Whistleblower #priests and #nuns turn in #catholicchurch sexual predators

Most church insiders who have witnessed sexual abuse have chosen not to report it. BishopAccountability.org has put the first database of church whistleblowers - priests, nuns, church employees and volunteers --  who reported colleagues to church or civil authorities and fought their superiors’ concealment of abuse. These whistleblowers listed below are remarkable exceptions to those in the church who are enablers of worldwide child sexual abuse. 

Clergy and Religious Whistleblowers

Rev. Felix Alarcon | Rev. John Bambrick | Marianne Benkert | Rev. Thomas Bolte | Msgr. Lawrence Breslin | Sr. Sally Butler OP| Rev. Daniel Clayton | Sr. Jeanne Christensen | Rev. Patrick Collins | Rev. John Conley | Rev. James Connell | Rev. Donald Cozzens | Bishop John M. D'Arcy | Rev. Tom Doyle OP | Rev. Thomas Economus | Jim Fitzpatrick | Rev. Joseph Fowler | Rev. Terence German SJ | Rev. James Gigliotti, T.O.R| Bishop Thomas Gumbleton | Rev. Gary Hayes | Rev. David Hitch | Sr. Jane Kelly | Rev. Bob Hoatson | Sr. Peg Ivers | Msgr. Kenneth Lasch | Rev. Ron Lemmert | Jane Levikow | Rev. Michael Lipareli | Rev. James A. "Seamus" MacCormack| Rev. John McNamee | Rev. John Minkler | Msgr. James Molloy | Sr. Catherine Mulkerrin | Sr. Joyce Newton | Rev. Joseph Okonski | Lynette Petruska | Msgr. Michael Picard | Rev. Richard Reissmann | Msgr. Phillip Saylor | Fr. James Scahill | Sr. Joan Scary | Rev. Edward Seagriff | Richard Sipe | Claire Smith, OSU | Rev. Robert Smoot | Rev. Stephen Stanbery | Rev. Joseph Starmann | Rev. Tim Stier | Rev. Frederick E. Sweeney | Rev. Bruce Teague | Sr. Janice Thomas | Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish | Juan Vaca | Patrick Wall | Rev. Robert Williams |

Lay Catholic Whistleblowers

Linda Briggs-Harty | Anne Burke | Joelle Casteix | Elizabeth Cucinotta Sorvillo | Donna Cox | Robert Fontana | Connel Friel | Frank Keating | Theresa Gerstner | Jennifer Haselberger | Jim Jenkins | Margaret Mata | Larry Probst | Barbara Westrick |

You can see their photos and stories at:

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Whistleblowers/   http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Whistleblowers/

See also:  "Church Whistle-Blowers Join Forces on Abuse," by Laurie Goodstein, The New York Times, May 20, 2013.

Many of the whistleblowers have experienced retaliation and grief:  defamation, job loss, career derailment, ostracization, pressure by superiors to admit to mental illness, and in at least one case, suicide, according to Bishop Accountability.   

I thank Bishop Accountability for their continued dedication to survivors and children.  The most important thing that catholic parishioners can do is to open their eyes and close their wallets. 

Send a #clergysexabuse survivor to the SNAP Conference

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Every year survivors of sexual, psychological and physical abuse by catholic priests and nuns, by clergy of all denominations and by abusers from other organizations meet at the annual SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest) conference.  At the conference, survivors can meet, talk, attend lectures and hear about progress in stopping the abuse and bringing justice to the survivors.

One of these survivors, Dave O’Regan, the New England SNAP Director is making a special endeavor to help raise money for survivors who need help to attend the conference.  In Dave’s words:

“I am very happy to announce today a very ambitious goal I set for myself to help raise funds for survivors of clergy sexual abuse attend the SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest) Annual Conference in Chicago June 24-26. I am training for and have registered to run in the Worcester 5k Road Race in Worcester, MA on June 19. My daughter Maureen has teamed up with me to form Massachusetts Team SNAP. We will both be asking for funds from friends, relatives, constituents, and all our contacts to help us achieve our goal of raising $12,500.

