Michael D’Antonio, Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal (Thomas Dunne Books 2013)
Ray Mouton, In God’s House: A Novel About One of the Great Scandals of Our Time (Head of Zeus 2012)
No matter how hard they try—and they have given it all they have—the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy cannot keep the truth of its callous and calculated disregard of children from reaching the mainstream media and seeping into our common culture. You may think that you already know all there is to know on this topic, but three recent developments in the media—one movie deal, a non-fiction book, and a novel—will laudably raise the level of awareness to new levels. These works should push even those in denial to reconsider their position, and our federal and state legislators to do what is right, which is to focus on the victims, not the lobbyists for the Church.The Movie Deal With DreamWorks Studios
The Boston Globe reporters who, in 2002, broke the story of the Catholic hierarchy’s cover up of child sex abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese recently inked a deal with DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media to produce a feature film on the subject. DreamWorks does nothing by halves, so this should be a strong contribution to the question of how the public came to know that bishops were vulnerable children’s worst enemies. It is important that a movie be made that focuses on the reporters’ breaking the story itself, and I hope that the screenwriters and director will be searingly honest about how long the story sat at the Boston Globe before it was finally printed.
Until the Boston Globe made history in 2002, and its reporters accordingly won the Pulitzer Prize, the media was actually complicit in the cover-up of abuse in the dioceses. Until relatively recently, the media was frightened of stories putting the Catholic Church in a bad light. DreamWorks would do well to include some of the media history that occurred before this story broke, including the pressure that bishops put on papers to let them take care of the issue in private. There was an egregious lack of coverage across the country, with reporters losing their jobs or being re-assigned to another beat if they broached the topic, and editors resolutely refusing to bring such stories to print. Indeed, one Milwaukee reporter, Marie Rhode, had the story first, but was re-assigned to another beat, which created the opening for the Boston Globe reporters to work on the story
That was the era that I have dubbed our “Pollyanna years,” when we all shared a belief in the myth that religious groups only do good. It was taboo to point to the bad behavior of some religious organizations, which, of course, was disastrous for the vulnerable, like children left alone with predatory adults, who used the blind faith in religious organizations and cunning to persuade adults to trust them. I was chastised as recently as 1997 for using the term “religious lobbyist.” Of course, between the clergy sex abuse crises and 9/11, those days are over.
The Nonfiction Book, Mortal Sins, by Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Investigative Journalist Michael D’Antonio on the Clergy Child Sex Abuse Scandal in the United States
A new non-fiction book is a tremendous addition to the fund of our understanding of this crisis. It is entitled Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, and it is a searing and deeply engaging account of the contemporary battles that have been waged against the culture of secrecy and cover-up maintained by the Catholic hierarchy. The extraordinary quality of the writing makes this difficult story both readable and impossible to put down.
The crusaders for the victims, so hated by the hierarchy, feature prominently. They include survivors and national leaders Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy of SNAP; former monk and brilliant psychologist Richard Sipe; pioneering and visionary trial lawyer Jeff Anderson; and the heroic Fr. Tom Doyle, who is also a central character in the amazing historical novel In God’s House, which I review below. While each of them have had their fair share of press on the issues, there are stories here that have never been put together for the public before.
You will be shocked and disgusted at the hierarchy, and you will find yourself cheering for the survivors who had the guts to tell the truth about the abuse, as they distanced themselves from their past, and sometimes their families, and, at the same time, turned away in anger and disgust from the largest and oldest religious organization in the world. There are also the parents, who suffer torments typically relegated to a parent who has lost a child. At the same time, there are moments of triumph, hope, and heroism.
Mortal Sins is filled with facts and sharply-drawn people, and includes a very useful Index on the crisis, but it is far more than a collection of facts. In fact, D’Antonio has crafted a compelling story that needed to be told with his big-picture focus, and gifted way with words. He keeps the reader’s attention despite a storyline that spans decades, and includes dozens of players.
The book is larger than its topic, as well, because abuse has reared its ugly head in our churches, synagogues, mosques, universities, schools, teams, and families. It is a moral necessity that we examine this monster closely, memorize its features, and never forget it. Then we must devise by all means possible the traps that will remove the monster from our midst, and find the sunlight that will illuminate a path out of this dense thicket. It is really too late to be shocked, because it is time, right now, to fix our ways. Mortal Sins takes us past the shock, into the understanding that is the precursor to a society solving its most deep-seated problems. Please read this book for our children, and their children.
