Megan Peterson is an artist and co-chair of SNAP New York.
The first time I spoke publicly about being repeatedly raped by a priest when I was between the ages of 14 and 15 was when we announced the settlement of my case—one week before I went to join advocates filing a complaint against the pope with the International Criminal Court at The Hague. I was 21 and had barely left my small town in Minnesota, let alone the country. If you watch footage from the press conference, I disappear for a while; that was when I stepped out to throw up.People were whispering about Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul’s inappropriate contact with youths within a month or so after his arrival from India at our church, but no one did anything about it. At the time, I was shy and got teased a lot, and I felt like an outsider. He offered to lend me a book, and I was flattered by the attention. When I went to pick it up, was the first time he raped me. Sometimes he was violent, and sometimes he told me this was the teaching of God; this was how I was getting closer to Him.
I would take the church bulletin every Sunday and look at the telephone number for the diocese victim advocate printed at the bottom. When I finally worked up the courage to make the call and tell someone what was happening, the woman on the other end told me not to make prank calls and hung up on me. Truly. It took another year for me to tell anyone, and that person was a high school counselor who was mandated to report it to the authorities. Jeyapaul had returned to India by then.
The Church had moved him back to oversee dozens of schools in the diocese of Ootacamund (Tamil Nadu), endangering countless other children. He was arrested in India after Interpol issued an alert in March 2012, and prosecutors here are now seeking to have him extradited to face criminal charges. As far as I know, he is still detained in New Delhi fighting extradition, with his bail denied because he is considered a flight risk. It’s hard to get accurate information, though: At another point we heard he’d been defrocked, but that turned out to be false. At another point we heard the extradition was imminent, but then nothing happened and I haven’t heard anything since.
Meanwhile, I went to Europe in September 2011 with people from SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which was filing the case with the International Criminal Court on our behalf. We charged then-Pope Benedict and other high-level Vatican officials with crimes against humanity for their roles, both supervisory and direct, in covering up and enabling widespread and systematic rape and other sexual assault in the Church. We asked the ICC to open an investigation. Among other evidence of wrong-doing by the church, we showed that it regularly moved priests known to be predators to new locations in order to avoid scandal—putting more children at risk, just as they did with my perpetrator.
That trip to Europe was the first time I felt like what I had to say was important. The day of the filing was momentous—walking those thousands of pages of evidence over to the court was huge. It’s very hard not to have things put into perspective when you’re carrying a 10-pound box of other people’s stories. We didn’t know what to expect, but we were taken seriously at the ICC. For now, they have declined to hear the case, but they remain open to reviewing further evidence. Accountability is a long haul.
Going back to Minnesota was difficult. My home town is such a small place, and everyone knows you. I’d go to the gas station and it was on the radio. There were, and still are, supportive people there, but you can’t help but hear the angry voices. People were threatened by what I had made public, and I started getting death threats in the mail. I couldn’t even drive around because people would recognize me and flip me off. My family and I were not on speaking terms, since they didn’t agree with or support what I was doing.
I picked up and left after two weeks, moving south to Winona. It was still a small town, but it gave me the anonymity and the distance I needed. Eventually I started taking classes, made new friends and could see a life beyond where I had been stuck. This led me to New York, where I feel so grateful that I’ve been able to focus on my painting and take some time to take care of myself. Over time, I’ve gone from the one making the calls for support to the one answering the calls. I never thought I’d be able to get to that point. Because I am one of the youngest SNAP members—it’s rare for someone to be able to talk about what happened to them until many years later—younger survivors are directed to me. So that’s been my role: talking to them, listening, making them know they aren’t the only ones.
The assaults and the spiritual betrayal I carried inside had such a negative impact on my life that I was making bad choices and worse decisions—I felt like the experience had taken away who I was supposed to be. The person I am now is someone who advocates for others. That’s why I went to Geneva this January: to be there, in the room, when the Vatican was called before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to answer hard questions about how the church hierarchy continues to enable and cover up sexual violence against children. It was historic. This is the first time an official body has called the Vatican to account for itself.
When the United Nations asked the Vatican to answer a series of questions in advance of the reporting sessions, they were a month late in their responses and refused to provide any of the requested data. Beyond that, they had the gall to claim the Vatican is only responsible for what occurs inside Vatican City and the safety of the 31 children who live there, as though they play no role in what the rest of the Church around the world does.
The UN published its conclusions recently, and they were more than I could have hoped for. They found the Vatican “has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests,” and that a “code of silence” has allowed both perpetrators and those who cover up sexual violence to escape the law. Among its many recommendations, the UN Committee called on the Vatican to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes.”
The UN pretty much supported everything that we’ve been saying: it’s huge to have an international body give us a voice. I’m hoping other states and countries will hear what the UN said and start holding the Church accountable and prosecuting these crimes.
I can’t say I was surprised when I read that the Vatican’s UN ambassador accused the committee of “allowing itself to be swayed by pro-gay ideologues” and “special-interest groups.” The Vatican tried to use the culture wars to deflect from the severity of the committee’s findings. It’s frustrating that they’re playing the victim: they are not the victim.
I have to say that Pope Francis’s popularity makes this work harder than it was before. He seems like a kind person, but it’s been frustrating to sit by watching him become so beloved by the media. In fact, he hasn’t made any concrete changes to protect children and vulnerable adults in the Church, or held anyone in the hierarchy accountable for covering up these crimes. He could do so much with the stroke of a pen. I hope he will begin taking real action. He could start by defrocking my perpetrator and doing what he can to bring him back here to face justice.
Megan Peterson is an artist and co-chair of SNAP New York.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-02-22 14:53:032014-02-22 14:53:03I wish he would just make the bishops stop lobbying against victims' access to justice
Bill Conlin — Philadelphia Daily News columnist for nearly a half-century, who passed away last month — was known to sports fans throughout the Northeast as a gifted writer and a consummate baseball fan.
We knew him as a serial pedophile predator who abused both boys and girls over the course of at least three decades. He sought out his innocent, trust-filled victims on and around the beaches of Margate City, N.J., where his nickname was “Slick Willie,” and in his close-knit neighborhood of Whitman Square, N.J.
