They wouldn't have amounted to much, anyway

"Because so many victims have spent their early lives in the care system the church has argued that as adults they wouldn't have amounted to much anyway."

That's a quote from a British attorney, Richard Scorer, who represents victims of abuse by Catholic priests. He was referring to compensation claims, which he says "don’t seek to punish the wrongdoer, but to put the victim in the financial position they would be without the abuse."

Many of the victims were in the church-run care system, which apparently was not terribly successful if most of the children who came out of it didn't "amount to much." I don't know which is more disturbing, the fact that they're implying their care systems were substandard or that they continue to place so little value on the lives of the victims.

To read the entire article:
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1410992_making_the_church_face_up_to_the_truth_of_abuse

When Suffering is Glorified

One of the reasons the Roman Catholic Church has not acted more aggressively to end the rapes and sexual assaults of children and young people by clergy members is because they believe suffering brings a person closer to God. (The more spiritually-oriented believe this; for many bishops and other higher-ups, the church is simply a business.)

When I received a letter from the bishop apologizing for the assault I experienced by a priest in his diocese, the bishop said, "You have suffered much." The statement felt less like an apology than a compliment. Like, you have earned a jewel for your crown, my child.

So when I found this story in an article about Mother Teresa's charity, I felt it was applicable to the clergy sexual assault crisis.

Even patients in unbearable pain were refused strong painkillers, not because the order did not have them, but on principle. `The most beautiful gift for a person is that he can participate in the suffering of Christ,' said Mother Teresa. Once she had tried to comfort a screaming sufferer, `You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you.' The sufferer screamed back, furious, `Then tell your Jesus to stop kissing me.'......

Indeed. Let's sit back and let the hierarchy enjoy the Jesus kisses for awhile, as they wrestle with a world far less willing to accept their abuse than in generations past.

I'm Sorry But... They Made Us Do It

When Pope Benedict spoke to the cardinals gathered in Rome, he actually had a few good things to say about the Roman Catholic clergy sex crime scandal. He told the cardinals the church needed to examine what was wrong in its teachings that it had "allowed such a thing to occur" and spoke of the church's responsibility to help the victims. I experienced a brief and fleeting moment of hope. I really should have known better.

He undid any good he might have done by casting part of the blame on that ole' devil, Secular Society. Secular Society looks lightly on pedophilia, you see.

"There exists a market of pornography regarding children that seems to be increasingly accepted as normal by society,” he said.

Accepted as normal? We must travel in different social sets, the pope and I, because I can't think of a single friend, acquaintance or business associate who would say s/he thinks child porn is "normal" or anything less than appalling.

As Margaret Kennedy of the Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors group, said, “He is trying to say that the modern world is corrupt and sexually rampant. It is blaming society for what is actually their responsibility,” she said. “No one in any age has ever thought that adults having sex with children is right.”


And he blames the '70s. Apparently there were some scholars in Secular Society who taught pedophilia was okay, and that's where it all started, this business of priests raping children and bishops covering up for them. Which tells me this pope is still not willing to tell the truth, because survivor blogger Kay Ebeling has printed many scanned documents that tell the story of Father Gerald Fitzgerald, who ran a center for pedophile priests in the '50s and '60s. Fitzgerald's center was, at one time, located on an island, Tortola, kind of a Guantanamo Bay for rapist priests. He wanted to keep them there indefinitely but was ordered to return them to a mainland treatment center in New Mexico. From there, they were funneled to more unsuspecting parishes located at great distances from where they had previously "served."

Fitzgerald's communications reached the highest echelons of the church hierarchy, so it's completely false to state this situation was caused by the wild and crazy '70s, or that they did not know it was going on. Heck, even Dante wrote about priests who raped youth, way back in the 1300s. In his classic work, "Inferno," there was a special circle of hell to which they (and the hierachy who enabled them)were consigned.

One can only hope.

Previous governor acted to assist child-raping priest in Wisconsin

Predator priest, whose strange case revealed how deep the reach of hierarchy in political world, scheduled for trial
WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director — CONTACT: 414.429.7259/

State of Wisconsin criminal justice officials are to be commended for their persistence in keeping behind bars Fr. Norbert Maday, whose strange case illustrates how deep the reach the catholic hierarchy has in the political world but also, fortunately, how civil and criminal law, when fully and aggressively used, are keeping children safe. ...

