The Worthy Adversary

Category: Clergy Abuse Crisis

  • A hero is born overnight

    Last spring, I met a man named Mark Pinkosh. Yesterday, he became a hero.

    Mark charges that he was sexually abused by Hawaii priest J. Michael Henry (Also known as Joseph Henry) when Mark was just a boy attending Kailua’s St. Anthony’s church. When Mark reached out to other adults, trying to get someone to help him, another priest befriended the boy. That priest, Joseph Ferrario, then began to abuse the boy himself. Joseph Ferrario later became the Bishop of Honolulu.

    Mark Pinkosh, age 8

    Mark’s accusations were not the first against both men. Another boy, David Figueroa, came forward in 1991 and filed a lawsuit against both priests. The suit was dismissed because of an archaic statute of limitations, NOT the merits of the case. Mark came forward then to help David, but in the end, both boys were shunned in their communities for coming forward and speaking out about what had happened to them. Mark was eventually chased out of Hawaii, his home. David passed away, never able to get justice for the boy who was abused.

    Earlier this year, the law changed. Victims of child sexual abuse now have the next two years to come forward and use the civil courts to expose their abusers, punish those who covered up abuse, and get justice and accountability. Thanks to Senator Maile Shimabukuro, victims can get justice and children are safer from abuse. Mark filed a lawsuit to get to the truth of what the Diocese of Honolulu knew about abusers, when they knew it, how they covered it up.

    Mark’s life changed yesterday, when he came forward publicly to say that he had been sexually abused as a boy by both Henry and Ferrario. He also came forward to tell other victims that it is safe to report abuse, come forward, and get justice. He finally was able to protect the little boy who was so brutally hurt.

    And instantly, he became a hero. And hopefully, he can come home again.

  • Honolulu’s Damien Memorial School grapples with 12 child sex abuse claims

    You can read yesterday’s complete story in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser here.

    And as more and more victims learn of their rights, I only see the numbers growing.

  • Today on the Big Island – Hilo Priest Accused of Child Sex Crimes

    I think it’s time to let Music Ministry Alive  and BILAC know that they have a real issue on their hands and need to reach out to potential victims and confused parishioners now.

    News event: Hilo priest accused of child sex crimes 

    Two ex-Damien students name him as predator

    Bishop forced him to retire during 2002 abuse scandal

    But cleric still travels and works with youngsters today

     

    What:

    Holding signs and photos of themselves when they were abused, child sex abuse victims will announce that a long-time Hilo Catholic priest:

    — has been accused molesting two boys, but

    — continues to work for a church group that teaches music to teenagers.

    They will also beg Honolulu Bishop Clarence Silva to:

    — disclose why the priest was forced to retire,

    — insist that the music group oust him immediately,

    — personally visit every parish, school and facility where he worked reaching out to others he may have hurt.

    Where:  Outside of Malia Puka O Kalani Church, 326 Desha Ave in Hilo

    When: Tuesday, August 21, at 11 am

    Who: One to two members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), the nation’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused as children in religious and institutional organizations, including a California woman who is the group’s Western Regional Director

    Why: Last month, two victims of child sexual abuse filed legal claims in New York state charging they were sexually abused by a long-time Hilo priest, Fr. George DeCosta.

    Now, DeCosta is the pastor of the Hale Lokahi community in Hilo. He also works with Music Ministry Alive, a MN-based group that trains young people to be liturgical music leaders .

    The victims are coming forward as a part of the recent bankruptcy of the Irish Christian Brothers, the Catholic religious order that runs Honolulu’s Damien Memorial School, where DeCosta was a teacher.

    Both victims were young students at Damien in the late 1960s, when DeCosta worked as a religion teacher and director of the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) at the school. At least one of the victims charges that DeCosta molested him at an Oahu CYO camp.

    At the time of the alleged abuse, DeCosta was also assigned to St. Theresa’s parish in Honolulu, a parish with a school.

    In 1973, DeCosta was transferred to St. Mary Gate of Heaven—now Malia Puka’O Kalani—Parish in Hilo. He stayed there until 2002, when Honolulu Bishop Francis DiLorenzo mysteriously forced him to retire at age 65. That was the year that the clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis attracted national headlines. Bishops pledged then to be “open” about child sex cases and oust predators from ministry.

