Too Little, Too Late: a priest's opinion on the Catholic Church

Thomas Patrick Doyle is an American Catholic priest. Doyle was one of the first people in the Catholic church to bring attention to sexual abuse by clergy. In 1985, Doyle authored a report on medical and legal issues raised by pedophilia in the priesthood, and "warned of a national scandal if the hierarchy did not adopt a sound policy". They still have not cleaned up their act or stopped abusing children. Here is his latest opinion on the Church in his words. "Over the past few months I have been trying to organize and catalogue the vast collections of files I have on clergy sex abuse. They go back to when I first got involved, 1984 and are in both paper and electronic form. As I continue I am struck by the man, attempts of the institutional Church to respond. The most recent trend has been the emergence of Catholic higher education from the shadows. The entire phenomenon needs deep, fearless academic research and dialogue. Now that Catholic higher education is in the act, is there a chance this might evolve from the dedicated work of a tiny minority and motivate some of the best Catholic scholars to take up the challenge. This tragic reality has been a known part of Church life and culture since the first century. The momentous change in direction that started in 1985 was based on public revelations of behavior that had been deeply and intentionally buried in a thick blanket of secrecy for centuries. 1985, not 2002! Thirty-five years ago, plenty of time to start trying to figure it all out! Between 1985 and 2002 the public knowledge of sexual abuse by clergy steadily grew. The bishops were in a state of defensive denial, still claiming it was only a “few bad apples” but knowing full well it was far more than a few and deathly afraid to face the fact that the main problem was not the apples, no matter how many, but the barrel itself. The so-called Catholic intellectual elite were either totally silent or arrogantly defensive. The late John Richard Neuhaus proclaimed that he had reached moral certitude that the accusations of sex abuse leveled against Marcial Maciel-Degollado and coverup by the once mighty Legion of Christ were all false. The brave victims who spoke out were not only vilified by Neuhaus and the Legion bosses but some had their careers and lives altered because of the attacks by the Legion. This outfit and Maciel, its bizarre, psychopathic leader for life, were the darlings of John Paul II and of some prominent members of the Catholic laity who happened to be the elite at the time. I recall criticizing them to John Allen one day and he replied: “by their fruits you will know them.” He was right but in ways he never expected! They seemed to have it all. Large numbers of new priests every year, universities and colleges in several countries and the leader who proved to be one of the most successful fund raisers in Church history. They had it all, except for one ingredient that certainly seemed missing from the leadership, namely, a clear understanding of and commitment to Christianity. Then after Josef Ratzinger was elected pope it all changed. The veil of deception crumbled and not only was Maciel exposed but the world began to get an inside look at the weirdness of the Legion. One prominent woman leader in the fight for justice for survivors, attended a meeting at the Legion university in Rome and said to me later that the seminarians and young priests reminded her of Stepford Wives. Between 1985 and 2002 the bishops gave clergy abuse token attention. The victims on the other hand, were organized and not buying any of the public relations nonsense generated by the various dioceses or by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The other arena where things were happening was the secular courts. Between 1986 and 2002 there were several hundred cases filed in courts throughout the U.S. This raised the overall public awareness but even more crucial, through the legal discovery process, the secrets were coming out. This was hardly an unknown issue for the bishops, the clergy, the Catholic press and the Catholic higher educational establishment. The bishops did basically nothing but dodge and weave. The few, and I mean few priests and women religious who publicly stood with the victims and cut through the official church’s conventional non-wisdom with their statements were ignored, written off and even vilified. Where was Catholic Higher Education, especially the more renowned Catholic universities back then? Nowhere to be seen or heard! Some of us were invited by various groups to speak at Catholic institutions, including colleges or universities. In my case and in that of the others, the local bishop almost always got into the act and forced a change of venue because in their words, our presence at such an event and in a Catholic environment, would confuse the faithful! Now, 18 years after the pivotal Boston revelations, Catholic higher education started to act as if they suddenly had a major revelation and were therefore going to rise to the occasion and provide the Church with the answers. Georgetown University, for which I have an otherwise very warm spot in my heart for personal reasons, issued a report on Nov. 4 titled “Lay Leadership for a Wounded Church and Divided Nation.” It was based on a two-day event held at the GU law school on June 14 and 15. The report provides ten strategic directions that emerged from the June meeting. What is so significant about the report or even the June meeting for that matter? Nothing! The “strategic directions” have all been repeatedly articulated by victim/survivors, their advocates and supporters and many of their attorneys not for years, but decades. The authors of the report may think they have cooked up something revolutionary and opened new doors for the Church but they haven’t. One thing is certain. The report is an insult to the dedicated and battle-scarred victim/survivors who have been speaking out since the sex abuse tragedy was uncovered in the mid-eighties. It gives the impression that no one has been on top of this issue until this year. It’s true that G.U. and the other universities that are on the bandwagon have included one or two survivors, and to my knowledge, the ones they have included are outstanding choices and here I am referring for example, to Juan Carlos Cruz. But most of the others lack the historical perspective and more important, the in-depth involvement with the victims. Nothing said by any of the big names in lay Catholic culture