Mayday was convicted in the mid 1990s’ for bringing grade school children from his Chicago parish to Wisconsin for purposes of sexually assaulting them. At the time, he was also convicted for intimidating a witness, when he threatened to kill a victim’s older brother if he testified. Hardly, in other words, a model priest and citizen.

Yet, that did not stop, in a truly bizarre act of political favoritism, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, in 1997, at the personal request of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, from ordering his legal counsel and state corrections officials to arrange to have the body of Maday’s mother transported from Chicago, across state lines, to the Fox Valley Correctional Institute so the priest could have a private viewing and service before her burial. State law prohibits imprisoned felons from attending funerals, which can be videotaped. So, Thompson brought the body to Mayday.

Blue Bloods off my Must-View List

I've gotten hooked on the new CBS show Blue Bloods. Normally I'm not into police dramas, but, like most women of a certain age, I've got a little crush on Tom Selleck, who's still just as compelling as years back when he played Magnum PI. The entire cast is very talented in their portrayal of an Irish-Catholic police family living in New York City. Their involvement in law enforcement goes back three or more generations. While I've really enjoyed the show up to this point, I'm not sure I'm going to continue watching it.

Last Friday the show involved kids in a Catholic high school selling drugs. The clergy staff members were reluctant to cooperate with the police, but Selleck's character, Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, told the priest, "You don't want to sweep another problem under the rug."

I had a little hope.

But later in the show, Reagan met with the bishop. He couldn't have been more nauseating, with the "your excellency" and the kowtowing. Selleck's character suggested the cardinal give a press conference to address the issue and said he would stand beside him, "just like he has stood with the Reagan family."

This hits too close to home, as I know of far too many cases where the linkage between abusive clergy and law enforcement has been, indeed, a fine blue/black line. Cases where law enforcement's reluctance to arrest clergy for the most egregious crimes makes me wonder what exactly is behind this unholy alliance.

The priest who assaulted me, Patrick McElliott, was well-known to law enforcement in Waterloo, Iowa. Several officers went to the bishop and insisted the bishop send him away after he assaulted one too many young girls in that city. Of course, he went on to the next parish after a short stop at rehab and continued committing crimes against children and young people throughout his career and into retirement.

My mother had a saying she used, usually when discussing situations I didn't understand when I was little. She would be talking about people who were supposedly upstanding members of the community, and she would shake her head and say, "They're thick as thieves." I didn't get it: weren't thieves bad guys whom the good guys (cops) put in jail?

Far too often, abusive clergy and corrupt law enforcement operated together to prevent justice from being served. I've suddenly lost a lot of respect for Commissioner Reagan, fictional character though he is. And Blue Bloods has lost a fan.

Anne Rice on Clergy Abuse Crisis

The following is a section of an article in Jezebel.com about author Anne Rice's decision to leave Christianity "for the sake of Christ." I am thankful that Rice states what so many survivors have felt: that far too many Catholics are still complicit in the sexual assault crisis.

In answer to whether she will miss Catholicism, Rice addresses that too:

I will probably miss the ritual, the liturgy, going to Mass, going to holy communion, but I really couldn't go anymore...I was too angry. I was too confused. That clergy abuse scandal, the defensiveness of Catholics about that scandal, their anger at not wanting to hear about it, not wanting to know what had happened with priests abusing people sexually and then being transferred to parish — from parish to parish, I mean all of that was too much. I was — I was sitting in church in a beautiful environment with beautiful music wanting to pray and I was too angry and too confused to be there. I had to leave. It was coming between me and God to be in that church. And the church should be the place that helps you get close to God.


Read more: http://jezebel.com/5610445/anne-rice-explains-why-she-left-the-church#ixzz0wOsdPXCw

Child Welfare Not a Priority for Catholic Church

The Vatican's Child Rights Report to the U.N. is 13 years overdue, according to this A.P. report:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVXpIdqtwNCWrNHwSiMtY3LCMNxAD9GVEVMO0

While you might wonder how much value should be placed on a children's rights report from an organization known to have callously disregarded said rights, you might be heartened to hear "a paragraph will be dedicated to the problem of child abuse by Catholic clergy," according to Vatican spokesman Hubertus Matheus Van Megen. Gee, a whole paragraph. Knock yourselves out, will you.