His targets were not strangers. They were family members, his friends’ children and his children’s friends.
We were among them. At the time Conlin abused us, we were between 7 and 11 years old. His crimes ranged from aggravated sexual assault through digital genital penetration to criminal sexual contact via inappropriate sexual touching.
How this man got away with his disgusting crimes over the course of so many years is a cautionary tale for families and communities seeking to root out the scourge of sexual predators in their midst.
The first lesson is in personal and group psychology.
Countless adults knew that Conlin was a pedophile. Yet, for more than 40 years, no one went to the police.
Why? Conlin was a sadistic and vengeful man. He was a master at using his large stature, his prestige, his access to sports stars and sporting events and his wealth to prevent his victims (and his victims’ families) from reporting his crimes.
Obviously, most predators don’t wield this type of influence — but many find other ways to quietly intimidate those who might report crimes against children in real time.
As we grew from children to adults, the abuse we had endured remained seared in our memories. We were no longer victims, we were survivors.
We promised ourselves that we would do everything possible to protect our own children. We warned them about evil, sick predators like Conlin. We also taught them about accountability, that there were consequences for their actions. But in the back of our minds, each of us wondered if Conlin would ever be held accountable.
Which brings us to the second lesson: how the law perversely gives pedophiles a pass to commit their heinous crimes.
In late 2009, thanks to another survivor of Conlin’s crimes, three of us were brought together for the first time.
The rules of the game had changed completely. We were no longer vulnerable kids. We were now well-educated, successful, determined adults, and we had numbers.
Justice demanded that Conlin rot in jail for the rest of his life. So, in 2010, we took a leap of faith: We reported our abuse to law enforcement officials.
We were devastated when the Gloucester County prosecutor’s office investigation confessed to us via email: “We would love to find justice in this case. So many people have been victimized by this man, but our hands are tied by the law, which does not allow us to prosecute. ”
The statute of limitations had expired. We had waited too long to report Conlin’s crimes.
We didn’t want money. We wanted him exposed for what he was. We wanted his facade of fame and fortune to crumble in the face of what he had done to the young and most innocent of our society.
Then came the allegations against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The ensuing media firestorm was the perfect time to finally expose Conlin.
We could have taken our story to any newspaper in the country — but we chose to go to The Philadelphia Inquirer, which just happened to be owned by the same company that had employed Conlin for decades.
True to form, Conlin made a last-ditch effort to prevent our accounts of the abuse from being published.
He failed. And it came as no surprise to us that, after our accounts were published, several other survivors came forward. Conlin’s lawyer immediately went to the airwaves, saying that Conlin “had engaged him to do everything possible to bring the true facts forward and to vindicate his name.”
Of course, that never happened. Our tormentor slinked off to Florida, where he lived out the rest of his life alone as a recluse, never to be heard from again.
We strongly urge every state legislature to remove the statutes of limitations for survivor of sexual abuse. Pedophiles like Conlin must not be permitted to use arbitrary time limitations to shield themselves from being held accountable for their crimes.
And we sincerely hope that by speaking out, we will embolden other survivors to find the courage to break their silence. It’s never too late to do the right thing.
A Winslow Township man who was an organist at several South Jersey churches has been arrested on charges he sexually assaulted at least four male juveniles, authorities say.
Joseph Cuthbert, 71, was arrested at his home Sunday after an apparent victim stepped forward earlier in the day. The victim claimed abuse began in September.
An investigation found other victims who claimed the man had assaulted them over the last 30 years, Winslow police said. A police release initially said five total victims were located, but Detective Cary Robinson later said in an interview: “Right now we have four victims. A possible fifth.”
Cuthbert met each of the young men through his service as an organist at area churches, according to police.
A 1996 law lifted the statute of limitations in New Jersey for prosecuting child sex abuse, but it is not retroactive, so restrictions in place prior to that year remain. It was not clear Wednesday if that would bear any influence on the charges.
Robinson said the department would have to discuss such limitations with the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
Cuthbert most recently worked with Erial Community Church in Gloucester Township.
“We have been made aware of the situation,” Pastor Carlyle Melleby said. “My thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved.”
Melleby declined to comment further.
Officials also said Cuthbert had worked with Christ Community Church in Newfield. A call for comment Wednesday was not returned.
Cuthbert also faces numerous charges of criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.
Officials said Cuthbert did not post $250,000 cash bail and was being held at the Camden County Jail. It was not known whether he had retained an attorney.
Investigators ask victims or anyone with information to contact Robinson at 609-561-3300, Ext. 1147.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-02-21 21:56:302014-02-21 21:56:30Winslow church organist charged with sexual assault
An Atlantic City prosecutor who claims she was molested by Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin in Margate in the 1970s has joined three other accusers to call for removing all statutes of limitations for sexual abuse.
In an emotional letter published Thursday by the New York Daily News, Kelley Blanchet, Conlin’s niece, along with fellow accusers Karen Healey-Lange, Christine Giusti and Dale Elsa Norley, call Conlin, who died in January, “a serial pedophile predator who abused both boys and girls over the course of at least three decades.”
Giusti and Norley, two of seven people who have claimed abuse by Conlin in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, had remained anonymous before now.
“He sought out his innocent, trust-filled victims on and around the beaches of Margate City, N.J., where his nickname was ‘Slick Willie,’ and in his close-knit neighborhood of Whitman Square, N.J.,” the letter states. “His targets were not strangers. They were family members, his friends’ children and his children’s friends.”
The letter states that Conlin used his influence as a popular columnist “to prevent his victims (and his victims’ families) from reporting his crimes. Obviously, most predators don’t wield this type of influence — but many find other ways to quietly intimidate those who might report crimes against children in real time.”
The letter also states that “the law perversely gives pedophiles a pass to commit their heinous crimes” because of statutes of limitations.
