National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC)

NATIONAL SURVIVOR ADVOCATES COALITION NEWS

 September 8, 2009                                                 Vol. 1, No 132
 

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Op-Ed

 This section of  NSAC News is designed to permit Survivor Advocates to express their opinions and ideas relevant to the subject matter of this newsletter.  Your participation is  invited and encouraged. Letters to the Editor addressing a particular article should be sent to the Editor of  the publication in which the article originally appeared.

Dear Bishop Martino:

Press reports regarding your departure suggest that there is more to your resignation as Bishop of Scranton than “insomnia and fatigue.”

Perhaps now freed from your episcopal duties, you will have more time to pursue your first love:  secular politics. Of course, as we all know, bishops and popes are only the most successful practitioners of the medieval, feudal brand of clerical politics.  But, that’s “inside baseball” for us Catholics.

I never object when a bishop speaks out vigorously to teach, inform and preserve Catholic morality — after all, as Americans we should exercise our right to free speech.  However, when like yourself, bishops and priests consistently engage in partisan politics I believe the antidote is for the church to loose its tax-exemption and start paying like the rest of us.

Besides, we Catholics know that most of the time when some bishop rails about the evils of abortion and attempts to vilify desperate women and Catholic politicians, we understand that he is mostly trying to cover-up the corrupt leadership of the hierarchy.  Especially their moral vacuity and complicity in the sexual abuse of our children by their “brother priests.”

I do hope that you will find peace in your early retirement.

Sincerely,

James Jenkins
Berkeley, CA

James Jenkins is a psychologist in private practice and a member of Newman Hall community at the University of California, Berkeley.

National Survivor Advocates Coalition News  

 September 1, 2009                                           Vol. 1, No 128

Op-Ed

This section of NSAC News is designed to permit Survivor Advocates to express their opinions and ideas relevant to the subject matter of this newsletter. Your participation is invited and encouraged. Letters to the Editor addressing a particular article should be sent to the Editor of the publication. in which the article originally appeared 

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ABUSE BY RELIGIOUS WOMEN-OUT OF THE DARKNESS
AND INTO THE LIGHT OF JUSTICE

            It is not uncommon for middle-aged Catholics to get together and share war-stories about their experiences in Catholic schools.  Many recall the physical punishments meted out by the seemingly always-angry nuns with a mixture of emotions.  Some can laugh at it and others remain turned off by what we now realistically label as abuse.
 
            The most sinister and harmful abuse by the nuns has not been bantered about by the alumni of Catholic schools.  For the most part it has remained deeply buried beneath a thick cover of shame, fear, disgust and even guilt.  The mainstream lay people and society in general remained unaware of this deeper and more disgusting level of abuse until very recently when courageous survivors have broken through the walls of fear and revealed not only sadistic physical abuse that went far beyond the boundaries of discipline, but debilitating sexual abuse.
 
            Although sexual abuse by priests and brothers is accepted as a harsh reality except by the few who remain blinded by denial, exposure of sexual abuse by nuns is another story.  Mention of it causes many to recoil in disbelief at something they seem incapable of emotionally and mentally processing.  In spite of the denial that may be rooted in unrealistic or romantic stereotypes of “the good sisters,” sexual abuse and harsh physical abuse have been a reality.  The survivors of abuse by religious women have been struggling for years to be heard and believed.  Now, with the publication of the Ryan Report in Ireland, the range of sexual and physical abuse has achieved a significant level of credibility.  Survivors in our own country are being listened to more attentively.  The pain and anguish is just as acute as that inflicted by perverted priests and uncaring bishops.  The spiritual and emotional trauma is not only as severe but made worse by a thicker blanket of denial and a greater tendency to try to exonerate the “good sisters.”
 
            It matters not how much good religious women have done in our country or world-wide.  That has nothing to do with the reality of abuse that was often systemic and certainly not exceptional in Catholic schools and Catholic orphanages.
 
