Much in the June 5 report wasn’t surprising: drug cartels are recruiting and using children for violence and children have been murdered and/or have gone missing in non-state violent activities. The committee also stated that migrant children are being targeted for abuse, killings and sexual violence.
But sections 35 and 36 of the report were striking (emphasis mine):
35. The Committee is deeply concerned about corroborated reports that hundreds of children have been sexually abused for years by clerics of the Catholic Church and other religious faiths The Committee is particularly concerned about the general impunity which perpetrators have enjoyed so far, as recognized by the State party’s delegation, about the low number of investigations and prosecutions of the perpetrators as well as alleged complicity of state officials, as well as about the lack of complaints mechanisms, services and compensation available to children.
36. The Committee strongly urges the State party to:
(a) Take immediate measures to investigate and prosecute all members of the Roman Catholic clergy and other religious faiths involved in or accomplices of sexual abuse and exploitation of children, and ensure that those found guilty be provided with sanctions commensurate with the gravity of their crime;
(b) Provide children victims of sexual abuse with all necessary services for their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration, and adequately compensate them;
(c) Ensure that specific measures taken to prevent sexual abuse by clerics become part of all policies related to violence against children and that empowered children learn how to protect themselves from sexual abuse and are aware of the mechanism they can refer to in case of such abuses;
(d) Take concrete measures to raise awareness on this type of abuse in order to overcome social acceptance and taboo surrounding these crimes;
(e) Collect disaggregated data related to cases of sexual abuse against children involving the Roman Catholic clergy and provide detailed information in its next report on the convictions and sentences pronounced.
I am interviewed via phone (Skype was not cooperating). We discuss Jared Fogle’s plea in child porn/child sex trafficking (underage prostitute) charges.
Next month, Anaheim is hosting one of the best national training institutes on crime victims’ rights.
I’ll be presenting—and if you are going to be in Southern California in early September, this is a must-attend event.
The National Center for Victims of Crime’s 2015 National Training Institute features more than 130 leading experts and 72 workshops, offering a multidisciplinary opportunity to skill up on the latest best practices and research in the crime victims’ field.
If you are a California professional, you qualify for a $100 discount on registration.
Here is more information:
California Professionals Save Big!
As a California professional, you’re eligible for our deepest discount of this year’s National Training Institute in Anaheim, California, September 9-11. Save $100 off registration rates currently $325 for members and $450 for non-members. Lock in now to save! Enter password 2015NTICA to receive discount.
Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) are offered and agencies may also use VOCA funds to cover registration costs.
The National Center for Victims of Crime’s 2015 National Training Institute features more than 130 leading experts and 72 workshops, offering a multidisciplinary opportunity to skill up on the latest best practices and research in the crime victims’ field. Topics include:
Strategies for Reaching Underserved Victims of Crime – Anita Ahuja, California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board
Emerging Issues in Restitution for Crime Victims – Paul Cassell, University of Utah College of Law; Elizabeth Jones, Western State College of Law and Antonio R. Sarabia II, IP Business Law Inc.
Immigrant Crime Visas: Law Enforcement’s Tool to Strengthen Community Policing – Leslye Orloff and Michael La Riviere, National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project
How to Improve Law Enforcement Response to Crime Victims When Encountering Language Barriers – Cannon Han, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
Collaboration Multiplier – Jamecca Marshall and Benita Tsao, Prevention Institute
Serving Transgendered Survivors – Christopher B. Argyros and Mariana Marroquin, Anti-Violence Project
Strategies for Serving Immigrant Crime Survivors – Cecelia Friedman Levin, ASISTA Immigration Assistance and Andrea Carcamo, National Latin@ Network
Utilizing Marsy’s Law, the Four Court Systems and Creative Recovery Solutions to Assist Victims of Crime in a Court of Law – Nina Salarno Ashford and Harriet Salarno
The Organization, Operation and Victimization Process of Labor Trafficking – Colleen Owens, Amy Farrell and Meredith Dank, Urban Institute
Many More…
Connect with and learn from victim advocates, counselors, program managers, attorneys, social workers, psychologists, researchers, nurses, system-based service providers, and other leaders from across the country.
