The movie Spotlight covers the five months leading to and culminating on
the
single day of January 6, 2002, when the Boston Globe published its
first story
on clergy abuse -- and then it list all the dioceses that had clergy
abuse as its ending --- suggesting Boston Globe initiated exclusively
the
reporting on clergy sexual abuse that spread across the USA. But Los
Angeles Times - since 1985 - and other reporters from the Santa Barbara Independent, etc.,
the priest Tom Doyle in 1985 who
wrote the initial complete report on clergy sexual abuse on minors, and
Jason Berry who won journalistic awards - 1986 & 1993 - for his
reportage on clergy sexual abuse -- are the true pioneers in the
journalistic
coverage of clergy sexual abuse. Therefore, the claim of the movie Spotlight
-- on behalf of Boston Globe -- that it was the FIRST investigative team of reporters (akin to
the two initial journalists in Nixon's Watergate in the movie All the President's Men ) is outrageously erroneous and false. (No surprise there, Hollywood and the Vatican are twin cities that "lie for a living"!)
The Los Angeles Times (and other newspapers) had to deal with the mighty Jesuits and the Los Angeles Archdiocese, and compared to them, Cardinal Bernard Law was a cakewalk for the Boston Globe. Hence, the suspense and drama in the movie Spotlight about the powerful Roman Catholic Cardinal Law is a hoax because he was really a wimp who kept saying "I don't remember" in all his depositions until he could no longer "keep denying until they die". Also, Cardinal Law was already forewarned -- in 1985- personally by the priest Tom Doyle, (read more in the citation below.)
The Los Angeles Times (and other newspapers) had to deal with the mighty Jesuits and the Los Angeles Archdiocese, and compared to them, Cardinal Bernard Law was a cakewalk for the Boston Globe. Hence, the suspense and drama in the movie Spotlight about the powerful Roman Catholic Cardinal Law is a hoax because he was really a wimp who kept saying "I don't remember" in all his depositions until he could no longer "keep denying until they die". Also, Cardinal Law was already forewarned -- in 1985- personally by the priest Tom Doyle, (read more in the citation below.)
Here
are proofs there were other investigative journalists -- especially in Los
Angeles and the Los Angeles Times -- who were publishing articles on clergy
sexual abuse-- long BEFORE Boston Globe. In 1988, The Los Angeles Times
published "It's As If No One Wants to Face What Happened,"
One Father Said. Church, Families Deal with Child Sex Abuse by Priests. By Marita Hernandez and John Dart. Los
Angeles Times .June 20, 1988 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/1988_06_20_Hernandez_ItsAs.htm#garcia_and_macias
New Orleans also was publishing articles on clergy sexual abuse-- long BEFORE Boston Globe. According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Berry, Jason Berry won his first Catholic Press Association Award in 1986 for his original coverage in the National Catholic Reporter of the clergy sexual-abuse scandals in Louisiana. He was awarded his second in 1993 for the publication of Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children.
An NCR cover story reported that in 1985, a 92-page report on clergy sex abuse
was distributed to U.S. bishops concerning more than 100 lawsuits that could
predictably cost a billion dollars. Kristen
Lombardi, writing in the Boston
Phoenix, quoted Doyle
as saying he had high hopes that the U.S. bishops would receive the report
well. Doyle thought Boston Cardinal Bernard Law would play a key role. Cardinal
Law at the
time headed the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Research
and Pastoral Practices. He would be the person to lobby the other bishops to
bring the report to life. Doyle had known Law since the late 1960s.
Therefore Cardinal Bernard Law was not naïve on
this matter and was expecting for what he already knew 17 years ago -- BEFORE
Boston Globe published anything. And it’s
not as if he pointed guns at the heads of those journalists (which typical of
Hollywood fabrication of music and drama, is exaggerated in the movie).
NCR May 17, 2002, Tom Fox wrote in his article "What they knew in
1985" Cover Story:
In light of these developments, a 92-page report on clergy
sex abuse, distributed to the U.S. bishops in May
1985, warning them of the trouble ahead,
has been repeatedly cited by victims’ attorneys as a hard measure of episcopal
negligence. The document,
reportedly referred to in more than 100 lawsuits, is well known to the
bishops...
When
the men turned over their findings to the
bishops, it might have seemed extreme to some; today it reads as a prophetic document.
The
Catholic church, the three men wrote, faces “extremely serious financial
consequences” and “significant injury” to its image as a result of the “sexual
molestation of children by clerics, priests, permanent deacons and transient
deacons, nonordained religious, lay employees and seminarians.”
At
the time the men finished the final draft of the report in June 1985, they noted, more than $100 million in claims had been made against just
one diocese as a result of sexual contact between a priest “and a number
of minor children.” The report said the settlement for seven cases, including
fees and expenses, had exceeded $5 million, and that “the average settlement
for each case was nearly $500,000.” It estimated that “total projected losses
for the decade” could rise to $1 billion.
.
The men also warned that television and newspaper
reporters -- NCR was cited by name -- were already on to the story and that
the American Bar Association and plaintiff lawyers were “conducting studies ...
about this new, developing area of law.”
Kristen
Lombardi, writing in the Boston
Phoenix, quoted Doyle
as saying he had high hopes that the U.S. bishops would receive the report
well. Doyle thought Boston Cardinal
Bernard Law would play a key role. Law at the time
headed the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Research and
Pastoral Practices. He would be the person to lobby
the other bishops to bring the report to life. Doyle had known Law since the
late 1960s, Lombardi reported, since the time Law served as bishop of
the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese in Missouri.
The Boston archbishop, Doyle believed, could be counted on as a sympathetic ear. “I told
Bernie, ‘This is our report,’ ” Doyle told Lombardi. “ ‘These are our recommendations. We need to get
the conference to study this.’ ” Law “was very supportive,” Doyle said.
He pledged to call for a special ad hoc committee to study the problem.
At the June 1985 meeting of the U.S. bishops at St.
John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., the bishops were quietly briefed on the
report’s contents. But, according to Doyle, the committee headed by Law never followed through
on the promise to create the ad hoc committee. (our added emphases)
While
Boston Globe was only (at its infancy) and just beginning its coverage in
Boston, Los Angeles Times was already publishing many stories about the Jesuits
of Los Gabos and television and newspaper reporters were already on lawsuits
stories.
Christine
Johnson in her post in Hollywood Reporter says that she has been
reporting on Jesuits pedophiles 1985 -- that's 17 years before Boston Globe --
see her comments below (with our highlights).
I
reported Jesuit abuse of children in California in 1985.. I was one of many in California who confronted the archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Jesuits and their
order..