            My first encounter was in 1994.  I was asked to assist an attorney who represented a number of adult survivors of sexual and physical abuse by the Sisters of Providence at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Vermont.  An especially brave survivor, Joey Barquin, brought the sordid stories to the light in 1993.  Through my experience with that case I was jolted into the harsh reality of the incredible degree of sexual and physical abuse inflicted on those innocent and vulnerable children who were literally imprisoned in the orphanage.  Over the years I have met and worked with a number of other men and women whose abusive experiences came at the hands of terribly disturbed religious women.  Again, it does not matter if the abuse was an exception or the rule.  There is no excuse and there is no justification for ignoring those coming forward today.
 
            My most recent in-depth experience has been with the victims from St. Thomas/St. Vincent Orphanage in Anchorage Kentucky.  The tormenters were members of a religious order with the ironic name Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.  Attorney Bill McMurry of Louisville had the courage to take on the Order and the archdiocese to finally bring some measure of justice to the victims.  Read The Unbreakable Child by survivor Kim Michele Richardson.  It will fill you with disgust and anger towards the nuns and amazement at the strength and courage of the writer.
 
            We all know how individual bishops and the national Bishops’ Conference have treated victims of clergy.  It may be stunning to some to learn that the authority figures (I won’t call them leaders) among the nuns, especially those in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious – the LCWR – the nuns’ equivalent of the Bishops’ Conference, have been just as arrogant and insensitive toward the victims who have approached them.  They have stone-walled any attempts at seeking justice by victims.  They have treated them with disdain and coldness.  The sisters in general may garner plenty of praise for work in bringing social justice to the poor, but the “poor” in their own household are surely not the recipients of any such unselfish concern.
 
            The religious women in the U.S. are getting a lot of support and sympathy as a result of the upcoming investigation by the Vatican. The sisters are justifiably complaining that the imperialistic Vatican cabal has acted with arrogance rooted in clericalism, yet they must look at themselves and ask if they have not displayed to the victims of abuse by their own with the same arrogance as the bishops they criticize.  The LCWR needs to clean up its own act and acknowledge the disruptive elephant in their own convent parlor before they can justifiably tell others how to act with justice.
 
            The most moving experience I have had in relation to abuse by religious women was a few years ago when I was speaking in Boston.  After the talk, which by the way took place in one of the vigil Churches, an elderly lady approached me and took my hands.  She looked into my eyes and said in her soft Irish brogue, “I was one of the Magdalenes.  All I want Father, is to know what my real name is.”  I left that encounter in shock and in tears.  It is one thing to hear or read about the unconscionable abuses perpetrated by clerics or religious women.  It is quite another to meet it face to face. 
 
            This gentle victim of the Magdalene nightmare is one of countless people who bear these terrible scars.  If we really are a “People of God” we will bury our denial, banish our unrealistic deference to clerics and religious, and join in the quest for true justice and honest compassion.
 
  Read the rest of this entry »

PUBLIC APOLOGIES FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?
Sister Maureen Turlish

In the U.S. publication, the National Catholic Reporter, Dominican priest, the Rev. Thomas Doyle has this to say in the article,  ”Irish abuse report demands decisive action,” (05/21/09):
“The report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse is not unique though it may well be the most shocking example of the reality of such a culture of evil. In the past two decades over two dozen reports have described physical and sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults by Catholic clergy and religious.” (1)

Church authorities and individual religious communities of men and women are tripping over each other saying how sorry they are that this tragedy happened. A lot more than public apologies from cardinals, bishops, religious superiors and government officials are necessary here.

The government of Ireland made a deal with the Devil in agreeing not to prosecute or name any of the individuals, living or dead, who were party to the widespread torture and abuse of children as has been reported in the recently released Ryan Report.

The Holy See itself along with the bishops and superiors of every religious order implicated in this tragedy like the Christian Brothers, the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity and the individual perpetrators, living or dead, who were ever convicted, credibly accused or known by church authorites to have raped, sodomized, tortured and abused the children in their care should be brought before the world court.

