The Worthy Adversary

Tag: clergy sex abuse crisis

  • Call me crazy, but priests who admit to sexually assaulting ANYONE need to find a new job …

    I mean, c’mon. Fr. Davila pled GUILTY. He wouldn’t pass the diocese background check, yet he’s in a parish:

    Bishops Robert Brom and Cirillo Flores say that they have addressed all of the pastoral concerns. Really? How about the concerns of the victim?

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    For immediate release: Tuesday, June 12

    For more information: David Clohessy (314.566.9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Joelle Casteix (949-322.7434, jcasteix@gmail.com)

    Victims ask US bishops to censure CA colleague

    “Denounce San Diego’s recklessness,” SNAP begs

    They’re upset that a convicted priest is back in a parish

    Clergy sex abuse victims are urging America’s Catholic bishops to denounce San Diego’s top church official for restoring a priest to ministry barely a month after he pled guilty to molesting a teenage parishioner.

    In a letter sent today to the prelates, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, express concern about Fr. Jose Alexis Davila of San Diego. In April, he pled guilty to battery for groping a then-19-year-old parishioner at her home. He was given three years’ probation. A month later, San Diego Bishop Robert Brom quietly put Davila back into active parish ministry at St. Jude’s Catholic Church.

    “It’s hard to imagine a more reckless move,” said Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, Western Regional Director of SNAP. “This basically sends the message that you can assault teenagers and go unpunished.”

    According to a press release last week from the Diocese of San Diego, officials there “have no reason to believe that women or children are at a risk because of [Davila’s] return to ministry.”

    Leaders of SNAP argue instead that his conviction shows that Davila is still a threat. They also believe that the decision to put Davila back into a parish so soon after being convicted of a sex crime flies in the face of the bishops’ sex abuse policy, and are hoping that other members of the church hierarchy will recognize the problem and work to fix it.

    “A decade ago, America’s bishops pledged to ‘correct’ each other when clergy sex cases were mishandled,” said Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director. “That’s what we want to see here. If wrongdoing is ignored, wrongdoing is encouraged. So we’re hoping that – formally or informally – at least a few bishops will be brave enough to publicly say ‘The San Diego Catholic hierarchy is acting irresponsibly.’”

    America’s bishops hold their semi-annual meeting this week. They are scheduled to discuss their ten-year old national abuse policy. SNAP wants that policy “radically revamped” to include penalties for “church officials who “ignore, hid and enable child sex crimes.”

    (SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 12,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

    Contact – David Clohessy (314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688, 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com), Joelle Casteix (949-322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com)

     

     

  • I don’t think this is what Fr. Damien had in mind …

    Things are looking uglier and uglier for the Irish Christian Brothers at Damien Memorial High School in Honolulu. To date, we have found five known perpetrators who worked at the school, had direct access to students, and abused. There are the three we discovered in January:

    Fr. Gerald Funcheon, Br. Robert Brouillette, and Br. Thomas Ford,

    And the two latest additions, just discovered in the past week:

    Fr. Lawrence Spellen and Br. J.B. Lackie.

    Call me crazy for saying it: but it’s looking like Damien was a den of child sex abuse.

     

    Victims Rights

    Victims at Damien High School have until August 1, 2012 to seek justice and accountability from the Irish Christian Brothers. But there is good news: victims rights in the Hawaii have expanded dramatically—but only for two years.

    A new law in the State of Hawaii has given these victims and other victims of child sexual abuse new rights in the courts. Last month, Governor Neil Abercrombie signed Act 068 into law. It temporarily lifts the civil statute of limitations and gives victims of childhood sexual abuse a two-year “window” to come forward and use the civil courts to seek justice and expose predators, no matter how long ago the victim was abused.

    Similar laws in Delaware and California exposed hundreds of predators and helped law enforcement put child molesters behind bars.

    The new law gives rights to almost all victims, not just those at Damien Memorial. If you live in Hawaii or know victims who were abused there, pass the word. The biggest tragedy is when a victim learns about the law … after it has already expired.

  • More Trouble for Stockton: Oliver O’Grady Re-emerges

    

    Oliver O’Grady is like a cockroach: He will never, never, ever go away.

    A new Oliver O’Grady victim has come forward and filed a lawsuit against the notorious predator and the Diocese of Stockton. SNAP will have a press conference tomorrow to release details. On the heels of the Michael Kelly verdict, this is very, very disturbing news. I have yet to see any kind of apology from the diocese for either Kelly’s actions or the horrific legal hardball tactics that the diocese employed in an attempt to scare the victim into dropping his suit.

    O’Grady is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in Ireland for possession of child abuse images (child porn).

    Here is the press release:

     

    NEWS EVENT: Victims announce new lawsuit against notorious Stockton priest

    Child was abused after cleric admitted crimes to church officials & police

    Convicted in Stockton, O’Grady is now in Irish prison for child porn

    He worked at same parishes as Stockton priest recently found liable for abuse

    SNAP believes there may be more victims scared by diocese’s legal hardball

    What: Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, victims of child sex abuse and their supporters will announce a new lawsuit against notorious child molesting priest Oliver O’Grady and the Diocese of Stockton.  The lawsuit says:

    • O’Grady molested the victim after the cleric already admitted to abusing kids,
    • Stockton church officials knew O’Grady was a predator before the victim in this case was born, and
    • Catholic church officials covered up O’Grady’s crimes and silenced victims.

