The Worthy Adversary

Tag: catholic clergy abuse scandal

  • Clarity at Cantwell High School

     

    Sometimes, the most profound statements at a press conference come from the reporters, not us.

    Today, my friend and colleague Ken Smolka and I were in front of Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Montebello, California. We were there because the Irish Chrisitian Brothers, the religious order that ran Cantwell High School, declared bankruptcy when more than 50 victims of child sex abuse in Washington State and Canada came forward to file civil sex abuse and cover-up suits. Order officials sought bankruptcy protection to avoid embarrassing public civil trials. The Christian Brothers are the 10th diocese or religious order to take this (less than pastoral) path.

    The Brothers ran Cantwell High School until 1990, when Cardinal Roger Mahony kicked them out and put the Jesuits in their place. No real explanation was given.

    But I have an idea: in the six yearbooks I have reviewed, we have found four known perpetrators who worked at the school (three of them were there at the same time). Maybe Mahony realized that even he couldn’t keep a lid on the Christian Brothers much longer.

    There was Thomas Cuthbert Ford, who was convicted in 2000 of violently beating abandoned children between 1956 and 1959 at the Mt. Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. He had been hiding in the United States at schools like Damien Memorial High in Honolulu, Cantwell and Bergen Catholic (Bergen, NJ) until he was finally extradicted to Canada. Ford was the 11th Irish Christian Brother to be sentenced for crimes at Mt. Cashel.  He was principal of Cantwell in 1980.

    We also found Br. Daniel Peter Ryan, a former vice principal, Br. Jerome Heustis, a former coach and teacher and Br. Robert Satterthwaite, a former teacher. All of these guys are the subject of numerous sex abuse and cover-up lawsuits. Satterthwaite was even named (although misidentified) in Mahony’s infamous “Report to the People of God.”

    We told the reporter the reason we were there: victims from Cantwell only have until August 1, 2012 to come forward, expose their abusers, and seek justice (including secret church documents) in the courts.

    We also told her that victims’ coming forward is important for more than healing, but also for protecting children and punishing wrong doers. Although some of the men who abused children are dead, many are not. Many of the men who covered up for the predators are still alive. Every official in the Christian Brothers organization is still sitting on important secret church documents that will expose more criminals and outline the scope and scale of abuse. These documents will only be released if victims come forward. It is VITALLY important that every victim at Cantwell come forward before the deadline, we said.

    The Christian Brothers still run schools across the United States, and they are still covering up for abusers.

    She looked at us for a moment in silence. Then she said, “This is huge. Why hasn’t the story gotten more publicity?”

    Exactly.

    Why isn’t the new LA Archbishop standing outside of the school? (He gets WAY better press than I do) Where is the president of the Irish Christian Brothers? Shouldn’t he be out in front of every single school where a known abuser worked? Nah. That would be too … pastoral.

    And the last thing they want to do is let victims know they have rights.

     

     

     

  • Putting the “Bully” in the religious Bully Pulpit

     

    Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation (Luke 6:24–26)

     

    The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, one of the main organizations for whom I volunteer my advocacy efforts (and to whom I donate), has recently been under siege in Missouri.

    Catholic bishops there (under the direction of the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue and a coalition of high-ranking U.S. Bishops, we have learned), have drawn SNAP into two lawsuits, asking for 20+ years of confidential correspondence with survivors and the press, and deposing executive director David Clohessy.

    From the New York Times:

    Donohue said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group: “The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.”

    SNAP is NOT a plaintiff in either lawsuit, and has had no contact whatsoever with the alleged victim in the case where Clohessy was deposed. (Note, this is the same Diocese under indictment for child endangerment)

    You can read the whole story about the cases in the New York Times here, and read their editorial here.

    The goal of the bishops? Bankrupt SNAP.

    I have not commented on the events for a number of reasons. I didn’t want to be distracted from my primary work. I didn’t also didn’t want to draw the ire and wrath of the people driving the bus over my colleagues. But mostly, I didn’t comment because it made me sad. Very, very sad.

    I suppose I really wished that the Catholic Church would live up to the New Testament values that they taught me as a child. Things like, “love your enemy,” and verse 10 of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

    When push comes to shove, that’s all that victims have ever wanted: justice. The only reason now that victims are using the court system is because Catholic officials did not do the right thing in the first place. They didn’t call the cops. They didn’t protect kids. And when victims (like me) came forward to our bishops, church officials lied to us. The only way to get truth was through civil justice.

    But like many people, I still hold a particular naiveté. A part of me thought that while the Bishops may not agree with SNAP and certainly do not like SNAP, they believe that the group has the right to exist. It makes me sad when people like Bill Donohue and others resort to name calling and “sneaking into” the SNAP convention (which is open to the public).

    And I can’t help but make a biblical comparison to David and Goliath. SNAP’s operating budget last year was in the $300-400,000 range. That’s less than the operating budget of a FAILING parish.

    But with that shoestring, they were able to talk to hundreds of survivors who called the help line or reached out to the dozens of local leaders, refer many of those people to therapists, launch a complaint with the ICC (which sent 5 SNAP leaders to Europe in the hopes of raising awareness to crimes committed by the Vatican), and help people who are hurting.

    The vast majority of that work is done by volunteers, like me. Many volunteers are still practicing Catholics (far from the “menace” we are made out to be).