“We strongly urge every state legislature to remove the statutes of limitations for survivor(s) of sexual abuse,” the letter states. “Pedophiles like Conlin must not be permitted to use arbitrary time limitations to shield themselves from being held accountable for their crimes. And we sincerely hope that by speaking out, we will embolden other survivors to find the courage to break their silence. It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
New Jersey lifted its statute of limitations for criminally prosecuting child sex abuse in 1996, but it is not retroactive. The statute of limitations for civil sex abuse lawsuits is two years after an abuse victim turns 18 or discovers the abuse.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-02-21 21:50:402014-02-21 21:53:15South Jersey victims allegedly molested by former Philly sportswriter say it should never be too late to report assaults
There was a time when evangelical Christians said that they didn’t have issues with sex abuse or assault like the Catholic Church, because they did not have a hierarchical structure. The stories of Baptist abuse have challenged this assertion, as do recent stories about the mishandling of reports of sex abuse and assaults at two fundamentalist colleges: Patrick Henry College and Bob Jones University.
Fundamentalist Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status when it forbade interracial dating in a 1983 Supreme Court case. Later, its policies changed on interracial dating, but its current sex abuse policies to be in line with other religious entities more concerned about image, rather than children.
It has been widely reported that the school has been accused of mishandling reports about sex assaults by employees and reports from students of being abused as a child in a fundamentalist home. There is a persistent theme in the stories so far that are public, that the school blamed the female victims.
For example, Catherine Harris was told in the 1980s when she disclosed abuse as a child, that if she reported her abuser to the authorities, she “was damaging the cause of Christ, and . . . responsible for the abuser going to hell.” A victim of sex assault in the 1990s by a university employee was asked whether her clothing was “too tight” and told that “it wouldn’t look good for her if” she told anyone. These are troubling stories indicating that, if they are representative of the school’s response, it is far behind where it should be in terms of the protection of its students from sex assault and rape. The intimidation of the victims, the blame game, and the preference for the image of the religion over the needs of the victim are striking. And familiar.
When Penn State learned about Jerry Sandusky, it brought in an independent investigator to get to the bottom of the issues. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh issued a scathing report. Bob Jones University took that first step—the hiring part. The school hired an outside organization to investigate its history of dealing with the issues and make recommendations. But it did not carry through and instead, just before the report was to be released in March, the University pulled the plug on the 13-month investigation. Whether we ever learn the truth will be depend on one of two variables—whether the University gets back on track and/or victims sue the University for its creation of a culture in which abuse is hidden, rather than redressed. TheSouth Carolina civil statute of limitationsis not bad, but the culture encourages deference and submission, rather than an assertion of rights. BJU says it will do the former. We shall see.
According to a recent story in the The New Republic, evangelical Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, was founded in 2000 to provide a high-quality college experience for fundamentalist Christian students, particularly those that were home-schooled. Dubbed “God’s Harvard,” it is rigorous and supportive of the Christian patriarchy movement. Both the movement and PHC craft the male-female relationship from Ephesians 5:22, which states, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.”
In this culture, women are responsible for safeguarding their virginity, and must guard against tempting men, who are subject to “’urges’” that are “irresistible forces of nature.”
Thus, the school and culture place the blame for sex assault squarely on the shoulders of the women badly treated. And, like the ultra-Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslim cultures, a woman who has had sex—even if it is a rape—can be treated as damaged goods. One talk at the school equated a woman who has had pre-marital sex as a used car. PHC appears to foster a culture tailor-made for male aggression against females. It does not accept any federal funds (even for student loans) and, therefore, is not governed by Title IX, but it is governed by the tort laws. Virginia’s civil statute of limitationsshould not give them much comfort, except for the fact that, like BJU, the culture encourages the victims to believe it was their fault.
When President Obama recently announced the federal study that documented that 1 in 5 women on campus are sexually assaulted, which I discussed in this Justia column, many were shocked. Much of it was linked to alcohol, though. The persistent binge drinking at so many colleges does not appear to occur at PHC, but sex assault still seems to be a problem, and the institution seems incapable of handling it in a way that is healthy for its female students. Neither of these schools is handling these issues well or professionally. Their faith gives them no defense.
The good news is that these two institutions are not being given a pass by the press, and, therefore, cannot just pray these serious problems away. The times have changed dramatically. There was a time when the press was complicit in the perpetuation of child sex abuse, because it declined to cover it, particularly when it involved religious institutions. That is history.
What is not history is the Catholic Church’s ongoing set of issues with clergy sex abuse. Both PHC and BJU would do well to pay close attention to what happens when a religious organization lets these issues fester, and it persistently chooses the image of the church over the needs of the victim. The Catholic hierarchy keeps putting itself in the crosshairs of fundamental human decency. That is a losing game. The same can and should happen at PHC and BJU if they do not own their errors, do right by their victims, and dramatically change their practices. Avoiding public disclosure and American justice will only prolong their scandals.
The United Nations vs. the Vatican
By now, we all know the pattern and story of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church, but just in case you thought it really was over, the United Nations entered the picture.
Last month, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child grilled the Vatican on its abysmal record on the protection of children from pedophile priests. Now, it has issued a damning report, which includes numerous recommendations for the Vatican to bring its practices into compliance with international standards on child protection. As a sovereign nation, the Holy See does not get a pass on such standards simply because it is a religious entity as well, particularly when it is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
There is one line likely to be lost in the media coverage, but it may be the most important for the future of children worldwide, and particularly the United States. Near the end of the document, the Vatican is urged to “[p]romote the reform of statute of limitations in countries where they impede victims of child sexual abuse from seeking justice and redress.” This is a litmus test for any institution publicly declaring its intent to protect children.
This recommendation would require the Vatican and the United States bishops to do an about-face.
The statutes of limitations have been the primary and often the only barrier to justice for the vast majority of child sex abuse victims in the United States and elsewhere. Most victims can’t come forward until adulthood, on average age 42, so a deadline for filing criminal charges or civil claims that occurs before age 50 prevents access to justice. This deadline has halted cases where the perpetrator admits the abuse, the diocese has proof of its knowledge about the perpetrators is in its own files, and the victim has corroborating evidence. Scores of victims in New York and beyond deserve a chance at justice. Their cases would educate all of us on who the hidden predators are, and who among us is now suffering in silence.
SOLs are often valuable in cases involving property and contracts or crimes where the victim is more likely to contact the authorities close to the crime, e.g., a burglary or armed robbery or car theft. In contrast, there is no SOL on murder, because the victim has no way to report the abuse. Child sex abuse is similar in that the victims are often incapacitated from coming forward for years.
