How about a little good news: It looks like South Dakota lawmakers are working to undo a terrible wrong. The South Dakota House of Representatives is considering a bill that will abolish the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. If passed, the law will be in direct rebuttal to a 2010 law that…Continue reading Are South Dakota Lawmakers Seeing the Light?

You can read my latest post for the Ms Magazine Blog here.

Patrice Apodaca wrote a wonderful piece referencing me.  It’s worth a read, especially in light of the Penn State scandal. Here is the piece she wrote in Orange Coast in 2010.

Penn State is not the only university with a sex abuse and cover-up problem.  Adrian College, a small liberal arts college in Michigan, has knowingly employed an admitted child predator for years. Professor Thomas Hodgman, the director of choral music at Adrian College, is an admitted child predator with at least two victims. One of…Continue reading Penn State has good company in Adrian, Michigan

Catholic parish volunteer charged with multiple counts of sexual misconduct with a minor: SNAP responds Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director (949) 322-7434 jcasteix@gmail.com Last week, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles hid a small notice in a parish newsletter to inform families that a church volunteer, prayer leader and former…Continue reading SNAP Statement on Cesar Alvarez

Investigative journalist and author Jason Berry achieved prominence for his reporting on the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis in Lead Us Not Into Temptation (1992), a book used in many newsrooms. He has been widely interviewed in the national media, with many appearances on Nightline, Oprah, ABC and CNN. USA Today called Berry “the rare investigative reporter whose scholarship, compassion and…Continue reading Jason Berry Coming to Newport Beach November 3

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director, 949-322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com We are saddened and disturbed to learn that despite a second allegation of abuse by Fr. Michael Kelly, Stockton Diocese officials still refuse to remove him from active ministry with children and families. Despite years of telling Catholics about child safety “reforms,” Stockton…Continue reading Victims respond: Lockeford priest accused of abuse by second child, remains in ministry

Sorry I haven’t been blogging much lately.  The story of Fr. Fernando Lopez-Lopez (the priest who was convicted of child sex abuse BEFORE coming to Los Angeles in 2001) has been eating up my writing time. We found out that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles does not and has no intention of ever doing background…Continue reading Dan Rather Reports and Fr. Lopez-Lopez

This just in from the producers at Dan Rather Reports: Could this Archdiocese of Los Angeles have prevented teens from being subjected to abuse by this predator priest? Tuesday, June 28 at 8:00 p.m. ET DALLAS (June 27, 2011) –Tomorrow night, “Dan Rather Reports” uncovers the dark and disturbing past of a priest who joined…Continue reading “DAN RATHER REPORTS” UNCOVERS NEW EVIDENCE THAT A PRIEST JOINED L.A. ARCHDIOCESE DESPITE HIS TROUBLING PAST

A great piece of the horrible career of Fr. Clement Hageman.  From KNAU, Flagstaff – Listen here

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or: The amazingly well-written, life-changing, relevant, engaging, exciting and immensely readable book proposal that the New York publishing machine determined that no one wanted to read. There was a study published recently showing that rejection (romantic or otherwise) causes physical pain. I wholeheartedly agree. Why? Last week, after a five-month sales push by my big-time…Continue reading The Orphan

The California Bishops Conference thought “it” was all over in 2007 … The Golden State, chiefly forgotten since the 2007 $660 million settlement against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, has been overshadowed lately by a devastating grand jury report in Philadelphia, large civil child sex abuse settlements in Delaware and the Pacific Northwest, and the…Continue reading The California Clergy Sex Abuse Powder Keg

The American people don’t wax poetic about the career of Richard Nixon and ignore Watergate. And we can’t do the same thing here.

Or: Lay review boards: Cover them in crap and keep them in the dark. Welcome to mushroom farming, Catholic style: the “lay review board.” What is a lay review board?  Well, in the United States, reviews boards were installed in every diocese – as well as a national review board – by the US Conference of…Continue reading Worldwide Mushroom Farming

And it’s not just because I am quoted here by Adam Dodd.

I think of myself as a fiction writer and an opera singer FIRST, then an advocate.  (Obviously, I’m not that good at the first two, but I think big); I love my soap opera  (All My Children, FYI); I have raised complaining to an art form; Waiting tables was an awesome job; I am one…Continue reading A few things you may not know about me:

At the urging of several people, I finally decided to join Narcissism Nation and start a blog.  And for the first time in my life, I am at a loss for words.  I doubt my writer’s block will last for long – my mother didn’t call me “The Mouth” for nothing. The rules:  I refuse…Continue reading Okay, okay …