This year I was pleased to learn that a kind and generous donor is matching donations to SNAP Scholarships up to $12,500. This means that SNAP will have $25,000 to help survivors attend. I am so appreciative and want to do my very best to help survivors in financial need here in Massachusetts and across the country attend.   

 Everyone has been so kind in the past helping me achieve this goal the last few years and this year there is a greater need with “Spotlight”, the movie. More survivors memories are being triggered and they are coming forward for the very first time and are in need of all the support we can give. The Annual Conference offers workshops, prominent speakers, validation, friendships, and a pathway to healing from the deep wounds of abuse.”

The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Investigation in 2002 caused Dave to remember and relive his abuse and suffer PTSD. He considered taking his own life. Then he found and attended a SNAP support group. He learned from other brave survivors sharing their painful stories that he was not alone and they gave him the courage to, for the first time, articulate and speak of his painful past. Dave couldn’t afford to go the SNAP Annual Conference but funding was available so he went and it was a life changing experience for him, helping him to heal and get grounded again.

Dave gives back by helping other survivors – that is what he did for me. I found Dave, and SNAP and no longer feel alone with my pain. Now I am paying forward, helping by writing this blog for survivors and those in danger of being abused.  Dave says,

“I have a deep desire to help other hurting survivors attend and experience the healing opportunity I found attending my first conference.”

Please help a survivor. You can make a tax deductible donation through this link:  

SNAPnetwork.org/ma_team_snap  

 If you are a survivor in need of help to attend please follow this link: 

http://www.snapnetwork.org/request_a_scholarship  

Contact information for Dave O’Regan, New England SNAP Director

Phone: 434.446.6769   worcestersnap@gmail.com

Pennsylvania Revelation: #CatholicBishops and local police protect #pedophilepriests

Attorney General of Pennsylvania, #KathleenKane

For over 40 years (1940s-1980s) hundreds of Pennsylvania children were sexually abused by more than 50 Roman Catholic priests –and the shocking crimes were covered up by bishops.  Priests took advantage of these children who felt safe with them. The abusers committed their crimes in campsites, confessionals, in an orphanage and in the cathedral. Children were molested, raped and fated to become adults with lifelong psychological trauma.

The Attorney General of Pennsylvania, #KathleenKane said that the 37th Statewide Investigating Grand jury 147-page report found that former Altoona-Johnstown Diocese Bishop James Hogan and his successor Joseph Adamec protected pedophile priests. Hogan covered up allegations by transferring offending priests, including one who was sent to a boys’ school.  Adamec or his staff threatened some victims with excommunication and generally worked harder to hide or settle allegations of abuse than to discipline the priests accused.

"The diocese will not apologize or take responsibility for its dark history," the report said.

Evidence for the report came from a secret diocesan archive opened through a search warrant.  Hogan died in 2005 and Adamec cited possible self-incrimination in refusing to testify before the grand jury.

The investigation found that local law enforcement dodged investigating the abuses in the church and that the diocese actually helped select a police chief and fire chief.  Kane’s investigation was helped by the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group and the Behavioral Analysis Unit.

Attorney Kane called the release of the report a “day of reckoning” for abusers and their enablers. The sad fact is that there were no cases filed against the attackers because the statute of limitations (two years) ran out -- making prosecution impossible.  Victims are too traumatized to testify or remember what happened to them until it is too late.  The grand jury is recommending the complete removal of statutes for future child sexual abuse criminal cases and opening a window of time allowing civil suits for past abuse, as some other states have done. Of the victims, Kane said: "Their souls were killed as children. They weren't out playing baseball; they were trying to avoid priests."

The current bishop, Mark Bartchak, recently suspended a few pedophile priests but the grand jury said it remains "concerned the purge of predators is taking too long."