is new by any stretch of the imagination and no one has yet ventured into the minefield of the systemic causes. Some of the remarks of the newly endowed experts have not only been embarrassingly superficial but downright ridiculous. To stand up at a university and lay the blame on diabolical influence is on the same level as claiming the dog ate my homework. Other equally off-the-wall attempts at explaining the issue: blaming it on gays or the gay culture which makes as much sense as blaming adultery on heterosexuality, and claiming it was the influence of the free-love culture of the sixties. At this point I have to point out that Georgetown University sponsored one of the most significant events I have ever been involved with, a panel discussion that took place in April 2016 and filled the largest venue in the university. It was organized by the students, led by then-freshman Aiden Johnson. They did not worry about political correctness and the university to their credit, gave full support. The speakers were those ordinarily verboten on Catholic turf: Richard Sipe, Martin Baron former editor of the Boston Globe, Mike Rezendes, key player with the Globe Spotlight team, Bob Bennet, one of the original members of the National Review Board and me. This venture came from the students, not the theology department or the law school. It seems as if some of the universities were and are looking for prominent names to populate their programs. Some of the speakers have more than superficial experience with the issue and have made significant contributions. But unfortunately most lack the experience of having been in the trenches. They are saying things that have already been said many times over. For years those who were speaking out before it was “safe” to do so were ignored, shunned and written off because what they had to say was way too threatening to the hierarchical establishment. The bishops finally started waking up to the fact that all their defenses and excuses were rapidly crumbling and everyone knew it. Now it’s “politically correct” for the bishops to at least say some of the right things even though their behavior still has a long, long way to go. Catholic higher education no longer has to worry about incurring the hierarchy’s wrath so they are jumping on the bandwagon whereas for years they acted as if the subject didn’t exist. Now, its “in” for the major universities to sound like they have just made a new and earth-shaking discovery. One irritating trend has been to try, even subtly, to exonerate the hierarchy and point out all that they have done to make it better. This is counter-productive and a waste of time. Anything the bishops have done has been forced on them. The Dallas Charter never would have happened were it not for the anger and even fury of the victims and their supporters and the non-stop embarrassing revelations coming out of the civil legal processes. Too many forces and voices in the Church are still trying to rescue the bishops. But it’s not about the bishops. It’s about the countless people whose lives have been forever altered because of the self-serving narcissism of the leadership of the institution from the Vatican on down. The hierarchy and the Catholic intellectual establishment are either unwilling, unable or both, to move beyond their superficial to mid-level discussions into the forbidden zone of systemic causality. The first question that needs honest and unvarnished answers: why has the institutional Church attracted, nurtured and promoted so many men who are emotionally immature and sexually dysfunctional? The second directly involves the nature of the priesthood. The exaggerated mythology about priests being “other Christs” based on the unexplainable and unrealistic concept of ontological change needs serious and objective excavation. The third and final and most important question is that of systemic causality. The bishops are understandably but regrettably terrified of this because the answers that are emerging and will continue to emerge are a threat not only to their image and power but to the very reasons for their existence. The fundamental glaring hypocrisy needs to be addressed: The Church has presented its doctrine and way of life as the path to salvation in the footsteps of Jesus. It has preached love but also has given its people one of history’s most stringent and restrictive codes of sexual conduct. At the same time those who are the guardians of this lofty way of life have committed and systematically enabled the commission of sexual violations of the most vulnerable that are deemed by all societies as the most horrific and disgusting that can be inflicted on another human being. Who is responsible for this? Not the obedient, devoted laity but the successors of the Apostles and those who take the place of Christ. If the Catholic intellectual elite expect to move beyond the mediocre where they are now stuck, they must look beyond rescuing the ecclesiastical-clerical establishment and tackle this contradiction that looms over the entire Church, both institutional and People of God, like a black cloud. As the answers emerge, and the inevitable threats to the clerical and hierarchical status quo are faced, but not allowed to once again derail the search for truth, only then will we begin to gain mastery over the dark side. For those who still hope to find their true spiritual home in community of Catholic believers, it may well be the moment to embrace the truly foundational concept of Church as People of God and give it a chance. It might just work." Quotes from Doyle: Rev. Tom Doyle has reviewed over 1,000 clergy sexual abuse cases over the past 30-plus years. In a recent interview, Doyle said "I no longer have any trust in the institutional church." “The Roman Catholic Church, the leadership, the bishops, the popes, have been well aware of this issue for the entire duration of the church’s existence,” Doyle said. He’s lost all faith in the bishops’ ability to fix the issue themselves. “It’s like having Hitler take care of the problem of anti-Semitism among the SS. That’s how much sense it makes,” Doyle said. “There is not the will to fix it. The only will there is, collectively, is to protect the image of the institution.” “There have been several wake-up calls,” he said. “The myth is that the institution, the bishops are going to be able to fix themselves. … They haven’t fixed it; they’ve made it worse, because, in trying to fix it, they’ve actually gone deeper into the dishonesty, into hiding and into the lying. It’s systemic.”

