The Worthy Adversary

Category: Uncategorized

  • It’s time for change

    It’s time for change

    Many of you may have seen posts about All Survivors Day yesterday.

     

     

    Now what? It’s time for change.  It’s time for action.

    The past two years have been a whirlwind of news about child sexual assault and cover-ups. The scandal is being exposed everywhere—churches, sports, camps, organizations, public and private schools.

    If you think there is nothing you can do, you’re wrong. You CAN help change things. But how?

    I have started a new organization for change.  We are leading the way for both survivors of abuse and outraged citizens who want to expose predators and protect children. The old ways are no longer working. Hand-wringing and protesting can only do so much. We need an army. An army of people working towards real action and positive change.

    I need your help. Together, we can stop child sexual assault, abuse and cover-ups. And we can win …because there are more of us than there are of them.

    My new organization is STOP.  Our website is easy to remember.  It’s www.stop.team.

    STOP is Survivors Taking On Predators. The STOP Team leads the nation in changing laws to allow more survivors to come forward, exposing predators and institutional cover-ups, and protecting tens of thousands of children. STOP is about positive action and change … changing laws and changing lives. We are the future of the child protection movement.

    STOP is power. You are not powerless.  And those who cover-up for predators are no longer powerful.

    STOPPERS—that’s YOU—are taking away predators’ “hunting licenses” and protecting children from being their next victim.

    Click here to sign up! It’s easy. Because we are an army, your load will be light. YOU will be on the front lines taking away predators’ hunting licenses nationwide.

    Soon, you will receive emails on the simple things you can do to change the world and take away predators’ hunting licenses. We won’t flood your inbox. We won’t pitch for cash. We are not in competition with other organizations. We need an army of people who will help do some of the work.

    Turn trauma into a shield that protects children. Turn fear, shock and anger into a positive force for change.

    Join me. Join STOP.

  • Closed for whom?

    Closed for whom?

    From the Associated Press:

    [The] Catholic Church is concerned that the [Michigan] statute of limitations bill could “open up other things that have been closed.”

    Other things? Things like abuse and cover-up?

    And these things have been closed? I don’t think so.

    Certainly not for the victims, who are still suffering. Not for the predators, who may still be abusing. Not for the public, who demands the truth.

    It’s only closed for the Catholic Church. And they would prefer to keep it that way. Public accountability has never been their thing.

    The church has pulled this line for years, when the only victims testifying were victims from the church. They have a lot of nerve to look at the Nassar victims and say the same thing.

    If that’s the only defense they have, it’s a poor one.

  • Will married priests solve the problem? Wife-beating priest case gives us sneak peek

    Will married priests solve the problem? Wife-beating priest case gives us sneak peek

    Kill the celibacy requirement, kill the scandal?

    Hardly.

    The Catholic clergy sex abuse cover-up scandal is not totally unique. It’s an institutional cover-up, just like the institutional cover-up with Larry Nassar in US Gymnastics, the recent scandal in USA Swimming, the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandal, the scandal in LAUSD, and smaller scandals in private, religious, and public institutions nationwide.

    So what about celibacy?

    Larry Nassar was married—so were many of the accused coaches at USA Swimming, accused bishops in the Mormon Church, as well as our pal Jerry Sandusky. But the institutional cover-up remains almost as fierce as that within the Catholic Church.

    A sneak peek at a non-celibate priesthood

    Let’s address our key question: Would things be any different in the Catholic Church if priests were allowed to be married?

    Lucky for us, we got a sneak peek this week:

    Reverend Luke Reese, 49, was ordained at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham near Spring Valley in 2016. He then moved to Indiana where police say last September, he kidnapped, beat and terrorized his wife of 25 years.

    Reese is a former Anglican priest who is now of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, a Houston-based Catholic religious order for former Anglicans in the United States. As such, they are allowed to be married. Reese and his wife had seven children.

    Read what he’s accused of doing to her. It’s bad.