A Great Southern Novel, In God’s House, on the Beginning of the Abuse Scandal in the United States, Written by One Who Was There
While fact-based books document the truth, it is rare that they fully capture it. Ray Mouton’s recently published In God’s House pierces to the beating heart of the scandal in a riveting novel. It is written in the best of the Southern novel tradition, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest.
The irony of this book is that Mr. Mouton was the devoutly Catholic young, Louisiana lawyer who was hired by the Diocese of Lafayette in 1984 to defend the serial pedophile Fr. Gilbert Gauthe, who had made a habit of having the altar boys sleep over the night before altar practice. In Mouton’s words in a 2002 CBS story, Gauthe did “[e]very sexual act you can imagine two males doing” with these boys, night after night.
In God’s House, though, does not focus on the acts of abuse, but rather illuminates the twisted darkness in the hearts of the bishops (and eventually the Pope) as they reacted to the emergence of a scandal for which they lacked the skills, morals, or souls to fix. This is the account of where the scandal began in the United States. Abuse has been going on for centuries, but the public scandal is mere decades ago.
It is to Mouton’s credit that he opted to write a great Southern novel, rather than an autobiography. No one would have blamed him if he had done the latter, given his heroic and early role in this story. But the Southern literature genre is a perfect fit for the clandestine, backward-looking hierarchy, and the deep but often muted suffering of the victims and their families. That means that the story is riveting and truly impossible to put down, despite its 500+ pages! At the same time, it is filled with accurate historical detail, because, of course, he was there.
I do not believe that any other account of the scandal does a better job than Mouton’s novel does of peering into the essential craziness of the men in power in the Church who used theology to justify the persistent endangerment of children by men whom they knew full well were abnormal. Mouton’s character development is masterful, as it brings to life the faces and mannerisms of the evil that is cloaked in clerical garb and installed in the mansions of the bishops. There are echoes here of the South African Dutch Reformists who crafted the foundation of apartheid straight out of their theology, and the American Protestant ministers who enlisted the Bible to justify slavery.
The story starts in Louisiana as it focuses on this one pedophile priest, and I dare not give away too much, but the protagonist is transformed by what he learns, which drives him to eventually find his way to a fictionalized Tom Doyle, a rising star priest who was in the Papal Nunciature in Washington, DC, and, who, to those who know him, leaps from the page as the man we deeply admire. It is worth your while to read both Mortal Sins and In God’s House even if you only do so to become acquainted with this giant in the movement for justice for our children.
Both of these books, so very different, but both so illuminating, have the goods to make them candidates for feature films of their own, each of which may one day be rightfully honored at the Academy Awards. That means we may have a trilogy of popular movies someday on the clergy sex abuse crisis. Children will be safer if we do.
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 Reform2013-04-18 13:31:592013-04-18 13:31:59Important new books on RCC clergy sex abuse scandal
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 Reform2013-04-17 18:53:232013-04-17 18:53:23CAK at State Capitol in support of sex abuse victims
Background: Former altar boy filed suit against the Catholic archdiocese alleging negligence and vicarious liability related to sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of parish priest. Archdiocese filed motion to dismiss on limitations grounds. The Circuit Court, Miami–Dade County, Valerie Manno Schurr, J., dismissed complaint. Former altar boy appealed.
Holding: The District Court of Appeal, Logue, J., held that archdiocese was not equitably estopped from asserting statute of limitations as a defense.
In this case, Jorge Rubio sued the Archdiocese of Miami, Inc. for negligence and vicarious liability related to alleged sexual abuse that he suffered as a child at the hands of his parish priest. The complaint at issue, however, was not filed until approximately thirty-five years after the alleged abuse ended. For the reasons stated below, we agree with the trial court that the statute of limitations barred Rubio’s claims. We therefore affirm the dismissal of the complaint.
I.
