The Worthy Adversary

Category: Clergy Abuse Crisis

  • New Abuse Lawsuit Against Damien, Honolulu Diocese

    The latest lawsuit exposing a long string of sex abuse and cover-up scandals at Damien Memorial School in Honolulu

    Two Honolulu men file new clergy sex abuse suit

    They accuse a former Damien Catholic teacher

    He has allegedly molested at least 12 kids in five states

    A former Damien principal has also been named as predator

    New state law lets victims expose abusers & protect kids

    Brother Robert Brouillette

     

    What:

    Holding signs and photos of themselves when they were abused, abuse victims and their supporters will disclose a new child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against the Honolulu Catholic diocese and a convicted predator cleric. The suit charges that a Catholic brother:

    — Sexually abused two Damien Memorial School students,

    — Was transferred from school to school because of abuse allegations,

    — Was removed from Damien for abuse allegations, but parents and students were never informed.

    They will also:

    — Discuss a recent child sex abuse accusation against a former Damien principal,

    — Urge victims and witnesses to report to abuse to law enforcement, not church officials, and

    — Show how a landmark new Hawaii law is helping to warn parents about predators.

    Where:

    Outside of Damien Memorial School, 1401 Houghtailing Street (at School Street) in Honolulu

    When:

    Thursday, November 8 at 11:00 am

    Who:

    Two to three victims of child sex abuse and their supporters who are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), including a California woman who is the group’s Western Regional Director and a former priest who is now one of the nation’s leading experts on the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis.

    Why:

    This week, two former Damien Memorial students filed a new child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against the Honolulu Catholic Diocese and Br. Robert Brouillette, an Irish Christian Brother and former teacher at the school.

    Both men, who are still Oahu residents, charge that Brouillette sexually abused them while both were young students at the school. One victim was abused in 1984 and the other was abused in 1986. They were able to come forward and expose Brouillette because of a landmark new Hawaii law that allows victims of child sexual abuse to come forward and seek justice in the courts, no matter when the abuse occurred. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/opinion/more-time-for-justice.html?_r=0.

    Separate from the lawsuit, the Irish Christian Brothers, a New York-based Catholic religious order that runs Damien, declared bankruptcy in 2011 to avoid costly and public child sex abuse civil trials. http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/16904070/group-says-child-predators-worked-at-catholic-school. Both victims also filed claims against Brouillette in the bankruptcy. According to attorneys, sixteen victims from Damien have come forward as a result.

    Brouillette has been accused of sexual abuse by at least a dozen victims in IL, CA, HI, AZ and MO. In 2000, he was convicted of possession of child pornography after being arrested in an internet child molestation sting. His last known address was in Missouri. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/1999_12_04_Presecky_CatholicBrother.htm

    This is just the latest in a string of scandals at Damien Memorial School. Last week, a former Damien principal was forced to step down from his job in Seattle due to allegations of abuse. Br. Karl Walczak, Damien principal from 1987-1999, was accused of abuse while he was a teacher at an Irish Christian Brother school in Chicago. The alleged victim filed a claim in July, but Irish Christian Brother and Archdiocese officials did not disclose the allegations until Halloween. SNAP and parents were outraged at the delay in disclosure.
    http://www.komonews.com/news/local/ODea-High-School-principal-resigns-amid-sex-abuse-allegations-176692501.html?tab=video&c=y. A lawsuit against former Damien chaplain Fr. Gerald Funcheon was filed in May. http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/561462/Lawsuit-claims-abuse-by-former-Honolulu-priest.html?nav=5031.

    SNAP is urging all victims at the school to come forward and get help while they have civil rights under Hawaii’s new window legislation. The two-year law, sponsored by Senator Maile Shimabukuro, expires in 2014.

    The victims are represented by Attorneys Mike Reck and Mark Gallagher. Copies of the lawsuit will be available at the event.

     

  • **Updated** Seattle high school principal removed for abuse – Parents not informed

    UPDATE –

    Seattle Archdiocese officials have admitted that Br. Karl Walczak was removed for sex abuse allegations.

    Walczak has been principal of O’Dea High School since 2011. Before that, he was at Brother Rice High School in Chicago.  He was principal of Damien Memorial School in Honolulu from 1987 to 1999.

    ********

    There are reports of out Seattle that O’Dea High School principal Br. Karl Walczak was accused of child sexual abuse in court documents and removed from his job in August.

    And three months later, parents still have not been told the truth.

    According to a letter which has since been taken down from the O’Dea website (it used to be posted here. You can now view it here.), Walczak “took a leave” of absence in August, “to assist in resolving a proof of claim filed in the Christian Brother’s Institute bankruptcy proceedings.”

    The letter continues, “Thank you for your ongoing support of Brother Walczak and the entire O’Dea community.”

    The only proof of claims filed against individuals in the Irish Christian Brother Bankruptcy were claims of child sexual abuse. There was no mention of any allegations to parents, students or the greater community.

    BehindThePineCurtain also is reporting the abuse in a letter to Seattle Bishop J. Peter Sartain.

