Brian Toale just sent me this regarding his work in New York on the CVA. I asked if I could publish it here.
There was so much rawness here. It shows that the survivors who went to Albany were very different from the paid lobbyists who went on behalf of the NY Catholic Conference.
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By Brian Toale
I spent half a year advocating for the Child Victims Act alongside a group of dedicated and courageous survivors and supporters because the law, as it now stands, prolongs the trauma of abuse by shaming, blaming and silencing survivors as they seek to be heard.
As I looked back to see where I failed in the effort, I realized I’m doing what my abuser did to me 46 years ago, making me blame myself for being exploited. This helped me see how we were set up by men skilled in getting their way.
Governor Cuomo’s started by including the CVA in his agenda. He was now off limits lest he abandon us. My abuser groomed me so I wouldn’t turn on him.
Senator Flanagan never wore sheep’s clothing like the governor, but his refusal to let the CVA get a vote (even with enough votes) killed it. Endangering those whose welfare is in your hands is an abuse of power, pure and simple. This was abuse just as effective as my own abuser’s power over me.
Predators need a society that enables them to get away with their abuses. Senator Flanagan had his own enablers. Governor Cuomo strung us along until the last moment before giving us hope with his program bill and immediately snatched it away declaring little hope it would get passed, giving Senator Flanagan all the cover he needed. The plan all along.
I feel violated by what went on this legislative session as I imagine my fellow survivors and advocates do.
Yet I also have a counter-intuitive sense of strength. This time I can’t be silenced, I’m not alone, and I can and will fight back. Abusers are bullies and count on us being victims, not survivors.
I had planned on talking about the Archdiocese of New York’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) in this blog, but I wanted to wait until after the end of the current New York legislative session.
My hope was that the plan would be rendered redundant—that the Child Victims’ Act (CVA) would have passed, and survivors of child sexual abuse across the state would have the ability to use the civil courts for justice.
In a previous a post, I called Hope and Healing Guam—a plan almost exactly like Dolan’s on the island territory—an outright hoax.
The reason I did so is because survivors of sexual abuse on Guam have the right to use the civil justice system to expose the archdiocese-wide conspiracy to cover up child sexual abuse—a conspiracy that lasted decades and included the cover-up of alleged sexual abuse by the archbishop himself.
Hope and Healing Guam aims to take these cases out of the court system and hide them in a church-run prayer circle, where the victims can get a spiritual advisor and a small check. Documents and the conspiracy will remain hidden forever.
Victims don’t want a check. They want assurances that these crimes will never happen again.
Survivors in New York don’t have the civil justice option. Many survivors in New York will never have a civil justice option.
So while the IRCP is a far from ideal program, it is not a hoax. But it also requires a lot of work on the part of survivors to make sure that child safety and exposing wrongdoing are the primary objectives.
Dolan and DiMarzio singing the IRCP Swing with a Sinatra Stand-in
What are the Church’s Motives? Why Brooklyn?
The Catholic Church in New York has very calculated motives with these IRCP programs. I believe it was a part of a deal to kill the CVA. I’m guessing Dolan and his pals said, “Hey, you kill this bill and we will roll out these plans across the state. The protesters will go away by the time the next legislative session starts up, we promise.”
And they have other priorities:
They want to stop legislative reform for ALL victims of child sexual abuse. If it works in NY, they are going to try and roll out these plans across the country.
They want the good publicity
They want to stop the document bleed that happens with litigation—those damning documents that show how priests were moved around, kids were abused and the crimes were covered up, parents were kept in the dark, and collusion was everywhere.
So Now What?
If you think you qualify for either of these plans, talk to an attorney. Don’t know who to call? Look online for people who have successfully handled/settled these kinds of cases with the church in New York. Ask for referrals. Don’t use someone who has never handled an abuse case.
I will go into more details about who qualifies for these in a later post. Why? Because not all victims are created equal …
I will take your questions in the comments. If I don’t know the answers, I will find out.
These plans compensate victims for the child sex abuse they suffered, while keeping documents, evidence, and some wrong-doers names secret.
The plan will also be administered by Kenneth Feinberg.
This Brooklyn announcement was the world’s best unkept secret. Victims from Brooklyn have been getting calls from the diocese for months.
And considering the dirty deals that just went down in Albany with the death of the Child Victims’ Act, survivors and advocates were pretty sure that “promises were made.” Perhaps these plans were part of those promises.