Unlike murder, though, where perpetrators tend not to be serial murderers, when it comes to child sex abuse, the perpetrator tends to have multiple victims, and is likely to do so even late in life. Therefore, shutting victims out of court at any age endangers other children, who might have been protected had the earlier victims been able to get into court. Any case filed against a perpetrator holds out hope that others will be vindicated and will join forces with that victim against the perpetrator and any institution that empowered him.
The only entities in the United States investing millions of dollars in blocking victims’ access to justice are the Catholic bishops in each state. That is especially true in New York, where the SOLs are some of the worst in the country, and where www.bishopaccountability.org estimates that the New York City Archdiocese alone is covering up abuse by hundreds of priests. Prosecution and lawsuits crack open the truth for the public to see. They are the only reliable path to the truth.
Let us hope the Pope and the Vatican take the UN’s injunctions seriously and order the bishops here to stop using parishioners’ dollars to bar victims’ access to justice. Certainly this is an item that President Obama should mention when they meet next month.
The President has been mute so far on the epidemic of sex abuse and assaults in religious entities in the United States. It is time for him to step up for all victims, and to stop pandering to religious entities. There are no more elections, Mr. President. Only problems to be solved.
– See more at: http://verdict.justia.com/2014/02/20/sex-assaults-evangelical-colleges-united-nations-vatican#sthash.fmLOsBoM.dpuf
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“So the Bishops’ lobbyists are saying they can’t afford sol reform
But they are selling property to pay for coverup king Archbishop Myers’ retirement palace? Which NJ legislators are deferring to the bishops’ demands for no sol reform? This is perverse!” – Professor Marci A. Hamilton
KEARNY, N.J. — Mater Dei Academy sits shuttered, blue drapes pulled across its windows, atop a hill in this working-class city. From its steps, you can peer across the mist-shrouded expanse of the Meadowlands to the distant spires of Manhattan.
For generations, this blond brick Catholic elementary school tossed a lifeline to the immigrants who, wave upon wave, washed ashore here. The Archdiocese of Newark closed it two years ago. Church officials offered deep regrets; the church’s wallet is thin to the touch these days.
“It was a loved place, that school,” said Dorothy Gawronski, a crossing guard holding a red “Stop” sign. “But the church, I don’t think it’s rich anymore.”
All of which brings me along a winding and narrow road that switches back and forth across the wooded Capoolong Creek to a splendid 8.5-acre spread in the hamlet of Pittstown. This is rural and rather affluent Hunterdon County, 49 miles from Mater Dei.
John J. Myers, the archbishop of the Newark Archdiocese, comes to this vacation home on many weekends. The 4,500-square-foot home has a handsome amoeba-shaped swimming pool out back. And as he’s 72, and retirement beckons in two years, he has renovations in mind. A small army of workers are framing a 3,000-square-foot addition.
This new wing will have an indoor exercise pool, three fireplaces and an elevator. The Star-Ledger of Newark has noted that the half-million-dollar tab for this wing does not include architects’ fees or furnishings.
There’s no need to fear for the archbishop’s bank account. The Newark Archdiocese is picking up the bill.
Jim Goodness, the spokesman for the archdiocese, has the thankless job of explaining this. “The press says it’s a hot tub; it’s a whirlpool,” he says of one of the wing’s accouterments. “He’s getting older — there are therapeutic issues.”
The proceeds from the sale of other properties owned by the archdiocese, he explained, will pay for the expansion. “It is not going to cost our parishioners anything,” he said.
I felt compelled to ask: Couldn’t this half million dollars go to, oh, more meals for the homeless? “Any extra monies will go to the diocese,” he replied.
So many leaders of the church have served it so badly for so many decades that it’s hard to keep track of their maledictions. Archbishop Myers provides one-stop shopping. He is known to insist on being addressed as “Your Grace.” And his self-regard is matched by his refusal to apologize for more or less anything.
It was revealed last year that a priest seemed to have broken his legally binding agreement with Bergen County prosecutors to never again work unsupervised with children or to minister to them so long as he remained a priest. When next found, he was involved with a youth ministry in the Newark Archdiocese.
Parishioners in Oradell, N.J., also discovered that the archdiocese had allowed a priest accused of sexual abuse to live in their parish’s rectory. A furor arose, and last summer the archbishop sat down and wrote an open letter to his flock. He conceded not a stumble. Those who claim, he wrote, that he and the church had not protected children were “simply evil, wrong, immoral and seemingly focused on their own self-aggrandizement.”
As to his critics, the archbishop accused the media of refusing to explore the “lifestyles” of the former or marginalized priests who criticize the church. “Lifestyle” is an intriguing kidney punch of a euphemism; presumably the archbishop meant “gay.”
Pope Francis offers the intriguing counterpoint here. He shed the papal palace for a modest guest apartment, and the papal Mercedes for a Ford. He speaks of a “poor church for the poor.”
“If a thought, if a desire takes you along the road of humility and abasement, of service to others, it is from Jesus,” he said last week.
Left unsaid is where the thought process leading to that palace in Hunterdon County came from.
Some months back, I attended a Mass celebrated for the Rev. John Grange. He was a plain-spoken worker priest, a man who walked with striking workers, picketed a slumlord and faced down a Bronx political boss.
When he died in October, he was laid out in a simple coffin in his beloved St. Jerome Church in the South Bronx, and every pew overflowed with Latino working men and women, their children and crying babies.
I watched those parishioners weep. And when the time came, I watched them pull out folded dollars and fill the offering plates.
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I wish he would just make the bishops stop lobbying against victims’ access to justice
/in Uncategorized /by SOL Reformhttp://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/02/21/i-wish-the-pope-would-step-up/
Megan Peterson is an artist and co-chair of SNAP New York.
The first time I spoke publicly about being repeatedly raped by a priest when I was between the ages of 14 and 15 was when we announced the settlement of my case—one week before I went to join advocates filing a complaint against the pope with the International Criminal Court at The Hague. I was 21 and had barely left my small town in Minnesota, let alone the country. If you watch footage from the press conference, I disappear for a while; that was when I stepped out to throw up.People were whispering about Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul’s inappropriate contact with youths within a month or so after his arrival from India at our church, but no one did anything about it. At the time, I was shy and got teased a lot, and I felt like an outsider. He offered to lend me a book, and I was flattered by the attention. When I went to pick it up, was the first time he raped me. Sometimes he was violent, and sometimes he told me this was the teaching of God; this was how I was getting closer to Him.