The amended complaint contains the following factual allegations, which we take as true only for the purpose of assessing whether the complaint survives the Archdiocese’s motion to dismiss.1 Rubio was a devout Catholic who served as an altar boy at Our Lady of Divine Providence when he was child. Starting when he turned ten years old, for a two-year period from 1976 to 1977, Rubio was sexually abused by his parish priest, a man named Francisco Carrera. The abuse followed the classic pattern in which the sexual predator groomed his selected child-victim with compliments and special favors. In Rubio’s case, the sexual predator used his position as a priest employed by the Archdiocese to prepare, commit, and conceal the abuse. The Archdiocese knew of Carrera’s history of molesting underage boys, but nevertheless continued to hold Carrera out as a priest and spiritual leader. When it became of aware of Carrera’s misconduct, the Archdiocese failed to report the sexual abuse as required by law. Instead, the Archdiocese transferred Carrera to different parishes, and ultimately to Spain, to conceal his criminal behavior from his parishioners and the public. This conduct was part of a systematic cover-up that reached to the highest levels of the Vatican. *281 The Archdiocese was negligent in hiring and retaining Carrera, and was vicariously liable, as the employer, for Carrera’s misconduct. These are the pertinent allegations in the sixteen-page complaint.
It is undisputed that Rubio’s initial complaint was not filed until May 2011, approximately thirty-five years after the alleged abuse, at which time Rubio was forty-five years old. The Archdiocese moved to dismiss the complaint on statute of limitations grounds. The trial court dismissed the amended complaint with prejudice. This appeal followed.
II.
Normally, a claim for injuries based on another party’s negligent conduct must be filed within four years of the incident under the applicable statute of limitations. § 95.051, Fla. Stat. (2011). Rubio seeks to overcome the statute of limitations by the application of the doctrine of equitable estoppel. We conclude that equitable estoppel does not apply in this case because Rubio has not alleged any facts indicating the Archdiocese caused or induced him to refrain from filing suit within the limitations period.
1The doctrine of equitable estoppel typically applies to avoid a statute of limitations defense where the injured party recognized the basis for the suit but the party that caused the injury induced the injured party to forbear from filing suit during the limitations period. Major League Baseball v. Morsani, 790 So.2d 1071, 1078 (Fla.2001). As explained by the Court,
a main purpose of the statute of limitations is to protect defendants from unfair surprise and stale claims. A prime purpose of the doctrine of equitable estoppel, on the other hand, is to prevent a party from profiting from his or her wrongdoing. Logic dictates that a defendant cannot be taken by surprise by the late filing of a suit when the defendant’s own actions are responsible for the tardiness of the filing. The two concepts, i.e., the statute of limitations and equitable estoppel, thus work hand in hand to achieve a common goal, the prevention of injustice.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal has held that equitable estoppel did not apply to avoid the statute of limitations defense in a case with facts virtually identical to the instant case. In John Doe No. 23 v. Archdiocese of Miami, Inc., 965 So.2d 1186, 1187 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007), the plaintiff filed suit against the Archdiocese of Miami alleging that he had been sexually abused by a teacher and a clergyman at a Catholic high school more than thirty years earlier. In response to the Archdiocese’s statute of limitations defense, John Doe No. 23 asserted that the doctrine of equitable estoppel should apply because the Archdiocese had concealed its knowledge that its employees had abused other students. Id.
In rejecting this argument, the Fourth District noted that “[t]o assert equitable estoppel, the defendant must have engaged in wrongful conduct which ‘induced another into forbearing suit within the applicable limitations period.’ ” Id.(quoting Morsani, 790 So.2d at 1079). The district court observed, however, that during the time available to file the suit under the statute of limitations, the plaintiff knew the abuse had occurred, knew the identity of the abusers, and knew the abusers worked for the Archdiocese. John Doe No. 23, 965 So.2d at 1188. In light of this knowledge, the plaintiff’s failure to allege acts by the Archdiocese that “explain how he was induced by the Archdiocese to wait almost three decades to sue for abuse” *282 precluded application of equitable estoppel. Id. at 1187–88. Concluding that equitable estoppel did not apply, the court held that the complaint had been properly dismissed. Id. at 1188.
2We agree with the Fourth District’s decision in John Doe No. 23. As the court found in that case, so too, here, Rubio knew the abuse had occurred, knew the identity of the abuser, and knew the abuser worked for the Archdiocese. Yet, the amended complaint fails to allege any acts of the Archdiocese towards Rubio that caused him to delay filing his claims for the three decades that elapsed since the time he had allegedly been abused as a child. As such, there is simply no basis upon which to apply the doctrine of equitable estoppel.