And then Van Megen told the U.N. an out-and-out lie.

"While many speak of child abuse as pedophilia, it would be more correct to speak of ephebophilia, being a homosexual attraction to adolescent males," he told the rights council, claiming critics had misrepresented the situation. "Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80-90 percent belong to this sexual orientation minority, which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the age of 11 and 17 years old."

That is a blatant lie. In the United States, at least 30% of the victims have been female, which would mean the rest of the cases could not possibly be more than 70%. I do not know the numbers, but I do know a significant amount of abuse involved children younger than 11. If that number was only 10%, we would now be down to 60%, which is statistically quite different from "80-90%."

The Vatican continues to try to frame this as a gay issue. It's not. Even when the assaults involved young seminarians, men in their late teens and early twenties, the imbalance of power is such that the real issue is abuse, not sex. It's about men in power using their authority wrongly. It's about deceit, dishonesty and an unwillingness to own responsibility for wrong-doing, while at the same time trying to present themselves as a moral authority.

Catholic Professor Defends Church for Burning "Heretics" at the Stake

This man is quoted as an authority on the Catholic television network, EWTN. If he was just a low-level teacher somewhere, it would be one thing, but evidently he is viewed as legit by many powerful conservative Catholics. Scary stuff.

Re:Heretics
Question from Jared on 05-13-2002:

Dr. Carroll, in response to the post by Michael Edwards-Ronning on 5-11-02: I think that the popes during that time felt that the killing of heretics was just. To figure, wouldn't it be a lot better for the general population if a few mainstream heretics were killed, so that the whole population was not "infected" by the heresies of the few? What I am trying to say is that it wasn't a terrible idea. Kill a few heretics to save the eternal souls of the population. That may seem harsh, but that is the basis of my assumption. Thanks.

Answer by Warren H. Carroll, Ph.D on 05-15-2002:
Well stated. I agree with you. - Dr. CarrollCOPYRIGHT 2002 EWTN




Heresey and Burning
Question from David Betts on 05-14-2002:
Dr. Carroll,
The Papal Bull, 'Exsurge Domine,' of Jun 15, 1520, condemned the errors of Martin Luther and his followers. In the translation of this Bull that I have read, Pope Leo X repudiates the following Protestant teaching:

#33. That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit.

This proclamation by Pope Leo X proves the Catholic Church taught that the burning of heretics was acceptable to God. Responsibility for this practice cannot be shifted to the civil authorities, as has been suggested.

You have termed the Reformation a 'Revolt,' which it may have been, but I ask you, what sort of Christian would blindly obey such twisted doctrine ?

Respectfully,

David Betts



Answer by Dr. William Carroll on 05-18-2002:
Traditionally, burning at the stake had always been the penalty for heresy because, as previous posters have pointed out, heresy was believed to consign souls to hellfire. That is why this practice was followed. - Dr. Carroll

A Shout-out for Benita

A hearty congratulations goes out to Benita Kane, who with her friend Virginia Tranel wrote a book about the sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of serial predator Father Henry Dunkel. The book was just released and is available on Amazon. Benita will also be selling her book at the SNAP conference, which will be held in Chicago July 30-31.

The following is from Benita's website, http://benitapreyforhim.com/index.html

BENITA:Prey for Him is the true story of bright, vivacious Benita Kane and the Catholic priest who lured her from childhood into a disastrous twenty-year entanglement that changed the course of her life.

Benita spends her happy-go-lucky childhood in the shelter of the nearby church, parochial school and shared belief system of an entire town, Dubuque, Iowa. This idyll comes to an end when her father suddenly dies, WWII breaks out and her two older brothers enter the service. Into this vulnerable situation strolls young, charismatic Henry N. Dunkel who offers hope and friendship to Benita’s overwhelmed mother, Marcella. He drops in to chat with her in the kitchen, stands in for Benita’s dad at school events, offers to teach Benita to drive.

