The Worthy Adversary

Author: Joelle Casteix

  • Leg Update: California and Pennsylvania

    Leg Update: California and Pennsylvania

    California

    Victims of sex crimes have won another battle in the effort to extend the criminal statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault.

    SB 813, sponsored by Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino), which seeks to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for rape and related crimes, passed out of the Senate Public Safety Committee yesterday. Witnesses in support of the legislation included attorneys for alleged victims of comedian Bill Cosby and the district attorney of San Bernardino County.

    The current statute is ten years, unless there is DNA evidence.

    If made into law, SB 813 will be a huge win for rape victims who simply want the right to be able to use the court system to get justice and put rapists behind bars.

    Pennsylvania

    Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Rozzi
    Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Rozzi

    On the heels of another devastating grand jury report, which outlined how the Catholic Diocese of Altoona covered up for priests who sexually abused hundreds of children, legislators there won a huge victory for victims of child sexual abuse.

    State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Muhlenberg Township Democrat, introduced a key amendment to House Bill 1947 extending the civil rights of child victims. The amendment, which passed the State House yesterday, extends the age that victims of child sex abuse can come forward and use the civil justice system from age 30 to age 50.

    What’s more important to note is that the the extension is retroactive, meaning that if you are a victim from Pennsylvania who is between the ages of 30 and 50, you can take advantage of civil justice.

    The bill, which was passed by the full House yesterday, is now on to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    Mark Rozzi, a victim of child sex abuse himself, is truly the hero of this story. His tenacity and determination have helped him change the lives of crime victims across the state.

     

  • Local parish says, “No Mahony!” And the response is ….

    Local parish says, “No Mahony!” And the response is ….

    Yeah, even I was surprised.

    Parishioners at Los Angeles Archdiocese’s St. Kateri Church were not pleased when they were informed that disgraced Cardinal Roger Mahony was going to perform their parish confirmations.

    From the Santa Clarita Valley Signal:

    Brooke Bambrick is among the outraged. Growing up Catholic, her father was a deacon at St. Monica’s. When he found out about the widespread coverups and Mahony’s failure to hold abusers accountable and protect the abused, he decided the family should leave the Catholic Church.

    “He thought it was hypocritical of the church,” said Bambrick. “Mahony protected the priests and shuffled them around, that’s a crime, and a crime against kids.”

    Now that Mahony is coming to Saint Kateri, she is outraged and believes the church should request another Bishop for the ceremony.

    “It is an atrocity that he is able to step foot in a church,” she said. “He ignored the facts and allowed people to do atrocious things to children. The Catholic Church didn’t handle it correctly and he shouldn’t officiate at such a large church here in the valley.”

    But instead of just “taking it,” parishioners decided to do something.

    Reports are now saying that the parish filed a formal complaint with Archbishop Gomez and that the Los Angeles prelate approved the removal of Mahony from their services. [[Update: LA’s Channel 9 news ran the story at 10 pm April 7.]] 

    Good job. Now it’s time to remove him from everything else. I wonder if there is a formal complaint form for that issue.

  • Buzzfeed: I was abused in the Catholic Church

    Buzzfeed: I was abused in the Catholic Church

     

    My friend Manny Vega and I had the opportunity to make a video for Buzzfeed about our experience as survivors of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

    Thanks to producer Ricky Sans for the amazing end product.

     

  • Which is more controversial:

    ocrcLogo

    Clergy sex abuse and cover-up … or the sale of breast milk?

    The jury is still out.

    You can read my article on the breast milk market in Orange County here. There is enough in this article for a book … and I may just be the person to do it.

     

  • Spotlight wins … scandal continues

    Spotlight wins … scandal continues

    Less than 48 hours after Spotlight nabbed the best picture Oscar, a grand jury report and an Australian cardinal are showing the world that the clergy sex abuse scandal is far from over.

    Yesterday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, a grand jury released a 147-page report outlining sex abuse and cover-up in the Diocese of Altoona-Jonestown.

    From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette:

    Hundreds of children were molested, raped and destined to lasting psychological trauma by clerics whose abuses were covered up by their bishops, other superiors and even compliant law-enforcement officials in Blair and Cambria counties, the report said.

    The conspiracy amounted to “soul murder,” the report said, with abuse happening everywhere from camps and homes to the historic cathedral itself. That description echoes that of similar grand jury probes into the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2005 and 2011 that found cardinals and other clerics shifted numerous known abusers from one unsuspecting parish to another.

    Attorney General Kathleen Kane called it a “day of reckoning” for abusers and their enablers but lamented that no one could be criminally charged.

    But that’s not all.

    Simultaneously in Rome, an Australian Cardinal testified (via satellite) about what he knew about sex abuse and cover-up in his home country.

    It didn’t go too well.

    From NBC News:

    There were audible gasps Tuesday when Vatican treasurer George Pell said a notorious Roman Catholic Church sex-abuse case “wasn’t of much interest” to him.

    The Australian cardinal — the highest-ranking Vatican official to testify on systemic sexual abuse of children by clergy — said senior clergy lied to him to cover up abuse in the 1970s.

    He insisted that there was no reason for him to know the extent of the abuse carried out by his onetime roommate — Father Gerald Ridsdale — who was later convicted of 138 offences against more than 50 children.

    …

    His comments drew gasps of disbelief in Sydney, where he was testifying by video link from Rome as part of Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse. Pell said he was unable to travel to his native Australia because of heart problems.

     

    These cases are not outliers.

    #Spotlight