Parishioners Pay for the “Menu”

American dioceses have paid nearly $4 billion since 1950 to settle claims with victims.  We know where this money came from – the pockets of parishioners who thought they were helping with God’s works.

The report found that there was a "payout chart" where victims would receive amounts of money from the church according to the crime committed – a practice found in other dioceses.  Is this a menu for the abusers? Victims fondled over their clothes were to be paid $10,000 to $25,000; fondled under their clothes or subjected to masturbation, $15,000 to $40,000; subjected to forced oral sex, $25,000 to $75,000; subjected to forced sodomy or intercourse, $50,000 to $175,000.  Can anyone put a price on a child’s life?

An $8 million settlement was awarded to 88 former students of Franciscan Brother Stephen Baker, who  abused catholic high school students from 1992 to 2001. Baker killed himself in 2013 after abuse settlements were publicized.  A molestation lawsuit against since-defrocked priest Francis Luddy tried in 1994 led to a verdict of more than $2 million in damages and an appeals court finding that Hogan's oversight of pedophile priests had been "outrageous."

How many children could have been saved from a life of misery if these bishops would have acted like the “men of God” that they pretend to be? These child predators could have been criminally prosecuted and locked away.  What the grand jury report calls, “soul murder” could have been prevented.

“These findings are both staggering and sobering,” said the grand jury report. “Over many years hundreds of children have fallen victim to child predators wrapped in the authority and integrity of an honorable faith. As wolves disguised as the shepherds themselves — these men stole the innocence of children by sexually preying upon the most innocent and vulnerable .... ”

Bishops: “took actions that further endangered children as they placed their desire to avoid public scandal over the well-being of innocent children,” the report said. “Priests were returned to ministry with full knowledge they were child predators.”

Just like cases in many other dioceses: these bishops tried to discredit the victims – in one case, trying to get the gynecological records of a survivor.  They threatened victims, tried to get lawsuits against known criminal clergy dismissed – even after the priest admitted molesting children.  There are so many cases that are known and how many are buried so deep that they haven’t yet surfaced?

In 2002, according to the grand jury,  Rev. Martin Cingle had groped the genitals of a then-15-year-old boy while sleeping next to the boy on a trip he had taken him on. Bishop Adamec met with Father Cingle, who denied remembering such an event. Adamec sent the priest for what the grand jury said was an insufficient psychological review which was inconclusive. Adamec returned the priest to ministry, where he remained until the grand jury, under threat of perjury got Cingle to admit his guilt.  It wasn’t until the Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Dye wrote to the current Bishop Bartchak, that the bishop agreed to remove Cingle from the ministry.  What was Cingle out there doing for over a decade?

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas ruled in 2002, that any priest should be removed from ministry who committed even a single act of abuse.  All talk and worse than no action: the grand jury report said that as late as 2005, the Altoona-Johnstown diocese was hiring private investigators to look for ways to undercut the credibility of an accuser.  It was the #BostonGlobe investigations, recently dramatized in the Oscar-winning movie #Spotlight, that provoked the bishops to act like they were doing something to stop the abuse. The tide was rising and the Globe investigation led to revelations of similar cover-ups worldwide.  The tide of truth will keep rising until it washes away the agents of evil.

The grand jury is recommending the complete removal of statutes for future child sexual abuse criminal cases and opening a window of time allowing civil suits for past abuse, as some other states have done. Bishop cover up of lying, incurable pedophile priests or some similar mockery of justice has or is happening everywhere the church reaches with its tentacles into the lives of innocent children.  Who will stop it?  We will – like the victims in #Spotlight we will tell the media the truth and hope they are brave enough to reveal it to the world.  

A DREAM ABOUT #POPEFRANCIS

Pope Francis’ bed: what does he dream about?