    According to the unfolding investigation, Fr. C. Ryan McCarthy, the pastor of Holy Rosary, where Reese was now assigned, came to Reese’s house the day after the alleged assault:

    The next day on September 25th, the victim says Father Ryan McCarthy from Holy Rosary came to their home and saw her bruised face. She says McCarthy urged them to spend time apart.

    Unlike child abuse cases, clergy members are not required by law to report domestic abuse.

    Spend time apart?

    This is after Reese he told witnesses he could have killed his wife.

    “Mind your own business”

    I haven’t gotten to the coup de grâce.

    McCarthy turning a blind eye to domestic violence is the cowardly action of one man putting a woman’s life in direct danger. As a priest and a pastor, he is the first line of defense for many women in domestic violence situations. He should have been the one taking her to the hospital and the police, not covering up for her alleged attacker.

    McCarthy did one better. He gave us a peek at the institutional response in the October 1 bulletin. Not only does he tell people to “mind their own business,” he also tells them that gossip is a sin.

    A sin? Talking to your family about domestic violence? Providing information to authorities? Being open and honest about what is going on in your faith community?

    The institutional response:

    You see a woman being beaten? Mind your own business.

    You see a child being sexually abused? Mind your own business.

    So if the cops come and try to talk to witnesses in the parish who may have seen Reese beating his wife, guess what a parishioner’s response will be?

    “I really don’t know. Those bruises I saw? The yelling? I can’t speculate. That’s a sin.”

    Nice.

    And guess who has become the victim here? Reese. And guess who is getting the blame? His wife.

    Married priests will solve nothing. The institutional response will remain the same.

     

    *Note: Since Reese’s arrest, his religious order has put out a statement condemning domestic abuse. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has only said this, according to the Indy Star:

    Because Reese’s archbishop is in Houston, Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson cannot immediately make any official decisions regarding discipline and Reese’s status within the church, according to Greg Otolski, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

    The damage has already been done.

     

  • There IS a child sex abuse scandal in Hollywood

    There IS a child sex abuse scandal in Hollywood

    Do I have proof of the scandal?

    Yes. Do a simple Google search on the Sugar’n Spice Photos of a 10-year-old Brooke Shields. You’ll read about the Playboy photos her mother approved and for which the photographer said the child felt “totally comfortable posing.” (That’s not comfort, BTW. That’s the product of grooming.)

    Fortunately, the photos are censored.

    Ask Corey Feldman. Ask alleged victims of Tyler Grasham, any of the alleged victims in the movie An Open Secret, (which, I am told, has a few secrets of its own), and the alleged victims of Michael Jackson.

    Or the victims of Roman Polanski. He’s convicted, so I don’t have to call the victims “alleged.”

    Ask any of the alleged under-aged girls passed around at the Playboy mansion. Or if Bill Cosby allegedly checked IDs.

    This is just the surface of the problem.

    Hollywood has been eating children alive for almost a century.

    How do I know this? I am a student of history. Hollywood an institution – one that is powerful and glittery and offers children and their parents something better and more beautiful than anything else can:

    Wealth. Fame. Immortality. Glory.

    Hollywood gives the Average Joe the ability the go home and show all of the poor schmucks who hated him/her that s/he “made it.” Or even better—all of the yokels from the old neighborhood can see his/her kid on TV. Does it get any better than that?

    It certainly doesn’t get any better for predators. For them, it’s a never-ending feast of children, hungry for fame—many of whom are supporting their families..

    Hollywood eats its young.

    Why do I know this?

    I have been fighting institutional child sexual abuse for 15 years. A majority of the work that I do has been for victims in the Catholic Church. And I will help anyone who asks.

    For years, people wondered why the clergy sex abuse/institutional sex abuse movement could never get a celebrity spokesperson.

    I knew why. It was because many of the celebrities we wanted to be spokespeople were actually asking for help on the sly.