    Currently, DeCosta is a member of the leadership team of Music Ministry Alive, a MN-based group that trains young people to serve as liturgical music leaders in the Catholic church. He is also the founder of the Big Island Learning and Arts Community (BILAC).

    SNAP believes that there may be more victims in Hilo and Honolulu and that church officials must do more to reach out to survivors. They want Honolulu Bishop Silva to make sure DeCosta is ousted from his current positions and personally visit all of the churches, schools and communities where DeCosta has worked, reaching out to potential victims. They also want Silva to release DeCosta’s secret personnel file and publicly disclose the full reason DeCosta was forced to retire.

    The victims asked SNAP to speak out on their behalf, to make sure that what happened to them does not happen to other children.

    Both victims also have rights under Hawaii’s new civil window law that gives victims of child sexual abuse a chance to seek justice in the courts no matter when they were abused.

    Both victims are represented by California attorney Michael Reck (714) 742-6593, cell 

     

     

  • Adios, Br. Thing!

    Thomas Thing, a former Franciscan brother, was recently fired from his job as the student activities director at a LA college when details of two child sex abuse lawsuits against him became public.

    University of the West in Rosemead also got access to more than 500 pages of Thing’s personnel file (released as a part of the litigation) which showed that Thing had a long history of troublesome behavior. He even admitted to using his “power relationship” to sexually assault a college student while he was working at USD.

    In light of Jerry Sandusky, it’s good to see a school being somewhat proactive to ensure the safety of its students. What intrigues and disappoints me is why other schools, such as Adrian College in Adrian Michigan, still employ admitted child molesters. Those documents are here.

  • Another Disconnect: Nuns, Sex Abuse, and Vatican Investigations

    I am guilty of instantly running to the defense of American nuns after the Vatican announced that women religious in the United States had “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” Like most people, I remembered American nuns working with the most dejected among us – helping the poor, the sick, the homeless, and the fringes of society … and my junior AP English teacher Sr. Lorraine, who was in way over her head.

    But I had forgotten something: The leadership of American nuns in the United States is also no stranger to child sex abuse and cover up.

    Since 2004, SNAP has been trying to get the Leadership Conference of Religious Women (LCRW) to make some kind of statement on behalf of children who were sexually abused by nuns. There are a number of SNAP members and leaders who were sexually abused by women religious, and many of them feel like their plight is ignored. Eight years later, SNAP has received no response. Victims have been simply shut out of the conversation.

    This week, the LCRW is meeting in St. Louis where they will figure out how they will respond to the Vatican report.

    Outside of the meeting, members of SNAP and victims of sex abuse by nuns will be holding a press conference, asking that the bishops “appointed to ‘supervise the overhaul’ of their organization” carefully evaluate the cover-up of sexual abuse by nuns and secret settlements with victims.

    Even I was a little shocked by what I learned. According the SNAP press release:

    This week, SNAP also learned that a St. Louis man, who charges that he was molested by a nun, secretly got a $16,000 settlement last year from the nun’s superiors. The alleged abuser was Sr. Gretchen, who groped the then-eight year old second grade boy’s penis at a North County parochial school around 1969-70. (SNAP will provide copies of the previously undisclosed, signed settlement agreement.)

    Similarly, nuns settled a civil child sex abuse suit in Connecticut in 2005 involving Sister Linda Cusano, who taught at Cor Jesu from 1988 to 1990.  

    Catholic officials alerted no one to the two settlements. Nor did they reach out – anywhere – to anyone else who may have been hurt by the nuns. The cases prove SNAP’s view that even now, nun supervisors conceal child sex crimes by their employees. Such secrecy endangers kids, SNAP maintains.
    I’ll post the lawsuit and other documents as soon as they are made available.
    I can’t help but wonder: doesn’t social justice begin your own accountability to those you have hurt? Isn’t it easy—especially since the number of victims by nuns is smaller than that in the church as a whole—to embrace the victims, acknowledge wrongdoing and foster healing?