The two nuns who brokered the arrangement with the Irish government to limit the institutional Roman Catholic Church’s accountability and transparency should be ashamed of themselves, I know I am.

They are Sisters Elizabeth Maxwell who was then the secretary general of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) and currently heads the northern province of the Presentation Sisters, and Helena O’Donoghue the leader of the Sisters of Mercy, south central province.  Sadly, they personify the worst of the church’s clericalism and patriarchial system, just in the female variation.

These are nothing less than crimes against humanity and  they should be prosecuted as such.

The Holy See is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child even though it has never submitted one of the required compliance reports and I suspect that Ireland is a signatory to that document as well.

Every single God given right has been denied these children and they are deserving of some justice. They should get it from the world court and the sooner the better.

Only now are we finding out that the communities involved have met with governmental officials and the Conference of Religious  and have said they “will not reopen discussions on the child abuse compensation deal agreed with the Government,” while government officials are set to destroy all the evidence and testimony on which the Ryan Report was based. (2)

Recent comments by the new Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, have been less than helpful.  “Courage” is not a word that comes immediately to mind when thinking of the Irish religious communities who were party to this debacle and Nichols was unwise to use it.

Neither Ireland’s Cardinal Sean Brady or Archbishop Diamuid Martin seem to be able to exert any control over the 18 religious communities involved so it falls to the Holy See and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life to step in.
It is unbelievable that the government of Ireland cannot find the authority to void the damming agreement that was made with these religious communities in 2002.

That these communities in a statement released by the the Conference of the Religious in Ireland (Cori) refuse to revisit this agreement while professing concern for the victims involved is disingenuous as well as insulting to those of us who are members of religious communites around the world. (3)

I suggest that Ireland’s Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diamuid Martin meet with Pope Benedict XVI as soon as possible and impress upon him the necessity of action.

As Tom Doyle puts it, “there is something radically wrong with the institutional Catholic Church. This is painfully obvious because it allows systemic abuse and radical dishonesty to coexist with its self-proclaimed identity as the Kingdom of God on earth.”

Anything less would amount to a sin against the Holy Spirit.      /mpt

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(1) http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/irish-abuse-report-demands-decisive-action
(2) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0525/breaking14.html?via=mr
(3) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0525/breaking64.htm

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Sister Maureen Turlish is a member of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition. In addition, she is a Delaware educator and victims’ advocate who testified before the Delaware Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of Delaware’s 2007 Child Victims Law.She can be reached at: maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

Special to NSAC
Thu, 21 May 2009 12:30:55 -0700

REPORT BY IRELAND’S COMMISSION TO INQUIRE INTO CHILD ABUSE

I am thoroughly saddened, disgusted and angered at yet another sweeping indictment of individuals and church authorities including the leadership of both male and female religious communities.

In 2004 it was the “report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

Today it is the commission set up by the Irish government and headed by High Court Justice Sean Ryan that has released the 2,600-page report, which capped a nine-year investigation.

It reinforces the conclusions many have come to in the United States especially since 2002; that the problems of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church have been both systemic and endemic over decades and generations in countries around the world.

It is not an American problem as some cardinals and highly placed Vatican officials argued a few years back. Neither is it caused by the presence of homosexually orientated men in the priesthood.

It is not a conspiracy by the newspapers in the United States or by anybody to bankrupt the institutional church.

It is not the “Know Nothings” of an earlier era in the United States.

It comes from within the institution not from the outside. The institution, the Roman Catholic Church as we know it, has done it to itself.

Clericalism is the all encompassing problem in the church today, that widespread abuse of authority, that lack of accountability and transparency which the United States bishops promised in 2002 but which they have been short on delivering since and should have been practicing all along the line anyway.

The all encompassing mantra that allowed, permitted and enabled this horror to happen, was and is the widespread abuse of power and authority in the Roman Catholic Church starting at the highest levels. It can be see in the reports and documents coming out of the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts in 2002, in dioceses in California like the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and in investigations and reports like the Grand Jury Report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2005.