These secret lessons in his new Dodge lead to a country lane where he plies her with cigarettes, bourbon, and stargazing in his arms. One spring afternoon he entices her into a parish confessional room and forces himself upon her.Now she is his, body and soul. Despite her tormented conscience, she meets him for clandestine sex wherever and whenever he wishes. Meanwhile, Benita’s brothers have returned from the service; initially, they are grateful to Father for his help, but their trust slowly turns to suspicion. Throughout high school, college, graduate school, beyond, the surreptitious meetings between Benita and the priest go on, alienating her from her family and plunging her into deep distress. Still, she is helpless to change her course. Her anguished family turns to the church for guidance. The Archbishop pledges them to secrecy, blames Benita for ruining his priest and launches a series of creative maneuvers to stop her, including a six-week stay in a psychiatric hospital. How she extricates herself from this hell is a gripping story as well as an inspiring testimony to her strength of character.

As Benita’s friend and classmate from second-grade through college, Virginia Tranel writes from the unique stance of participant-observer. This story is not simply one more account of clerical sexual abuse, but rather an astounding, maddening, compelling look at what it was like to grow up in a family, community and culture so dominated by the Catholic church that no one could acknowledge the ominous events unfolding before them.

I recently wrote a letter to our local newspaper which was published last Monday, June 7th. I wrote to The Messenger because I was disgusted with the hypocricy the Catholic Church used in their decision to fire a teacher over allegedly being an atheist- not true- when they continue to support priests and at least one bishop who went against all the teachings of Jesus and sexually assaulted kids and young people in their parishes.

Since then, I've spoken with the teacher's mother, Karen Nurre. She has shared with me how harshly her family is being judged over this situation and the struggles they have had. But she also said, "We will weather this storm." I applaud her courage and the way her family is coming together to support each other. If only the "family" of the church would respond that way when the most vulnerable members are being hurt.

Here is my letter:

The Des Moines Register reported how a Fort Dodge math teacher was fired from her job at St. Edmond Catholic School for “making atheist statements in a public forum,” which referred to information posted on her Facebook page. The teacher, Abby Nurre, was called into the office of Monsignor Kevin McCoy, where he handed her a letter informing her that she was being fired and barred her from the school grounds. The school board and the Iowa Catholic Conference tried unsuccessfully to deny her unemployment benefits “for being a member of an atheist website,” according to testimony by St. Edmond business manager Tim Hancock. He also said she had violated the principles of the Catholic church.

I find it interesting how swiftly and harshly this teacher was punished for beliefs which she stated she no longer holds. I am wondering where is the punishment for retired Bishop Laurence Soens, who was found credibly accused of sexually assaulting more than 20 boys. Does he not live out his retirement years through the support of the Catholic church? One might think that sexually assaulting teens was also a violation of the principles of the Catholic church. The diocese also continues to list Father Gerald Hartz, former St. Edmond superintendent, who was arrested in Carroll for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl and sued for assaulting an adult woman. The lawsuit was dropped on a technicality, but in it, the diocese admitted Father Hartz had had this problem before. Yet it seems mercy is being extended in this instance, as he is still a priest in good standing.

Certainly a private school has the right to insist on specific standards for their employees. But obviously some employees merit more grace than others, regardless of the charge against them.

Here is a link to my guest editorial, published in the Des Moines Register on April 29th, reprinted below: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100429/OPINION01/4290331/1166/OPINION01/Guest-column-Church-hierarchy-should-come-clean/

Guest column: Church hierarchy should come clean

JANET CLARK of Fort Dodge is western Iowa SNAP leader and author of "Blind Faith." Contact: j_e_m_clark@hotmail.com. • April 29, 2010

At the heart of the Roman Catholic sexual abuse crisis, the real issue is the cover-up. It's not unreasonable to hold religious leaders to a higher standard than people in other professions, but we all know there are people from every walk of life who do really bad things. Sex crimes in the Catholic Church are big news not so much because of the clergy who abused parishioners, but because of the organized, systematic nature of the cover-up.

