The Worthy Adversary

Tag: Civil Window

  • Dissecting Dolan’s Apologists

     

    Documents recently exposed in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee showed that NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan paid predator priests $20,000 to quietly leave the priesthood. Yeah, really.

    The response from Dolan? Cue the crickets. But that doesn’t mean that Dolan’s apologists have also clammed up. In fact, they have been very loud in defending Dolan, saying, “Well, at least he got rid of these bad apples.” If you want to read those articles, you can look them up. I really don’t want to drive traffic to them via my links.

    I am not going to rehash the same news you can find on a million other websites. I am also not going to restate the 9,000 fine points of the public safety hazard Dolan caused. Every point is painfully obvious to anyone with a soul. Instead, this post is about why the apologists are dead wrong.

    1) This ain’t the Wizard of Oz, sister. So quit trying to divert my attention.

    The Catholic League, Archbishop Charles Chaput and others always like to say, “There’s nothing to see here. Abuse is way worse in public schools. It’s a liberal conspiracy.” Here are my responses: Yes there is; Maybe; and Hell, no.

    Lady Justice carries a sword and scales. Do you know why?  So that she may not remove the blindfold from her eyes. Justice must remain blind, whether you wear the clerical collar or are a federal politician. What murderer could stand before the court and say, “Gee, maybe I killed one person, but look at Hitler. He killed millions.” It’s a ridiculous argument and should be viewed as such.

    I am going to give the apologists the same answer that my father gave me every day of my life until I moved out for good: “I don’t care what ‘everyone else’ is doing. You need to obey MY rules.” Dolan was WRONG. He BROKE THE LAW by not reporting abuse. He covered up for abusers. He must be held accountable. Period.

    2) If it’s okay to pay predator priests $20K, why didn’t you pay good and honorable priests the same amount when they choose to leave the priesthood?

    I know a number of former priests (and have talked to a couple before writing this. I encourage others to comment or contact me). I do not know a single good, honorable priest who was given a dime when they left the priesthood. A friend of my father’s and former LA priest Terrence Halloran (who reached out to me and has been an amazing and honest source of information and support), left the priesthood in 1967 because he fell in love. When I asked him, he said, “I didn’t even get paid for November 1967, my last full month in ministry.” He was also handed a bill (eventually forgiven by the Archdiocese of LA) for his education.

    Patrick Wall, a former priest and my friend and colleage (and according to the Official Catholic Directory 1994-1996 a judge/advocate for the Tribunal for the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul – you can look it up. In fact, I INVITE you to, because it will be subject of a later post) was also handed a bill for his education when he left the priesthood. It was huge and it was never forgiven. He didn’t say that he was leaving to become an advocate for victims. He didn’t molest kids. He was just sick and tired of covering up for child molesters. His first job outside of the priesthood was as a nurses aide in a rest home. Now, the church is trying to say that he was never a judge/advocate. But the OCD never lies.

    These two good and honorable men were forced to enter the secular world with no savings, no support, no slush fund, no “wink and nod,” no annuity. So quit telling me that Dolan did the right thing by paying predators off to go away.  Twice-convicted child predator Oliver O’Grady is set for life, so why did Patrick Wall have to empty bedpans to eat?

    3) This has nothing to do with politics

    Yes, the bishops are suing the Obama administration regarding the Affordable Health Care Act. That is their right and duty under the Constitution. And yes, many liberal voices have spoken out for victims against the cover-up of abuse … but so have conservatives. So let’s cut to the chase: Sex abuse and cover up are not about politics. I know victims who have been ardent supporters of the cause who worked in the George H.W. Bush administration, victims who are Republicans, Libertarians, unaffiliated voters, and conservative Catholics. Some of my own biggest supporters are the mega-conservative Catholics who attending Latin services. Don’t tell me that this is a liberal conspiracy. Just as many Republicans were sexually abused as Democrats. Yes, the leadership of SNAP leans to the liberal side. So what? My husband is a Republican. (And I love my husband much more than I love David Clohessy. Sorry, David.)

    4) Predator public school teachers get paid off all of the time. Why aren’t you going after them?