I have met with Ken Feinberg (and brought a crew of experts much smarter than I am) in order to do due diligence about the Archdiocese’s plan and its execution. I’ve also watched the roll-out of Phases One and Two.
I will comment on those in my next post tomorrow. There is much to be done and a big call to action for everyone involved.
In the meantime, if you were a part of the IRCP in New York, received a settlement, and were NOT represented by an attorney, give me a shout: jcasteix@gmail.com. I am trying to put together a list of all of the perpetrators who have been named in the program. Your privacy will be protected.
Guam’s disgraced Archbishop Anthony Apuron (pictured above with the pope) used to attend USCCB meetings and the like, but I think he used the “buffet” approach when it came to what window-dressing reforms he would adopt and what he wouldn’t.
Now that the Archdiocese of Agaña is headed by Archbishop Michael Byrnes out of Detroit, I think that the bonds to the USCCB are going to become much stronger.
Onto my story:
The saga of Archbishop Anthony Apuron is long and horrific.
Catholics began protesting his financial mismanagement and mobster tactics, including improper financial dealings with a Catholic sect called the Neo-Catechumenal Way.
Then, multiple alleged child victims—who risked their reputations, their families’ well-being, and their livelihoods by coming forward and saying that Apuron abused them—came forward. They all said that Apuron sexually abused them.
Apuron is now subject of a Vatican tribunal that will do little more than, I believe, give him a slap on the wrist and allow him to live in hiding on the mainland (with a monthly retirement check) for the rest of his life.
But none of this is why I am including Guam in my series.
The Hope and Healing Hoax
In April, a mainlander church lawyer came to Archbishop Michael Byrnes and told him he had a plan. A plan get the sex abuse cases out of the courts. They’d disguise it as “Hope and Healing.” They’d focus messaging on rebuilding spiritual bonds with the church, prayer … things like that. And no one would ever learn the truth.
But this we do know is true:
The Archdiocese’s ultimate goal is get these cases out of the court system so that none of the secret sex abuse and cover-up documents would see the light of day.
The church lawyer heading up this “plan” is Michael Caspino, who, according to USA Today:
… served as general counsel to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, and who has dealt with hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse, said experience has shown that court litigation does not necessarily solve abuse cases and can make the victims feel more alienated.
What? For those of you who don’t know, I live in Orange County. I work with hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse, and not a single one has heard of attorney Michael Caspino. A lot of other people have in the south part of the county, and it’s not for sex abuse cases. It’s for his other work.
And what’s this about “solving” abuse cases? Well, if he’s talking about the church’s point of view, I suppose he’s right. Exposing abuse and wrongdoers and protecting kids can be a bit of a tough pill to swallow.
So, after Guam’s victims of child sex abuse have won an amazing civil right, the church is trying to con them into “pausing” their cases, and accepting a little bit of prayer, a few sessions of counseling (on their terms) and a check. At the same time, the Archdiocese’s lawyers are spending tens of thousands of dollars in court to try to defeat the law that gave the victims power in the first place.
It’s a big, fat con.
Archbishop Michael Byrnes. Heading the long con.
Here’s the rub: If Archbishop Byrnes simply opened up and made public the archdiocese’s secret sex abuse files and financial records about the NCW, that would cost nothing. Everyone would stop protesting. Victims would feel vindicated. Forgiveness would begin.
But no, they would never do that … They always make it about the money.
Netflix’s recent documentary, The Keepers, has been a blockbuster for true crime and documentary fans (it was the talk of CrimeCon).
A gripping tale of abuse, cover-up, and murder, the series tells the story of how a group of former students are trying to find justice for their teacher Sister Cathy Cesnik, a murdered nun from Baltimore.
Sister Cathy Cesnik
Representatives from the Archdiocese of Baltimore—who play a large role in the series for their part in covering up the child sex abuse of numerous girls at Archbishop Keough High School and throughout the archdiocese—did not appear in the film and only agreed to answer questions in writing in the final episode.
In fact, the Archdiocese of Baltimore website is devoted to addressing The Keepers, with an FAQ, a statement by Archbishop William Lori, infographics about how they handled the Maskell case, and “mythbusting” the film.
Nowhere do they offer to make public Maskell’s file—with the names of victims and innocent third parties redacted—or turn over evidence that can be used by prosecutors, law enforcement, or grand juries.
They also claim to be pioneers in legislative change. But the bills they support are only prospective, that is, they only help child victims who are abused in the future. The victims whose abuse the Archdiocese of Baltimore covered up over the past 50 years? Those folks are out of luck.