Rubio, however, argues that his case should come within the rule announced by the Florida Supreme Court in Florida Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services. v. S.A.P., 835 So.2d 1091 (Fla.2002). S.A.P. involved a minor who had been burnt, beaten, and otherwise seriously abused at the age of four, while she was in a foster care placement that was supervised by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. Id. at 1093. Because the abuse occurred at a young age, S.A.P. for years did not remember it. Id. at 1099. At the time of the abuse, the Department was the only legal entity (besides the foster parents who committed the abuse) who were in a position to assert and protect S.A.P.’s legal rights. Instead of protecting her legal rights when the abuse finally came to light, the Department allegedly falsified government reports, altered government records, and obstructed a law enforcement investigation to actively conceal its misdeeds. Id. With respect to the Department’s supervisory duties, the complaint alleged that the Department
falsified records so that it appeared that the case worker had conducted monthly supervision visits with [S.A.P.] and her sister. The records reveal that the foster home was frequently visited and that S.A.P. and her sister were doing fine. Had any interested adult examined these records prior to December 21, 1992, they would have been misled into believing that the department had reasonably, appropriately, and lawfully discharged its supervision duties.
Id. Moreover, in terms of timing: S.A.P. was abused in 1979; an internal departmental report documenting its wrong-doing was released at the end of 1992; she reached the age of majority in 1994; and she filed her lawsuit in 1995. Id.at 1094. The Court held that the Department, under these facts, was equitably estopped from asserting a statute of limitations defense. Id. at 1100.
S.A.P. is distinguishable from the instant matter. In S.A.P., the plaintiff was a foster child at the time of the alleged abuse, and therefore a ward of the state within the ostensible protection and care of the Department. This relationship in S.A.P. caused the Department’s alleged actions to constitute such an egregious violation of their duty towards S.A.P. The very people tasked with protecting S.A.P. not only failed entirely in the discharge of that duty, but also violated laws and falsified government records to conceal their negligence, such that S.A.P., who had no active memory of the abuse until her late teen years, was unaware the Department had engaged in any wrongdoing until the results of an internal investigation were released in 1992. Moreover, S.A.P. filed her complaint within three years of this information coming to light. The Florida Supreme Court explicitly recognized that its holding in S.A.P. “is consistent with this Court’s reliance upon the principle *283 that our courts will not protect defendants who are directly responsible for delays of filing because of their own willful acts.” Id. at 1094.
Concerning the holding of S.A.P., we find Justice Raoul Cantero’s dissenting opinion in Ryan v. Lobo De Gonzalez, 921 So.2d 572, 577 (Fla.2005) (Cantero, J., dissenting), persuasive. He wrote that “[s]everal facts in S.A.P. render that case unique” and indicated that the holding of S.A.P. should be narrowly construed:
We simply determined that, where a four-year-old child was sexually abused by foster parents; where the state actively concealed the abuse, obstructed a police investigation, and falsified records; and where the plaintiff filed suit within three years after the release of documents admitting the abuse, the doctrine of equitable estoppel prevented the state from asserting a statute of limitations defense.
Here, although Rubio asserts that the Archdiocese took actions to conceal Carrera’s sexual abuse of Rubio and other boys, the amended complaint does not allege that the Archdiocese stood in the role of Rubio’s parents, which was essentially the role of the Department in S.A.P. It does not allege the Archdiocese falsified government reports or altered government records, or obstructed a law enforcement investigation. Moreover, the delay of three decades in the instant matter bears no relationship to the delay of three years past the revelation of the abuse in S.A.P.Accordingly, as did the Fourth District before us, we decline to extend S.A.P. to these facts. See John Doe No. 23, 965 So.2d at 1187.
III.
Rubio also asserts that equitable estoppel should apply here because the Archdiocese breached its affirmative duty to disclose its knowledge of Carrera’s conduct, which it owed to Rubio because of the fiduciary relationship between the parties. As did the Fourth District in John Doe No. 23, we fail to see how any such fiduciary duty, even if one is assumed, caused Rubio to delay in filing his claim for over three decades. 965 So.2d at 1187–88. Similarly, we do not see how the Archdiocese’s alleged failure to report the sexual abuse, even if required by law at the time, caused Rubio to refrain from filing suit for thirty years.
IV.