The Hypocrisy of Cardinal Dolan of NY and Defeating the Child Victims Act

 

Received from Robert Hoatson

 

“Cardinal Dolan: The Pot Calling the Kettle Black”

 

As I sat and watched the interviews of Cardinal Dolan on Tuesday regarding the Vatican’s report on former Cardinal Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, I couldn’t help but notice Dolan’s abject hypocrisy. The report is replete with episodes of incompetent, negligent, and deceptive behavior on the part of members of the Church hierarchy, mainly Popes, Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops. 

 

Did Cardinal Dolan forget that when he referred to Theodore McCarrick as charming, talented, charismatic, friendly, deceptive, and a liar, he was referring to himself and most, if not all, members of the Church hierarchy?

 

Cardinal Dolan, you have never revealed how much money the New York Catholic Conference spent for at least a decade attempting to defeat the Child Victims’ Act, giving childhood victims of sexual abuse their day in court. All those years, you told the faithful of the Archdiocese of New York that the legislation would seriously hamper the charitable efforts of the Archdiocese. That hasn’t happened and you knew it then. Don’t tell us how much money McCarrick misspent unless, Cardinal Dolan, you give us the facts surrounding your efforts to defeat that legislation and apologize to all victim/survivors.

 

Cardinal Dolan, please tell us why you never removed Msgr. John Paddack for years after reports of sexual abuse of children reached your desk. Paddack remained Pastor of Notre Dame Parish in Manhattan for years after you knew. Don’t criticize Theodore McCarrick without looking in your own mirror. 

 

And, Cardinal Dolan, Fr. Dennis Timone was removed only recently despite an allegation being reported in 2002. You allowed him to go from coast to coast (New York to San Diego) every year where children and young people were at risk of being abused. Don’t criticize Theodore McCarrick unless you are willing to admit your negligence.

 

Finally, and most dramatically, Cardinal Dolan, you have continued to allow Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio to remain as Bishop of Brooklyn despite the fact that two men have come forward to report that Fr. Nicholas DiMarzio sexually abused them as children in two parishes in Jersey City, New Jersey. Aren’t you as deceptive as Theodore McCarrick and Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict?

 

Aren’t all you bishops the same? Isn’t it time for the pots to stop calling the kettles black and admit that the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is corrupt to the core? 

 

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.,

Co-founder and President

Road to Recovery, Inc.

 

Reprinted from: Bishop Accountability News November 16 2020  Vol.1, No. 219`

GROWING UP CATHOLIC: THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

Here is a story of the catholic church educational experience of my friend Dwayne James Mitchell:

"My education started in P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village, New York City. Going to this public school was an enjoyable experience. There were all kinds of activities using art supplies. I always liked to draw pictures of Apartment houses, and later on in life I became an Industrial Arts Teacher. It was a fun place to learn. There was no violence on the playground during lunch recess, and everyone seemed to get along with each other in a harmonious fashion.

       But during the first grade, my parents removed me from that school and put me in Saint Joseph’s Elementary School on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, NYC.

       I noticed immediately was that there were no art supplies, and no friendly atmosphere like there had been in the public school. In the second grade, the religious instruction was handed out hot and heavy: Catechism questions and answers word for word and the concept of Original Sin. First, the nuns painted God as a loving being, but then they informed us that the loving God dumped original sin on us, and because of this we were defective. Since we made our first Holy Communion then, we had to learn about confession, and the concept of telling someone else about our inner most thoughts! Third grade was a positive experience, because I did not have a nun as a teacher, but a lay teacher.  

       The nun who taught the fourth grade got her training from the Nazi SS!  If you asked a question, she got mad. If you were called to the blackboard and said something wrong, she would push your head into the blackboard with force. We went to the public library and it class seemed to be a positive experience in spite of the fourth grade nun. But the next day, the nun asked me. “who was my partner on line walking to and from the library the previous day?” When I identified the other boy, for no reason she grabbed our heads by the hair and banged them together. That night when my mother noticed lumps on my head and I explained what had happened, my parents did nothing.