    It is now almost November, and church and school officials have remained silent. Where are the promises of transparency? Why aren’t they reaching out to other potential victims? Why aren’t they doing ANYTHING?

    If I were an O’Dea parent, I would demand answers, a tuition refund and a transfer for my child to a school where officials DO NOT clam up when the principal is sued for sex abuse.

    Walczak also worked at Damien Memorial School in Honolulu and Brother Rice High School in Chicago.

    More coming …

  • A symposium has never stopped sex abuse and cover-up

    What if Pablo Escobar had hosted a symposium on Drug Trade Gangland Violence Prevention?

    No matter what well-respected, hard-working experts he invited, the symposium wouldn’t have stopped the continued promulgation of violence in the Columbian Drug Cartel.

    Later this month, Penn State will be hosting a symposium on child sexual abuse and prevention. Their list of partners is very impressive.

    The Boy Scouts of America will also be hosting a symposium in November in Atlanta.

    Sounds similar, don’t you think?

    At least they are doing something, I hear many of you say. But that’s the problem: Right now, that ALL they are doing.

    The Boy Scouts and Penn State did not voluntarily go to the cops and say, “We have a problem.” The Scouts were sued by hundreds of victims who were aching after decades of abuse and cover-up. Penn State was exposed because of the bravery of Jerry Sandusky’s victims, who bucked the Happy Valley “code of silence” and came forward to protect other kids.

    But instead of enacting REAL institutional change that installs any measure of acountability, both groups are working to brand themselves as “leaders” in prevention. But don’t be fooled.

    Victims don’t come forward so that large organizations that cover up sex abuse will be encouraged to hold “symposiums” on child sex abuse prevention. They come forward so that wrong doers are punished and children are protected.

    Until the leadership of the Boy Scouts and Penn State are held publicly accountable and until effective institutional change is implemented and enforced, public relations events like symposiums will only give the false illusion of child safety.

    The only way that change will occur is if victims continue to use the civil and criminal courts to seek justice and if the public demands significant change with their voice and their checkbooks. Finally, the hard-working and tireless child protection advocacy groups and speakers attending both events should demand evidence of accountability and institutional change before any further partnership agreements with either the Scouts or Penn State.

    Addition:

    I want to be clear – I’m expressing doubts about institutions that sponsor these events, not those who attend or speak at them. The intentions of the institutions are questionable, not the intentions of people who show up or present at these events.

  • LA clergy sex abuse files to be made public by end of year, judge says

    Today, LA judge Emilie Elias gave the Archdiocese of Los Angeles a concrete schedule for the public release of thousands of pages of sex abuse and cover-up documents. If all goes according to plan, the redacted files on perpetrator priests will be made public by the end of the year.

    The documents were a part of the 2007, $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims of child sexual abuse. More than 200 predator clerics were named as abusers. Lawyers for the Archdiocese and accused priests have spent the past five years (and who knows how much money at $600/hr) to keep the files secret.

    Bad days in store for Cardinal Mahony

    In other dioceses (like Orange and Wilmington, DE, to name a few), similar files have shown the severe damage caused by many current and former clerics, and also show how complicit church officials ignored public safety and recklessly put children in harm’s way.

    The next hearing on the document release will be on December 10. At that time, lawyers for accused (and dead) clerics will have the opportunity to file objections. Hopefully, there won’t be any.

    In other developments, the secret personnel files of 13 priests were turned over to victims’ attorneys in preparation for the upcoming civil sex abuse trial of “runaway priest” Nicolas Aguilar Rivera. Lawyers for the Archdiocese and accused clerics had fought the release all the way to the California Supreme Court and lost.

     

  • Church “lawyers” keep mum on speaker’s five abuse allegations

    Patrick Marker from BehindthePineCurtain broke this blockbuster story:

    The organization representing lawyers practicing Catholic Church “law” recently allowed a man with numerous allegations of sexual abuse to speak to its membership at its Chicago conference.

    The Canon Law Society of America (CLSA), the organization charged with “promotion of the study and application of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church,” hosted speaker Fr. Daniel Ward, OSB, a Benedictine monk and priest with at least five allegations of sexual abuse. The group did this despite being warned in a letter that the Benedictines had launched an investigation and that Marker had collected statements from the victims.

    Ward’s presentation: A Diocese, a Parish, a Religious Institute, a Member: An Exploration of Canon and Civil Law is telling—his “exploration of Canon and civil law” seems to be a study on how to hide assets when a diocese is rocked by a sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

    How does he know so much? Well, not only has he represented predator monks himself, but he also counsels church groups on sexual misconduct and asset reallocation. And who would know better?

    The CLSA owes a huge explanation to its membership, who they thought would never catch wind of the allegations. The Benedictines need to be held accountable as well—one of their priests is under investigation for numerous allegations of abuse, yet they have warned NO ONE and allow Ward to live freely in Silver Spring, MD (home of the infamous St. Luke’s Institute, a treatment center for child-molesting clerics).