The Worthy Adversary

Author: Joelle Casteix

  • St. Paul/Minn Archbishop loves to talk about child porn, hates to report it

    In July, I blogged about how institutions should not be in the child sex abuse investigation business. Little did I know that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis would prove me right so quickly.

    Here’s a recap from what we learned yesterday from Minnesota Public Radio (emphasis mine):

    Archbishop John Nienstedt was in the middle of a heated political fight over same-sex marriage in February of last year when he learned of a disturbing secret, hidden in the basement of the chancery — pornography from a priest’s computer, some of which appeared to depict children.

    Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger had uncovered several computer discs and a white three-ring binder kept in the basement archives of the chancery building — the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was evidence from a 2004 internal investigation of sexually explicit images found on the computer of the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, then pastor of St. Jude of the Lake church in Mahtomedi, Minn.

    Haselberger, a firebrand top official who joined the archdiocese in 2008, notified Nienstedt of the evidence, which included a report at the time from a private investigator that found that many of the depictions “could be considered illegal, because of the youthful-looking male image.”

    According to church documents, the computer actually held child abuse images of boys under 14. You know, the illegal kind.

    So what did Nienstedt do? He wrote letters and memos. Lots of them. He wrote to the Vatican, saying that the images could expose the Archdiocese to criminal charges. He wrote his deputies and they nit-picked over whether the images were “technically” child pornography (which many of them were). They hemmed and hawed over Canon law.

    Did they call the cops? Hell, no. In fact, they fired the woman who eventually did.

     

    Now that the media has caught wind, the Archdiocese is closing ranks and putting together an independent review committee to look into the matter. The Archdiocese finally turned the computer over to the cops this week.

    Five points are important to note here:

    1. Institutions like the Catholic church cannot be in the child sex abuse investigation business. Why? Because they don’t give a crap about kids. This case proves it. Again. Archbishop Nienstedt is morally bankrupt and a shame to every Catholic.
    2. The church’s stance on child pornography is laughable (and downright dangerous). Remember: child pornography is/are photos of CHILDREN BEING SEXUALLY ABUSED. There IS a victim there. That’s why it’s a violation of federal law. However, time and time again (Kansas City, anyone?), church officials try to say it’s “not so bad” and a “victimless crime.” It ain’t. Just ask the kid in the picture. And what is especially galling is the fact that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says that they hold true to zero tolerance. No, they don’t. If you spend a year discussing whether something is child pornography but don’t report it, you tolerate sex abusers. And you should be criminally liable.
    3. During this entire time, Archbishop Niestedt was using the bully pulpit to try and defeat marriage equality in the state, calling it “the work of Satan.” Really.
    4. The ONLY reason this is coming out is because of Minnesota’s civil window for adult victims of child sex abuse.
    5. Catholic bishops continually pontificate about how “abuse happens everywhere” and how they are being “unfairly targeted.” This case, once again, shows that the COVER-UP is equally horrific, sinful and criminal. If you commit a crime (as we are seeing here), law enforcement should target you. That is their job.

    Be sure to read the whole article.

    (Especially laughable is the description of when Fr. Shelly writes Neil Diamond for help. I can’t even do the letter justice here)

  • Jerry Brown should look to MN to see import of Child Victims Act

    California Governor Jerry Brown has until Sunday, October 13 to sign or veto SB 131, The California Child Victims’ Act. If he does nothing, the bill will be enacted as written. In the meantime, victims wait.

    Here is why the bill’s opponents are scared: Minnesota enacted a THREE-YEAR civil window earlier this year and the revelations have been startling. They fear the same could happen in California.

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    He’s had a bad couple of weeks. Something tells me it’s only going to get worse.

    Here is what we have learned in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in just the past few weeks:

    Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer

    Last year, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis won praise for quickly removing Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer when he was accused of abuse by a parishioner (he later pled guilty to 20 counts of abuse and possession of child pornography).

    BUT …

    An investigation by Minnesota Public Radio discovered that Archdiocese officials had know about Wehmeyer’s conduct for a DECADE and did NOTHING. Of wait, they did do something: they kept Wehmeyer in ministry.