This is why in Delaware we removed all statutes of limitation regarding the sexual abuse of children with the signing of the 2007 Child Victims Law which includes a two year civil window for bringing forward previously time barred cases of sexual abuse by anyone, if it happened in Delaware.

New Yorkers of all religious stripes and none are well advised to support the Markey/Duane bill on the sexual abuse of children. It is unconscionable for the Archdiocese of New York and the New York Catholic Conference to be opposing accountability and transparency in regard to childhood sexual abuse.

The Irish Report was done by governmental authorities unlike the 2004 report in the United States which was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and for that reason it’s figures especially should be considered suspect.

It is unconscionable that the Irish government actually made a deal with the institutional church to allow no prosecutions for these heinous crimes against humanity. It is equally despicable that the religious order known as the Christian Brothers brought suit and barred the release of any names of any of these known sexually predatory priests to the public.

It is immaterial whether they are living or dead. If the Christian Brothers religious community knew them to be credibly accused, if they had records in church files of these individuals molesting others over the years they should have made these names public for the physical, spiritual and psychological well being of those who were abused, raped, sodomized, etc.

How could they not think of the children before all else?

How could the institutional Roman Catholic Church think of the children before all else?

Sodom and Gomorrah suggest anything?

These crimes against children are in direct violation of and in contradiction to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child to which the Holy See was an original signatory, notwithstanding the fact that no periodic compliance reports have ever been submitted by the Holy See.

Might this suggest a course of action?

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victms’ Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
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Sister Maureen Turlish is a member of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition. In addition, she is a Delaware educator and victims’ advocate who testified before the Delaware Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of Delaware’s 2007 Child Victims Law.

E-mail Sister Maureen Paul Turlish at
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

Widespread Sexual Abuse in Ireland

Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.   (862-368-2800)

The report of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, schools, and parishes in Ireland, released today, is both shocking and expected. I am a Catholic priest who spent nearly 25 years as an Irish Christian Brother, the same religious order that is slammed by the Irish Government Commission that investigated sexual abuse of children for nine years.

I was sexually groomed and abused from the day I entered the Irish Christian Brothers at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, and I also was a witness to the mishandling of numerous abusers in the Irish Christian Brothers. Five different Christian Brothers abused me while I was a young adult, and another Christian Brother sexually assaulted my first cousin, James Craig Hoatson, who committed suicide on October 10, 1978.

The Irish Christian Brothers, also know as the ICBs, have been correctly referred to by many former students and residents of their institutions as the “International Child Beaters.” For years, every brother was given a large leather strap as an “initiation” into teaching young boys or working in orphanages. The more violent and abusive a brother was, the more he was esteemed.

I presently have a lawsuit pending in State Supreme Court of New York against the Irish Christian Brothers, and I am available for interviews about my own abuse and the institutional cover-up and protection of dangerous predators by the Christian Brothers.

(Fr. Hoatson was ordained a priest in 1997 after having spent nearly 25 years as a member of the Irish Christian Brothers. He has found the same level of sexual dysfunction and abuse in the priesthood, especially among bishops and high-ranking clerics).

Robert Hoatson is a member of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition.

Contact: Kristine Ward 937-272-0308

For Immediate Release

May 3, 2009

National Survivor Advocates Coalition to Bishop Wenski: Sexual Abuse is a Life Issue

Bishop’s Mass of Reparation Should Acknowledge Clergy Sexual Abuse

In the Name of the Gospel of Life Publish the Names, Photos of Credibly Accused Priests in Orlando Diocese

Orlando, Florida – The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) urges Diocese of Orlando Bishop Thomas Wenski to acknowledge that clergy sexual abuse is a life issue for which the Church should seek reparation. Bishop Wenski should include the graveness of clergy sexual abuse in the Mass of Reparation scheduled for 6 PM Sunday in the Cathedral of St. James in Orlando.

