Last week, the Vatican announced that Mother Teresa will be made a saint sometime in May 2016. The Macedonian nun founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order whose mission is to help the poor. When the sainthood announcement was made, critics denounced the decision, citing the fact that she…Continue reading Mother Teresa: Sainthood and the Almighty Dollar
The Carrot: Money Last week, the US Senate proposed a bill that would give states money if they enacted legislation that extended or eliminated unexpired statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse. (In other words, if your time is up, it’s up. But if not, you could have your statute extended or eliminated.)…Continue reading The Carrot, the Stick, and what two SOL reform initiatives are missing …
Two unrelated cases in New York State are going to test Catholics’ faith in their leadership. The rest of us are going to get an unprecedented look at how NY church leaders handle cases of sexual abuse. Case number one is dominating the headlines – I mean, how often do you see this:…Continue reading A perv priest and a public nuisance case: NY in the spotlight
For free on Amazon, that is! The Power of Responsibility: Six Decisions That Will Help You Take Back Happiness and Create Unlimited Success—based on my TEDxPasadenaWomen talk—is now available. And the best part is that it’s free! Download it here. This short (under 2-hour) read blossomed from how I learned to use the power of responsibility…Continue reading The Power of Responsibility is yours …
Protect Your Child from Sexual Predators by Breaking through Stereotypes Read the whole thing
**Listen to the StoryCorps interview here** A clergy abuse survivor, former nun, Catholic elementary school principal, lesbian, gay rights activist, competitive ballroom dancer, and author all walk into a bar … The “crowd” is just one person: Mary Dispenza. Her story is compelling—rich and complex in the relationships between how our society views sexuality, the…Continue reading Mary Dispenza: Split and the search for authentic self
Newly released documents show how St. John’s Prep in Collegeville, MN is in direct violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and created a hostile environment where students can reasonably believe they are risk of sexual assault. At least 10 sex-offending monks—who have only been publicly exposed due to child sex abuse civil lawsuits…Continue reading Prestigious MN prep school/Uni in violation of Title IX for housing sex offending monks
You bet they did. A wealthy Minnesota Catholic religious order and a Catholic-owned rehabilitation hospital engaged in potential Missouri Medicaid insurance fraud to get free health care for a sex-offending priest, a newly released document shows. The 2014 document, released as a part of a legal settlement against the Benedictines of Minnesota and sex-offending priests, show that the order withheld money…Continue reading Did Missouri’s taxpayers foot the bill for an out-of-state sex offending priest?
From the statement by St. John’s (MN) Abbey regarding the recent release of of the personnel files of five sex-offending monks: “The files provided include those of monks currently living on the Saint John’s campus under safety plans. Their actions are limited and they are closely supervised.” Hmmm … if the 6th though 12th graders…Continue reading Sex offending monks have no contact with students … or do they?
Everything the bishops have been led you to believe about the independent power of lay review boards is deliberately misleading. Citing a sex-offening priest’s “right to privacy,” a newly released Vatican document shows that priests are able to shield potentially damning evidence from review boards who are charged with determining whether abuse allegations against a priest…Continue reading Vatican thwarts review boards, documents show
A controversial priest accused of covering up abuse in the Diocese of San Diego is in charge of taking victims calls and emails. Msgr. Steven Callahan shot to the spotlight in 2014 after he became the temporary diocesan administrator after the death of Cirilo Flores. Victims, supporters and Catholics were rightfully upset: In 2007, Callahan…Continue reading Priest who destroyed evidence now taking reports of abuse in San Diego
Earlier today, attorneys for sex abuse victims by priests and monks at a prestigious Benedictine high school, university, and abbey released hundreds of pages of documents that show a decades-long cover-up of the sexual abuse of children and university students. It’s important to note that many of the credibly accused priests still live on…Continue reading MN Abbey: Prep School/University campus has housed abusers for decades
** Update: only two journalists were indicted. Note corrections below Events last week showed that the Vatican has the power to indict foreign journalists … but earlier this year needed to draft new rules in order to indict its own employees for sex abuse. Let’s take a look. Last week, the Vatican issued indictments against five…Continue reading Vatican: We can indict foreign journalists, but not our own priests
Did you just see Spotlight and get all fired up? Or maybe you have noticed that your bishop’s actions don’t reflect transparency, humility … or anything remotely resembling Christianity. But you can’t quite determine the root of the problem. And no matter how hard to try to believe that “things are different now,” your bishop’s words just ring false.…Continue reading It’s time for the Bishop Quiz!
A priest who worked for six years at Orange’s St. Joseph Hospital has been accused of “improper conduct” in numerous assignments. The conduct was so bad, in fact, that he was “dismissed” from his home diocese and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a warning to dioceses nationwide. What did Orange Bishop Kevin…Continue reading Former Orange priest subject of US Bishops’ “Warning!” OC Bishop stays silent.
In September, I was listening to AirTalk on KPCC, one of LA’s NPR stations. On Fridays, they feature Film Week (one of my favorites), a show where reviewers talk about new film debuts, international film festivals, and DVD releases. On this particular show, the host and one of the reviewers were discussing the Venice Film Festival…Continue reading SPOTLIGHT: It’s not depressing. It’s not icky. Go see it.
The next time someone tells you that “Pope Francis is different” when it comes to child sexual abuse, invite that person to think about this: If you steal a few Vatican documents and expose corruption, you WILL go to Vatican jail. From today’s LA Times The books, both by Italian journalists, are based on leaks from…Continue reading Heaven forbid you abscond with the paperwork …
Click here to see my interview on San Diego Living (Channel 6 – the CW). I talk about protecting your child from abuse, the importance of statute of limitation reform, and … I say vagina (gasp!) on live television.
This is no myth: Being a parent is hard. Click here for my October 10 article on Parenting.com.
Click here for my interview with Larry Mantle of KPCC’s AirTalk. We discuss the Cosby cases, statutes of limitations, and helping victims expose abuse.
