PLEASE LISTEN, SUBSCRIBE, AND SHARE! You asked. I answered. The PODCAST is finally here. Join me at the SpotTheLine table of experts as we talk about Andrew Cuomo, the fascinating history of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and abuse and assault prevention. Two episodes and a preview are up, everywhere you get your podcasts.
Fresno Bishop Joseph V. Brennan promised a list. Did he think we forgot? Now that my white paper on the sexual abuse of women in the Catholic Church is complete—and getting a great response—I am beginning work on a complete analysis of California’s Catholic dioceses, sexual abuse, and cover-up. I thought I would start with…Continue reading Diocese of Fresno promised us a list of accused priests. Where is it?
What if the cornerstone of our conventional wisdom about the victims of the Catholic Church and clergy sex abuse crisis was wrong? What if, in a statistically viable sample of survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church, 50% of respondents were female? What if you also knew that this result is almost statically impossible to…Continue reading What if women comprised 50% of sex abuse victims in the Catholic Church?
In honor of Father’s Day, the LA Times published an essay by author Mimi Bull. The catch? Her father was a practicing Catholic priest. No one reading the essay will be satisfied. Mimi’s mother was forced into a life of secrecy and shame, unable to acknowledge the daughter she loved until Mimi was well into…Continue reading When your father is Father
Over the weekend, Catholic hymn composer, performer, and youth conference organizer David Haas was dropped by his publisher after the company learned the musician was under investigation by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for sexual battery and other offenses. Haas also ran a music camp for teens called Music Ministry Alive, which according…Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: Catholic composer accused of sexual battery worked with known predator for years
Legislative work can be complicated. Take my word for it. And sometimes the hardest decision to make is the best one: if a law protects predators, it’s not a good law. That is what happened in Colorado. And Colorado did the right thing. Yesterday, the sponsors of a potential law to help future victims of…Continue reading Colorado: Refusing to settle for a second rate law
In my talks to groups, I always try to impress on people how child sexual abuse destroys communities. When a predator undermines family and community bonds to target a child, the ripples of sexual abuse damage radiate farther than the child victim. It happened in my case—affecting (and destroying) my family, my peers, and the…Continue reading “Can’t you just let it go?”
Click here to listen to my entire August 28, 2019 interview with Phoenix’s KJZZ on how to prevent child sexual abuse.
Yesterday, I was a featured speaker at UCI Law School’s series on the #MeToo movement. Our discussion: Victims of child sexual abuse and sexual assault have been empowered to speak out about what happened to us. But what do we do to change the systemic problem in our institutions that made this abuse and cover-up…Continue reading #MeToo: Making a Movement
“The realization that I had used, willingly and unwillingly, my charm for the wrong reasons.” This was a quote from Joseph L. Bishop. He has admitted to “acting inappropriately” (read: sexually assaulting) numerous women during his career in the LDS church. It was the use of the word CHARM that got me. He still, at…Continue reading A note on predatory grooming
My son is eleven years old. He likes to play basketball. Oree Freeman was eleven when she was sex trafficked on the streets of LA and Orange County. Men bought her for sex across the street from Disneyland. Bought her through websites like Backpage or via text. They knew full well that she hadn’t hit…Continue reading Eleven-year-olds are sold for sex in Orange County. Help us stop it.
Last week, The Orange County Register published an excellent two-part series on the sex abuse cover-up scandal inside of USA Swimming. Some of horrific facts reporter Scott M. Reid unearthed: • Top USA Swimming executives, board members, top officials and coaches acknowledge in the documents that they were aware of sexually predatory coaches for years,…Continue reading ICYMI – USA Swimming has a scandal on its hands
The Catholic Diocese of Rockville Center, NY has announced an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Plan. These plans, administered by Ken Feinberg and funded by the individual dioceses, aim to compensate victims for abuse. You can read more about them in my four-part series here. Victims of sexual abuse in the Long Island Catholic diocese of…Continue reading The next domino falls: Rockville Center NY
A former vocal coach for Orange County’s All-American Boys Chorus—and a member of the FBI’s Most Wanted List—can be sent back to California from the UK, a judge there ruled this week. Roger Alan Giese, 42, according to KABC: has been charged with five counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of…Continue reading Accused former All-American Boys Chorus vocal coach can be extradited, UK judge rules
<– Back to Part Two: Is There a Crook in the Diocese of Crookston? In 2014, Fr. Bruce Wellems was banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Church officials there found out that he had sexually abused a seven-year-old boy when Wellems was fifteen. Los Angeles booted him back to Chicago where he had ministered for years.…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Three: A Priest Admits Abusing, Chicago Cardinal Does Nothing
Read the Introduction to this series here. In 2016, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General announced that “a statewide investigating grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by priests or religious leaders assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.” The two-year investigation…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part One: The Altoona-Johnstown Grand Jury Report
The 2002 Dallas Bishops’ Conference was a barn-burner. On the heels of the Spotlight series and scandals in dioceses across the nation, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) got together at their annual June meeting to put together “massive reforms.” Those reforms became the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, A Seven-Part Series: Introduction
Not fake news. They’re really doing it. And Edward James Olmos is gonna be there, too. Bruce Wellems is a problematic guy, to say the least. He’s been banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He’s been removed from ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago and by the Claretian order. Last year, he was sued…Continue reading Banned priest and admitted abuser slated for San Gabriel Mission award
The problem with child sex abuse is that for the victims and their families, the pain never goes away. This month, the family of one of the alleged victims of one of Orange County’s most notorious predator priests filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Diocese of Orange and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The…Continue reading New lawsuit rocks Orange, LA dioceses – sex abuse, wrongful death
The recent lawsuit against Fr. Richard T. Coughlin, The All-American Boys Chorus, and the Diocese of Orange has sparked a flurry of conversation and controversy online. Why? A whole generation of kids was destroyed by Coughlin. And of course, a lot of people were quick to defend the chorus and say, “Things are different now.”…Continue reading The All-American Boys Chorus and the Cycle of Abuse