    Victims will also:

    • Show how O’Grady shared assignments with Fr. Michael Kelly, who fled to Ireland after a jury unanimously said Kelly was liable for child sex abuse.
    • Urge Stockton Bishop Blaire to reach out to other potential victims of O’Grady and Fr. Michael Kelly,
    • Beg Stockton church officials to stop cruel, hardball legal tactics against victims, and
    • Ask local law enforcement to continue criminal investigations against molesting clerics and their protectors.

    Where: Outside of the Stockton Diocese Headquarters, 212 North San Joaquin Street (at Channel) in Stockton

    When: Wednesday, May 2, at 1pm

    Who: Three-to-four victims of child sex abuse and their supporters who are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org). They will be joined by a former priest and monk—now advocate for victims—who is an expert on O’Grady.

    Why: This week in San Joaquin Superior Court, a 25-year-old victim of convicted serial predator Oliver O’Grady filed a child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against the Diocese of Stockton. The lawsuit says that the former priest molested the boy when the victim was five and six years old. During the time, O’Grady was assigned to St. Andrews in San Andreas and St. Anthony’s in Hughson, California.

    The victim was molested in 1992, just before O’Grady was arrested in Calaveras County. According to press reports and court documents, Stockton Diocese officials knew that O’Grady was a direct risk to kids as early as 1976. Police investigated other allegations against O’Grady in 1984, when O’Grady admitted to a mental health practitioner that he had molested children. Instead of removing O’Grady from ministry, then-bishop Cardinal Roger Mahony reassigned O’Grady to St. Andrews parish. The victim in this case was born in 1987, three years after church officials had direct knowledge that O’Grady was a child molester. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ma-bos/settlements/SettlementStocktonOGrady.html

    O’Grady was convicted in 1993 of four counts of lewd and lascivious acts against two minors. In 1998, the two victims in the case won a $30 million settlement against the diocese. O’Grady was paroled in 2000 and deported to Ireland.

    In January 2012, O’Grady was sentenced to three years in prison for possession of child pornography, after law enforcement discovered the images on O’Grady’s computer and USB drive. According to press reports, the images were of victims as young as two.  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0131/1224311002517.html

    O’Grady was the subject of the 2006 Academy Award nominated documentary “Deliver Us From Evil,” in which O’Grady admitted to molesting at least two dozen children. The actual number is believed to be closer to 100 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/11_12/2008_11_20_Smith_AbuseSuit.htm.

    Before O’Grady’s latest arrest, he was discovered volunteering with children in a church in The Netherlands and working in a McDonald’s, where he coordinated children’s birthday parties.

    Last month, a jury voted unanimously that another Stockton priest, Fr. Michael Kelly, was liable for molesting retired Air Force pilot Travis Trotter. http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/20/2166315/stockton-diocese-settles-with.html After the verdict, Kelly fled to Ireland.  The Stockton Diocese finally settled the case for $3.75 million.  To date, they have not apologized to Travis or acknowledged Kelly’s civil crimes.

    According to church records, Kelly and O’Grady, who were both from Ireland, worked in many of the same parishes at different times, including Our Lady of Fatima, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Andrews, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joachim’s http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/O’Grady_Oliver_Francis.htm#shorthand. SNAP believes there may be many more victims of both men who have been shamed into secrecy and silence.

    The victim in this case is represented by Sacramento attorney Dr. Joe George (916) 641-7300, joe@psyclaw.com

     


  • Disconnect, Pt 2: Subpoenas are for the little people

    Earlier this year in Kansas City, SNAP’s David Clohessy was ordered to give a six-hour deposition in a child sex abuse lawsuit. Neither SNAP nor David himself were a party or even knew the victim. Critics piled on Clohessy, calling him evasive and a con-artist. In the end, the deposition has nothing to do with the lawsuit. It was instead a legal maneuver on behalf of a group of bishops to bankrupt SNAP through legal fees.

    This week in Stockton, California, former Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony was called to testify in court in the case of Father Michael Kelly, a priest that a civil jury found had molested a boy in the 1980s. Mahony decided to go to Rome instead. Lawyers are pushing for the judge to cite Manhony with contempt.

    And legal fees? No worries: the Diocese of Stockton and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are always more than happy to pick up his legal fees. Collection baskets from poor parishes in vulnerable communities never seem to fail. Besides, what does Mahony care that he is costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in unnecessary court costs?

    So who’s the con artist now?

    Read Disconnect Part I here

     

  • Fr. Michael Kelly is so NOT innocent …

    …that he skipped the country, just to make sure that the cops never find him.

    I hope his supporters (like the ones who tried to tamper with the jury) finally realized that he just flipped them the bird.