The coalition said in taking this step Bishop Wenski could advance the cure for the laryngitis in the Church’s moral voice.

Bishop Wenski is asking Orlando Catholics to “come and pray” with him for “all of our transgressions against the Gospel of Life.”

Bishop Wenski’s announcement of the Mass and his recent column The University of Notre Dame and President Obama seem to indicate that this Mass of Reparation is solely for reparation for abortion.

In its urgent call to Bishop Wenski, NSAC said “ it is inconceivable to us that when any bishop celebrates a Mass of Reparation based on the Gospel of Life it would exclude those who have suffered what in essence can and has been called soul murder.”

The coalition added, “unlike other survivors of sexual abuse, other crimes and difficult life events, survivors of clergy sexual abuse face immense, if not impossible odds,  in finding the comfort and strength that the Church in its best sense can bring. This is due, in large measure, to having suffered at the hands of persons Catholics have viewed as the “alter Christus”, the other Christ, an exalted position with a distinct and tight tie with Catholicism.”

NSAC also noted that Bishop Wenski’s announcement of the Mass on the diocesan website says” As Catholics we are aware of the many shortcomings and transgressions committed against the dignity and sacredness of human life in our world. “

The coaltion said, “We expect Bishop Wenksi to be true to his word. The dignity and sacredness of human life is assaulted by sexual abuse.”

The coalition further urged Bishop Wenski to release the names of all credibly accused priests in the Diocese of Orlando, publishing their names, photographs, and parish assignments on the diocesan website.

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSACoalition) works to assist and protect the vulnerable in our communities. NSACoalition further seeks to reveal the truth, promote healing, demonstrate dignity and encourage respect for clergy sexual abuse survivors and their families. We stand in communion with all sexual abuse survivors, their families, those still suffering in silence and those who have died of suicide or been murdered. We stand with those who have, to date, found the courage to speak their truth and stand up for those burdened by the shadows of silence.

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Give the Laetere Medal to Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse

Use the form below to share your views on anything you find on this web site. Please be specific about which article(s) you are commenting on.

For immediate release: April 15, 2009
Contact:
Kristine Ward, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC)-OH (937-272-0308)
Bob Hoatson, NSAC-NJ (862-368-2800)

Press Release

Will It Be Just a Change of Face or An About Face In New York?

Survivor Advocates Call for Reform, Window Legislation for Sexual Abuse Victims in New York

To Do List for New Archbishop: Truth, Disclosure, Action, Compassion

New York, NY – The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSACoalition) knows the Archbishop of New York is no ordinary bishop.

By virtue of the prestige of New York, the heft of the Catholic population, the uniqueness of the City to the United States and the world, this is a diocese where a real difference can be made for the Church.

A new opportunity has presented itself. It must not be squandered. But a new face doesn’t necessarily mean change where it counts.

Timothy M. Dolan can have a major influence in curing the severe case of laryngitis in the Church’s moral voice. If he chooses not to, the sickness of sexual abuse in the Church could turn fatal.

We urge the new Archbishop to choose life for his diocese and the Church by stepping forward to put the clergy sexual abuse scandal front and center on his agenda as a life issue.

We urge the new Archbishop to lead as no other bishop in this United States has led in this crisis:

• with absolute truth
• with complete disclosure
• with overwhelming care for the survivors and the families of those who committed suicide, and the families of those who were murdered.

Specifically, we ask him to:

• release the names and locations of all credibly accused priests and post them on the archdiocesan website and in church bulletins
• back proposed legislation in New York to reform the statute of limitations on sexual abuse and a window to allow survivors for whom the current statute limitation has passed to have their day in court
• allow Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Road to Recovery to advertise in the archdiocesan newspaper
• initiate search and rescue of ALL potential victims and survivors
• collaborate with lay organizations whose expertise has been directed towards providing pastoral care to survivors and victims

We challenge this Archbishop to teach with his actions.