In upholding the dismissal of the complaint in this case because of the delay of several decades in filing the claim, we are mindful that society benefits when survivors of child sexual abuse come forward and bear witness to what they were forced to endure as children. We certainly do not intend to discredit the courage of these survivors who break the silence that shielded their abusers. We hold only that Rubio’s lawsuit for money damages cannot be filed so long after the alleged injury was inflicted.
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 Reform2013-04-17 06:47:122014-01-09 06:48:51Rubio v. Archdiocese of Miami, Inc., 114 So.3d 279 (Dist. Ct. of Appeal of Fla., 3d Dist. 2013)
Lobby Day brings victims and advocates to Albany to urge passage
of Markey’s Child Victims Act to get justice for crimes against children
Assemblywoman Margaret Markey will hold a press conference in Albany to report on her new expanded Child Victims Act that will completely eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse offenses.
Speakers will report about their testimony before a public hearing of the Assembly Codes Committee on childhood sexual abuse in March and provide updates about abuse cases that have recently been in the news. The program is being held in conjunction with a Lobby Day by supporters of Markey’s Child Victims Act of New York (A1771). The event will be on:
Wednesday, April 17, 2013, 12:00Noon
LCA Press Room 130, First Floor,
NYSStateLegislativeOfficeBuilding
EmpireStatePlaza, Albany, NY
At the press conference Assemblywoman Markey will also announce a new initiative to press for passage of the bill. It is a state-wide campaign, “Family & Friends of Survivors”, which will schedule family members of child sex abuse survivors to visit every member of the Assembly and State Senate in their offices in early June.
Speakers include: Cardozo Law School Professor Marci Hamilton, author and expert on the changes underway across America to update archaic statute of limitations codes in many states; Julie Kay, Ms. Foundation for Women, which has a new initiative in New York State, “Ending Child Sexual Abuse”; Mark Meyer Appel, Voice of Justice, who will report on victim intimidation in the Jewish community; Rabbi Nachum Rosenberg, who was assaulted over his support for a victim who bravely testified against a counselor who raped her; and Nancy Lorence, Metro NY Chapter of Call to Action.
Among speakers who also testified at the Assembly Codes Committee public hearing in March are: Mary DeSantis, mother of a survivor; Christopher Anderson, Male Survivor; attorney Tina Weber, who will report on the conclusion of legal action involving a former Diocese of Albany priest; and Melanie Blow, Prevent Child Abuse New York.
The legislation, A1771, has been adopted by the Assembly four times since 2006, but has not yet advanced in the State Senate. It would completely eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse crimes in New York State (which now expires only 5 years after a victim turns 18) and also completely suspend the civil statute of limitations for one year to provide justice for older victims and unmask abusers and those who have hidden them.
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 Reform2013-04-16 21:15:312013-04-16 21:24:47Ms. Foundation joins the fight for SOL reform. Rally tomorrow in NY!
April 9, 2013 11:25 a.m.
OLYMPIA — Victims of child sexual abuse could report their assaults up to the age of 30 under a bill approved today by the Senate.
The bill extends the statute of limitations for charging suspects in child sexual abuse cases, which currently require a victim report the abuse in one to three years, depending on the age of the victim and some other circumstances.
Post traumatic stress disorder can keep a victim from reporting the abuse until after they become adults, Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said.
“I think we want to catch as many sexual offenders as possible. We want to convict as many sexual offenders as possible,’ Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
The bill passed the both the Senate and House unanimously.
This is an extremely difficult letter to write because so many have worked
so hard and the cost of losing this round will be paid in lives. On Monday
we held a fantastic rally at the Capitol and then went in and crushed the
opposition at the hearing on the bill. And I mean crushed. It was not even
close. The opposition came from the ACLU and the Oregon Defense Attorney’s Assoc. They did not even have an argument other than mistakes might be made.
WOW!
Today I found out that the bill will not come up for a vote because there is not enough support to get it out of committee. That means 5 out of 9 electedofficials choose to not protect your children. Over and done…… for now.
I am told that the Oregon Defense Attorney’s Association threw all their. muscle into defeating this bill. I am also told they give generously to election campaigns. To the best of my ability I plan on finding out exactly how much and to whom.
This week the Oregon State Legislature chose to place perpetrators over thesafety of our children. It is truly a dark day in Oregon, but it not thelast day.
I want to thank each of you for your support and all the brave survivors who
spoke up and worked hard to pass this bill and protect children. I also want
to give a huge shout out to Rep Jeff Barker from Beaverton. Without his his help we would not have gotten as far as we did.