A celibate gay Jesuit seminarian reported 8 Jesuit priests at the Jesuit Retreat in Los Gatos California in the 90’s for sexual harassment.. and he eventually won a settlement against them.. (it took fighting the Jesuits attempts to thwart the seminarian.
Several Jesuits raped male kitchen workers at the Jesuit retreat in los gatos.. very explicit articles were written in the LA Times about this (I have copies of the articles)
A Jesuit who taught at Loyola HS in California was in the news for raping both male and female relatives and even a Jesuit priest at Los Gatos who was punished by the Jesuits for telling about the abuse and mysteriously jumped off a state building to his death.. (the Jesuit who abused every one gerald Lindner
was seen with the victim right before he jumped….
Another Jesuit priest from Los Gatos California was arrested for dressing as a woman and luring young teens into his car for sex… these and many other articles on Jesuit abuse in California alone a re well documented… in news paper articles…
It’s important to all of us whose lives were ruined by rapist Jesuits and cover up by the Jesuits that the world knows that every state has numerous stories of sexual assault by catholic priests and that Boston was not the first and only diocese to expose this….
Am glad for the film..
I just want the world to know it is much bigger than boston and hundreds of thousands of advocates, victims, media, journalists (most not catholic and not Jesuit educate) were hard at work way before boston.. in fact we set the stage for boston..
A celibate gay Jesuit seminarian reported 8 Jesuit priests at the Jesuit Retreat in Los Gatos California in the 90’s for sexual harassment.. and he eventually won a settlement against them.. (it took fighting the Jesuits attempts to thwart the seminarian.
Several Jesuits raped male kitchen workers at the Jesuit retreat in los gatos.. very explicit articles were written in the LA Times about this (I have copies of the articles)
A Jesuit who taught at Loyola HS in California was in the news for raping both male and female relatives and even a Jesuit priest at Los Gatos who was punished by the Jesuits for telling about the abuse and mysteriously jumped off a state building to his death.. (the Jesuit who abused every one gerald Lindner
was seen with the victim right before he jumped….
Another Jesuit priest from Los Gatos California was arrested for dressing as a woman and luring young teens into his car for sex… these and many other articles on Jesuit abuse in California alone a re well documented… in news paper articles…
It’s important to all of us whose lives were ruined by rapist Jesuits and cover up by the Jesuits that the world knows that every state has numerous stories of sexual assault by catholic priests and that Boston was not the first and only diocese to expose this….
Am glad for the film..
I just want the world to know it is much bigger than boston and hundreds of thousands of advocates, victims, media, journalists (most not catholic and not Jesuit educate) were hard at work way before boston.. in fact we set the stage for boston..
True, anyone reading the LA Times or even the
Catholic Tidings in LA in the late 80s through the 90's knew everything going
on and all the issues. By 2000's the news was all the predators in the public
school system. The Boston
story stole the headlines from the real scandals in the public school system.
=====================================
"It's As If No One Wants to Face What
Happened," One Father Said
Church, Families Deal with Child Sex Abuse by Priests
By Marita Hernandez and John Dart
Los Angeles Times
June 20, 1988
Several months have passed since scandal rocked the small Eastside Catholic parish. "Father Nick," the fugitive priest charged with sexually molesting at least 10 altar boys at the church and at another parish, is seldom mentioned.
At Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, nestled in the
foothills of predominantly Latino El Sereno, parishioners still fill Sunday
Masses celebrated in Spanish, and a new roster of altar boys assists at the
services.
Parish life has returned to normal, both at
Guadalupe and at the second church, St. Agatha's, a heavily Latino parish in
South-Central Los Angeles.
Have Not Forgotten
Only the families most directly affected still
struggle for normalcy. They haven't forgotten Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.
They trusted the visiting priest from Mexico with their children and even
welcomed him into their homes. Now they worry about the effect of the alleged
molestation on the boys.
Some parents have been criticized by fellow
parishioners who have accused them of blowing the situation out of proportion.
There have been insinuations that the boys may have lied about what happened.
Police investigators said 26 boys were molested by
the priest. The district attorney's office filed formal charges against him in
10 of the cases.
Church leaders have minimized the problem, some
parents say, and have not done enough to prevent a recurrence. "It's as if
no one wants to face what happened," the father of two of the alleged
victims said.
In the aftermath of the incident, which also has
raised questions by police about the church's handling of the case, the Los
Angeles Catholic Archdiocese has improved procedures for reporting molestation
cases to authorities.
Low-Keyed Response
Otherwise, little has changed. Archdiocesan leaders
say it is best to handle such matters quietly, both for the sake of the
families involved and to avoid making more of the problem than exists.
"My greatest concerns are priests (in
general), not this very tiny, tiny percentage involved in any difficulty like
this," said Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony in an interview. He
described the 1,316 diocesan, religious order and visiting priests here as
"upstanding, dedicated, committed men." He said priests who
experience difficulties are commonly beset by other problems such as stress,
burnout, depression and alcoholism.
Mahony noted that in the last decade, fewer than
one priest per year in the archdiocese has been accused of child molestation.
Four priests and one religious order brother have been criminally charged or
had civil lawsuits filed against them. In three or four other cases, the
priests denied the accusations and no formal charges were made.
At the same time, Mahony said that, in addition to
the archdiocese's customary psychological screening of candidates for its
seminary, he has sought -- by removing stigmas associated with therapy -- to
encourage troubled priests to seek counseling.
Nevertheless, the archdiocese is faced with a
complication in that the majority of priests -- those from religious orders and
those visiting from other areas -- serve here on the recommendation of their
superiors and are not screened by archdiocesan psychologists.
In recent years, as reports of child molestation
spread across all segments of U.S. society and public attention grew
accordingly, the church has found itself no more immune to the problem than
other trusted institutions.
Numerous lawsuits throughout the country have
charged that the church has ignored and tried to cover up the problem, in some
instances failing to notify authorities, transferring molesting priests to
other parishes and ignoring parental complaints. For the first time, a
statement on behalf of U.S. Catholic bishops was issued this year expressing
their concern over pedophilia, the abnormal sexual desire of adults for children.
While the archdiocese has no written policy for
dealing with the problem of child-molesting priests, Mahony said that the
church's practice is "to respond to hurting people as best we can and as
quickly as we can."
This usually involves immediately removing a priest
from an assignment involving children and offering psychological services to
the priest and to the victims.
In the Aguilar case, church officials confronted
the priest with the accusations and removed him from his duties on a weekend --
two days before contacting police authorities. Police investigators criticized
the church for the delay, which they said allowed the priest to evade arrest.
Church officials countered that the police phone number they had been given for
reporting such incidents was not operating on weekends.