I would take the church bulletin every Sunday and look at the telephone number for the diocese victim advocate printed at the bottom. When I finally worked up the courage to make the call and tell someone what was happening, the woman on the other end told me not to make prank calls and hung up on me. Truly. It took another year for me to tell anyone, and that person was a high school counselor who was mandated to report it to the authorities. Jeyapaul had returned to India by then.
The Church had moved him back to oversee dozens of schools in the diocese of Ootacamund (Tamil Nadu), endangering countless other children. He was arrested in India after Interpol issued an alert in March 2012, and prosecutors here are now seeking to have him extradited to face criminal charges. As far as I know, he is still detained in New Delhi fighting extradition, with his bail denied because he is considered a flight risk. It’s hard to get accurate information, though: At another point we heard he’d been defrocked, but that turned out to be false. At another point we heard the extradition was imminent, but then nothing happened and I haven’t heard anything since.
Meanwhile, I went to Europe in September 2011 with people from SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which was filing the case with the International Criminal Court on our behalf. We charged then-Pope Benedict and other high-level Vatican officials with crimes against humanity for their roles, both supervisory and direct, in covering up and enabling widespread and systematic rape and other sexual assault in the Church. We asked the ICC to open an investigation. Among other evidence of wrong-doing by the church, we showed that it regularly moved priests known to be predators to new locations in order to avoid scandal—putting more children at risk, just as they did with my perpetrator.
That trip to Europe was the first time I felt like what I had to say was important. The day of the filing was momentous—walking those thousands of pages of evidence over to the court was huge. It’s very hard not to have things put into perspective when you’re carrying a 10-pound box of other people’s stories. We didn’t know what to expect, but we were taken seriously at the ICC. For now, they have declined to hear the case, but they remain open to reviewing further evidence. Accountability is a long haul.
Going back to Minnesota was difficult. My home town is such a small place, and everyone knows you. I’d go to the gas station and it was on the radio. There were, and still are, supportive people there, but you can’t help but hear the angry voices. People were threatened by what I had made public, and I started getting death threats in the mail. I couldn’t even drive around because people would recognize me and flip me off. My family and I were not on speaking terms, since they didn’t agree with or support what I was doing.
I picked up and left after two weeks, moving south to Winona. It was still a small town, but it gave me the anonymity and the distance I needed. Eventually I started taking classes, made new friends and could see a life beyond where I had been stuck. This led me to New York, where I feel so grateful that I’ve been able to focus on my painting and take some time to take care of myself. Over time, I’ve gone from the one making the calls for support to the one answering the calls. I never thought I’d be able to get to that point. Because I am one of the youngest SNAP members—it’s rare for someone to be able to talk about what happened to them until many years later—younger survivors are directed to me. So that’s been my role: talking to them, listening, making them know they aren’t the only ones.
The assaults and the spiritual betrayal I carried inside had such a negative impact on my life that I was making bad choices and worse decisions—I felt like the experience had taken away who I was supposed to be. The person I am now is someone who advocates for others. That’s why I went to Geneva this January: to be there, in the room, when the Vatican was called before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to answer hard questions about how the church hierarchy continues to enable and cover up sexual violence against children. It was historic. This is the first time an official body has called the Vatican to account for itself.
When the United Nations asked the Vatican to answer a series of questions in advance of the reporting sessions, they were a month late in their responses and refused to provide any of the requested data. Beyond that, they had the gall to claim the Vatican is only responsible for what occurs inside Vatican City and the safety of the 31 children who live there, as though they play no role in what the rest of the Church around the world does.
The UN published its conclusions recently, and they were more than I could have hoped for. They found the Vatican “has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests,” and that a “code of silence” has allowed both perpetrators and those who cover up sexual violence to escape the law. Among its many recommendations, the UN Committee called on the Vatican to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes.”
The UN pretty much supported everything that we’ve been saying: it’s huge to have an international body give us a voice. I’m hoping other states and countries will hear what the UN said and start holding the Church accountable and prosecuting these crimes.
I can’t say I was surprised when I read that the Vatican’s UN ambassador accused the committee of “allowing itself to be swayed by pro-gay ideologues” and “special-interest groups.” The Vatican tried to use the culture wars to deflect from the severity of the committee’s findings. It’s frustrating that they’re playing the victim: they are not the victim.
I have to say that Pope Francis’s popularity makes this work harder than it was before. He seems like a kind person, but it’s been frustrating to sit by watching him become so beloved by the media. In fact, he hasn’t made any concrete changes to protect children and vulnerable adults in the Church, or held anyone in the hierarchy accountable for covering up these crimes. He could do so much with the stroke of a pen. I hope he will begin taking real action. He could start by defrocking my perpetrator and doing what he can to bring him back here to face justice.
Megan Peterson is an artist and co-chair of SNAP New York.
How our abuser got away with it (NY Daily News)
/in New York, Pennsylvania /by SOL Reformhttp://www.nydailynews.com/
How our abuser got away with it
Our legal system helped give Bill Conlin a pass
Bill Conlin — Philadelphia Daily News columnist for nearly a half-century, who passed away last month — was known to sports fans throughout the Northeast as a gifted writer and a consummate baseball fan.
We knew him as a serial pedophile predator who abused both boys and girls over the course of at least three decades. He sought out his innocent, trust-filled victims on and around the beaches of Margate City, N.J., where his nickname was “Slick Willie,” and in his close-knit neighborhood of Whitman Square, N.J.
His targets were not strangers. They were family members, his friends’ children and his children’s friends.
We were among them. At the time Conlin abused us, we were between 7 and 11 years old. His crimes ranged from aggravated sexual assault through digital genital penetration to criminal sexual contact via inappropriate sexual touching.
How this man got away with his disgusting crimes over the course of so many years is a cautionary tale for families and communities seeking to root out the scourge of sexual predators in their midst.
The first lesson is in personal and group psychology.
