The Worthy Adversary

Author: Joelle Casteix

Why is Hon so scared?

There is a huge chance that the history of the Catholic Church on Guam will be rewritten … by Catholics. And it’s pretty awesome.

All it will take is a small change in the law that will give victims of sexual abuse the opportunity to use the civil courts to expose their abusers and the men and women who covered up the abuse.

From the Pacific Daily News:

Gov. Eddie Calvo is weighing the concerns of the Catholic church and the community as he decides what to do with a bill that would allow victims of child sexual abuse to sue their abusers, according to the governor’s office.

Today is the governor’s last day to sign or veto Bill 326-33, or the bill lapses into law without his signature. Senators on Sept. 12 approved the bill 13-0. If it becomes law, it could make the Catholic church on Guam open to lawsuits by those who, in recent months, have publicly accused priests of raping or molesting them.

In the past few days, Archbishop Savio Tai Fai Hon, the current apostolic administrator of the Catholic archdiocese, has collected signatures and spoken out against the bill. He says (like many of his brother bishops) that the bill will force them to close churches and end many needed services on the island.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The real fear is that this bill, if made law, will expose DOZENS of sex-abusing clerics on Guam. Worse (for him) still, victims will have the opportunity to find out WHAT church officials knew and WHEN they knew it.

The law will also most likely expose clerics who molested kids and are STILL WORKING IN CHURCHES. Priests like Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who *ahem* is still the Archbishop. (Note: The Vatican has done NOTHING to help Guam’s victims, properly punish Apuron, or end abuse. NOTHING.)

Since Apuron has now been accused of sexual abuse numerous times, Hon’s real problem isn’t money. His real problem is the exposure of an archdiocese that knew about abuse and abusers for DECADES.

Instead of calling the police, archdiocese officials silenced victims, promoted abusers, and conned every single Catholic on the island into believing that their churches were safe.

Catholics want the bill signed. In fact, Guam’s Catholics have been the driving force behind helping victims, exposing Apuron, and finding justice.

Hopefully, Calvo agrees.

September 22, 2016
House of Representatives introduces SOL reform bill

Back in December, I wrote about a US Senate bill that that would give states money if they enacted legislation that extended or eliminated unexpired statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse.

Now, the House of Representatives has put together a bipartisan bill that “harmonizes the statute of limitations for sex abuse victims and sex trafficking victim minors to 28, rather than the current age of 21.”

I was cranky when I posted about the Senate Bill, mostly because of the lack of retroactivity (meaning that statutes were not revived for victims who had proof of crimes, but whose time limit had already passed).

I shouldn’t have been.

In fact, these bills are great first steps in allowing victims more time to heal and come to terms with their abuse in order to report the crime.

Hopefully, they will also embolden state lawmakers to pass robust retroactive civil laws that get predators off the streets RIGHT NOW.

My next post has an excellent example …

Write your congressperson and let him/her know that you support this bill. You can read about it more, here.

September 22, 2016
Mater Dei: Loving abusers and cover-up after all these years.

As I stated in my previous post, little has changed in the Diocese of Orange since 2005, when church officials settled sex abuse and cover-up lawsuits with 87 child victims.

I’d thought I share a little Facebook proof with you.

Now I will admit, I have been sitting on this information for a while. The reasons, like this post, were personal.

I know, love, and respect many of the people who were at this spring’s Mater Dei High School Grand Reunion (people like my father, who were pretty disgusted to see what I am about to show you here). My dad is almost 80, and going to his high school reunions are an annual treat (yes, they have them almost every year). I didn’t want to ruin it for him and his friends by ranting right away.

But after today’s article in the Orange County Register, I couldn’t keep it quiet anymore.

Exhibit #1

Two-time accused former faculty member enjoys the reunion

Two-time accused and sued vice-principal John Merino attends Mater Dei HS Grand Reunion

Yep, THAT John Merino. Two sex abuse cases against him settled in 2005. he was the guy who, along with former principal and 25-time accused predator Michael Harris, took a “special graduating senior boy” to NYC every year to see Broadway musicals. And shared a room.

Even St. Mary’s and All Angeles School and the Macy Awards have distanced themselves from the disgraced educator. But the school where the alleged abuse happened? Nope.

By the way, current school president Patrick Murphy was at the reunion, stumping for cash. Murphy was school president during the sex abuse lawsuit scandal of 2003-2005 and was principal when Merino was “let go” from the school in 2001. So no one can claim ignorance.

Exhibit #2

Principal who covered up abuse says Mass at Grand Reunion

John Weling says Mass. Joelle gets mad.

This is where things get personal.

Sure, Fr. John Weling is a graduate of Mater Dei and does have the right to go to the reunion. But what about my dad? Doesn’t he have the right to enjoy a reunion without having to encounter the man who personally covered up his daughter’s sexual abuse?