When I began to deal with the fact that I had been sexually assaulted by a priest, I was able through my attorney to speak with several of his other victims. Through our conversations, it became clear this priest was a serial offender, well known to hierarchy and law enforcement alike. It became apparent to me that the church in which I grew up had placed me in the hands of a known predator.



That realization brought an overwhelming sense of betrayal, almost worse than the initial attack. I was baptized and raised in the Catholic Church, attended Catholic schools, joined the Legion of Mary. Coming to terms with the fact that this church failed to protect me and so many others from priests who were known to be sexually abusive was excruciating.

Until recently, sexual abuse was shrouded in secrecy throughout all of society. With the abuse in the Catholic Church, however, that secrecy was clothed in sacred garments; "telling" was not only unacceptable, but a sin. Theologians argue about whether or not that secrecy was encoded in a Vatican edict entitled "Crimen Sollicitationis," a document then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) reissued in 2001 instructing bishops to follow certain protocol for dealing with sexual assaults by clergy. According to a BBC documentary, "Sex Crimes and the Vatican," this missive ordered victims, witnesses and perpetrators to keep quiet about the abuse under the penalty of excommunication. For a Catholic, excommunication means not only the loss of church membership, but the loss of salvation. The family of one of the other victims I spoke with was threatened by the bishop's office with excommunication if they told anybody else about the attack, and the resultant secrecy contributed to more people being victimized. Including me.

Victim advocate and canon lawyer the Rev. Thomas Doyle stated that, while he was a consultant for the documentary, he did not believe "Crimen Sollicitationis" is "proof of an executive conspiracy."

"I do not believe that the Vatican or any group of bishops needed a conspiracy," Doyle stated in an article in the National Catholic Reporter. "The secrecy and cover-up was very much a part of the Catholic institutional culture and was, in fact, a policy. I have studied the files of hundreds of clergy sex abuse cases throughout the U.S., in Canada, Ireland and the British Isles ... files produced by dioceses and religious orders ... and I can assure you that the common thread was an intentional cover-up enshrouded in secrecy. That is the way it was."

Regardless of which interpretation of the document is correct, the fact is that the cover-up was well-orchestrated and involved the upper echelon of the hierarchy. Pope Benedict is known as an intelligent micromanager. It stretches the imagination to think that the man who led the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith from 1981-2005 did not know a great deal about the sexual assaults occurring in his church. It is time for him to come clean, along with the rest of the hierarchy

To insist on accountability from this institution is not Catholic bashing. Those who use that term would be well-advised to remember that the victims were themselves faithful Catholics. I am thankful to the media for shining a light into this dark corner. There is a saying in 12-step circles: You are only as sick as your secrets. Or, in the words of Jesus, the founder of Christianity, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

The Vatican hates women

The following is a section from this article: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0502/Catholic-sexual-abuse-scandal-sharpens-church-rift-over-what-a-priest-should-be/

At the largest Benedictine school in the US, the education of new priests – which started 10 years ago under the influence of then-Cardinal Ratzinger – moved sharply toward the model of the priest educated in isolation, when Vatican directives began to forbid men and women educated together.

One member of the Benedictine order who is close to the university but was not authorized to speak to the media described the directives, which came out of Cardinal Ratzinger’s office, as part of a “purification of the church concept in which women should not be in the classes. A lot of us feel this creates instead a fortress church, a reclusive model…priests leave school and immediately go into communities and work with married people, and women, but have had little contact with either group in their priestly formation. This all originated in the Vatican.”


My friend and fellow activist Dee Miller has stated the split in the Baptist Church boils down to the "woman problem." (I hope I'm quoting you right, Dee!) The fundamentalist Baptists couldn't bear the thought of women in leadership positions, preferring them to "submit graciously" to their husbands, and presumably other male authority.

Will the Catholic church go the same route? Most educated women and their families are not going to tolerate being locked out of leadership roles indefinitely, and that is the direction this church is headed. We'll have to wait and see what will be the outcome of this Neanderthal-type of thinking. It doesn't bode will for the church's ability to deal with the abuse crisis, that's for sure.

God's Labrador

He was known in Vatican circles as “God’s Rottweiler,” for the sure and swift punishments he handed canonical lawbreakers. But when dealing with priests who were child molesters, he became “God’s Labrador.”