Countless adults knew that Conlin was a pedophile. Yet, for more than 40 years, no one went to the police.
Why? Conlin was a sadistic and vengeful man. He was a master at using his large stature, his prestige, his access to sports stars and sporting events and his wealth to prevent his victims (and his victims’ families) from reporting his crimes.
Obviously, most predators don’t wield this type of influence — but many find other ways to quietly intimidate those who might report crimes against children in real time.
As we grew from children to adults, the abuse we had endured remained seared in our memories. We were no longer victims, we were survivors.
We promised ourselves that we would do everything possible to protect our own children. We warned them about evil, sick predators like Conlin. We also taught them about accountability, that there were consequences for their actions. But in the back of our minds, each of us wondered if Conlin would ever be held accountable.
Which brings us to the second lesson: how the law perversely gives pedophiles a pass to commit their heinous crimes.
In late 2009, thanks to another survivor of Conlin’s crimes, three of us were brought together for the first time.
The rules of the game had changed completely. We were no longer vulnerable kids. We were now well-educated, successful, determined adults, and we had numbers.
Justice demanded that Conlin rot in jail for the rest of his life. So, in 2010, we took a leap of faith: We reported our abuse to law enforcement officials.
We were devastated when the Gloucester County prosecutor’s office investigation confessed to us via email: “We would love to find justice in this case. So many people have been victimized by this man, but our hands are tied by the law, which does not allow us to prosecute. ”
The statute of limitations had expired. We had waited too long to report Conlin’s crimes.
We didn’t want money. We wanted him exposed for what he was. We wanted his facade of fame and fortune to crumble in the face of what he had done to the young and most innocent of our society.
Then came the allegations against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The ensuing media firestorm was the perfect time to finally expose Conlin.
We could have taken our story to any newspaper in the country — but we chose to go to The Philadelphia Inquirer, which just happened to be owned by the same company that had employed Conlin for decades.
True to form, Conlin made a last-ditch effort to prevent our accounts of the abuse from being published.
He failed. And it came as no surprise to us that, after our accounts were published, several other survivors came forward. Conlin’s lawyer immediately went to the airwaves, saying that Conlin “had engaged him to do everything possible to bring the true facts forward and to vindicate his name.”
Of course, that never happened. Our tormentor slinked off to Florida, where he lived out the rest of his life alone as a recluse, never to be heard from again.
We strongly urge every state legislature to remove the statutes of limitations for survivor of sexual abuse. Pedophiles like Conlin must not be permitted to use arbitrary time limitations to shield themselves from being held accountable for their crimes.
And we sincerely hope that by speaking out, we will embolden other survivors to find the courage to break their silence. It’s never too late to do the right thing.
Blanchet, Healey-Lange, Giusti and Norley say they were victims and are now survivors of Conlin’s abuse in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Giusti and Norley were previously anonymous.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/abuser-article-1.1620273#ixzz2u0192Vg2
Winslow church organist charged with sexual assault
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformWinslow church organist charged with sexual assault
A Winslow Township man who was an organist at several South Jersey churches has been arrested on charges he sexually assaulted at least four male juveniles, authorities say.
Joseph Cuthbert, 71, was arrested at his home Sunday after an apparent victim stepped forward earlier in the day. The victim claimed abuse began in September.
An investigation found other victims who claimed the man had assaulted them over the last 30 years, Winslow police said. A police release initially said five total victims were located, but Detective Cary Robinson later said in an interview: “Right now we have four victims. A possible fifth.”
Cuthbert met each of the young men through his service as an organist at area churches, according to police.
A 1996 law lifted the statute of limitations in New Jersey for prosecuting child sex abuse, but it is not retroactive, so restrictions in place prior to that year remain. It was not clear Wednesday if that would bear any influence on the charges.
Robinson said the department would have to discuss such limitations with the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
Cuthbert most recently worked with Erial Community Church in Gloucester Township.
“We have been made aware of the situation,” Pastor Carlyle Melleby said. “My thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved.”
Melleby declined to comment further.
Officials also said Cuthbert had worked with Christ Community Church in Newfield. A call for comment Wednesday was not returned.
Cuthbert also faces numerous charges of criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.
Officials said Cuthbert did not post $250,000 cash bail and was being held at the Camden County Jail. It was not known whether he had retained an attorney.
Investigators ask victims or anyone with information to contact Robinson at 609-561-3300, Ext. 1147.
afichera@philly.com
856-779-3917
@AJFichera
South Jersey victims allegedly molested by former Philly sportswriter say it should never be too late to report assaults
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformSouth Jersey victims allegedly molested by former Philly sportswriter say it should never be too late to report assaults
Posted: Thursday, February 20, 2014 4:02 pm
By STEVEN LEMONGELLO, Staff Writer
An Atlantic City prosecutor who claims she was molested by Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin in Margate in the 1970s has joined three other accusers to call for removing all statutes of limitations for sexual abuse.
In an emotional letter published Thursday by the New York Daily News, Kelley Blanchet, Conlin’s niece, along with fellow accusers Karen Healey-Lange, Christine Giusti and Dale Elsa Norley, call Conlin, who died in January, “a serial pedophile predator who abused both boys and girls over the course of at least three decades.”
Giusti and Norley, two of seven people who have claimed abuse by Conlin in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, had remained anonymous before now.
“He sought out his innocent, trust-filled victims on and around the beaches of Margate City, N.J., where his nickname was ‘Slick Willie,’ and in his close-knit neighborhood of Whitman Square, N.J.,” the letter states. “His targets were not strangers. They were family members, his friends’ children and his children’s friends.”
The letter states that Conlin used his influence as a popular columnist “to prevent his victims (and his victims’ families) from reporting his crimes. Obviously, most predators don’t wield this type of influence — but many find other ways to quietly intimidate those who might report crimes against children in real time.”
The letter also states that “the law perversely gives pedophiles a pass to commit their heinous crimes” because of statutes of limitations.