    Time will tell, but I believe that these efforts by the Bishops will backfire horribly. The first reason is clear: volunteers like myself and the local leaders in almost every state will keep plugging along. We’ll keep answering our phone and email, paying for the helpline, holding meetings, helping survivors through the healing process, and raising awareness. We don’t collect paychecks from SNAP. If the budget of the organization is gone, we’ll just go back to the “old days” when SNAP was truly a network. It will be tough, but we will muddle through. Why? Because the call for justice and healing is too strong to ignore.

    The second reason is something that the bishops haven’t bargained on: the majority of the calls I get now are from the Faithful. When they can’t get answers from their dioceses, they call me. When they see something that is wrong, they call me. When they want to know if their parish school is safe, they call me.

    The Bishops and their team are slowly alienating almost every member of their base. First, by not following their own biblical teachings, and second, by shutting down any kind of dialogue with the Faithful, victims, and the community.

    They are bullies. And I pity them.


     

     

     

  • Ignore the Man Behind the Curtain: Joe Paterno and the Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis

    Joe Paterno’s death last weekend came as a bit of a shock and a huge disappointment. I knew he was sick, but my disappointment did not come from grief. My upset was quite different: The man at the center of the biggest child sex abuse scandal of 2011 is gone, and we will never know exactly what he knew and when he knew it.

    Some may say that I am overly critical to demand full truth and disclosure about the past of a man who is gone. As a culture, we are trained to “never speak ill of the dead.”  In fact, I have been told by more than a few people, “Paterno’s gone now. Can’t we focus on the good he did?” Some news outlets have even wondered if Paterno died of a broken heart.  (If anyone broke Paterno’s heart, it was Paterno. And I think that it was his ego, not his heart, that truly suffered. If he had a heart that could break, I think he would have done more to help the kids.)

    Paterno’s supporters want us to redeem a flawed hero. They want us to honor the outward good deeds while ignoring the destruction that his actions caused.

    And that reminded me of something ….

    In the ten years since the Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal broke, experts such as Tom Doyle have aptly discussed the phenomena of “Bella Figura” (literally beautiful figure or good image). The term describes the desire of the Catholic hierarchy to maintain outward appearances and the best possible presentation, despite the ugliness, crimes and cover-up going on behind the scenes. (Think if it as a global “ignore the man behind the curtain” philosophy.)

    In many ways, bella figura has worked well. Catholics still donate money; American presidents still pose for pictures with the Pope; and the US Catholic Church maintains tax-free status.  All the while, approximately 100,000 American children have been sexually molested by Catholic clergy and employees with the knowledge and complicity of church officials.

    Let’s remember, the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic church became a scandal for the same reason that the Penn State crisis became a scandal: the cover-up.

    Abuse happens everywhere. But it’s the calculated, decades-old cover-up that differentiates the Catholic Church and Penn State from other institutions or organizations that have employed abusers.

    But there may be rustling behind the curtain.

    Kansas City Slaughterhouse

    This leads us to Kansas City. For those of you who don’t know, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (for whom I volunteer and to whom I donate) has been under siege. Church lawyers in one case have deposed SNAP executive director David Clohessy and in another subpoenaed thousands of pages of correspondence between the group’s leaders and victims of abuse. Church lawyers also subpoenaed the group’s correspondence with journalists. You can read coverage here and here. There are a few editorials in support of SNAP here and here.

    The church is claiming that SNAP must turn over correspondence with victims who are not public because SNAP, its hotline, correspondence, and confidential support group meetings are not subject to the rape shield laws that protect the thousands of victims and witnesses who contact the group.  Why do church attorneys say SNAP is not protected by the law? Because SNAP doesn’t have an office. (With this interpretation of the law, therapists who work from home should be darned scared)

    It’s chilling. Especially since the bishop of Kansas City Robert is currently under criminal indictment for failure to report abuse.

    SNAP has nothing to do with either lawsuit, and in one of the cases, has had no contact at all with the victim. The move to draw SNAP into the courtroom is an overt and very public move on the part of the church to bankrupt the group through legal fees.

    Bye-Bye Bella Figura

    The church has shown its hand. By trying to eviscerate the largest organization that has helped survivors and the leading organization in exposing the cover-up, the bishops have made their point clear: they want victims to go away, survivors to shut up, the press to ignore the story and Catholics to go back to “pay, pray and obey.” Church leaders have taken their anti-survivor vitriol out of their lawyers’ offices and into the public sphere. Groups that normally would never interject themselves into the argument are now forced to voice their support of SNAP in order to protect the crime victims that they help.

    Such vicious anti-victim rhetoric is not very bella figura.

    The church has started down a very slippery slope.  By forcing SNAP to “out” victims in a case of which SNAP isn’t even a party, the church is threatening the privacy shield of rape crisis centers, hotlines, domestic abuse shelters, and thousands of other organizations dedicated to helping crime victims. Plus, they are scaring generations of victims into permanent silence.

    And it’s not much different in Happy Valley. By choosing to stick up for Joe Paterno’s legacy, Paterno’s supporters threaten children’s safety by making it okay to do the wrong thing. They also kick sand in the face of victims who were so tragically hurt by Jerry Sandusky.

    It’s time to stick up for victims. All victims.