    If they spoke out for clergy sex abuse victims, public school sex abuse victims, scouting victims, foster home sex abuse victims, or any institutional victim, they would have to speak out against the system that employed them—the system that put food on their table.

    That was never going to happen. So strong, brave men and women told me and others no. They needed to work.

    I understood. Not everyone can be a warrior.

    Hollywood’s survivors always have a home. Those of us who understand institutional abuse will be here with open arms.

    It’s the same in Hollywood. Survivors have to work and they have to eat. But they also have to heal. And after they heal, they learn to fight. And name names.

    Hollywood will never be the same. And that is good. Very good.

     

     

  • The All-American Boys Chorus and the Cycle of Abuse

    The All-American Boys Chorus and the Cycle of Abuse

    The recent lawsuit against Fr. Richard T. Coughlin, The All-American Boys Chorus, and the Diocese of Orange has sparked a flurry of conversation and controversy online.

    Why? A whole generation of kids was destroyed by Coughlin.

    And of course, a lot of people were quick to defend the chorus and say, “Things are different now.”

    But they’re not.

    Singers can be Easy Prey

    Choruses can be funny things. I am a singer, so I know. I was sexually abused in a chorus, targeted by a director who saw I was an easy mark.

    Singing and the teaching of singing are very personal and very hands-on. It’s one-on-one (and before the days of awareness about sexual abuse, it was done behind closed doors). It’s not unusual for a vocal coach to touch a student (in a NON-SEXUAL WAY) to show a concept. It’s very personal and can get very emotional. Your body is your instrument. If a piano is out of tune, you hire a tuner. If your voice is out of tune … well, it’s personal.

    The scandal in the chorus is very similar to what you’re seeing in U.S. Gymnastics.

    The problem with the All-American Boys Chorus is that things really haven’t changed since Coughlin led the group. The culture that Fr. Coughlin created has continued in the decades after he left.

    One example: Roger Alan Giese was a vocal coach for the chorus. He had been giving voice lessons to members for years. He was arrested in 2007 on multiple counts of sexual assault on a member of the chorus. Read the charges. They are gross. He conned his victim into thinking that Giese was a member of Delta Force.

    Richard Alan Giese

    After Giese was arrested, he emptied his bank accounts and fled to England. Officials there won’t extradite him due to our civil commitment law. He’s since changed his name and works for a PR firm. (Of all of the serial offenders I have tracked, I can’t think of a single one who got put away on civil commitment.)

    Here is the rub: Giese was hired by the same people who were carefully chosen by Coughlin to turn a blind eye to how he was grooming and abusing chorus members. These were same people who should have implemented policies and procedures after Coughlin’s removal to ensure that the abuse NEVER HAPPENED AGAIN. But they didn’t.

    Giese was exhibiting “red flag” behavior by telling the victim that he was a member of Delta Force; by having the victim and his brother for overnight visits; and by asking for samples of their body fluids. Yet, the chorus staff had NO POLICIES in place to forbid—or even notice—these behaviors.

    What else has been happening in the chorus that we don’t know about? This is a touring group that goes outside of the country to perform. What else is going on when parents aren’t looking?

    And who else used the chorus to molest innocent boys in far away locales?

    The most tragic part of this story is that Giese was a singer in the chorus when he was boy. I do not believe the argument that being sexually abused as a child makes one more likely to become an abuser as an adult. But I do believe that Giese may have already had those tendencies.

    And I believe Giese knew that The All-American Boys Chorus would be the easiest place to find prey.

    So now we know that two alleged sex offenders—one with multiple accusations in two states and another who is on the lam in a foreign country—used The All-American Boys Chorus to find easy prey. We know that the same people are in charge now in 2017, who were in charge in 1993 and in 2007 when Coughlin and Giese were targeting kids.

    Why would anyone take the risk of enrolling their kids in the choir?

    If you have any information on these men or anyone else who hurt kids, call the DA, the police, or contact me and I will point you in the right direction.