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THEY SAY WE ARE ANGRY
Commentary submitted by Paul Kendrick

On Tuesday evening (04/09/2009), three of us distributed leaflets to attendees of the annual Chrism Mass at the (diocese of Portland) Cathedral in Portland, Maine. We knew that the attendees at this particular Mass were the most obedient, loyal and “devout” Catholics in the diocese because tickets were limited.

Special to NSACoalition
by Carolyn Disco (Survivor Advocate)

March 30, 2009

The survivor abused by Marcel Genereux, OMI and later diocesan priest, reported her abuse to the New Hampshire attorney general’s office in 2005. Her letter and subsequent message to them is in the documents just released by that office at http://www.bishop-accountability.org/NH-Manchester/2009_03_07_Audit_Records/excerpts_new_accused/ (scroll down). We have become good friends over the four years I have known her, spending hours together on the phone and visiting.

Let’s call her Jane (Doe). Jane’s comments reinforced the power Genereux exercised over her and how threatened she felt by him. He insisted that what he was demanding of  her was all right, and controlled her behavior and thoughts as much as he could. Typical of abusers, he created a trauma bond, an obligation not to hurt him because he supposedly cared so much about her. He also had her convinced no one would believe her if she told about the abuse, especially the nuns at Presentation of Mary (not true, as she found out).

Genereux was a good speaker and gave many retreats to young girls; his thoughts on the priesthood are instructive, reinforcing his privileged role in their lives. Here are some of his teachings:

The priest is like, and more than an angel— he has a mission to accomplish, he is a missionary for our souls

Priests exist to lead us to heaven

It is because of girls that many young men are in mortal sin

A boy has violent passions and consequently a girl should not play with his heart

At fatima, the children saw hell-many youth were there because of impurity

Jane tried to avoid him for confession, but was scolded if she did not see him. Once when she had a date, he told Jane he was her spiritual father who helped her, and she did not need anyone else.

Her initial bravado reaction to the sexual abuse scandal was, “big deal, it happened to me too,” coming only gradually to appreciate how damaging the violation was. She had tried to forget it, put it on the shelf, and move on with life. But corrosive secrets do not just go away. Like many, it took until middle age or later to examine the painful experience, prompted by the nightmare that just would not disappear.

Jane sees repercussions of molestation in her difficulty in making decisions, the discounting of her ideas — if anybody tears her apart, she accepts it — and a shattering sense of inferiority. She must be no good, hardly worth anyone’s time and love. The spiritual abuse is critical. God will punish you for anything and everything. Scary dreams still continue, and just seeing a priest with the cross like the one Genereux used to wear across his chest triggers reactions.

Jane had the courage to write her classmates and ask if any were abused. Eventually three others were identified, one of whom had committed suicide. Given Genereux’s prior abuse in Rhode Island, and his subsequent assignments at parishes in Lincoln, Hooksett, Suncook, Berlin, Manchester, and incredibly as chaplain at St. Anne’s Home in Dover and Villa Augustina Academy in Goffstown, the probability of more victims is high. She wants to tell them help is available.

What is particularly offensive to Jane is that after she reported Genereux, the priest who headed the nearby OMI’s at the time wanted to hear her story, but in confession. After relating all that happened, he gave her absolution, and required a full rosary in penance. She was used to a few Hail Mary’s and felt she must really be bad to get a rosary. Then, in a clear distortion of the use of confession, he swore her to secrecy, never to tell anyone what happened. That is the rule under which she lived. That meant no counseling help, much less reporting to law enforcement for criminal prosecution, no telling her parents, all presumably designed to keep the secrets so the church would be protected.

Jane was relieved Genereux was removed promptly from the school, but wonders how he could show up as a diocesan priest about eight months later. Did the OMI’s tell the Diocese about his record or not? Did the Diocese assign Genereux to other children’s facilities as chaplain even if they did know?

Jane is one brave woman. I have the deepest respect for her, and the courage it took to name her perpetrator.

/cd