And it wasn’t just my abuse he covered up. Weling was principal right after serial predator Michael Harris. Weiling had to play a lot of clean up …

Maybe they should try to PRETEND to care

Again, it’s about optics. There are A LOT of sex abuse victims from Mater Dei. But for Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange, it’s all about collecting cash.

That’s a shame. A very dangerous shame.

September 17, 2016
Tod Brown: Spinning yarns after all these years

That big BOOM you heard this morning in Southern California? That was my head exploding after reading the cover story in today’s Orange County Register.

From the article:

Though the diocese’s growth was exponential, there was also a period of turmoil when the nationwide Catholic Church sex abuse scandal erupted. Bishop Tod Brown, who took the helm in September 1998, faced the brunt of the sexual abuse lawsuits. The diocese was the first to arrive at a settlement, for $100 million, on Jan. 15, 2004.

Brown apologized to 87 alleged victims and issued a Covenant of the Faithful, promising to be transparent with the media and the public. However, Brown later was criticized for not divulging that he also had faced an allegation of sexual abuse. That allegation was dismissed by church officials. Brown said the accusation was not true.

Speaking recently from his office in the Christ Cathedral’s pastoral center, the retired bishop said he was “unaware of the problem” when he took office. (emphasis mine)

I really hate it when people lie.

Unaware of the problem? Brown knew. He knew very, very well.

In fact, Tod Brown had (very poorly) dealt with sex abuse suits while the Vicar General of Monterey, CA in the 1980s. Plus, we can’t forget the fact that he was the target of an investigation. And Brown himself admitted that he had kept the allegation and the investigation secret.

Heck, even Cardinal Roger Mahony disclosed that he had been accused. So the bar is pretty low.

1985 and the Doyle Report

Brown’s time in Monterey is important for another reason. In 1985, he was the Vicar General, Chancellor, and Moderator of the Curia. This was the year that Fr. Thomas Doyle delivered the Doyle Mouton Report, outlining the potential scope and scale (and civil liability) of clergy sexual abuse in the United States. Although the bishops scuttled the report, there is a high probability that a rising star and powerful priest like Tod Brown knew full well that the report existed and that it was a bombshell.

And then, there is Idaho … and Tod Brown’s long legacy of cover-up while the Bishop of Boise.

Brown knew full well that there was a problem of sex abuse and cover up when he came to Orange. He CONTINUED that problem until California’s 2003 civil window for victims of abuse forced his hand.

It’s about the COVER-UP

Brown just can’t claim ignorance and let things go. He has to make it worse for victims:

“The challenge for me was to come to grips with what it was and what we needed to do to get the healing started and protect our youth in the future,” Brown said. “(Sexual abuse) is a problem that is endemic to humanity. We had it in the Catholic Church, too.”

Ugh. I hate it when people say, “Well, EVERYONE was doing it.” This isn’t smoking pot in the back of your friend’s camper. We are talking about sex crimes against children here. Of course child sexual abuse is a social problem. But the real issue here was the systemic cover-up and protection of predators and abuse.

And as my next post will show, little has changed.

September 17, 2016
Shifting the focus

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who had just read a pretty expansive article on child sexual abuse and civil laws. What struck her was the author’s (correct) assertion that most child predators are NOT pedophiles.

Of course, I said. True “pedophiles,” that is, adults who are sexually attracted to prepubescent children, are only a small portion of the people who prey on children.

But the media and apologists tend to only focus on them, even though there is a far larger and more diverse population of people who commit sex crimes against children.

Jared Fogle: was is pedophila or was it power? Does it matter to the victim?

This is something that the survivors’ community knows well, but that gets lost in the great discussion.

An example: Bill Donohue, the president of the (somewhat questionable) Catholic League, is always quick to say that most of the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is “ephebophila,” a non-specific term meant to describe adults who are attracted to children who have reached or in the middle of puberty. He says it’s less of a crime and less damaging to the children. Nothing could be more wrong.

When we use labels like “pedophila” and “ephebophilia,” we make child sexual abuse all about sex. But it isn’t about sex: it’s about power. Otherwise, why else would a child bully and sexually abuse another child? Why would sports hazing move into sexual assault and rape? Why would a teacher molest dozens of high school students? It’s the power.

Puberty is a physical state, not an emotional one. In my son’s school, there are 12 year olds who look like they are barely nine. There are 12 year olds who look like they are 17. They are vastly different physically, even though emotionally and mentally, they are at the exact same maturity level.

And here is what we need to understand: children are horribly damaged by abuse, no matter how “physically developed” they are. Any adult who would sexually abuse a kid wants the power. Sex is secondary.

The age of the perpetrator is also secondary. The young child who is sexually abused by a 15-year-old can be just as damaged and just as scarred as the young child molested by the adult. The 15-year-old molested by an adult can suffer the same psychic damage as a 9-year-old.

It’s time to shift the focus away from categorizing predators. It’s time to instead focus on victims and ending the crime.

September 16, 2016