    Yes, predator public school teachers get paid off all of the time. And I hate it, so I fight against it every time I can. But the public sector doesn’t use God, moral authority, eternal damnation or excommunication via lynch mod to hide abuse. The Catholic Church must be held to the same “higher standard” that that they demand of their faithful. Especially when they use tax dollars.

    That being said, the public sector MUST be held to account. That requires money, political power, influence and connections. It means fighting unions and the status quo. Heck, the U.S. Catholic Church itself doesn’t have the money to expose sex abuse in governmental organizations. It’s a grassroots movement in its infancy. But the real change will have to come from the inside with victims coming forward and demanding justice …just like the real change in exposing sex abuse in the Catholic Church came from victims and Catholics.

    We can continue the discussion in the comments or on Twitter at #CardinalDolan

    Find me on Twitter @jcasteix

     

     

     

  • **UPDATED**FIRST HAWAII LAWSUIT FILED** Gerald Funcheon: A missing priest appears ….

    The first lawsuit under Hawaii’s landmark civil window was filed yesterday in Hawaii Circuit Court.

    The lawsuit (posted here) charges that Fr. Gerald Funcheon sexually abused a 13-year-old boy at Damien Memorial School in 1983/1984 during an overnight retreat on the eastern shore of Oahu. Considering Funcheon’s history (you can read some of the documents here), we can only assume that there may be more victims in Hawaii who are suffering.

    Besides exposing predators and keeping kids safe, the beauty of the anti-crime civil window is that the responsible parties are forced to be accountable for the harm they did to child victims and take some of the financial burden for victims’ care off of state coffers and taxpayers. The civil window provides an opportunity put that burden back onto the abusers and enablers, where it belongs.

    Similar laws in California and Delaware have exposed hundreds of predators and helped law enforcement put child molesters behind bars.

    Funcheon has also been accused of sexual abuse by two former students at Salinas’ Palma School, Chris Spedden and Steven Cantrell. Cantrell, a Monterey-area doctor, wrote an open letter to Palma and the community about the importance of coming forward and reporting sexual abuse. Both Spedden and Cantrell came forward as a part of the Irish Christian Brothers’ bankruptcy. The Brothers run Damien and Palma, as well as other schools across the United States

    Spedden, Cantrell and the victim in Hawaii are heroes.  Were it not for them, Hawaii and California would never have known about the predator dumped in their schools.

     

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    Original post: March 15, 2012

    Every once in a while, the stars align.

    Last year, I was contacted by family members of a child sex abuse victim. They asked me if I had any information about a priest named Gerald Funcheon who worked at Damien Memorial High School in Honolulu. I had never heard of Funcheon, but a quick search showed that he had a nasty past.

    Not only was the Crosier priest banned from the Diocese of Indianapolis, but there were numerous sex abuse lawsuits against him from his time in the midwest. And then Funcheon vanishes: he disappeared from the Official Catholic Directory in the early 1980s. There is really only one reason why a living priest would vanish from the Official Directory. He was probably in hiding.

    I told the family that I couldn’t find any information about Funcheon in Hawaii, but to keep in touch.

    A few months later, the Irish Christian Brothers based out of New York declared bankruptcy because of more than 50 allegations of abuse at one of their Seattle schools and more than 250 allegations of abuse at Mt. Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. They are the 10th Catholic diocese or religious order to seek bankruptcy protection due to sex abuse claims.

    When a religious order or diocese declares bankruptcy because of child sex abuse, the court will order a “bar date,” that is, a deadline for ALL victims to come forward and use the bankruptcy court to “out” their perpetrator and file a claim. This is a good thing and a bad thing.

    It’s good because it opens a window for victims who couldn’t come forward before because their statutes of limitations had run out. It allows potentially hundreds of victims to use the court system to get justice and do what they can to ensure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to another child.

    It’s bad because the window is only open for a very short period of time. After the deadline, many victims lose the ability to use the civil justice system forever.

    In the case of the Irish Christian Brothers, getting the word out is tough.  They run or ran dozens of schools across the United States. Many well known perpetrators (like Thomas Ford, who was convicted of beating abandoned children, and Robert Brouillette, who was convicted of child pornography after being arrested in a police sting for attempting to meet a child he had lured on the internet) worked in seven or eight of the schools. Many of the brothers sailed under the radar and were never listed in diocese directories.