“We strongly urge every state legislature to remove the statutes of limitations for survivor(s) of sexual abuse,” the letter states. “Pedophiles like Conlin must not be permitted to use arbitrary time limitations to shield themselves from being held accountable for their crimes. And we sincerely hope that by speaking out, we will embolden other survivors to find the courage to break their silence. It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
New Jersey lifted its statute of limitations for criminally prosecuting child sex abuse in 1996, but it is not retroactive. The statute of limitations for civil sex abuse lawsuits is two years after an abuse victim turns 18 or discovers the abuse.
Contact Steven Lemongello:
609-272-7275
SLemongello@pressofac.com
Follow Steven Lemongello on Twitter @SteveLemongello
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/south-jersey-victims-allegedly-molested-by-former-philly-sportswriter-say/article_54681eba-9a72-11e3-be63-0019bb2963f4.html
Sex Assaults at Evangelical Colleges, the United Nations, and the Vatican – See more at: http://verdict.justia.com/2014/02/20/sex-assaults-evangelical-colleges-united-nations-vatican#sthash.fmLOsBoM.dpuf
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformSex Assaults at Evangelical Colleges, the United Nations, and the Vatican
Professor Marci A. Hamilton
There was a time when evangelical Christians said that they didn’t have issues with sex abuse or assault like the Catholic Church, because they did not have a hierarchical structure. The stories of Baptist abuse have challenged this assertion, as do recent stories about the mishandling of reports of sex abuse and assaults at two fundamentalist colleges: Patrick Henry College and Bob Jones University.
Fundamentalist Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status when it forbade interracial dating in a 1983 Supreme Court case. Later, its policies changed on interracial dating, but its current sex abuse policies to be in line with other religious entities more concerned about image, rather than children.
It has been widely reported that the school has been accused of mishandling reports about sex assaults by employees and reports from students of being abused as a child in a fundamentalist home. There is a persistent theme in the stories so far that are public, that the school blamed the female victims.
For example, Catherine Harris was told in the 1980s when she disclosed abuse as a child, that if she reported her abuser to the authorities, she “was damaging the cause of Christ, and . . . responsible for the abuser going to hell.” A victim of sex assault in the 1990s by a university employee was asked whether her clothing was “too tight” and told that “it wouldn’t look good for her if” she told anyone. These are troubling stories indicating that, if they are representative of the school’s response, it is far behind where it should be in terms of the protection of its students from sex assault and rape. The intimidation of the victims, the blame game, and the preference for the image of the religion over the needs of the victim are striking. And familiar.
When Penn State learned about Jerry Sandusky, it brought in an independent investigator to get to the bottom of the issues. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh issued a scathing report. Bob Jones University took that first step—the hiring part. The school hired an outside organization to investigate its history of dealing with the issues and make recommendations. But it did not carry through and instead, just before the report was to be released in March, the University pulled the plug on the 13-month investigation. Whether we ever learn the truth will be depend on one of two variables—whether the University gets back on track and/or victims sue the University for its creation of a culture in which abuse is hidden, rather than redressed. The South Carolina civil statute of limitations is not bad, but the culture encourages deference and submission, rather than an assertion of rights. BJU says it will do the former. We shall see.
According to a recent story in the The New Republic, evangelical Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, was founded in 2000 to provide a high-quality college experience for fundamentalist Christian students, particularly those that were home-schooled. Dubbed “God’s Harvard,” it is rigorous and supportive of the Christian patriarchy movement. Both the movement and PHC craft the male-female relationship from Ephesians 5:22, which states, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.”
In this culture, women are responsible for safeguarding their virginity, and must guard against tempting men, who are subject to “’urges’” that are “irresistible forces of nature.”
Thus, the school and culture place the blame for sex assault squarely on the shoulders of the women badly treated. And, like the ultra-Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslim cultures, a woman who has had sex—even if it is a rape—can be treated as damaged goods. One talk at the school equated a woman who has had pre-marital sex as a used car. PHC appears to foster a culture tailor-made for male aggression against females. It does not accept any federal funds (even for student loans) and, therefore, is not governed by Title IX, but it is governed by the tort laws. Virginia’s civil statute of limitations should not give them much comfort, except for the fact that, like BJU, the culture encourages the victims to believe it was their fault.
When President Obama recently announced the federal study that documented that 1 in 5 women on campus are sexually assaulted, which I discussed in this Justia column, many were shocked. Much of it was linked to alcohol, though. The persistent binge drinking at so many colleges does not appear to occur at PHC, but sex assault still seems to be a problem, and the institution seems incapable of handling it in a way that is healthy for its female students. Neither of these schools is handling these issues well or professionally. Their faith gives them no defense.
The good news is that these two institutions are not being given a pass by the press, and, therefore, cannot just pray these serious problems away. The times have changed dramatically. There was a time when the press was complicit in the perpetuation of child sex abuse, because it declined to cover it, particularly when it involved religious institutions. That is history.
What is not history is the Catholic Church’s ongoing set of issues with clergy sex abuse. Both PHC and BJU would do well to pay close attention to what happens when a religious organization lets these issues fester, and it persistently chooses the image of the church over the needs of the victim. The Catholic hierarchy keeps putting itself in the crosshairs of fundamental human decency. That is a losing game. The same can and should happen at PHC and BJU if they do not own their errors, do right by their victims, and dramatically change their practices. Avoiding public disclosure and American justice will only prolong their scandals.
The United Nations vs. the Vatican
By now, we all know the pattern and story of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church, but just in case you thought it really was over, the United Nations entered the picture.
Last month, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child grilled the Vatican on its abysmal record on the protection of children from pedophile priests. Now, it has issued a damning report, which includes numerous recommendations for the Vatican to bring its practices into compliance with international standards on child protection. As a sovereign nation, the Holy See does not get a pass on such standards simply because it is a religious entity as well, particularly when it is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
There is one line likely to be lost in the media coverage, but it may be the most important for the future of children worldwide, and particularly the United States. Near the end of the document, the Vatican is urged to “[p]romote the reform of statute of limitations in countries where they impede victims of child sexual abuse from seeking justice and redress.” This is a litmus test for any institution publicly declaring its intent to protect children.
This recommendation would require the Vatican and the United States bishops to do an about-face.