Flight to Mexico
Aguilar, who served a few months at Guadalupe
parish and six months at St. Agatha's, fled in January when he was confronted
with the accusations. Aguilar is believed to have gone into hiding in Mexico,
where authorities will be asked for assistance in tracking down the priest,
said Detective Gary Lyon of the Los Angeles Police Department's Juvenile
Division, who investigated the case.
Upon his return to Mexico, the priest stopped to
visit his former bishop in Tehuacan in the state of Puebla, who said that
Aguilar resigned his priestly duties without explanation and left.
Subsequent discussions between church and police
representatives have resulted in a new list of phone numbers -- including some
that operate around the clock and on weekends -- provided to all church
facilities in the archdiocese, Mahony said.
Mahony said the archdiocese hopes to discover
potential problems before they surface.
Psychologist Joseph Nicolosi of St. Thomas Aquinas
Psychological Clinic in Encino, does the preliminary screening of applicants to
St. John's College and Seminary in Camarillo, the training center for
archdiocesan priests.
Directed to Therapy
From applicants' responses to questions about
celibacy and sexual orientation, Nicolosi said he recommends that about 20% of
them receive some psychotherapy for various reasons, not all sex-related.
Mahony said the church does not ask would-be
seminarians if they have a sexual fascination with children; indeed, he said
that psychologists tell him there are no questions that can detect a possible
offender. Psychiatrist Morris Paulson of UCLA's Family Support Program said
that some offenders who fondle or sexually abuse children tend to rationalize
their behavior and deny they have a serious, recurring problem.
In the 10 years he has been screening seminary
candidates and counseling priests, Nicolosi said the archdiocese has lately
given speedier attention to requests for therapy on a whole range of problems.
"I think the atmosphere has changed from the
former administration (of Cardinal Timothy Manning)," Nicolosi said.
"A priest can feel free to have professional help and have the archdiocese
pay for the psychotherapy."
"There is no stigma attached to
counseling," Mahony said.
Seldom Discussed
Still, the issue of child molestation is seldom
discussed in the archdiocese. Mahony last raised the matter with Los Angeles
priests at a retreat two years ago. "An attorney, a psychiatrist and I
talked about all this. It was very well received. We don't have anything
ongoing beyond that for priests," he said, asserting that fewer than 1% of
priests' problems in counseling are sexual.
The news weekly National Catholic Reporter said
there have been at least 135 cases of sexual molestation reported from 1983 to
1986. The total through this year of cases involving priests who have been sued
or charged with alleged child molestation may be climbing as high as 200
nationwide, said Father Thomas P. Doyle of Silver Spring, Md., one of the
authors of a 1985 report to U.S. bishops on the situation. There are 57,000
Catholic priests in the United States.
In response to press reports on priests afflicted
with pedophilia, Mark Chopko, general counsel for the U.S. Catholic bishops,
issued a Feb. 9 statement saying the bishops were "deeply committed to
addressing such problems positively, to making strong efforts to prevent child
abuse, to repairing whatever damage has been done and to bringing the healing
ministry of the church to bear wherever possible."
One of the first frank treatments of the subject
publicly by a major diocese may have been that of the Seattle archdiocese,
which had to deal with recent allegations against priests. A letter from Archbishop
Raymond G. Hunthausen was read May 29 in western Washington parishes expressing
the desire to "create a new atmosphere based on education and dialogue, so
that the problem of abuse and exploitation will become a distant chapter in our
past."
Any person "who has been victimized by a
priest in the archdiocese" was invited to contact the archdiocese's
chancellor or a pastor, according to the archdiocesan newspaper.
Limited Knowledge
In Los Angeles and other areas, a Catholic diocese
may have limited background knowledge on more than half of the priests serving
within its borders. In the Los Angeles archdiocese, for instance, 456 are
"diocesan priests" (educated and assigned by the archdiocese), 676
are on assignment from about 50 different religious orders and 184 are visiting
from other jurisdictions.
Only one of
four priests sentenced, charged or sued in sexual molestation cases during the
1980s in the Los Angeles archdiocese was a diocesan priest -- Father Donald P. Roemer, who was sentenced to a state hospital in
1981 and placed on 10 years' probation in 1983.
"A priest cannot knock on the door and just be
assigned," said Mahony. He said a full explanation for coming to the
archdiocese is required from a visiting priest's former bishop. With religious
orders, Msgr. Thomas Curry, archdiocesan vicar for the clergy, said, "We
presume that they have checked the person out and that there are no
problems."
A
lawsuit filed last month against the archdiocese involves a Dominican order
brother and priest, both accused of sexually abusing a former altar boy at St.
Dominic's Church in Eagle Rock between 1983 and 1986. The suit alleges that the
men separately gave the youth illegal drugs and forced him to have sex with
each of them.
"The Dominicans were totally unaware of any
problems" when they were assigned to the parish, Mahony said.
Recalls Suspension
Father John Flannery, the Oakland-based
administrator of the Dominicans' western province, said in a statement last
week that he suspended the priest, Father Cristobal Garcia, in November, 1985,
well before the recent allegations were made public.
Flannery's statement, issued through Ron Larson,
the province's attorney, said that Garcia refused to cooperate with Flannery's
inquiry and left for his home in the Philippines "and separated himself
from the provincial's control." Garcia was officially removed from the
order in June, 1986, but he was later accepted by the Archbishop of Cebu to
serve there, Larson said.
The Cebu archdiocese was advised of the
allegations, Larson said, but because Garcia is no longer a Dominican, the
order has had no further contact with the priest or his new superiors.
The lawsuit also names Brother Juan Macias, who
left St. Dominic parish in 1986, before the allegations against him surfaced.
"We are hearing those charges (against him) for the first time,"
Larson said. He said Macias has been abroad and has been summoned to the
Oakland provincial's office.
In another case involving a religious order priest,
Father John A. Salazar, 31, a Piarist Father who taught at Santa Teresita
School in the City Terrace area, in August pleaded guilty to two felony counts
of molesting boys, ages 13 and 14, and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Issues of Lawsuits
A suit is still pending in that case, and it has
raised issues that have become almost commonplace in such lawsuits against the
church.
Parents of the 13-year-old said in the suit that
their son complained twice to his teacher and once to his principal about the
molestations, but that both failed to notify authorities and allowed the priest
to continue teaching and celebrating Mass. The parents said it was not until
another student complained that church officials forced Salazar to turn himself
into law enforcement authorities.
At Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Agatha's parishes,
most of the eight families interviewed for this story expressed varying degrees
of dissatisfaction with the church's response to the Aguilar incident. Many
said they were disappointed that their church did not do more to alert
parishioners of the problem. Although a recent community meeting was held at
one of the parishes to discuss child sexual abuse with an
archdiocesan-appointed psychologist, some of the affected families said they
did not attend out of fear of publicly identifying their children.