       I became an altar boy.  We had to learn the Latin,  serve Mass from 5:00 to 7:30AM daily and on Sundays, and attend daily mass at 7:30AM. Then you had to run home, eat and get back to the church for the school’s Mass. It wasn’t easy.

From the 4th grade up we had to attend the Monday afternoon Novenas, and a similar service on Wednesday. If you were an altar boy, you had to return to the church for a similar service in the evening! 

       At Saint Joseph’s there were two schools: mine with 30 students to a class and an academy with 15. The sad part is that my parents could have afforded to send me to the academy!

       While in the 4th grade, I noticed that violence was starting to enter the student body. The nuns were using violence toward the children, so the students used violence among themselves.

       The 5th, 6th and 7th grades were similar to the 4th grade in terms of the behavior of nuns. Children were being slapped around and demeaned, in front of the class. If you had a learning problem, there was no help, and no one cared. The nuns took extreme pleasure destroying the self-esteem of boys. 

       After the 7th grade, we moved to New Jersey, and I attended “another school of indoctrination” for the 8th grade. There was less violence but the nuns’ negative behavior permeated the building.

       When I started 8th grade, I had a substandard  education from the New York City Catholic School, plus I had a learning disability. I did not know “how to study” or “how to organize” my educational life. I made a friend by the name of Richard who had the same educational problems, so we struggled together. We took the test to enter the parish high school and both received “letters of acceptance.” While we were happy but surprised because we both knew that we had a difficult time dealing with “timed tests.” 

We found out that we were only accepted because we were in the parish, and that we should tell our parents that we wanted to go to the local public school. As we walked home that day, Richard stopped me and said, “how can I tell my parents that I cannot go to the Catholic High School?” ----- I responded, ---- “We have the letter of acceptance, and if we say nothing to our parents then the school has to accept us!” That is what we did!  

We managed to graduate from that “poor excuse of a High School,” and get accepted to college, but sad to say, Richard never made the transition to the adult world. Both he and his wife drank themselves to death! He was a gentle soul, and he was an outstanding free hand artist. The Catholic Education destroyed him!

       When I told the nun in my junior year of high school “I am going to college!” --- She responded, “What Catholic College or University would every accept you?” ---- I responded, “I do not want to go to a Catholic College or University!” ---- She countered with, “where do you want to go?” --- I said, ---- “A state school!” ---- She commented, “If you go to a state school, you will lose your faith!” ---- At that point in time, I knew that I had her in my gun sights just like a fighter pilot in WW2, and I went in for the kill.  ---- I responded, ---- “before you can lose something sister, you have to have it in the first place!”  --- The year was 1959. In 1967 I met the same nun walking down the street. She asked me, --- “what are you doing with your life young man?” ---- I responded, ---”I am graduating college tonight sister.” ---- She countered with, “what college took you? ---- I countered with, “a state school!” ----- Yes, there is a God, but it is not a Catholic God! ---- Today I have two MA’s,  and Diplomas from schools of technology courtesy of my own efforts, not the efforts of the Catholic Schools and the nuns.

       My abuse by the Catholic Church followed me into my adulthood. When I met the woman of my dreams and we decided to get married, we had to attend the PreCana conferences in order to get “permission to get married in the Catholic Church.” When we attended these meetings, I noticed that there were only two types of couples that were paraded in front of the group. Couples who were expecting a child, and couples who already have children. There were no couples without children. This demonstrates their long term agenda. They want more loyal cool aid drinking followers to continue to finance the corrupt evil organization. 

We were told that we could not have the traditional wedding march! All my life I wanted that to be played at my wedding, and now we could not have the traditional wedding march. NOTE: One year later, in the same church, with the same music director, the traditional wedding march was played, because the groom was part of the “good old boy Catholic Network.”

So in my life, I was physically and psychologically abused by the nuns, deprived of the sponsor that I wanted for my Confirmation, and also deprived of the traditional wedding march. The frosting on the cake occurred on the rehearsal night before the wedding. After the rehearsal was over, the pastor called me into his office, and he hands me a letter to sign. While handing me the letter, he said that if I did not sign it, he would not perform the wedding the next day! The letter dealt with the use of contraception in my marriage. The subject was never brought up prior to that night! That is pure and simple blackmail. Since I did not care, I signed his letter. I cannot take a chance of having children because of a DNA issue that has shown up in the family!  

       The Catholic Church is NOT a user friendly form of the Christian Religion. If you want a happy successful life, stay far away from these fakes, frauds and phonies! They will destroy you with their smoke and mirrors, while taking all your money so that they can save your soul!      

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CORPORATION / ORGANIZATION!