About the National Training Institute
The National Center for Victims of Crime’s National Training Institute is a forum for law enforcement, victim service professionals, allied practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to share current developments and build new collaborations. Our multidisciplinary approach is centered on victims, based on best practices, and informed by the latest research. Sessions highlight practical information to better support services for the wide range of people victimized by all types of crimes.
Your boss borrows your car and runs over your beloved dog Rover in the company’s parking garage. When your boss returns the car, you ask him about your dead dog and the blood stains all over the bumper. He denies all knowledge.
When confronted with video surveillance footage, your boss finally admits that he did run over your dog, but claims that “he thought he did the right thing for you and Rover.” He is not fired. In fact, he is backed up by the company and remains in his job for three more years, where he supervises your work and is your “go-between” to higher management.
You can’t quit because you are under contract.
After those three years, your boss resigns. But he keeps his paycheck and gets to go on all of the company golf outings free of charge.
Soon after the resignation and well-publicized golf outings, your company invites you to come to a “healing meeting” where you are invited to heal from the pain of losing your dog. Your boss is invited, too. The company will be collecting donations for the “coffee fund” at the meeting, so attendees are asked to bring their checkbooks.
Your company also invites the press. When the press calls you about the meeting, you tell them that you aren’t going. You are portrayed in the media as angry and ungrateful for not participating.
Ridiculous? You bet it is.
But let’s switch out a few things … say, using Kansas City/St. Joseph as an example … and see how perception changes:
Your bishop knows that a priest in your parish has created child pornography involving your child and does not call the police.
Fmr KC/St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn: Call the cops? Nah. I might miss my tee time.
When confronted by the police, the bishop says that he did the right thing for the priest and the children involved. The police don’t buy his argument and arrest the bishop. He later pleads guilty to child endangerment and is sentenced to probation.
The bishop is not fired from his job and is supported by his fellow bishops and the Vatican. But you’re rightfully angry. If you stop going to church and receiving the sacraments, your faith tells you that your eternal life is at risk. Remember: you’re under contract.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan: Defended convicted bishop
The bishop finally resigns, but is allowed to do all of the fun stuff like keep his title, collect a paycheck, live in a fancy house, go to Rome and perform public ordinations.
After the resignation, the bishop’s successor holds a “healing Mass” and invites you to attend. When you say, “Hell, no. There has been no accountability within your organization,” people say you are callous and unforgiving.
See?
Anchoring the argument with “healing”
The conversation about sexual abuse and cover-up in Kansas City-St. Joseph is far from over, but by throwing out the word “healing,” interim Archbishop Joseph Naumann is slamming the door shut on discussion, reform, change, and accountability.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann: Slap on a band-aid and open up those checkbooks, m’kay?
Basically, he’s saying, “We healed and offered the victims healing. It’s time to move on (and raise money).”
[Naumann]’s encouraging the grieving and still angry parishioners to reach toward their faith.
“I think we need to ask the Lord to help each of us to heal. There are people who have experienced wounds on both sides,” Naumann said in an interview Monday at the Diocese headquarters in downtown Kansas City.
“A great resource is our prayer. Prayer can be helpful to become focused on moving forward and not (revisiting) those things in the past,” Naumann says, “unless we can learn from them.”
“At this point,” he says, “if there are people who chose not to give because of Bishop Finn’s leadership, this may be a moment to re-examine that.”
Why the anchor is false
Minnesota Public Radio reporter Madeleine Baran made a very interesting point about the term “healing” at the 2015 SNAP conference in Washington DC.
Peabody Award winner Madeleine Baran
She remarked that groups who are in the wrong (and the journalists who cover them) will use the word “healing” as a way to end an argument or story arc and create the “next phase,” even if the story arc hasn’t finished.
Even if there has been no accountability.
Even if the group does not have the moral authority to determine healing times for those they have hurt.
My suggestion? I encourage Archbishop Naumann to hold “meetings of accountability ” and “prayers for reform.”
Healing can’t happen when a wound is still infected with cover-up.