Doyle, the U.S. bishops' adviser on the subject,
said that most dioceses direct their education programs to priests, not to
people in the parishes.
Alert to Priests
"I believe this is probably the best way to
go," Doyle said. "It alerts priests to what the nature of the problem
is and may reduce the sensationalism. It creates an atmosphere of compassion
among the priests so there is an understanding that this is a disorder and not
a moral failing."
A couple from St. Agatha's complained early on that
their parish pastor first explained Aguilar's sudden absence to his
congregation as a "family emergency."
The first official communication from church
officials came nearly two months later in the form of a vaguely worded letter
from Mahony, which was read at Sunday Masses and expressed his concern over the
matter. Several parents, however, said that the letter was so abstruse that no
one but those who already knew about the allegations could have understood its
message.
Mahony later sent a second letter to each of the
affected families, offering them free counseling services.
"They should tell the whole parish about what
happened so that people are more alert and parents can take greater
precautions. Maybe that way we can prevent something like this from happening
again," one mother said. Like the other parents, she spoke only on
condition that her name not be used.
"My husband says he'll never trust anyone
again," one of the parents said. "What happened has also destroyed
our children's trust. Our 10-year-old wanted to be a priest but now he won't
even go near one."
Some Are Satisfied
A few of the parents, as well as other
parishioners, however, say they are satisfied with the church's handling of the
matter.
"I think there's been plenty of publicity in
the papers and on the news about what happened. People have opened their eyes
to it," said Lila Campos, a leader at Guadalupe parish. "People have
gotten over it."
While several of the affected parents suggested
that the church provide greater information on the problem of child-molesting
priests through sermons, children's plays and community meetings, Mahony
maintains that there is also danger in focusing too much attention on the
problem.
==================================
BishopAccountability.org | ||||
The Revelations Involve One-Quarter of the Priests Who Taught at the Now-Closed School By Andrew Rice Santa Barbara Independent December 2-9, 1993 [Note: This article was scanned from a copy of the original newspaper in the Ray & Anne Higgins Archive. We thank them for their assistance. BA.org is solely responsible for this web posting. See also Silence hid evil secret, by Victor Inzunza and Morgan Green, Santa Barbara News-Press, December 5, 1993.] BETWEEN 1964 AND 1987, when St. Anthony's Seminary High School closed because of financial problems, a total of 44 friars taught classes there. A report released Monday night by an independent board of inquiry formed to investigate allegations of sexual abuse there revealed that 11 of those men sexually abused boys at the school, as well as their siblings, some as young as seven years old. A 12th friar is suspected of "grooming" a student for a sexual relationship but did not go through with it. Most of the victims were high school students studying to become priests. Fifty victims, parents, and concerned parishioners attended the meeting where the report was presented Monday night at the Goleta Community Center. With the 11 members of the board of inquiry lined up behind a long table it looked like a '90s version of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper. In the audience were reporters from all the network news shows as well as TV's A Current Affair.
Nine months ago, under pressure from victims and parents, the Franciscan Order established an independent board to figure out what really happened. Last spring the board, which included three therapists, one parent of a victim, a lawyer, and several priests, mailed almost 900 letters to former students searching for others who had been abused. To help others come forward the board has also set up an 800 number. The board's most recent count shows that 34 men came forward to reveal that they were molested while at the seminary, and another was approached by a priest but not molested. AN ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR: Newspaper clips from the 1960s and '70s portray St. Anthony's Seminary as a serious yet wholesome and nurturing environment where, in the words of one article, students "almost never miss their eight hours of sleep." The 72-page document describes something much different. The testimony of those involved shows how an atmosphere of fear and spiritual blackmail that cloaked the campus enabled abuse to go on for 23 years. Though no single friar was present all that time, there was always at least one offending friar on staff. At one point there were five on a staff of about eight. Still, despite the gravity and brazenness of the abuse, victims say fear that their parents and authorities would not believe them kept them from coming forward. The report is frank and graphic in its depiction of what went on at the school. One priest used to come into the student dormitory at night, where he caressed and masturbated students, and on at least one occasion, tried to sodomize a student while he slept. Another friar seduced a student into a yearlong relationship during which they went on trips together and had sex nearly every night. Other former students told of being forced to submit to "hernia examinations" during which a friar would call them into his room alone and fondle their genitals under the guise of treating them for physical ailments, even though there was a doctor on call. Another priest took hundreds of nude photographs of students and their younger siblings in the seminary and surrounding grounds. Those contacted by the board report that physical abuse was also rampant. To discipline students, friars routinely broke rulers over student's backs or backhanded them so hard that one student who bore much of the priests' wrath was voted "most beaten" by his classmates. The atmosphere at the school sometimes led to incidents in which students sexually and physically abused other students. WHAT NOW? As revealing as the report is, for many involved it is not explicit enough. Where, they ask, are these priests now? What is their HIV status? And most importantly, who are they, and what steps can be taken to ensure they don't abuse others again? Father Joseph Chinnici, the Provincial of the Province of Santa Barbara, and the head of the Franciscan order for seven Western states, claims the remaining priests have all been removed from contact with minors, are being monitored, and have received or are still receiving treatment as sex offenders. None work in Santa Barbara anymore. However, parents and victims are not satisfied and won't be until the priests' identities are made public. Since the school closed in 1987 and the statute of limitations on sexual abuse is six years, most of these cases stand little chance of being prosecuted. Some of the victims and parents argue that these men could be charged for crimes they may have committed after leaving St. Anthony's, crimes for which the statute of limitations hasn't run out. "I think we need to go into each parish and investigate where they have been," urged one mother of a victim.