Quote from Donald Kaul, East Texas Review

Next LA Archbiship Lied about Criminal Priest

From the San Antonio Express, MY SA, April 9, 2010, by Abe Levy.

A Catholic priest from a rural parish west of San Antonio is accused in a lawsuit filed Thursday of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy at gunpoint and during private catechism sessions two years ago.

The suit, which names outgoing Archbishop José Gomez as a defendant and claims he sought to conceal the matter, comes three days after the Vatican named Gomez as the next archbishop in Los Angeles.

He is transferring to California next month. Gomez said recently through a spokesman that his five-year tenure involved no new sex-abuse allegations.

Italy in denial while Africa 'fesses up

From the April 9 Irish Times: According to Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin, “It’s time to put a stop to this whole business . .

If you thought he meant, time to put a stop to the business of priests raping, sodomizing and sexually assaulting children and young people, think again. No, he meant it's time for people to quit picking on the pope. The cardinal, like most prelates, saves his vehemence for protecting the Pope against all that nasty "gossip", as the Vatican calls the claims that the Pope didn't act to end child sexual assaults under his watch.

Less sympathetic to the problems of the hierarchy is Archbishop of Johannesburg Buti Tlhagale, who said Africa also is effected by the abuse crisis. Honesty in the hierarchy is so rare that his statement made me do a double-take.

"The image of the Catholic church is virtually in ruins because of the bad behaviour of its priests, wolves wearing sheep's skin, preying on unsuspecting victims, inflicting irreparable harm, and continuing to do so with impunity," said Tlhalgale. Now there's the guy that ought to be the next pope.

My Wish List

A friend asked me what I wanted to see happen regarding the Catholic abuse crisis, what I thought it would take to resolve this complicated issue, and this is what I came up with:

I want the Pope to publicly repudiate two doctrines: crimen solicitations and mental reservation. Crimen solicitations has been referred to a lot in the news lately; at its core, it proscribes secrecy in dealing with SA. Mental reservation means, essentially, a cleric can hide part of the truth if he thinks it serves a greater good. This has been used to justify lying to civil authorities, victims, advocates. I'm sorry, but I know for a fact two bishops in Iowa lied under oath about abuse cases. I want the Pope to repudiate these doctrines and ask forgiveness for all the damange they have caused.

I want the leadership system to change. An all-male hierarchy is at the heart of the problem. I'm certainly not anti-men: I love my husband very much, he is my best friend. I love my son and am proud of how he treats women. I love my male friends. But an all-male system is intrinsically unbalanced. Don't you think if there had been a few mothers running the show this would have unfolded quite differently??? And yes, I know women can abuse and women can enable, but the balance is what's lacking.

I want an end to celibacy rules. Richard Sipe, a former priest, researched the issue and found, through self-reporting, at any one time only 50% of priests are celibate. Their relationships by necessity are furtive and deceitful. If priests were allowed to marry, as they were in the earlier days of the church, and women shared leadership as also was a part of the early church, it would be healthier.

I want the laity to share leadership in a real and meaningful way. As it is, they have to accept whatever comes their way, or leave. I want them, also, to step up to the plate. Too many are not willing to challenge the church authority.

I would like laity to consider witholding funds until the churh is more proactive on the abuse issue. There is a movement to do so, which you can find on the Web if you're interested.


I want people who leave not to be disrespected. I am, according to the church's teaching, an apostate or heretic, I'm not sure which, but both are viewed as people who are going to hell. I am viewed as having an invalid marriage, because I was baptized as a Catholic when I was a baby but married in a different church. What does that make my children, in their eyes? There was a move during the time of Vatican II to be more accepting of other faiths, but that has ended under this pope, who proclaims that Protestant churches are not churches in the true sense of the word. What does this have to do with the abuse situation? When you believe you are the only holders of sacred truth, it's a lot easier to do whatever it takes to prevent people from seeing the problems in your system.

I want the bishops who covered up for abusers to stand trial in criminal court, where that's appropriate. And, of course, I want the abusers to be held accountable.

That's my wish list.