    But yearbooks never lie.

    I decided to go to Honolulu (I know, it was a tough decision) and do a press event to garner attention about the bankruptcy. While many alumni at the school were scheduled to receive letters telling them that they may have rights, I knew that there was going to be no publicity about perpetrators that worked at the school.

    I got copies of the Damien yearbooks from the Honolulu public library (because of a super-dooper friend who shall remain nameless) and we started comparing faculty to known, admitted, or convicted predators. And guess who we found? Thomas Ford and Robert Brouillette (our two arrested and convicted Christian Brothers) and … Gerald Funcheon. He worked at the school for two years (1983-1985), right after he escaped allegations of abuse in Florida, Indiana and Minnesota.

    We got all three men in the news.

    But there’s more.

    Not only did we find Funcheon in the Damien yearbooks, but we also found him in Palma School yearbooks. Palma, which is a Catholic all-boys school in Salinas, CA, was where Funcheon was “dumped” in 1984 after parents in Hawaii complained that Funcheon was possibly molesting kids. Two victims from Funcheon’s time in Palma have now come forward.

    I kept in touch with the family in Hawaii. They now know that their son has legal rights. They also have photographic evidence that Funcheon worked at Damien.

    And the Irish Christian Brothers? I fear we will uncover a cover-up scandal where Irish Christian Brothers officials knowingly shuffled child predators from school to school and destroyed hundreds of children across the country.

     

     

  • I don’t think this is what Fr. Damien had in mind …

    Things are looking uglier and uglier for the Irish Christian Brothers at Damien Memorial High School in Honolulu. To date, we have found five known perpetrators who worked at the school, had direct access to students, and abused. There are the three we discovered in January:

    Fr. Gerald Funcheon, Br. Robert Brouillette, and Br. Thomas Ford,

    And the two latest additions, just discovered in the past week:

    Fr. Lawrence Spellen and Br. J.B. Lackie.

    Call me crazy for saying it: but it’s looking like Damien was a den of child sex abuse.

     

    Victims Rights

    Victims at Damien High School have until August 1, 2012 to seek justice and accountability from the Irish Christian Brothers. But there is good news: victims rights in the Hawaii have expanded dramatically—but only for two years.

    A new law in the State of Hawaii has given these victims and other victims of child sexual abuse new rights in the courts. Last month, Governor Neil Abercrombie signed Act 068 into law. It temporarily lifts the civil statute of limitations and gives victims of childhood sexual abuse a two-year “window” to come forward and use the civil courts to seek justice and expose predators, no matter how long ago the victim was abused.

    Similar laws in Delaware and California exposed hundreds of predators and helped law enforcement put child molesters behind bars.

    The new law gives rights to almost all victims, not just those at Damien Memorial. If you live in Hawaii or know victims who were abused there, pass the word. The biggest tragedy is when a victim learns about the law … after it has already expired.

  • August Deadline Set For Irish Christian Brothers Abuse Victims

    The Irish Christian Brothers (ICB), a religious order of brothers (monks) headquartered in New York state, filed bankruptcy last year when they were faced with more than 50 victims of abuse, molestation and beatings.  The Canadian congregation (affiliated with the ICB in New York) faced national disgrace when more than 300 children came forward to tell their stories of abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland.

    In Ireland, it’s estimated that thousands of children were raped at ICB schools.

    As a part of the federal bankruptcy proceedings, the court has set a special deadline date of August 1 for victims of sexual abuse. Read the court order here. ANYONE who was abused by a Christian Brother or was abused at an ICB school only has until that date to file a claim. After August 1, 2012, victims can no longer hold the ICB accountable for covering up and facilitating child sex abuse.

    Patrick Wall and I went to Hawaii last week and found three previously undisclosed perpetrators at Damien Memorial High School in Honolulu. As we get more names of perpetrators, I anticipate we will find more.

    For a complete list of schools run by the ICB, click here.

    I am normally not a fan of pushing victims to come forward. But in the case of these bankruptcies, if victims to not come forward now, they lose the opportunity forever.