Chinnici said the Franciscans did not reveal the names of the remaining nine because to do so, they fear, would allow victims to be identified. The Provincial said that the smallness of the school made it difficult to maintain the victims' privacy. Others, however, close to the case speculate that the order is afraid of defamation suits by priests it identified. Chinnici did not deny that possibility, but said there is nothing stopping the victims from publicly naming their abusers. That may be only a matter of time. The order has spent almost $90,000 to pay for counseling of students who came forth; the counseling, offered for free, will continue. The Franciscans have settled a few cases with former students out of court for an undisclosed amount. It's likely, however, that somebody will take a case to court. Then, "Those names will come out I'm sure," said one mother whose sons were abused by two priests. "It will just take a little time." She contends that what has been revealed is not the last chapter in the St Anthony's saga. "I don't think we've seen all the predators yet, and there are a lot of other victims who haven't been able to come forth." The story made news all over the country, and "now I bet that 800 number is ringing," she said, as former students who weren't reached by the board hear about it. As part of its report, the board of inquiry recommended more careful screening of candidates for the priesthood, creation of a permanent panel to investigate sexual abuse charges, and continued free counseling for victims. The Franciscan order promised to implement the recommendations. Meanwhile the victims and their families struggle to deal with the blow dealt them when the institution they had faith in failed them. "This is a torn-up group of people," said a family member of a victim. "[The friars] think they can charisma [sic] all over the place and it will all be okay, but now I can’t even walk in the church door." This lifelong Catholic had once hoped to see her sons become priests. One victim put it even more bluntly. "I believe," he told the board, that "God has a twisted sense of humor and he uses me for his amusement." |
===================================
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
http://www.reformation.org/jesuit_retreat.html
SUNDAY REPORT Cloak of Silence Covered Abuse at Jesuit Retreat Religious order admits two retarded men were victimized. Talks are underway to settle $10-million suit.
LOS GATOS, Calif. --
Two mentally disabled men who live and work at a Jesuit retreat
were sexually abused by members of the clergy for at least five years,
according to court records and interviews.
In a case that drew no public attention, one of the clergymen, Brother Charles Leonard Connor, was convicted last year of committing a lewd act on one victim. He is free after six months of home detention. Another Jesuit, Father Edward Thomas Burke, admitted to his superior two years ago that he engaged in sexual misconduct with the other victim, documents show. Police reports and internal memos reveal a pattern of warnings followed by a reluctance on the part of some Jesuit leaders to notify authorities--much like dozens of other cases of sexual abuse involving Catholic priests that have surfaced around the country. In addition to Connor, three other Jesuits are registered as sex offenders in Northern California. All three were convicted in separate cases involving minors. Connor and Burke, both 80, are among four Jesuits named as defendants in a lawsuit charging that the mentally impaired men were subjected to repeated acts of sodomy, molestation and false imprisonment at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center. Attorneys representing the California Province of the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, have been negotiating a monetary settlement with lawyers for the two victims over the past year. Father Thomas H. Smolich, head of the California Province, acknowledged that Connor and Burke took advantage of the mentally disabled men. He said allegations that any other members of the Jesuit order sexually abused the victims are unsubstantiated. "Clearly, two men did things they shouldn't have done. We are not denying that," Smolich said in an interview. "I wish this hadn't happened. I want to make sure that it never happens again." An attorney for the California Province, Paul E. Gaspari, added: "We're not saying sexual misconduct didn't go on. We're saying we didn't know it was going on." However, an acquaintance of the victims alerted Jesuit superiors to possible sexual misconduct at the retreat in 1995. Two years later, Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies visited the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center after a nearby shopkeeper, acting on behalf of the victims, made allegations of molestations. Jesuit superiors at Sacred Heart relocated Burke in April 2000, after he admitted having sexual contact with one victim, but they did not notify authorities. Connor also was removed, but only after a sheriff's detective threatened to have him arrested. The Jesuit superiors sent Connor to a residence on the campus of the all-boys Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose without telling school officials that he was under investigation for sex crimes. The three other Jesuits who are registered sex offenders also lived at Sacred Heart in Los Gatos. Their offenses did not occur at the facility and did not involve the two mentally disabled men. Two clergymen were convicted in separate felony cases of molesting 7-year-old girls. The third, an associate pastor at Most Holy Trinity parish in San Jose at the time of his arrest, was convicted on two counts of oral copulation with a minor. Until now, the sex crimes by Jesuits and the abuses alleged in the civil lawsuit have not been disclosed publicly. Unlike many of the cases involving pedophile priests that have been reported in the media recently, the abuses at Sacred Heart occurred in the last few years and the victims are mentally incapacitated adults, who are granted fewer legal protections than minors. Across the country, the Roman Catholic Church has been grappling with allegations of sexual misconduct by priests and mounting criticism that church leaders have been slow to act. To date, individual dioceses in the U.S. have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. The Jesuits make up the largest religious order in the Catholic Church. Founded in 1540 by St. Ignatius Loyola, a Basque nobleman, the Jesuits have more than 21,000 members serving 112 nations. The Jesuit order is divided into 10 provinces in the U.S. Smolich oversees 457 Jesuit members in four Western states and Hawaii. His office is located on the property of Sacred Heart, a picturesque retirement community for about 65 Jesuits overlooking the Santa Clara Valley. Since he was appointed provincial in 1999, Smolich said, he has made his position on sexual harassment and sex abuse unmistakably clear. "We don't tolerate it," he said. Smolich, 47, who reports directly to the Jesuit superior general in Rome, said he believes sexual misconduct is not a problem within the California Province. Aside from the four registered sex offenders, only two cases of sexual abuse with minors appear in province files in the last 15 years, he said. They involved inappropriate touching, Smolich said. In both cases, the Jesuits received treatment and are active again in ministries, although their contact with children is restricted. Smolich declined to provide names of the offenders or any other details. Of the seven clergymen convicted of sex crimes or named in the civil lawsuit, five were previously employed at Jesuit high schools. Smolich said he is unaware of any prior complaints of sexual misconduct filed against those clergymen. Smolich said "mitigating circumstances," such as the advanced ages of the defendants and the diminished mental capacity of the victims, make it difficult to determine the precise nature of the sexual abuse alleged in the lawsuit. "This is hard. It is complicated," Smolich said. "We're never going to know what really happened. We just aren't." Connor and Burke both cited their 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination on numerous occasions during depositions taken recently. They were not made available for comment by the California Province or their attorneys. The lawsuit, filed June 19, 2001, in Santa Clara County Superior Court, alleges that the two victims were sexually abused for "as long as 30 years." This claim is based on statements by the victims that the molestations began within a year of their arrival at Sacred Heart, said M. Jean Starcevich, the victims' attorney. