Victims? We don’t care about no stinkin’ victims!
San Diego, California: Fr. Jose Alexis Davila was arrested in January 2012 and pled guilty in April for battery and “unlawful touching of an intimate part of a victim’s body.” He is serving three years’ probation.
The diocese put Davila back into unresricted ministry in May, saying
All legitimate and pastoral concerns have been addressed as regards his case.
When SNAP asked that Davila (who is still on probation), be taken out of the parish and assigned to a remote and secure facility where he would have no contact with women and children, parishoners defended the priest … who PLED GUILTY. (Hello? Anyone home?)
No one at the church or the diocese has publicly said a prayer or a word of support of the victim. (but I am grateful for the whistleblower at the parish who called to tell me that Bishop Brom snuck Davila back into ministry. I mean, if Davila is so awesome, why not make a public announcement about it?)
Ontario, California: In 2011 Fr. Alejandro Castillo pled guilty to lewd and lascivious acts upon a child (in the sentencing documents, prosecutors said that five children had accused Castillo of sexual abuse). He served a year in jail.
Before the plea, parishioners held car washes and rallies to support the priest, saying that the young victims were not telling the truth.
After Castillo was released from jail in May, those same supporters threw a huge party in support of the priest. Since there were numerous children present at the party, Castillo was thrown back in jail for violating probation.
No parishioner or supporter has apologized to the victim in the case, who is still a minor. No one has raised a nickel to help the child with therapy.
Redding, California: Fr. Uriel Ojeda, who was arrested in November 2011, is charged with seven felony counts of sexual molestation of a child under 14. According to an unreleased diocese report, Ojeda admitted to repeatedly abusing the girl.
When the priest’s bail was lowered, supporters released balloons outside of the courtroom. Dozens of supporters have shown up at every one of his hearings, selling t-shirts, accepting donations for Ojeda’s legal fees, and singing prayers.
No one has publicly sung a prayer for the young victim, who is still a minor.
Stockton, California: A jury unanimously found that Fr. Michael Kelly sexually abused a boy (another victim has since come forward). Kelly skipped the country. The Diocese doesn’t care … but they still paid the victim $3.75 million in a settlement, because they knew that the jury would award ten times that much for the cover-up and callousness of Stockton Diocese officials.
Statement from the diocese? Here. Apology to victim(s)? No way.
I’m not saying that parishioners should not pray for these priests, love these priests, or support them quietly and respectfully. They should. Here’s how.
I AM saying that if there are victims of child sexual abuse at ANY of these parishes (by priests, dentists, parents, boy scout leaders, teachers, babysitters, etc) do you REALLY think that they believe it’s safe to report?!
Hell, I’m not going anywhere near those parishes, because I might get punched.
Finally … where are the Bishops?! Last time I read the King James Bible:
But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)
There are a lot of children—who have been vindicated in the courts—who are suffering doubly. They were sexually abused, and now they are shunned by their religious community.
Isn’t is time for Bishops Jaime Soto, Gerald Barnes, Stephen Blaire and Robert Brom to give a lick about the victims and show these well-intentioned (but SORELY misguided) Catholics that they are using their church as an excuse to defend criminals?
Or am I asking to much?
Joelle,
I have been following the stories about Fr. Uriel Ojeda, accused (and confessed) child molester in Sacramento.
They think they did what they were supposed to do…or at least that what it looks like-acting so quickly with reporting to authorities and the priest arrested and accusations made public….but its like he’s a rock star–crowds cheering his release, selling t-shirts that show support and love….tear jerking personal stories about how this priest did this or that….last rites for grandpa…etc…AND, OF COURSE THE VICTIM IS NOT ONLY RE-VICTIMIZED, but this seems so well orchestrated (keeping the news /coverage local; not doing any of the dirty tricks/cover-up as in the past)….the leaders are not speaking up for the victims, not admonishing their parish that this type of behavior is not only insensitive, but it reduces the probability that other victims of this priest would come forward to …I’d say, 0%.
Am I too cynical?
After all I have seen, heard, witnessed….And still can’t take in the magnitude of the harm/harming of children….I am shellshocked.
I am a survivor of sexual abuse and I know my take on things can, at times, be quite skewed.
Am I reading too much into this?
It’s seems like a perfectly choreographed “message” to victims and the lesson is clear–we can’t get away with what we did in the past to keep the status quo…so come forward. Report, call police….But you will instantly become a leper, outcast; maybe now you will believe us that your suffering is nothing when compared with the “greater good” of the community.
Annika
Parents who foolishly rally around pedophile priests are exactly the ones who shouldn’t be having children.
Thank you, Heil Mary for your wisdom and insight. Do you mean “they” should be the ones, who should be given a Papal Dispensation and allowed to practice “Birth Control?”
They (the mob) were probably doing their “good work” under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who did a really poor, ineffective job of protecting kids in their archdiocese!
Joelle: Thanks for bringing this timely story to our attention. The Catholic Church uses one of Goebbels’ old PR and brain-washing tactics: Tell a big enough lie, long enough, and everyone will believe you! That’s the way to control a mob or an international Church. No doubt, the people accosting the mother of the individual who was abused, thought that they were “Good Catholics,” complete with halos! After all, they were doing all in their power NOT to “Bring Scandal to the Holy Roman Catholic Church!”
Mob psychology meets religion. When someone is caught up in mob psychology they A) identify with the GROUP and B) Don’t have to think for themselves – they look to the group for cues on how to think/behave. Couple this with a lifetime of religious indoctrination and you’ve got the recipe for (some) people who will gladly throw victims under the bus to avoid facing reality…which is a long-winded way of explaining that – as Janet says – these people are pieces of shit.
In short, “Group Think.”
What is being aptly described is the unbounded and unrestricted emphasis on sacerdotalism resulting in exaggerated religiosity that does not correspond to common sense or empirical reality.
In the RCC a/k/a Roman Catholic Cult, an adherent’s falsely nurtured virtue is fostered and protected by ignorance, fear, and a misguided sense of sanctity sown by myths, fables and fairy tales under the guise of doctrine. Cult members are enabled by their leaders to swallow absurdities and nonsense as dogma and behave in sociopathic ways, if necessary, for the protection of the Cult.
These Cult members feel threatened and are insecure because they have been conditioned to accept the priests, the Cult Leaders, now under attack for their criminal and immoral actions, as the purveyors of their certainties and their safeguards against impending spiritual disaster.
Why is anyone surprised that these cult devotees would act in any other way?
The RCC has never been big on the topic of “Empirical Reality;” otherwise, she would have listened to Galileo and at least tried to observe what was happening in the Cosmos. As I was pondering the topics of Quantum Physics and “Parallel Realities” the other day, all of a sudden it hit me. A good example of a parallel reality is “110 acres of the Vatican, surrounded by REALITY!”
I am so mad after reading this, I could scream. What would Jesus do- stick up for the religious authorities or be kind to the children? If these people believe what they say they do, they wouldn’t act like such pieces of SHIT.