A call or email to thank him would be appropriate. 503-986-1428
Important new books on RCC clergy sex abuse scandal
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformMichael D’Antonio, Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal (Thomas Dunne Books 2013)
Ray Mouton, In God’s House: A Novel About One of the Great Scandals of Our Time (Head of Zeus 2012)
No matter how hard they try—and they have given it all they have—the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy cannot keep the truth of its callous and calculated disregard of children from reaching the mainstream media and seeping into our common culture. You may think that you already know all there is to know on this topic, but three recent developments in the media—one movie deal, a non-fiction book, and a novel—will laudably raise the level of awareness to new levels. These works should push even those in denial to reconsider their position, and our federal and state legislators to do what is right, which is to focus on the victims, not the lobbyists for the Church.The Movie Deal With DreamWorks Studios
The Boston Globe reporters who, in 2002, broke the story of the Catholic hierarchy’s cover up of child sex abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese recently inked a deal with DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media to produce a feature film on the subject. DreamWorks does nothing by halves, so this should be a strong contribution to the question of how the public came to know that bishops were vulnerable children’s worst enemies. It is important that a movie be made that focuses on the reporters’ breaking the story itself, and I hope that the screenwriters and director will be searingly honest about how long the story sat at the Boston Globe before it was finally printed.
Until the Boston Globe made history in 2002, and its reporters accordingly won the Pulitzer Prize, the media was actually complicit in the cover-up of abuse in the dioceses. Until relatively recently, the media was frightened of stories putting the Catholic Church in a bad light. DreamWorks would do well to include some of the media history that occurred before this story broke, including the pressure that bishops put on papers to let them take care of the issue in private. There was an egregious lack of coverage across the country, with reporters losing their jobs or being re-assigned to another beat if they broached the topic, and editors resolutely refusing to bring such stories to print. Indeed, one Milwaukee reporter, Marie Rhode, had the story first, but was re-assigned to another beat, which created the opening for the Boston Globe reporters to work on the story
That was the era that I have dubbed our “Pollyanna years,” when we all shared a belief in the myth that religious groups only do good. It was taboo to point to the bad behavior of some religious organizations, which, of course, was disastrous for the vulnerable, like children left alone with predatory adults, who used the blind faith in religious organizations and cunning to persuade adults to trust them. I was chastised as recently as 1997 for using the term “religious lobbyist.” Of course, between the clergy sex abuse crises and 9/11, those days are over.
The Nonfiction Book, Mortal Sins, by Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Investigative Journalist Michael D’Antonio on the Clergy Child Sex Abuse Scandal in the United States
A new non-fiction book is a tremendous addition to the fund of our understanding of this crisis. It is entitled Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, and it is a searing and deeply engaging account of the contemporary battles that have been waged against the culture of secrecy and cover-up maintained by the Catholic hierarchy. The extraordinary quality of the writing makes this difficult story both readable and impossible to put down.
The crusaders for the victims, so hated by the hierarchy, feature prominently. They include survivors and national leaders Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy of SNAP; former monk and brilliant psychologist Richard Sipe; pioneering and visionary trial lawyer Jeff Anderson; and the heroic Fr. Tom Doyle, who is also a central character in the amazing historical novel In God’s House, which I review below. While each of them have had their fair share of press on the issues, there are stories here that have never been put together for the public before.
You will be shocked and disgusted at the hierarchy, and you will find yourself cheering for the survivors who had the guts to tell the truth about the abuse, as they distanced themselves from their past, and sometimes their families, and, at the same time, turned away in anger and disgust from the largest and oldest religious organization in the world. There are also the parents, who suffer torments typically relegated to a parent who has lost a child. At the same time, there are moments of triumph, hope, and heroism.
Mortal Sins is filled with facts and sharply-drawn people, and includes a very useful Index on the crisis, but it is far more than a collection of facts. In fact, D’Antonio has crafted a compelling story that needed to be told with his big-picture focus, and gifted way with words. He keeps the reader’s attention despite a storyline that spans decades, and includes dozens of players.