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $10 million in damages. The two victims at Sacred Heart are referred in court documents as "John Doe" and "James Doe." John, 56, was born in San Francisco and contracted polio as a child. He was raised in foster homes, attended Polytechnic High School in San Francisco in the early 1960s, and moved to Sacred Heart on Oct. 8, 1969, at the age of 24. He has one leg substantially smaller and shorter than the other, suffers severe back pain as well as arthritis in the hands and recently underwent a hernia operation. He is a huge Elvis Presley fan and spends time hand-painting medals to pin on his military shirts. James, 50, was born in Germany and adopted from an orphanage as a toddler by a U.S. Air Force officer and his wife. His parents were divorced when he was 10. He never attended school and spent his teenage years in a state mental institution. He arrived at Sacred Heart on Aug. 26, 1970, at the age of 19. He is a railroad buff who enjoys viewing tapes from his collection of more than 100 train videos. Whenever possible, James will spend hours at a railroad station watching trains arrive and depart. Both men have been diagnosed as suffering from mental retardation. At Sacred Heart, they were employed as dishwashers responsible for cleaning, drying and storing pots and pans used in preparing meals for the Jesuits. They were paid a starting salary of $150 per month. "The purpose of them being here was charitable," said Gaspari, the Jesuits' attorney. Before they were placed on paid administrative leave a year ago, John and James earned about $1,000 per month with expenses deducted for room and board. They still occupy adjacent rooms on the second floor of a storage facility, which is separate from the Jesuit residence. The sexual abuse took place in the victims' rooms, according to statements they made to a psychiatrist. Victim's Acquaintance Reported Abuse The following accounts are drawn from criminal and civil filings, transcripts of confidential depositions, police reports and internal Jesuit memos. In addition, more than 50 interviews were conducted with prosecutors, investigators, members of the Society of Jesus, lawyers, guardians for the victims and other sources. The first indications of sexual misconduct were reported to Sacred Heart in May 1995 by John's financial advisor. According to a sheriff's report, she had heard rumors from the kitchen staff that Brother Connor was molesting John. She knew that Connor had taken John on trips and spent considerable time alone with him. When she asked John about the rumors, he "became very upset and began to shake" before saying that Connor had been touching his private parts, according to the report. She reported Connor to Father Greg Aherne, the Jesuit superior at Sacred Heart at the time. Aherne talked to Connor, who initially denied the allegations before admitting that "maybe he had done some inappropriate touching" while giving John massages, Aherne would tell sheriff's detectives years later. Connor later told detectives that he began giving John massages in 1985 to ease his back pains. Aherne ordered Connor to read the California Province policy on sexual harassment and misconduct, which specifically banned the practice of Jesuits giving or assisting in massages "because of the liability involved." Connor also signed a May 4, 1995, letter from Aherne that ordered him to stay away from John and James. Aherne filed a separate memo notifying Father John Privett, the California provincial at the time who lived and worked at Sacred Heart. Neither Aherne nor Privett alerted law enforcement authorities. In October 1997, the Sheriff's Department was notified by Holly Ilse, a Los Gatos dress shop owner who had befriended both victims, that James had confided to her that Connor was fondling him. Two uniformed deputies were dispatched to Sacred Heart to interview John and James. Both men denied being molested and the case was dropped. Years later, John and James each told investigators that they did not say anything about the abuses because they had been threatened repeatedly by Connor not to do so. Another Call Alleges More Abuse Detectives reopened their investigation in the spring of 2000 after receiving another call from Ilse alleging more abuse. Since she first heard reports of molestation in 1997, Ilse, 36, the only daughter of a retired San Jose police lieutenant, had badgered investigators and county protective services workers on the victims' behalf. At Ilse's request, the Sheriff's Department sent a female plainclothes detective to interview John at the dress shop. John told Det. Dianne L. Camarda that the molestations occurred at night in his room while he was sleeping and sometimes in the shower. Camarda arranged to interview James at the dress shop. James initially recounted one occasion in which Connor gave him a massage and touched his private area. Camarda wrote that James "seemed very truthful and ashamed about the incident." Camarda and a fellow deputy drove up to Sacred Heart and discussed the allegations with Father Richard Cobb, the superior at the residence at the time. Cobb told the deputies he was unaware of any previous problems with Connor and that he preferred that John be moved off the property, not Connor. In an interview, Camarda recalled telling Cobb that Connor had to go: "You will move him. If you don't, he is going to jail." Connor was promptly transferred to the Bellarmine Jesuit residence on the high school campus. "We had to move quickly. Given the circumstances, we felt it was the best place for Charlie," Smolich said. Father William Muller, president of Bellarmine, said he received a routine telephone call from Cobb's assistant requesting a room for Connor. The failure to notify anyone at the high school about the reason for Connor's transfer resulted from "a breakdown in communication," Smolich said. Connor lived at Bellarmine for a total of five months, two of them while school was in session. Muller said he was under the impression that Connor had been on campus for a much shorter period of time. "I'm more distressed about it now than I was before," Muller said. Connor was interviewed at Bellarmine by sheriff's detectives on the morning of April 20, 2000. He proclaimed he had done nothing wrong and declined to take a polygraph exam. Sheriff's detectives returned to Sacred Heart with a search warrant June 21. They uncovered Aherne's 1995 letters describing Connor's misconduct and a three-page memo written by Father Cobb on April 21, 2000, detailing his conversations about Connor with other Jesuit superiors. In his notes, Cobb recounted that Father Burke, the librarian at Sacred Heart, admitted to having sexual contact with James. Cobb wrote that Burke told him: "How long has this happened? About four years--in his room. We always watch train videos. Yes, there has been some sexual contact in my room. Last sexual contact, three weeks ago, in his [James'] room." Burke also told Cobb that he knew about Connor's sexual misconduct with both victims. "He told me that [John and James] had confided in him that Charlie Connor had in fact been touching them sexually for some time." Cobb, in a sworn deposition, said that he went upstairs to the provincial's office and told a top assistant to Smolich, "We got a problem." No one at Sacred Heart notified authorities about Burke's statement. The Jesuits have no obligation under California law to disclose the information, said Gaspari, the Jesuits' lawyer. "We are not mandated reporters because these two individuals are not minors." Nor did anyone attempt to inform guardians of the two victims. Within hours, Cobb drove Burke to the Jesuit community at Santa Clara University, where he lives today. Cleric Sentenced in Molestations In addition to implicating Connor, Cobb's memo led sheriff's detectives to look at Burke as a possible suspect. On July 11, 2000, Sgt. Lawrence Goodman and Camarda went to Sacred Heart to interview Burke. A receptionist told them that Burke was seriously ill and staying with family for an indefinite time, according to a sheriff's report. At that time, Goodman and Camarda said, they decided to seek a warrant for Connor's arrest and did not pursue Burke any further due to a lack of evidence. The Jesuits have no record of Burke becoming seriously ill or taking a sick leave after he was transferred to the Jesuit residence. Smolich said no