    The Vicar General, the Whistleblower, and the Case of the Disappearing Banker’s Box of Child Pornography

    Last week, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis resigned from his post when court documents showed that he may have hidden evidence of child pornography.

    According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

    His resignation came shortly after allegations emerged in a St. Paul court that church officials knew a priest had been in possession of child pornography but continued to assign him to parish duties that brought him into contact with children. The allegations were contained in a St. Paul police report made public Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

    St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, a leading plaintiffs’ lawyer in pursuing cases against the archdiocese over child abuse, said the police report implies that the archdiocese destroyed evidence.

    The police report says that the archdiocese seized the evidence about the child pornography and kept it in a vault. When another diocesan official, Jennifer Haselberger, discovered the evidence, Laird told her to put it back in the vault, she told police.

    Haselberger, who has since resigned, brought the matter to police attention. When the police went to the vault, the evidence of child pornography that they were told would be there was missing.

    The evidence is said to be in a white “Banker’s Box”

    It gets worse, the Star-Tribune continues:

    Haselberger also told police that she had seen a report from a private investigator, Richard Setter & Associates, which the archdiocese hired to examine the computer and its contents.

    According to her, the report said that a forensic computer expert had examined the computer and found “thousands of images,” including some of a young boy performing oral sex on another male.

    The police requested a copy of the computer report but were turned down by the archdiocese. As for the computer, “We were told that was destroyed,” the police report says.

    Of course if was destroyed.

    List? You don’t need no stinkin’ list!

    Minnesota’s victims of child sex abuse, empowered by these recent revelations, now want access to information they say is vital to public safety.

    St. Paul victim David Pususta wants the Archdiocese to publicly release their list of 33 priests accused of child sexual abuse. This request is not over-the-top. Even Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony posted his list of accused clerics online (and then took the list down, and then put it back up).

    Lawyers for the St. Paul Archdiocese are fighting the request. Shocker!

    But can you blame them? After everything we just learned, who knows what information is included on the list of 33 priests? The thought probably scares the chancery to its core.

    If there has ever been a call to action to help victims of child sex abuse, Minnesota has given Jerry Brown all of the evidence he needs to sign SB 131.

    You can write Governor Brown here.

  • So … what’s going on with SB 131?

    Here is the latest on SB 131:

    • Governor Brown has until October 13 (a previous blog post said October 10) to sign the bill, veto the bill, or do nothing.
    • If he signs the bill or does nothing, SB 131 becomes law. As written, the law would go into effect on January 1, 2014.
    • If Brown vetoes the bill, SB 131 is dead.

    What is the difference between signing the bill and doing nothing? Think of the bill like it’s your 40th birthday. Signing the bill is throwing yourself a 40th birthday party. You invite all of your friends, laugh, take photos and have a great time. If you do nothing, you turn 40 anyway. Quietly. Hoping that no one notices.

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    A veto is another story. In that case, the bill is dead and victims lose the right to use the civil court system for justice.

    There is still time to write Brown and tell him to support SB 131. Click here to write him right now, and tell all of your friends.

    I know that there are survivors across California carefully watching this bill and wondering what their next steps are. If you have questions, leave them in the comments or email me directly. A good therapist is a great start. So is talking to other survivors who have been through the process.

     

  • QUIZ: How safe is your child’s school?

    My inbox fills up this time every year with emails from panicked parents who write and ask me if their school is a safe place for their kids. Sometimes, I can give parents a history of accused or arrested predators who have worked or volunteered at a particular campus, but that usually doesn’t tell the whole story.

    Abuse and cover-up thrive because of an administrative and organizational attitude. “Safe environment” programs and background checks are useless unless this attitude is changed from the top down AND the bottom up.

    But how do you know the attitude of your school?

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    I do not provide answers to the questions I give below. You will see that many of the positive and negative scenarios I pose apply equally to public and private education. My goal here is to create a discussion and and a starting point for parents who—for way too long—have simply not known the right questions to ask. While there are no right or wrong responses, your answers will clue you in to your school’s “attitude” and whether or not it is a place where transparency, accountability and child safety can thrive.

    Questions to ask yourself about the safety of your child’s school

    1) Are pastors, teachers and/or administrators hired without input from parents?