The book is larger than its topic, as well, because abuse has reared its ugly head in our churches, synagogues, mosques, universities, schools, teams, and families. It is a moral necessity that we examine this monster closely, memorize its features, and never forget it. Then we must devise by all means possible the traps that will remove the monster from our midst, and find the sunlight that will illuminate a path out of this dense thicket. It is really too late to be shocked, because it is time, right now, to fix our ways. Mortal Sins takes us past the shock, into the understanding that is the precursor to a society solving its most deep-seated problems. Please read this book for our children, and their children.
A Great Southern Novel, In God’s House, on the Beginning of the Abuse Scandal in the United States, Written by One Who Was There
While fact-based books document the truth, it is rare that they fully capture it. Ray Mouton’s recently published In God’s House pierces to the beating heart of the scandal in a riveting novel. It is written in the best of the Southern novel tradition, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest.
The irony of this book is that Mr. Mouton was the devoutly Catholic young, Louisiana lawyer who was hired by the Diocese of Lafayette in 1984 to defend the serial pedophile Fr. Gilbert Gauthe, who had made a habit of having the altar boys sleep over the night before altar practice. In Mouton’s words in a 2002 CBS story, Gauthe did “[e]very sexual act you can imagine two males doing” with these boys, night after night.
In God’s House, though, does not focus on the acts of abuse, but rather illuminates the twisted darkness in the hearts of the bishops (and eventually the Pope) as they reacted to the emergence of a scandal for which they lacked the skills, morals, or souls to fix. This is the account of where the scandal began in the United States. Abuse has been going on for centuries, but the public scandal is mere decades ago.
It is to Mouton’s credit that he opted to write a great Southern novel, rather than an autobiography. No one would have blamed him if he had done the latter, given his heroic and early role in this story. But the Southern literature genre is a perfect fit for the clandestine, backward-looking hierarchy, and the deep but often muted suffering of the victims and their families. That means that the story is riveting and truly impossible to put down, despite its 500+ pages! At the same time, it is filled with accurate historical detail, because, of course, he was there.
I do not believe that any other account of the scandal does a better job than Mouton’s novel does of peering into the essential craziness of the men in power in the Church who used theology to justify the persistent endangerment of children by men whom they knew full well were abnormal. Mouton’s character development is masterful, as it brings to life the faces and mannerisms of the evil that is cloaked in clerical garb and installed in the mansions of the bishops. There are echoes here of the South African Dutch Reformists who crafted the foundation of apartheid straight out of their theology, and the American Protestant ministers who enlisted the Bible to justify slavery.
The story starts in Louisiana as it focuses on this one pedophile priest, and I dare not give away too much, but the protagonist is transformed by what he learns, which drives him to eventually find his way to a fictionalized Tom Doyle, a rising star priest who was in the Papal Nunciature in Washington, DC, and, who, to those who know him, leaps from the page as the man we deeply admire. It is worth your while to read both Mortal Sins and In God’s House even if you only do so to become acquainted with this giant in the movement for justice for our children.
Both of these books, so very different, but both so illuminating, have the goods to make them candidates for feature films of their own, each of which may one day be rightfully honored at the Academy Awards. That means we may have a trilogy of popular movies someday on the clergy sex abuse crisis. Children will be safer if we do.
CAK at State Capitol in support of sex abuse victims
/in New York /by SOL ReformRubio v. Archdiocese of Miami, Inc., 114 So.3d 279 (Dist. Ct. of Appeal of Fla., 3d Dist. 2013)
/in Cases (Florida) /by SOL ReformThird District.
Synopsis
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38 Fla. L. Weekly D850
Footnotes
Ms. Foundation joins the fight for SOL reform. Rally tomorrow in NY!
/in New York /by SOL ReformWA extends criminal SOL unanimously!
/in Washington /by SOL ReformChild sex-abuse prosecutions extended
April 9, 2013 11:25 a.m.
OLYMPIA — Victims of child sexual abuse could report their assaults up to the age of 30 under a bill approved today by the Senate.
The bill extends the statute of limitations for charging suspects in child sexual abuse cases, which currently require a victim report the abuse in one to three years, depending on the age of the victim and some other circumstances.
Post traumatic stress disorder can keep a victim from reporting the abuse until after they become adults, Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said.
“I think we want to catch as many sexual offenders as possible. We want to convict as many sexual offenders as possible,’ Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
The bill passed the both the Senate and House unanimously.
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/spincontrol/2013/apr/09/child-sex-abuse-prosecutions-extended/
503-986-1428
/in Oregon /by SOL Reform