What the heck is going on? If you saw the local news this week, probably saw headlines about the $3.5 million settlement that the Diocese of Orange has agreed to pay a survivor of former Mater Dei Principal Michael Harris. The diocese also put out a horrible, tone-deaf, anti-survivor, unchristian statement about the survivor and…Continue reading Diocese of Orange Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Update
Recent hazing and violence lawsuits against Mater Dei have alerted a lot of noses to a stink that has been brewing for years: decades of child sexual abuse, hazing, and cover-up at the infamous high school. The parents of a recent hazing victim remarked to me that they had had no idea about the scandals…Continue reading School for Scandal 101: Santa Ana’s Mater Dei High School
Today, the Associated Press released a blockbuster article about how the Catholic Church in the United States has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in PPP loans, despite a lack of need. In Orange County, California, Bishop Kevin Vann treated PPP loans like a taxpayer-funded ATM machine. Catholic entities under Vann’s direct management collected more than…Continue reading Diocese of Orange snags more than $24 mil in PPP loans
Fresno Bishop Joseph V. Brennan promised a list. Did he think we forgot? Now that my white paper on the sexual abuse of women in the Catholic Church is complete—and getting a great response—I am beginning work on a complete analysis of California’s Catholic dioceses, sexual abuse, and cover-up. I thought I would start with…Continue reading Diocese of Fresno promised us a list of accused priests. Where is it?
What if the cornerstone of our conventional wisdom about the victims of the Catholic Church and clergy sex abuse crisis was wrong? What if, in a statistically viable sample of survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church, 50% of respondents were female? What if you also knew that this result is almost statically impossible to…Continue reading What if women comprised 50% of sex abuse victims in the Catholic Church?
In honor of Father’s Day, the LA Times published an essay by author Mimi Bull. The catch? Her father was a practicing Catholic priest. No one reading the essay will be satisfied. Mimi’s mother was forced into a life of secrecy and shame, unable to acknowledge the daughter she loved until Mimi was well into…Continue reading When your father is Father
Yesterday, Hollywood actor and Scientologist Danny Masterson was arrested and charged with raping three women. Two other women have alleged that Masterson raped them, but because of expired statutes of limitations and/or insufficient evidence, the LA District Attorney’s office declined to press charges. The victimization of these women did end at rape. From The New…Continue reading What role does Scientology have in covering up sex crimes?
Legislative work can be complicated. Take my word for it. And sometimes the hardest decision to make is the best one: if a law protects predators, it’s not a good law. That is what happened in Colorado. And Colorado did the right thing. Yesterday, the sponsors of a potential law to help future victims of…Continue reading Colorado: Refusing to settle for a second rate law
There are voices that have been silenced—or simply ignored—in the clergy sex abuse crisis. We have known for years that “priest dumping” has been a common practice in the Catholic Church: bishops and other officials send white, English-speaking predator priests to indigenous, refugee, or immigrant communities, or communities of color. These communities are devoutly Catholic.…Continue reading When adversity is your gift
Yesterday, I wrote about the Child Sex Abuse Civil Window cases that are beginning to flood the New York judicial system as the courts reopen. But what about California? There has been little news about California’s Child Victims’ Act cases because the courts have been closed for filings (a “court holiday”) and/or are only beginning…Continue reading What’s going on in California?
CA AB 218 is now law. Victims of child sexual abuse—no matter how old they are or when the abuse occurred (public or private institutions are both included, as well as victims in the family)—can come forward in the courts and expose what happened. For those of us from Mater Dei, the All-American Boys Chorus,…Continue reading A note to my friends about AB 218