The statutes of limitations have been the primary and often the only barrier to justice for the vast majority of child sex abuse victims in the United States and elsewhere. Most victims can’t come forward until adulthood, on average age 42, so a deadline for filing criminal charges or civil claims that occurs before age 50 prevents access to justice. This deadline has halted cases where the perpetrator admits the abuse, the diocese has proof of its knowledge about the perpetrators is in its own files, and the victim has corroborating evidence. Scores of victims in New York and beyond deserve a chance at justice. Their cases would educate all of us on who the hidden predators are, and who among us is now suffering in silence.
SOLs are often valuable in cases involving property and contracts or crimes where the victim is more likely to contact the authorities close to the crime, e.g., a burglary or armed robbery or car theft. In contrast, there is no SOL on murder, because the victim has no way to report the abuse. Child sex abuse is similar in that the victims are often incapacitated from coming forward for years.
Unlike murder, though, where perpetrators tend not to be serial murderers, when it comes to child sex abuse, the perpetrator tends to have multiple victims, and is likely to do so even late in life. Therefore, shutting victims out of court at any age endangers other children, who might have been protected had the earlier victims been able to get into court. Any case filed against a perpetrator holds out hope that others will be vindicated and will join forces with that victim against the perpetrator and any institution that empowered him.
The only entities in the United States investing millions of dollars in blocking victims’ access to justice are the Catholic bishops in each state. That is especially true in New York, where the SOLs are some of the worst in the country, and where www.bishopaccountability.org estimates that the New York City Archdiocese alone is covering up abuse by hundreds of priests. Prosecution and lawsuits crack open the truth for the public to see. They are the only reliable path to the truth.
Let us hope the Pope and the Vatican take the UN’s injunctions seriously and order the bishops here to stop using parishioners’ dollars to bar victims’ access to justice. Certainly this is an item that President Obama should mention when they meet next month.
The President has been mute so far on the epidemic of sex abuse and assaults in religious entities in the United States. It is time for him to step up for all victims, and to stop pandering to religious entities. There are no more elections, Mr. President. Only problems to be solved.
– See more at: http://verdict.justia.com/2014/02/20/sex-assaults-evangelical-colleges-united-nations-vatican#sthash.fmLOsBoM.dpuf
A Church So Poor It Has to Close Schools, Yet So Rich It Can Build a Palace
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformTHE NEW YORK TIMES
A Church So Poor It Has to Close Schools, Yet So Rich It Can Build a Palace
By MICHAEL POWELL
February 19, 2014
KEARNY, N.J. — Mater Dei Academy sits shuttered, blue drapes pulled across its windows, atop a hill in this working-class city. From its steps, you can peer across the mist-shrouded expanse of the Meadowlands to the distant spires of Manhattan.
For generations, this blond brick Catholic elementary school tossed a lifeline to the immigrants who, wave upon wave, washed ashore here. The Archdiocese of Newark closed it two years ago. Church officials offered deep regrets; the church’s wallet is thin to the touch these days.
“It was a loved place, that school,” said Dorothy Gawronski, a crossing guard holding a red “Stop” sign. “But the church, I don’t think it’s rich anymore.”
All of which brings me along a winding and narrow road that switches back and forth across the wooded Capoolong Creek to a splendid 8.5-acre spread in the hamlet of Pittstown. This is rural and rather affluent Hunterdon County, 49 miles from Mater Dei.
John J. Myers, the archbishop of the Newark Archdiocese, comes to this vacation home on many weekends. The 4,500-square-foot home has a handsome amoeba-shaped swimming pool out back. And as he’s 72, and retirement beckons in two years, he has renovations in mind. A small army of workers are framing a 3,000-square-foot addition.
This new wing will have an indoor exercise pool, three fireplaces and an elevator. The Star-Ledger of Newark has noted that the half-million-dollar tab for this wing does not include architects’ fees or furnishings.
There’s no need to fear for the archbishop’s bank account. The Newark Archdiocese is picking up the bill.
Jim Goodness, the spokesman for the archdiocese, has the thankless job of explaining this. “The press says it’s a hot tub; it’s a whirlpool,” he says of one of the wing’s accouterments. “He’s getting older — there are therapeutic issues.”
The proceeds from the sale of other properties owned by the archdiocese, he explained, will pay for the expansion. “It is not going to cost our parishioners anything,” he said.
I felt compelled to ask: Couldn’t this half million dollars go to, oh, more meals for the homeless? “Any extra monies will go to the diocese,” he replied.
So many leaders of the church have served it so badly for so many decades that it’s hard to keep track of their maledictions. Archbishop Myers provides one-stop shopping. He is known to insist on being addressed as “Your Grace.” And his self-regard is matched by his refusal to apologize for more or less anything.
It was revealed last year that a priest seemed to have broken his legally binding agreement with Bergen County prosecutors to never again work unsupervised with children or to minister to them so long as he remained a priest. When next found, he was involved with a youth ministry in the Newark Archdiocese.
Parishioners in Oradell, N.J., also discovered that the archdiocese had allowed a priest accused of sexual abuse to live in their parish’s rectory. A furor arose, and last summer the archbishop sat down and wrote an open letter to his flock. He conceded not a stumble. Those who claim, he wrote, that he and the church had not protected children were “simply evil, wrong, immoral and seemingly focused on their own self-aggrandizement.”
As to his critics, the archbishop accused the media of refusing to explore the “lifestyles” of the former or marginalized priests who criticize the church. “Lifestyle” is an intriguing kidney punch of a euphemism; presumably the archbishop meant “gay.”
Pope Francis offers the intriguing counterpoint here. He shed the papal palace for a modest guest apartment, and the papal Mercedes for a Ford. He speaks of a “poor church for the poor.”
“If a thought, if a desire takes you along the road of humility and abasement, of service to others, it is from Jesus,” he said last week.
Left unsaid is where the thought process leading to that palace in Hunterdon County came from.
Some months back, I attended a Mass celebrated for the Rev. John Grange. He was a plain-spoken worker priest, a man who walked with striking workers, picketed a slumlord and faced down a Bronx political boss.
When he died in October, he was laid out in a simple coffin in his beloved St. Jerome Church in the South Bronx, and every pew overflowed with Latino working men and women, their children and crying babies.
I watched those parishioners weep. And when the time came, I watched them pull out folded dollars and fill the offering plates.
That was grace.
Email: powellm@nytimes.com