Pope blames victims; NY archbishop compares pope to Jesus

Now that the Pope himself has been implicated in the growing sexual assault crisis, his kind facade is beginning to crumble. The March 29 edition of the Register carried a story, Abuse crisis casts shadow as Holy Week begins; the story contained misleading information. It stated, "Benedict made no direct mention of the scandal in his Palm Sunday homily." In fact, the Pope came out fighting, not for the victims but to hold on to his power. He said in his homily, "Faith prevents being intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion."

Wow. The truth is coming out, and it's not pretty. Benedict believes people who are reporting sexual abuse and the reporters who are connecting the dots about who knew what, when, are guilty of "petty gossip." Those of us who have worked with, and are, clergy sexual assault survivors, are familiar with the hierarchy's attitude, but it is a bit shocking to see it displayed so publicly. The Pope's apology to the Irish church and victims is rendered meaningless. He was willing to criticize Irish bishops for their part in passing predator priests from parish to parish, but when it was revealed he was playing the same game, he shoots the messenger.

The archbishop of New York's sermon was even more outrageous. The archbishop,Timothy Dolan, came from Milwaukee where more than 200 Deaf boys were molested by Father Lawrence Murphy, one of the cases which the Pope is accused of mishandling; Dolan referred to it as a "re-run of an old story out of Milwaukee." Dolan compared the fact that the Pope is being implicated in the cover-up with the suffering of Jesus, how the crowds turned against him and scourged (whipped) him.

Is this chutzpah or what? Hundreds of thousands of children and young people raped, sodomized, and sexually assaulted, in the US, in Canada, in Australia, in Ireland, in Europe, and God help the third world nations where the truth is still being covered up. People speak up, ask questions, get angry- and all of a sudden, the Pope is the victim.

Don't worry, though- he is refusing to be intimidated.

Well, Rats. I wish we had thought of that. I wonder if that would have worked for Barbara, who was raped at age six by her parish priest. He told her she was an evil little girl and she thought what he did was the punishment for sneaking out of the house in the wrong pair of shoes. I wonder if it would have worked for Mike, who was sexually assaulted by a notorious Eastern Iowa predator whose actions the bishop had pledged to keep secret, a written document available for all to see on the Bishop Accountability Website. I wonder if it would have worked for any of us who were raised to see the priest as "Alter Christi," another Christ, a necessary part of our salvation. And then I remember, no, intimidation is a tool of the powerful against the powerless, and that is what we were.

No more. WE refuse to be intimidated, shamed or stuffed back into the closet. We insist on being heard, and we hope the civil governments take just action to prevent others from suffering the pain of sexual assault by a trusted religious leader. We hope, too, the Catholic people will hold their leaders accountable and insist on sharing the power so this true scourge will end.

(Originally printed in the Des Moines Register, March 30, 2010.)