This article was written by a friend, Dwayne James Mitchell who, like myself and many others was abused by the Catholic church.  Dwayne says, “When I was a young person in NYC, my life was almost destroyed in a Catholic grammar school, staffed by the Sisters of Charity! ---- They were human garbage!”

Dwayne:

       So, you think that the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization, (not the Christian Religion), is a moral, ethical organization that is dedicated to truth, justice and human dignity, and who really cared about the welfare of the faithful and their children since the late 40’s in their Catholic Schools, Institutions and Churches. -- This written piece is NOT about the Christian Religion, but it is about the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization, and the criminal activities that were allowed to go on unchecked by management for years!

       It seems like every week we pick-up a newspaper, turn on the TV, and / or read a news article on the computer about Catholic Child Abuse. --- We are constantly coming “face to face” with a news article dealing with Catholic Priests abusing boys in Catholic Schools, Churches, and Catholic run institutions.

QUESTION: ---- When will it end?

ANSWER: ---- Never, ---- because it is built into the DNA of the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization, and their corrupt clergy, (not the Christian Religion).

       The next scandal that is going to hit the media about the Catholic Clergy is the abuse of children by nuns in Catholic Schools, and Catholic run institutions where children lived. This is going to open up another fire storm of activity. There are thousands of children who were abused by nuns in Catholic Schools and Catholic run institutions just waiting to come forward.

       I believe that the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization is a totally corrupt criminal organization that should be investigated by the FBI, and if found guilty of crimes against humanity, (children), their tax exempt status should be removed from its income and holdings. They cannot be considered a Church if they have committed crimes against children, and covered up those crimes. By their actions, they have defined the organization as a fraud! If it is a fraud, it cannot enjoy the perks of a Church!

       The “high ranking members,” who were in power when the crimes were committed, or who allowed the crimes to continue, or who covered up the crimes after the fact, should be arrested, tried in a court of law, and if found guilty in a court of law, they should be sent to prison!

       The Catholic Church Leadership has deliberately tried to avoid getting law enforcement involved in crimes against children by their clergy. This has hindered justice for the individuals which is a crime in and of itself, and it has delayed compensation for the victims.

       The Catholic Church has a dark history, and has been known to intimidate the victims of their crimes. Their clergy likes to threaten people with excommunication if the people speak to the police about child abuse. They claim that the church should be allowed to handle the problem internally. Well, we all know that the problem was never handled in a professional manner, which not only makes the Catholic Clergy criminals, but also liars. This is a good combination for a corrupt organization. The clergy does not want the police involved, so that they can continue to have sex with children. Just look at Pennsylvania. Three hundred criminal priests molested 1,000 boys. I would think that being excommunicated from a criminal organization would be a “badge of honor” for any Christian in good standing. It would demonstrate that the person being excommunicated had ethics and morals and he / she stood up for morals, justice, and ethics.

       The “history of the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization is sprinkled with murder, intimidation, lies, double talk, illogical logic, and the silencing of free speech. In addition, they helped the Nazis get out of Europe after WW2 to avoid prosecution for war crimes. The word corruption does not fully describe the corporation!

The Catholic Church Corporation / Organization does not like to talk about these events. To me, their actions are the hallmark of an organized criminal organization just like the mafia in the United States. They are “slick used car salespeople” selling a distorted form of the “Christian religion!”

       For the above listed reasons, I believe that the end of the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization is near. The people are starting to see through the veil of smoke and mirrors. Their true colors are showing through. The high-ranking church officials should be arrested throughout the world, and charges filed against them for “obstruction of justice!” All over the world the Catholic Priests and Nuns have abused children.

       Three hundred, (300), Pennsylvania Catholic Priests sexually abused over 1,000 boys. Senior church officials knowingly reshuffled the offenders from parish to parish, allowing them to continue their abuse of children unchecked because the management of the church DID NOT CARE, and it was the “good old boy’s network!” The corporation is being managed by disgusting / criminal individuals.

       The Vatican’s response to this scandal has been inconsistent because they DO NOT CARE about the faithful and the children. They believe that the faithful are there to be used and abused. The church hierarchy has systematically defended and protected the criminal offending priests. They choose to treat these crimes as sins that simply demanded repentance and forgiveness, rather than crimes that required criminal prosecution in the courts.

       Here is the reality of the corruption of the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization. While most of the priests, who were guilty of crimes against children, were simply sent off to other parishes, -- or -- to a life of prayer and contemplation, it appears that most were NEVER excommunicated from the church, or even forced to leave the priesthood. ---- The big question is “WHY?”

       The United States Catholic Church spent more than ten million dollars on lobbyists over seven years to delay “statute of limitations reforms” from going into effect in eight states.

       Pennsylvania.