Dwayne James Mitchell is a regular commentator on this blog.  He always hits the nail on the head with his comments about the Criminal Catholic Church.  He is a true advocate for the children and adults that were and are physically, mentally and spiritually abused by nuns and priests.  I would and I know Dwayne would like to hear your voice added to this noble effort to save the children. Dwayne even dreams about Pope Francis:

                  A DREAM ABOUT #POPEFRANCIS

Last night I had a dream, (well, more like a nightmare), that I was invited to dinner with Pope Francis at the #Vatican. This dream occurred right after I read about his comment dealing with people who believe in countries having closed borders, and being #Christian at the same time!

The purpose of my “dinner with the Pope” was to interview him on current issues that are in the world news.

As I arrived at the Vatican in my vehicle, I was given a parking spot, and I was escorted by his security into a small room where I was “strip searched,” and my entire brief case along with my laptop were examined. I was a little concerned about the “strip search,” after all, this is the Vatican, and they are known for their issues with the Altar Boys, but since I did not see any Priests in the area, I figured that I was “ok,” although one of the security guards did look at me very strangely, but maybe that was just my paranoid imagination.

From the security office, I was escorted to an elevator, and we traveled to the Pope’s private residence. As we were traveling, the thought crossed my mind that if “security for a country at its borders was not such a big issue,” why was there so much security for the Pope at the Vatican? What is he and his staff afraid of from the world? After all, he is a man of God, so shouldn’t he be willing to trust his fellow human beings without concern?

When we arrived at the residence area, I was asked to wait in a little foyer. In a few minutes I was then ushered into the dining room where the Pope was already seated at the table. As I approached the table, Pope Francis stood up, and we were introduced. I asked the Pope that since this was an informal meeting, if it would be “ok” if I could address him as “Francis,” and he could then address me as Dwayne. He agreed, and as the dinner was being served we had the following conversation.

DWAYNE:

I would like to thank you for extending this invitation to dinner with you, and to be able to discuss the issues of the day from the point of view of the #CatholicChurch.

FRANCIS:

It is my pleasure to open up the inner workings of the Catholic Church. I am seeking more transparency in both the Catholic Church and the Vatican.

DWAYNE:

In the last ten, (10), years the Catholic Church has been hit with a big scandal with regards to child abuse from both the #Priests and #Nuns, (in the schools, churches and institutions), and the position of the Vatican with regards to sealing the files of these offending clergy from prosecution by civil authorities. How do you defend this position that the Catholic Church has taken on this issue?

FRANCIS:

As representatives of God, we are above the Civil Law. We only come under Church Law, and since we are also a country, I consider all of my employees to be agents of the Vatican, and as such, they have “diplomatic immunity!” So, you might say that they are untouchable.

Besides, the people that they “might have abused” are of no consequence. They are just the “little people,” and they are of no importance. They reproduce like rabbits, and when one goes, there will be another to replace them. What is more important is that I keep my staff happy so that we can do the job of getting everyone under the umbrella of the Catholic Church. We are running a business, just like General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Our product is “religion,” coated with a dose of “smoke and mirrors!”  We have found that the more “smoke and mirrors” in our religious ceremonies the better the little people like the presentation. It is all about the bottom line.

DWAYNE:

What do you say to the people who have been abused by the Catholic Clergy when they were children?

FRANCIS:

I would simply tell them to “get over it!” It was just a “role in the hay,” so move on with your life. Since you are just a member of the Catholic Church, and not a Priest and Nun, you are of no real importance. You will never get the justice that you are seeking, because we are going to delay the legal process until most of you are dead and buried, and then there will be no one to testify to what really happened! The “Faithful” need to understand that they are in the church to be used and abused by the Clergy for their pleasure. In addition, the “Faithful” are there to give their financial support on demand to the Clergy whenever necessary without question. The role of the “Faithful” is to serve the clergy as appropriate and never question church authority, and to be submissive 24 / 7 / 365. Independent thinking is not accepted behavior and will not be tolerated in the Catholic Church. Only “group think” will be accepted as directed by the Catholic Church.

