catholic should read as well as every woman. Angela Bonavoglia is nationally recognized for her writing about women’s issues and Catholic Church reform. Here is an excerpt. http://www.goodcatholicgirls.com/work4.htm

Votf Coordinators in New York and Westchester

2007-10-17T21:38:00.000-04:00

Bob Kristan, New York Area Coordinator http://www.votf-nyc.org/votfny/index.htm
Peggie Cashman, Westchester http://votfwny.blogspot.com/
Ken Kiernan, Queens
Peggy O'Neil, Long Island http://www.votf-li.org/index.htm

Catholic sex-abuse victims protest at college board meeting

2007-10-16T21:19:00.000-04:00

Rachanee Srisavasdi
The Crime Scene
Orange County Register
October 15, 2007

Make Plans to go to the Votf convention in Rhode Island

2007-10-15T12:45:00.000-04:00

VOTF can change the Church: Your work in VOTF already has and we can do even more. Come to the Convention to learn even more ways to "Keep the faith: Change the Church."
Richard P. McBrien to speak at VOTF ConventionProfessor McBrien has been a friend of VOTF since Jim Muller and Jim Post asked his advice in 2002. Few theologians have done as much to give voice to Catholics as Richard McBrien. Read more.
Workshops and Panels — The Convention will have panels and workshops where VOTF members share how they have made a difference. Much concrete work has been done that you can carry home. Read more.
The Priest of Integrity Award that will be presented at the Convention continues VOTF support of the sacramental priesthood and the richness it brings to our tradition. Read more. VOTF Fall
Action for 2007 leading to the National Convention CONSCIENCE + COURAGE = DISCIPLESHIPAs VOTF’s National Convention nears, we move from an internal grounding in conscience to the more active role of disciple. These surveys will provide you with a tool to assess how your diocese is doing in financial accountability, shared governance and child protection. The results of these surveys will be summarized and compared diocese to diocese at the convention giving each person a foundation for discussion and action. VOTF member's embrace their Baptism. One way we work towards our goal of structural change is by helping Catholics to take their Baptismal responsibilities seriously. Consider using another VOTF implementation tool, Profile of the 21st Century Catholic in your Affiliate.

Voice of the Faithful Westchester membership

2007-10-10T12:05:00.000-04:00

Looking for people in Yonkers, Larchmont, New Rochelle, Scarsdale, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings, Mt Vernon, Hartsdale, Ardsley, Elmsford, Pelham, Irvington to join Voice of the Faithful of Westchester to help 1. To support survivors of clergy sexual abuse 2. To support priests of integrity 3. To shape structural change within Church.

We know that there are many people in Westchester County who are interested in working with Votf for true accountability in the church. We hope to reach you through this blog. We are hoping to hear from you.