       New York.

       Connecticut.

       New Jersey.

       New Hampshire.

       Massachusetts.

       Maine.

       Rhode Island.

       I think that it is incredibly troubling that the faithful who on Saturday or Sunday contributed to the Church collections may have been inadvertently funding lobbying efforts against victims of sex abuse, who are seeking legal redress. The priests already used the children, now the church is using the faithful’s money to cover the crime.

       The issue does not stop with the use of church money to hide the criminals and the crime. Now the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization is allegedly telling newly ordained Bishops that they have NO OBLIGATION to report child sexual abuse allegations to law enforcement officials, saying instead that the decision to take such claims to the authorities should be left to the victims and their families. What they are really saying is that this delay would give the church the opportunity to harass, intimidate and bully both the victim and the families if paying hush money does not work!

       I no longer trust the Catholic Church Corporation / Organization. I no longer trust the Catholic Clergy to do the right things for the parishioners of a parish. The whole organization is corrupt.

   A REASON TO BOYCOTT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!

       Throughout the world, Catholic Bishops have engaged in a systematic, organized effort, going back decades to cover up for both priests and nuns who molested children in Catholic Schools, Catholic Churches, and Catholic Run Institutions. When they were discovered, they pressured the victims to accept “hush money” in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement. Then the corrupt organization quietly assigned the criminal predator to a new parish, where he / she could go on to molest and destroy the lives of more human beings. Tens of thousands of children have been raped and tortured as a result of this conspiracy of silence. The time has come for the faithful to cut the funds from the Catholic Church, and force them to become accountable for their crimes against humanity! These criminals need to be put into prison for their crimes, and the Church needs to pay compensation to the victims and their families for the stress suffered at the hands of these devils! These are not the actions of a religion that is based on love, respect, morals and ethics, but rather, it is a “criminal organization” based on greed, manipulation, lies, and sexual pleasure! ---- It is time to let the “Religious Titanic” sink below the waves because it is a damaged organization, that cannot recover the respect of the faithful! It is finished! Just let it die!

Epstein et al: we are coming for you: Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Unite

Jeffrey Epstein is part of a worldwide criminal child trafficking and pedophile cartel. 

We need to find and investigate all of his friends.  Birds of a feather abuse together.  

On my Twitter site (@GeorgeBarilla) many survivors of child rape, trafficking and other abuse -- along with the advocates who help us -- all speak out.   

The radar is turned up.  We are at DEFCON 1 against all the child rapists, traffickers and their enablers all over the world.  We are everywhere all the time.

My Twitter CSA survivor friend, Harrison @Harrison7R has great ideas to help us all fight the global evil of child sexual abuse.  Here are examples:      

Also from Harrison:

@GeorgeBarilla it's time to start #OperationArgus. (Argus =100 eyed watchman Hera turned into the eyes on a peacock's tail in Greek myth)
 1️⃣ Eyes everywhere
 2️⃣ Eternal 24/7 vigilance
 3️⃣ Sounding alarm, like peacocks sound alarm at any threat
4️⃣ Know Predators"peacock" & feign innocence

Beware.  We don’t quit.

Tsunami of survivors' testimony will drown child abusers

We Are Coming

My Twitter friend Harrison (@Harrison7R) is a survivor of clergy abuse who was silenced and bullied by Chichester Diocese, Church of England. He is a very creative person. 

It is an original poem, in his own words.  He also did the artwork using a phone app to design it.

Harrison says, “I wanted to express something about the fury and determination to stop abusers, the feeling of hurt/being silenced, the total revulsion of what they do to us, that makes us survivors... And a future where they are stopped.”

We talked about the abusers and why many of them get off without some real jail time. I said that the courts are way too lenient and this sets an example so other paedophiles keep up the abuse.  We all know that these abusers can never be cured.

Harrison says about the abusers: “They gave no solution, no option but to stand against them, seek the answers, join the dots, deny their lies - wrest out of the ashes and horror some hope, and hold on to all that is good”

So that is what we do on Twitter and on this blog:  we will hold on to the good and share our stories so that more people will know how prevalent the evil is. Shining the light on them in every dark hole in which they hide will make it so they cease to exist - and we are part of that.

Harrison said, “There is only one response to threats which prey on kids that makes any evolutionary and survival sense: eradicate it. Utterly. If it can't be cured, or rendered harmless, kill it. Children are not sex toys or objects for adults’ lust. It is not normal nor procreation.”

Join us on Twitter or on this Blog and help us save the children.

Christian Brothers: Not Christian and not brothers

Dave Sharp 

I talk to Dave Sharp on my Twitter site @georgebarilla.  Like me, he suffered at the hands of catholic clergy. These “brothers” are not anyone’s brother and if being Christian means doing good in the name of God then they are far from being Christian.