DWAYNE:

Why are you in favor of open borders?

FRANCIS :

Let’s be very practical about this issue. My business (church), in the United States is in “BIG TROUBLE!” Since the #AltarBoy Issue, people have been leaving the Catholic Church, and they have taken their money with them, and those that are left are starting to question the authenticity of the Catholic Church, and the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Would you believe that some of the older members are starting to question the concept of “transubstantiation?” We thought that we had that issue firmly implanted into the brains of these gullible individuals, but I guess they need to go to the re-education Catholic Camps formally known as Catholic Schools. We need new blood in the Catholic Church, and the best place to get that new blood is across the border from Mexico. We can get these people to believe anything, so we need them in the United States to fill up our churches. The American people have seen through our “smoke and mirror act,” and we can no longer con them into giving us money to continue our life style. We have bills to pay. There are court costs, and hush money, and those funds have to come from the “Faithful.”

At the end of our dinner, I thanked the Pope for his candor and I left the Vatican. Once I woke up from my dream, I felt enlightened by the experience because I now understand the operation and motivation of the Catholic Church!

We can wake up from our dreams and make the world a safer place for children so that they will not be abused like me and like Dwayne and like so many of you.

#PopeFrancis turns convicted #pedophilepriest loose in #India

Megan Peterson was sexually assaulted by Jeyapaul when she was 14; she is pictured with attorney Jeff Anderson

An Indian priest, Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 61 was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the United States more than 10 years ago.  He actually assaulted two 14-year-old girls but got punished for only one crime in a plea bargain.  After his deposition he fled the United States, but was arrested in India by Interpol in 2012 and extradited to the United States.  Jeyapaul was sentenced for a year in the U.S. and suspended from his clergy job.  He went back to India and unbelievably his suspension was lifted by his bishop who was told to do so by authorities at the Vatican, according to CBS News.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope’s group responsible for spreading and defending #Catholicdoctrine, approved the reinstatement of Jeyapaul.  They would not comment when contacted by CBS News. 

A U.S. Attorney, Jeff Anderson, who represented the priest's victims, criticized church authorities for lifting Jeyapaul's suspension and urged the Vatican to be held accountable for what happened. He is exploring further legal action over the decision to lift the suspension.

David Clohessy of the victims’ group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (#SNAP) says Jeyapaul should have been banned from ministry permanently.

"I think this convicted predator is being put back on the job for the same reason that bishops continue to conceal child sex crimes all across the globe," Clohessy said, "simply because they can."

So Jeyapaul is running around in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state.  Do his neighbors and their children know who and what he is?  Are they safe?  Ask Pope Francis.

Honeymoon over for #PopeFrancis and #Catholics

Is this the end of the pope's honeymoon period? (Max RossiReuters)

Pope Francis’ honeymoon is over says reporter Will Carless from globalpost.com. People all over the world are realizing that much of what Francis says is just more of the same stonewalling and cover up. To update the Feb. 9^th post on this blog about Peter Saunders being thrown off the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors we quote Saunders:

“I very quickly realized that I’m surrounded by a group of lovely, kind, caring people whose primary loyalty is to the church,” Saunders said. “When #Jesus walked into the temple 2,000 years ago and found people trading, gambling and up to all sorts of no good, he didn’t form a committee and say ‘let’s discuss this,’ he just picked the bastards up and threw them out.”

And then we have Marie Collins, the other member of the commission who is also an abuse survivor. Collins obviously hasn’t read much #Vatican history: that popes have been convening commissions for hundreds of years with the same results: weak recommendations with no action that would protect children from rapist clergy or help survivors get justice.   