deliberate attempt was made to hide Burke from authorities. On Jan. 17, 2001, Connor pleaded no contest to one felony count of committing lewd acts on a dependent adult. He was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring device for six months, ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender and forbidden to have any contact with mentally disabled adults or minors. Connor completed his sentence Nov. 1 and is living at a Jesuit residence in the San Francisco Bay Area. The prosecutor and investigators said they were satisfied with the outcome because it is difficult in sex cases involving mentally disabled victims to secure a conviction in a jury trial. The sentence infuriated Ilse, John's court-appointed guardian in the lawsuit. "How can an old priest in Boston get nine years for touching a boy in a swimming pool and Connor get no jail time for molesting his victims for years?" Ilse asked. She was referring to the sentence in January given to Father John J. Geoghan Jr., 66, who also is accused of molesting more than 130 children over three decades. Within weeks of Connor's sentencing, Ilse and James' sister, Debra Sullivan, hired three San Jose lawyers to file a civil lawsuit on behalf of the victims. The attorneys began gathering information and obtained the Cobb memo from the Jesuits. Disclosures a Shock to James' Sister Sullivan said she was devastated when she learned about Burke's admission of sexual misconduct with her brother. She and James had become close to Burke, taking him on out-of-town trips and drives in the country to see old barns. Sullivan said Burke spent hours and hours in her brother's room watching train videos with him. "It's just a terrible, terrible betrayal," she said. "This is so horrendous, so evil and so corrupt." Smolich said he regrets that Sullivan was never informed by Jesuits. "What happened to [James] shouldn't have happened. It wasn't fair to [James]. It wasn't fair to Debra. We are doing what we can to make it right." Sullivan said she reluctantly held off filing a criminal complaint against Burke until the civil lawsuit is resolved on the advice of her attorney. "I want to see Burke in jail," she said. A short time after learning about the Cobb memo, Sullivan said, she sat down with her brother to discuss the molestations. According to Sullivan's sworn deposition, James identified six Jesuits at Sacred Heart who sexually abused him: Burke, Connor, two other brothers named in the lawsuit, a "Brother Moniz" and a man named "Angel." Sullivan said she recognized four of the names from her frequent visits to Sacred Heart over the past two decades. But she had never heard of Moniz or anyone named "Angel." Others Registered as Sex Offenders Brother John Rodrigues Moniz, 80, and Father Angel Mariano, 46, are registered sex offenders who were convicted of felony sex crimes with minors. Both lived at Sacred Heart in recent years. Neither man has been accused in criminal or civil courts of molesting John or James. Moniz was convicted in 1995 after pleading no contest to one felony count of lewd conduct with a minor for fondling a 7-year-old girl in Los Gatos. He was placed on three years' probation, ordered to have no contact with children and required to pay his victim's uninsured medical expenses and psychological treatment. He now lives at Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Mo., a facility that treats sex offenders run by Paraclete priests. Mariano was arrested about midnight Sept. 21, 1998, in Campbell, Calif., near San Jose when a police officer caught him in a sex act with a 17-year-old student in a parked car. According to police reports, Mariano arranged to meet two teenagers by posing as a 25-year-old woman on an Internet chat room. He wore lipstick and rouge when he met the boys. Mariano was convicted March 16, 1999, on two felony counts of oral copulation with a minor and spent about five months in Santa Clara County Jail. At the time of his arrest, Mariano served as an associate pastor for four years at Most Holy Trinity Church in San Jose, one of 13 parishes that are staffed by Jesuits within the province. Mariano was removed without any explanation. Asked why parishioners at Holy Trinity were not made aware of the reasons for Mariano's departure, Smolich said: "Why should they? This is an Internet cruising thing. This is anonymous sex. This doesn't involve people at the parish. It wasn't a priest thing. He wasn't dressed in a collar." Before he was ordained, Mariano taught at Bellarmine from 1988 to 1991. Since his arrest, Mariano lived at Sacred Heart off and on for about four months. The presence of two mentally disabled victims of sexual abuse at Sacred Heart was "never a consideration" when Mariano was assigned to live there, Smolich said. "He needed a place to come back to. The issues around Father Mariano's situation have nothing to do with mentally disabled adults," he said. Mariano had virtually no contact of any kind with either victim at Sacred Heart, Smolich said. Mariano is living under the supervision of Smolich and his top assistant, Father Tony Sholander, at their residence near Santa Clara University. "Clearly, his opportunities for ministry in the future are circumspect at best," Smolich said. "I'm not going to assign him somewhere where he has any contact with minors. I can't and I won't." The fourth registered sex offender, Father James Thomas Monaghan, was convicted in 1992 of felony lewd conduct for fondling a 7-year-old girl who was brought to him for counseling while he was pastor of St. Ignatius parish in Sacramento. Monaghan, 87, is now in the infirmary at Sacred Heart. Because Jesuits are required take a vow of poverty, they are not forced out of the ministry when they encounter legal problems, Smolich said. Recently, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese dismissed about a half dozen priests who previously had engaged in sexual misconduct. "Diocesan priests have retirement accounts," Smolich said. "They can leave and take care of themselves. Men who have spent their lives in the Jesuit order have nothing. We are not in a position to throw them out. I wouldn't do it." Times researcher Nona Yates contributed to this report. If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights. Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times By visiting this site, you are agreeing to our Terms of Service | . |
Mar 24, 2002 |
"It's just a terrible, terrible betrayal. This is so horrendous, so evil and so corrupt."
-- Debra Sullivan, sister of one of the victim
(RANDI LYNN BEACH / For The Times) |
(ROBERT DURELL / LAT) |
Paedophile priest's victim to go on trial for 'revenge' attack 35 years later
Enlarge
A Californian man was told today he will stand trial for allegedly
beating up a Catholic priest he claims molested him more than three
decades ago.
William Lynch was seven when the priest allegedly molested him and his younger brother during a camping trip
William Lynch, 43, smiled in his mugshot last October as he was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for the attack last May.
The attack, which happened at a retirement home in Los Gatos, sent the Rev. Jerold Lindner to the hospital with bruises and lacerations.
Lynch harboured a fantasy for years of confronting the priest, who also allegedly molested Lynch's little brother and up to a dozen others.
Debbie Lukas, who leads a group of Lynch supporters, said a Santa Clara County Judge ruled today he must be tried on one count of assault.
Lindner has denied that he molested Lynch.
'They're saying it was pretty close to beating him to death,' Pat Harris, defending, said last October.
'They're essentially saying that he waited all these years and then took out his revenge. It's sort of the ultimate revenge story.'
Lynch will be pleased with the judge's decision as he wants to expose the alleged molestation and raise awareness of clergy abuse during a trial.
Lynch and his younger brother settled with the Jesuits of the California Province, a Roman Catholic religious order, for $625,000 in 1998 after alleging that Lindner abused them in 1975 during camping trips in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The boys, who were seven and five at the time, were raped in the woods and forced to have oral sex with each other while Lindner watched, Harris said.
Lindner has been accused of abuse by nearly a dozen people, including his own sister and nieces and nephews.
Enlarge
Authorities say Lynch lured the clergyman to the lobby of a Jesuit
retirement home and beat him in front of shocked witnesses.