End Child Prostitution

SAVE A CHILD FROM PROSTITUTION— CHOOSE HOTELS THAT SIGN THE CODE
By Janet Clark
While slavery might strike most people as just an archaic relic from our less-than-stellar past, rotting on the scrapheap of history where it belongs, unfortunately that isn’t true. Recently ABC News aired a series detailing the reality of modern-day slavery, and in May of this year, speakers at the Iowa Preventing Abuse Conference spoke about the most tragic victims of this scourge, child prostitutes. While children in the United States are all too often victimized in this manner, the problem is even more widespread in other countries, especially those with high rates of poverty. Children in those countries are forced into prostitution either through physical violence or because they have no other means of making enough money to feed themselves. The non-profit organization End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children (ECPAT) estimates that more than one million children worldwide are drawn into the sex trade each year. Each year! According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, Asia, Mexico and Central America are “prime destinations” for child-sex tourists. What’s worse, it’s estimated that 25% of these “tourists” come from the United States.
While this may seem like a problem both too horrible to contemplate and too huge to effect, there is a way for any concerned citizen to help end child prostitution. The child sex tourism industry is enabled by people in the legitimate tourism industry who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is happening right in front of them, or in some cases actively assist the abusers of these children in order to receive paybacks. But the good news is that a significant sector of the tourist trade has decided to act on behalf of the children who have no power to liberate themselves. More than 500 companies around the world have signed the Code of Conduct for the Protection of the Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism. According to ECPAT, companies that sign the Code commit to implement the following six criteria:
• To establish an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children.
• To train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations.
• To introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers, stating a common repudiation of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
• To provide information to travelers by means of catalogues, brochures, in-flight films, ticket-slips, home pages, etc.
• To provide information to local “key persons” at the destinations.
• To report annually on the implementation of the previous five criteria.
The American Society of Travel Agents, with more than 20,000 members, has signed the Code of Conduct. So has one large American travel company, Carlson Companies, which includes Country Inn and Suites, Regent International, Cruise Holidays, Radisson Hotels, and Park Plaza. Several smaller American travel companies, Royal Regency International, Ela Brasil Tours, and Flamingo Travel, have also signed the Code of Conduct.
The conspicuous list is the one with the names of all the American companies who have not signed the Code. On that list, you’ll find Choice Hotels, whose holdings include Clarion Quality, Comfort Suites and Comfort Inns, Sleep Inn, and Suburban; Hyatt Hotels, parent company of AmeriSuites and Hawthorn Suites; Starwood Hotels, which includes Starwood, Four Points, Sheraton, St. Regis and Westin; and Hilton Hotels. Why are these companies dragging their feet when it comes to protecting children?
“Many European companies have demonstrated their commitment to practice a socially responsible, child-wise tourism by signing on to the Code of Conduct. However, there has yet to be significant commitment from U.S. companies,” according to ECPAT. If we work together, we can change that.
Are you planning a summer vacation? Reward the hotels that have signed the Code, and let the other hotel chains know why you are choosing their competition. Does your civic or religious organization hold meetings in hotels? Encourage them to only deal with companies that sign the Code. Especially for organizations that deal with children, such as teachers, school boards, and social workers, it’s important to give your business to those companies that protect children around the globe and withhold it from companies that refuse to be a part of the solution.
Pressuring companies to sign the Code of Conduct may seem like a small thing to do, but when all legitimate businesses in the travel industry live by the Code, we will be one step closer to ending child prostitution. Slavery in all its ugliness should not exist in our world today. Let’s get it out of the headlines and into the history books.

Previously published in the Des Moines Register

Reach for the barf bag

According to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the pope who covered up for priests who raped kids is just like Jesus. Or something like that. "The leader of the nation's second-largest diocese urged his congregation to pray for the pope, saying he was suffering some of the same unjust accusations once faced by Jesus," according to an associated press article.

Well, Tim, there are just a few differences. Let me help you out here. Jesus was a humble carpenter who plaintively remarked once that while foxes had their dens and birds their nests, he had nowhere to lay his head. Had he been walking the earth today, he might have said, Pope Benedict sleeps in a multi-million dollar mansion while I wander around homeless.

Jesus said of the little children, let them come unto me, and if anyone causes harm to them, the offender would be better off to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea. The pope, on the other hand, has demonstrated a shocking lack of concern the children who were raped, sodomized and sexually assaulted while supposedly under his care, while displaying tenderness for the offenders. He allowed Father Larry Murphy, who sexually abused 200 Deaf boys, to live out his life as a priest instead of being defrocked simply because Murphy asked him to.

Jesus mingle with the poor, the miserable, the lonely, the sick. He ate with women, which was a big no-no in his day. The pope hobnobs with the rich and famous, and if he has ever been photographed with a woman, I don't remember seeing it. He did, however, allow the mother of a nine-year-old rape victim to be excommunicated for taking her little girl to get an abortion instead of making her bear the rapist's twins. He did, however, make a ruling that a woman could not have her uterus removed to prevent a pregnancy that could kill or harm her. Not a champion of the powerless in my book.

The most pertinent difference: Jesus was persecuted UNJUSTLY. Jesus spoke out against the powerful and got killed for it. The pope IS a person in power. He is the equal of the Pharisees that Jesus condemned, concerned only that the religious institution look good, not that the people's needs be tended. He follows the letter of the law while blatantly ignoring its Spirit. To compare Jesus with the pope is nothing short of blasphemy.

Break the silence

“Cry out as if you had a million voices, it is silence that kills the world." St Catherine of Siena (25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380)