Collins believes that the commission is “working extremely hard on complicated policy changes that, once put into effect, will have a tangible impact on child safety.”  How “extremely hard” would it be for the Pope to open his records of reported rapist priests and their locations and hit “send” on the Vatican computer?  Collins believes that it “takes time to do right” – but children in danger right now don’t have that time; survivors still suffering at the ends of their lives don’t have that time.  She says that “Saunders doesn’t seem to be willing to put in that time,”  -- that’s correct, Saunders and all advocates of the children and survivors want the abuse to stop  right now!   Those who don’t are enablers or worse.

Speaking about Pope Francis’ feeble efforts: 

“I think Pope Francis enjoyed a longer and deeper honeymoon period than any leader I’ve ever seen,” said David Clohessy, national director and spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or #SNAP. “But I think that’s eroding, and justifiably so, and more quickly than many church officials would hope.”

Francis is proving this erosion:

Recently, reporter John L. Allen Jr., an associate editor of the Catholic website #Crux, wrote about Vatican guidelines for new priests.  According to Allen, a church official who outlined the guidelines said bishops have “no duty to report allegations [of sexual abuse] to the police,” and that the commission, set up to advise the church on these matters, did not help in the creation of the guidelines. Allen wrote:

“What’s the point of creating a commission to promote best practices, and putting one of the Church’s most credible leaders on the abuse issue, Boston #CardinalSeanO’Malley, in charge of it, and yet not having it address the new leaders who will have to implement those practices?”  So nothing has changed: bishops still don’t have to report child rapes to the police – so what is the use of the commission?

O’Malley won’t talk about the work or plans of the commission and repeatedly turned down #GlobalPost requests for an interview.  David Clohessy said the news regarding the commission is just the latest version of a long line of promised church reforms that have gone nowhere. “There literally have been hundreds of church panels, and there have been thousands of incredibly smart experts and law enforcement officials and psychologists, and victims, who have wasted countless hours advising bishops who pretend to listen and care,” Clohessy said.

Pope Francis, do we need another commission to tell us why this one isn’t working?

#PopeFrancis tells clergy abuse survivor to shut up and get off Commission for Protection of Minors

Peter Saunders, clergy abuse survivor, forced to leave Pope Francis' Commission

Peter Saunders, English advocate for sexually abused children and one of two survivors on the Pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors was given an unrequested “leave of absence” by the Holy See.  Note that the Pope is the ruler of both the Vatican City State and the Holy See.  So it is really the Pope that didn’t approve of Saunders. Why? Maybe it is his role as head of the UK National Association for People Abused in Childhood. Or, the Pope and his cohorts didn’t like him saying that the Vatican system was “essentially corrupt and unwilling to do the right thing”.  Or, Pope Francis didn’t like being criticized for appointing Chilean bishop Juan Barros to the Diocese of Osorno when Barros is accused of covering up the sex abuse crimes of Fr Fernando Karadima.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Peter Saunders said he was “shell-shocked” and disappointed at the manner in which the “inquisition” had expressed a vote of no confidence in him especially as he was personally asked to join the panel by Pope Francis.

Saunders says he is still on the commission until he decides to leave or Pope Francis personally asks him to step down.  A Vatican spokesman said Saunders “can say what he wants” and that the separation with Saunders “was a unanimous decision made by the members, with only one abstention.” Marie Collins, the other survivor of clerical sexual abuse, said on Twitter that she hadn’t voted in favor of removing Saunders.

David Clohessy, SNAP

David Clohessy,  Director of SNAP* (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) said, “We share Pete Saunders’ justifiable frustration with Vatican officials. They refuse to take quick, simple, common sense steps to protect kids and deter cover ups by punishing clerics who conceal abuse. Instead, they do what church officials have done for decades: shrewdly fixate on and discuss meaningless internal policies on paper that give the impression of progress while changing virtually nothing.”  “Pete has been a brave, honest and tireless voice for kids and victims.”