Father Jerold Lindner's family severed contact
with him after discovering he had molested his nieces and nephews when
they were as young as 3
Sergeant Rick Sung, Santa Clara County sheriff's spokesman, said Lynch attacked the 65-year-old priest after he failed to recognise him at the Jesuits' Sacred Heart retirement home in Los Gatos.
The attack occurred in a small room adjoining the lobby.
Police connected Lynch to the attack using phone records, Sung said.
A half hour before the beating, a caller identifying himself as 'Eric' called the rest home and said someone would arrive shortly to inform Lindner of a family member's death.
'The Father shows up in the lobby, at which point he was asked by the suspect if he knew who he was. When the Father answered 'no,' that's when the suspect started attacking,' Sung said.
'He was punching him in the face and all over the body. After the Father goes down, then the suspect takes off.'
Lindner was able to drive himself to the hospital.
He was removed from ministry and placed at the Los Gatos retirement home in 2001. He was named in two additional lawsuits for abuse between 1973 and 1985, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The cases were included in the record-breaking $660million settlement struck between the church and more than 550 plaintiffs in 2007.
In a 2002 Los Angeles Times article, Lynch said he'd had nightmares for years, battled depression and alcoholism and had attempted suicide twice because of the priest's abuse.
'Many times I thought of driving down to LA and confronting Father Jerry. I wanted to exorcise all of the rage and anger and bitterness he put into me,' Lynch said.
'You can't put into words what this guy did to me. He stole my innocence and destroyed my life.'
Lindner was ordained in 1976 and taught at various Catholic high schools during his career, including 16 years as chairman of the English department at Loyola High School, a prestigious Catholic prep school in Los Angeles.
He launched nearly two dozen after-school programs for students there, including a chess club and renaissance club, and became master of a Boy Scout troop that included mostly lower-income Puerto Rican boys, his older brother, Larry Lindner, said.
Most of Lindner's family severed contact with him years ago after discovering he had molested his nieces and nephews when they were as young as three.
They were unaware of the attack, said his sister, Kathy McEntire.
Ms McEntire said her brother molested her starting when she was five - and she learned 15 years ago that he also abused her son for years. She last spoke to her brother in 2001.
'Jerry's violent and I would not be surprised if he did get beat up. I could understand somebody getting that mad,' she said.
'I've often said myself that I don't trust myself around him. I would likely wind up in jail because I'd probably kick him somewhere where the sun doesn't shine - and I'm his sister.'
During their last visit nine years ago, Ms McEntire asked Lindner if any of the abuse allegations were true.
'I said, 'Is it true? He said, "Well, some of it,"' McEntire said. 'I called him a few choice words and that was the last time I ever saw him.'
Larry Lindler, a retired Los Angeles police officer, said he last saw his brother more than two decades ago after he walked in on him molesting his 8-year-old daughter during a visit.
The two were playing a game called 'blankie' in which Lindner asked the little girl to lie over his lap like a blanket and then wiggled around as if trying to get comfortable.
'The last contact I had with him personally was the day after I caught him with my daughter and I told him he best get in his vehicle and leave,' he recalled.
'I said, 'If I go out to the truck and get my off-duty weapon out of the glove box, you're a dead man.'
Although rare, it's not unheard of for victims of sexual abuse to take revenge upon their abusers - and it can be normal for victims to fantasize about revenge without acting on it, said Steven Danish, a professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University who's counseled sexual abuse victims.
In Lynch's case, reading about Lindner in media accounts throughout the years and realizing he had gone unpunished could have pushed Lynch to act, said Mr Danish, who has not treated Lynch.
'Imagine holding something inside for 35 years and letting it fester,' Mr Danish said. 'He's probably thinking: "You're living your life and here I am a failure and all because of what you did to me on that day."'
There have been several other instances of violence, sometimes fatal, against priests accused of abuse since the Roman Catholic clergy abuse scandal unfolded in 2002.
In Baltimore, a man who claimed he was sodomized and fondled by a priest a decade before shot the clergyman three times after the priest told him to go away when he demanded an apology.
The defendant was acquitted of attempted murder but served 18 months of home detention on a gun conviction.
The following year, priest John Geoghan was strangled to death in his cell by a fellow inmate who claimed he was chosen by God to kill paedophiles.
Geoghan was serving a nine- to ten-year sentence for groping a boy and was at the centre of the Boston clergy abuse scandal. He had been accused of molesting as many as 150 boys.
The Rev. John McGarry, the provincial, said Lindner had fully recovered and had resumed his work at the retirement home, where he helps care for 75 retired and invalid priests.
'As you can imagine it's very emotionally distressing to go through something like this. He hasn't spoken a lot about it,' Rev. McGarry said of Lindner.
'He's living a quiet life of prayer and service within our community.'
3 comments:
I admit to being angry when the impression is given the 'crisis' began in Boston. Thanks for capturing and posting the articles about clergy sexual abuse well before the Boston articles of 2001/2002. Here are published articles from the corn fields of Minnesota going back to 1994, years, years, years before Boston.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news13/1994_04_23_Grace_FourSue_William_Joseph_Marks_1.htm
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news5/1994_05_22_McGarry_DioceseStruggles.htm
And more at the bottom of this page: https://mnsnap.wordpress.com/william-joseph-marks-abusive-priest/ Bob Schwiderski 952-471-3422
I admit to being angry when the impression is given the 'crisis' began in Boston. Thanks for capturing and posting the articles about clergy sexual abuse well before the Boston articles of 2001/2002. Here are published articles from the corn fields of Minnesota going back to 1994, years, years, years before Boston.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news13/1994_04_23_Grace_FourSue_William_Joseph_Marks_1.htm
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news5/1994_05_22_McGarry_DioceseStruggles.htm
And more at the bottom of this page: https://mnsnap.wordpress.com/william-joseph-marks-abusive-priest/ Bob Schwiderski
This 4-minute video is related to your publication on a Jesuit priest who was found dead next to a 6-story city parking structure.
John Chevedden
FATHER JAMES CHEVEDDEN CASE ON NBC BAY AREA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GyL4YCDCBo
In regard to:
A Jesuit who taught at Loyola HS in California was in the news for raping both male and female relatives and even a Jesuit priest at Los Gatos who was punished by the Jesuits for telling about the abuse and mysteriously jumped off a state building to his death.. (the Jesuit who abused every one gerald Lindner
was seen with the victim right before he jumped….
Preview YouTube video FATHER JAMES CHEVEDDEN CASE ON NBC BAY AREA
FATHER JAMES CHEVEDDEN CASE ON NBC BAY AREA
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