Dave, after 40 years of fighting his abusers received a settlement decades after he was repeatedly raped and beaten at St Ninian’s residential school in Fife.  He is the first person in Scotland to win a payout from the Catholic order, who ran residential schools for children across the world.

Because of his successful fight, it is likely that hundreds of other Scottish victims will be able to win compensation for historical abuse at various organizations.

Dave, said: “I hope my payment is the first of many the Christian Brothers are forced to make to those men whose lives have been wrecked because of the treatment they received as children in Scotland’s residential homes and schools.

Dave says, “If I can win, then so can they. They must come forward and tell their stories. There is help and support out there for all survivors, men and women, regardless of the institutions they were abused in. They will be believed and helped.

Dave’s tormentor, former headteacher Brother Gerry Ryan, has since died. Dave tells how he was tied up, abused and hung by the neck in a freezing basement shower room repeatedly between the ages of 10 and 16.   Abuse like this and worse is a pattern with all catholic residential homes. I was abused in the shower and my breathing was cut off –in my case with a pillow instead of a rope at St. Agnes in Sparkill, New York.  Child abuse by the catholic church is the same in every country in the world.

Dave told me recently:

“I’m finally giving my testimony at the Scottish child abuse public inquiry next Friday 7th.. I will be talking about how I and many other boys were taken out of the homes and taken to houses around Scotland where we would be put in coffins for long periods of time and also trafficked over to Ireland to be put into Satanic parties to be raped by up to 10 men at a time.

What I want to talk about after to the press is the need for a national discussion on Historical child abuse in Scotland and the name of discussion would be HOW SAFE ARE OUR CHILDREN. Let me throw this at you. Statistically over the last 50 years between 60/75% of homeless people and people on addiction in Scotland were abused in childhood or suffered childhood trauma. Most of these people take their abuse to the grave. These stats have never changed because no one in authority will do anything about it. The scary thing is that the only stat that has changed is that the average age of deaths is getting younger and younger. 

We need to have a discussion and ask the questions like: Has anything really changed since I was kicked out onto the streets over 40 years ago? I am not saying that nobody is doing anything but we have to ask. Why are so many kids falling through the system and what more can we do for our care leavers?”

Let’s hope that Dave and others like him keep talking about the abuse so that all the abusers are brought to justice. There are many of us survivors talking on
Twitter, come and join us. 

Child Abuse Victims caught between two New York Senate Bills

Advocates for Child Victims Act

Child sexual abuse must be stopped, and the abusers punished. No one disagrees with that statement.  Right now, many victims cannot get justice because of the statute of limitations – a time limit on when a lawsuit can be brought against the abusers. We need a law to get rid of the statute of limitations in New York.  According to constitutional scholar and Cardozo Law School Professor Marci Hamilton, New York is one of the worst states in the nation for child sexual abuse statutes of limitation.

But what is the best way to do this? There are two bills up for approval in New York State -- but only one will become law. Why should we be concerned about which child abuse bill becomes a law?  Advocates for abused children have been trying for many years to get the Child Victims Act (CVA) to be law. Sponsored by democrats, the CVA has never passed the republican senate in New York.  Recently, a new bill was introduced by a republican senator and has met with quick approval by other republicans. Is this because the true sponsors are overjoyed with a bill that lets all the offending institutions evade their responsibility as abusers? 

Will one of these bills be more helpful to child abuse victims than the other? The rules proposed for each bill need to be looked at closely.

The Child Victims Act (CVA) is New York Senate Bill S809, sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman (D). This bill does away with statutes of limitations for prosecuting child sexual abuse crimes and for filing civil lawsuits for damages against individuals, public institutions, and private institutions. Importantly, it also creates a one-year period during which victims who were abused and missed the statute of limitations reporting time period can seek the justice they have been denied.  This is easy to understand: no statutes of limitations and a window for those who missed out on getting justice.

The other bill is more complicated, will have financial consequences for New York taxpayers, and will allow some of the abusers to avoid any responsibility for their horrendous actions.

New York Senate Bill S8736  sponsored by Senator Catharine Young (R) sets up a fund that will be used to compensate victims that file an application and who meet requirements determined by officers chosen by lawmakers.

Some facts from Young’s bill:

The bill states that due to the amount of time that may have passed since the abuse took place, the claim can’t be pursued as a regular lawsuit.  Who is deciding this? Such a decision should be based on the individual case and discussion is between the victim and his/her lawyer.