“The Pope’s abuse panel will issue recommendations. The Pope will adopt them. And nothing will improve. Why? Because there will be no enforcement. Why? Because the church hierarchy is an entitled, rigid, secretive, all-male monarchy. No new protocols or policies or procedures will radically undo a centuries-old self-serving structure that rewards clerics who keep a tight lid on child sex crimes and cover ups,” said Clohessy.

*SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org

Pope Francis had promised to attend commission meetings to answer questions about his handling of the sex abuse issue but he did not.  “Of course Pope Francis has established he is part of the problem,” Peter Saunders said in an interview with Agence France AFPTV.  “That breaks my heart because when I met him 18 months ago I thought there was a sincerity and a willingness to make things happen, and I am afraid that has been dashed now.”

In creating the Commission, the Holy See is up to its old tricks:  giving it “no teeth” – It is an advisory body, with no authority to change rules or judge specific abuse complaints.   No action: They issue statements like asking Pope Francis to remind all bishops of the importance of personal outreach to abuse victims, and also to institute a “Universal Day of Prayer” as well as a penitential liturgy for the crime of sexual abuse. They’ll hold workshops on the legal aspects of the protection of minors. I underlined the “no actions.”    As if talking and praying will heal children who were raped and punish their attackers -- or stop the multitude of pedophile priests currently stalking more children worldwide.

Saunders says now he realizes the commission was “smoke and mirrors” and he is convinced the Church will never act alone to cure the “cancer” of child abuse.  He added that he doesn’t want to work under secrecy and in darkness or, “be silenced on an issue as important as child protection.”

The biggest lie promoted by the Vatican and the Pope is that clerical sex abuse is a problem of past decades and no longer exists. “This is not in any sense a historical issue or problem,” Saunders said. “It has to be tackled now. The Pope could do so much more and he is doing next to nothing. This is a societal problem — but if the Church, the so-called moral leadership of the world, does not take a lead in this area it would quite rightly be considered morally bankrupt in every other area.”    

Pope Francis, stop convening commissions that do nothing and start taking action – like opening up the Vatican records on your child-abusing clergy and handing them and the clergy over to the police.

#Spotlight is just the beginning of the end for the #CatholicChurch

http://www.wcvb.com/news/clergy-sex-abuse-victims-claim-church-is-breaking-promises-for-care-treatment/37851766

On Friday, February 5^th, TV news station WCVB.TV in Boston aired the first part of an  rendering by investigative reporter Mike Beaudet on the treatment of survivors of Catholic Church clergy/nun abuse.    The Church says it is helping survivors by paying for psychotherapy – it makes them look good.  But just like the statements that all children are now safe from clergy pedophiles – helping survivors is another cover up. 

Survivors, many of who are suicidal, or alcohol/drug addicted are made to go through a process that makes them victims all over again.  Survivors have to go to the Diocese “outreach” office – a place where priests and their lawyers walk the hallways, where their black autos fill the parking lot, where reminders of who the abusers are hit you wherever you look and walk.  Then survivors have to re-tell their horrific stories of the abuse to lay person intake clerks who are more concerned with filling out forms than caring about what happened.  Then, the survivor has to wait for weeks or longer to find out if they are approved for therapy by the perpetrators who are the cause of the need for this therapy.

Many get turned away because the requirements for approval are purposely made difficult to get, especially by survivors who are suffering every minute of the day.  Having to remember names of abusers, dates, and places is often too traumatic for a survivor to endure.  Some get approval for psychotherapy but often it is too little too late.  Once a week may be approved when a survivor who, for the first time has talked about the abuse and needs therapy more often. The approval has to be given every year and this holds a sword over the heads of survivors who worry they will be cut off.

Years ago, in Boston, the Attorney General recommended that there be an independent survivors review board but the church ignored it – because they can.  They have enough money (taken from parishioners) to pay high priced lawyers and lobbyists to stonewall the authorities and change laws.

Look at the video and listen to the survivors – there is an overwhelming amount of evidence of yet another church coverup and much material for the next “Spotlight” movie.