    2) Does campus leadership have to answer to an off-site administrator? If so, are problems dealt with swiftly, openly and according to the law and common sense … or behind closed doors? Are wrongdoers held accountable?

    3) Is there someone on campus (a priest, rabbi, etc) who has an implied, religious or real power over students and staff? If this person is disobeyed, is it considered a sin or an affront to God?

    4) Are parents discouraged from being on campus?

    5) Has there been a recent large turnover of teachers and administrators beyond normal attrition, pregnancy and retirement?

    6) Have other issues been handled “in secret” because of a fear of scandal or the concern that people “just won’t understand”?

    7) Have there been incidents of embezzlement at the school? How long did it go on? (Embezzlers often feel that they are ‘owed’ money for work they do above and beyond the call of duty. In many cases, it’s because they have covered for the crimes of others. Also, in numerous cases in the Catholic Church, predators have embezzled money to pay for gifts for victims, trips and to cover their tracks.)

    8) Does “zero tolerance” only apply to students? Or only to SOME students?

    9) Have there been rumors of the harassment of parents who complain or of teachers who raise red flags? Have you been able to substantiate these rumors?

    10) Have you done a google news search of the school, including the search terms “lawsuit” and “arrest”?

    11) Do you just have a gut feeling?

    12) Have long-time families left the school and enrolled their children elsewhere?

    14) Is the school open to new ideas and input?

    15) Are administrators dogmatic when they should be flexible?

    16) Are teachers easily transferred or removed with little to no explanation to parents.

    17) Is your school considered a “dumping ground” for bad teachers and administrators?

    18) Are teachers retained solely to to tenure or union affiliation? 

    I could provide explanations for these questions, but that would make this blog post a book-length manuscript. If you have specific questions, please leave them in the comments.

    I realize that many parents to not have educational options for their children. But the more we address the issues, the more we can empower parents to demand safe and transparent schools.

     

  • An Open Letter to Pope Francis

    Your Holiness:

    I was a nobody. A lost sheep – a victim of sex abuse in the Catholic church who was “thrown away” by the priests and bureaucrats in the Diocese of Orange, California. I was disposable. But unlike the parable, no shepherd came to look to me. Alone and isolated from my community, my family and my faith, I had to struggle to heal myself. Against the odds, I succeeded. And now I speak for those who still suffer alone, in silence.

    I am not a nobody anymore. And that is why I am writing to you.

    You have reached out to atheists and agnostics. You have said you cannot judge the homosexual community. Those were huge steps, but very easy things to do. You followed your heart and the teachings of the Bible. Now I ask you to do the hard thing: embrace the lost sheep that your people sexually abused, shunned and shamed. Tackle the “elephant in the room” that has been ignored for so long.

    Doing that will be difficult. But rumor has it that dying on the cross wasn’t terribly easy either.

    You have a bishop in Missouri, USA, who was convicted of child endangerment. Why is he still a bishop? I can’t help but think that Jesus would weep to see that secular authorities are doing more to save your lost sheep than you are.

    You have Cardinals in the United States who have covered up abuse, yet they stand in judgement—saying that victims are just bitter, money-grubbers.

    You have children in danger world-wide because bishops refuse to remove offending clerics and continue to cover up their crimes.

    You have victims—hundreds of thousands of victims world-wide—who only want three things: justice, healing and child safety. The only person in the world who can give that to them is YOU.

    How do you do this? Well, saying you’re sorry is not enough. You know that. It didn’t work before and it won’t work now. Victims and Catholics need action. You must remove and punish offending clerics and everyone who has covered up abuse. You must turn over documents to civil authorities. You must tell the bishops to stop their legal fights against victims. You must beg for forgiveness and offer atonement for the sins of your shepherds. I could write a list, but I don’t want to limit the scope of what you can do. You’re the POPE—you can do anything. No one is going to fire you.

    It’s time to take your job security to heart. You MUST change the dialog of your bishops. Victims are not your enemy. They are your teachers and your guides. Only your true humility and real action will change the course of the crisis. Until then, everything else you do and say will continue to ring false.

    Jesus was a rebel. It’s time for you to follow in his footsteps.

    Sincerely,

    Joelle Casteix