Young’s Bill may help some people in cases where their sexual abuser has no money, can’t be found, or is dead. Many others will not be helped such as those whose abuse happened a long time ago and where the perpetrator was from an institution like the Catholic church. Institutions can be sued even if the perpetrator is dead.  Marci Hamilton said on Twitter: “Sen Young's bill is actually a New Joke for child victims  It should be called the Institutional Subsidy Act  Lets all institutions off the hook  Loved by Dolan and insurance companies.”

Young’s Bill would allow people who were abused to be represented by a lawyer. But the requirements of the bill decrease the chance that a lawyer would really be interested in the case.  The lawyer would have to conform to the rules of Young’s bill. 

Because institutions like the Catholic church, Boy Scouts, yeshivas, and insurance companies would not be financially responsible, compensation would be limited to what the rules allowed. It’s a fact that lawyers want to get paid for their services and with this bill, with its fixed compensation, they will not want to take these cases. Then the victim will be dependent only on NY State rules.

The CVA would open a one-year window for people who missed the statute of limitations, but each person would have an interested lawyer and a better chance of success.   

In Young’s Bill the claims cannot include punitive damages. Punitive damage awards are meant not to compensate the victim but to punish the offending party for reckless or shocking conduct*. Courts have held that punitive damages can be awarded only where the conduct to be punished approaches criminality.  

*This bill will not help me.  After being raped by a Catholic priest along with my brother, I was tortured for months by Dominican nuns. I was smothered with a pillow by a nun with intent to kill me.  I was in a coma for many months and left with brain damage that affects my speech, vision and hearing. My brother killed himself because he couldn’t accept what they did to both of us.  I personally know of others who were abused in New York and who were crippled or died. The perpetrators need to be forced to stop abusing and murdering children and hitting them in their pockets is an effective way to do it.

The process of choosing the decision makers and what the victim has to go through is unacceptable. It is open to prejudiced interpretations by those who make the decisions – the victim would have to “go through the mill” and be re-victimized.  The victims, if they want a lawyer will most likely have to pay the lawyer’s retainer fees unless they qualify for free help.  Will the victims have to go through a financial evaluation, another stress on already abused person?

The chief administrator of the plan is selected by the NY state comptroller along with leaders of the senate and assembly.  So, this means that lobbyists and others with their own agendas can influence the “leaders” and the comptroller.  We will then get a chief administrator who is under the influence of those who chose him/her.  Then, like a domino effect, the people chosen down the line are also suspect.

The chief administrator then appoints the Hearing Officers who will decide the merits of each victim’s request. 

The chief administrator is authorized to accept contributions by individuals, businesses, or “other entities” to add to the $300 million compensation fund. The fund money comes from the more than $700 million in asset forfeiture funds controlled by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s office.  These forfeiture funds come from money taken from terrorist activities, drug related crimes, and other criminal and civil offenses. Again, here is the opportunity for special interest influence on the outcomes of victims’ requests.  Who are these “other entities”?  Do they include for example the Catholic Archdiocese of NY, other religious denominations, schools and universities?  So the abusers can control the money.  Do you trust them?

Senator Hoylman questions whether it is legal to take funds from Vance's office. Even if it is legal, it is taking money from worthy criminal justice programs like the purchase of rape test kits and cameras for public housing at the expense of protecting "child sexual abusers and institutions who harbor them."  So more people are abused by the mis-use of the money. It is not clear whether any of the processes and the use of money allocated for other things will put some type of tax burden on New York residents.

When the victim files a claim he/she must say why they are eligible for compensation and how much money they want.  These are people with complex histories and multiple disorders – even difficult for teams of experts to understand. Some of them, like my husband have complex post-traumatic stress disorder, others have psychological damage or physical disabilities.  Will the Hearing Officers have the qualifications to really understand whether a victim is eligible? Will they have to hire “experts” – also of their choosing and spend more taxpayers’ money. 

Will the amount of money in the fund be enough?  Will these Hearing Officers or their superiors change limits on the amount of compensation if the money runs out?  Even with the 5% allotted to the fund yearly and possible contributions the administrators of the fund will necessarily be frugal with the amount. Will they award victims what they deserve?

Members of the clergy will have to report to the district attorney any information they have that a child was abused by a clergy member within 20 years prior to the bill becoming law. My husband was abused 70 years ago. Or they must report if they know that a clergy member who is still active in the institution has abused a child.  My husband’s abusers are all dead, but the Church is still in business. The clergy member does not have to provide this information if came from confidential communications (like confession) or was under privileged law or if the abuser is dead. It seems that the clergy member would not have much to say – the designers of the rules appear to want it that way.

I know that all the abusers and especially the institutions would like to see the victims die off before they get justice or fair compensation.  Everyone – voters, lawmakers, child abuse advocates, victims and their families should work together to ensure that the best Bill – the one that will help the most victims gets passed this time. We are hoping it is the Child Victims Act.