From today’s Los Angeles Times:
Innocent names? If they truly cared about the rights of the innocent, there wouldn’t be a clergy sex abuse scandal in the first place, n’est-ce pas?
Author: Joelle Casteix
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BREAKING: Sex Offending San Diego Priest Vanishes
Fr. Jose Alexis Davila, the Venezuelan national, San Diego priest, and misdemeanor sex offender, has vanished.
There has been no comment or statement from Diocese of San Diego, who just a few months ago, said that the “sex-probation priest” was “fit for ministry.”
This past New Year’s Eve, Davila, the associate pastor of St. Jude Shrine of the West, went to a young woman’s Southcrest home and forced himself on her. She called the police and he was arrested.
Parishioners and the priest’s friends rallied on behalf of the priest. In fact, parishioners supporting the priest formed a “lynch mob” at the victim’s mother’s home, in the hopes of forcing the victim to recant her story. It didn’t work.
In April, Davila pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “unlawful touching of an intimate part” and was sentenced to probation.
In May (less than one month after his guilty plea), I received an anonymous call from a parishioner at St. Jude Shrine of the West. The caller was disgusted that Davila was back on the job and working with women and children. When the Diocese was asked why the priest was put back in the parish, here is what Bishop Robert Brom, through his Chancellor Rodrigo Valdivia, said:
Pastoral concerns? The priest wouldn’t even pass a background check.
And now? He’s gone. The Diocese has made no announcement about Davila’s absence. We don’t know if he’s a priest, if he’s around children, or if he’s even in the country. The diocese has dumped him somewhere, and no one knows where.
The only clues we have are in Davila’s self-congratulatory YouTube Channel, where he paints himself as a rock star and posts videos of himself with men like Salt Lake City Bishop Charles Wester, Pope John Paul II and lots of young women. He also claims to have been scuttled out of his country by “security personnel” in 2002.
Bishop Robert Brom owes San Diego some answers.
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Joliet, Fall River, and a little lesson in “Just and Ethical”
Let’s talk about Joliet, IL and Fall River, MA, two dioceses with bishops who, were it not for public embarrassment, were more than happy to throw child safety under the bus.
In Joliet, Bishop Dan Conlon (the head of the USCCB committee on child protection, by the way) was going to reinstate a priest suspended two years ago for credible allegations of child sex abuse. In fact, not only were the allegations credible, but no one within the church denied that the abuse had taken place.
Instead of following the polices of the organization he heads, Conlon told the press that the Vatican was “forcing him” to reinstate Fr. Lee Ryan. Ryan was going to minister to shut-ins. In their homes. With their children and grandchildren. Unsupervised.
Conlon finally reversed his decision after huge backlash. We have yet to hear if the Vatican is mad.
But this brings up an interesting idea: for years, the church has fought in court that priests are not employees and that bishops are independent from the Vatican. Does Conlon’s little “slip-up” expose the fact that the US Catholic Church been trying to pull the wool over judges eyes for decades?
On to Fall River.
I send my son to a private school. If that school asked me to sign a waiver that absolved the school of any liability if an employee or volunteer abused my child, I would walk out, go to the cops, and tell them that the school is hiding something.
But in Fall River, such a waiver was par for the course.
After the policy was made public, the diocese backtracked and said the policy was “being reviewed by attorneys” and would no longer be in place. A diocese spokesman also disavowed all knowledge of the waiver, which is not terribly surprising. Admitting that they knew about it would be admitting that they expect children to be abused.
What is so disturbing about Fall River and Joliet is that NOTHING has changed since the so-called “reforms” of 2002 … unless, of course, the bishops are publicly embarrassed in the media for reckless endangerment of children. When THAT happens, they have no problem “reforming.”
Even “mean, nasty, secular” organizations adopt ethical policies that require legal, upstanding and ethical conduct by their employees. In fact, the credo of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, makers of birth control pills, says in their credo: We must provide competent management, and their actions must be just and ethical.
Just AND ethical? The bishops could take a lesson or two. Because when your enemy openly states that they will run a more ethical business than you do, you have a problem.
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If you want other interesting reading: I was struck by Patrick Wall’s post today about bishops who have been accused (or arrested) for abuse or cover-up of abuse. I had no idea that in RECENT history, TEN U.S. Catholic bishops were accused of and/or removed for sexually abusing kids. None were prosecuted because of lapsed statutes of limitations.
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Five Reasons You Should Care About the Clergy Sex Abuse and Cover-up Crisis
It isn’t about faith, it’s about crime.
Here are five reasons you should care about the Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse and Cover-up Crisis:
1) Many church officials have broken and are breaking the law. The William Lynn trial in Philadelphia and the child pornography cover-up scandal in Kansas City are only unique because church officials—Former Philadelphia Vicar for Clergy Msgr. William Lynn and Kansas City’s Bishop Finn—were criminally punished.
In Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Gallup, Seattle, Fairbanks, Boston, Toledo, Wilmington DE, and elsewhere, these crimes have continued for decades, but have never been punished because statutes of limitations have passed or church officials kept evidence hidden. The children who were injured came from many faiths and all income levels. They all had one thing in common: they were vulnerable.
2) The Church uses your tax dollars to pay for victims’ care. Victims of child sexual abuse are horribly injured, and many suffer for decades after the abuse. In most cases, the church knows exactly who the predators are, where they worked, whom they encountered, and who the victims are. Or, they can easily find out.
Church officials had a choice: intervene and help victims … or shield and protect priests.
As a result of their decision, victims were sucked into the vortex of shame, silence and pain. Victims of child sex abuse who do not receive early intervention struggle with addiction issues, violence, mental illness, suicide, and other destructive behaviors … and taxpayers foot the bill.
But church officials decided it was easier to cover up for abusers, because the government safety net would catch their “trash.”
3) Deference by Political Leaders. This one always chaps my hide. Cardinal Timothy Dolan said the invocations at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He also admitted to paying predator priests $40K to leave the priesthood. $40K would pay for a lot of therapy for the child victims of these monsters (the kids got nothing, BTW). Heck, calling the cops is free. For the victims of abuse in Milwaukee, this is tragic.
4) Other organizations are following the church’s lead. Who do you think taught the Boy Scouts or the California teachers unions how to keep abuse under wraps? Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
5) Little to nothing has changed. In San Diego, a priest who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a young woman still has his job. In Ontario, California, a priest who served a year in jail can still act as a priest (and the Diocese has done little to nothing to warn parishioners). In Kansas City, a bishop who covered up child pornography still has his job. In Los Angeles, church officials have stalled the promised release of sex abuse and cover-up documents for FIVE YEARS. In Philadelphia, the archbishop blames the media for the sex abuse and cover-up crisis (even after two grand jury reports blasted church leaders for covering up and fostering abuse).
Yep. You need to care.