GOD “WEEPS” AND DANIEL COMBONI “WILL BE HAPPY”

(By Brian Mark Hennessy)

On his visit to the United States recently Pope Francis gave a homily commencing with the words, “God Weeps”. Just a week later on Vatican Radio, Father Tesfaye Tadesse Gebrelselasie, the new Superior General of the Comboni Missionary Order – known widely as the Verona Fathers – gave a broadcast beginning with the words, “Daniel Comboni will be happy”! Clearly the subject matter was not the same, for had it been, Father Tesfaye would have had to admint that Daniel Comboni, looking down upon the Order he founded from on high, is certainly most profoundly unhappy.

Pope Francis was addressing the shameful subject of clerical child abuse that has driven a once blind and arrogant church into retreat over its failure to recognise, address and make amends for the sins of “grevous delicts” – as the Vatican refers to crimes of a sexual nature – committed by clerics of the world’s dioceses and religious orders. Father Tesfaye, on the other hand was celebrating the Comboni call to share the Gospel with the needy, the poor and the impoverished. That is not an unworthy cause, but it was somewhat out of tune with Pope Francis for Father Tesfaye neglected to endeavour to also share the joy of the Gospel with Victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by members of his own Order. It is not as if he was unaware of the abuses for he, the previous Curia of the Order and every bishop and priest of the Order had been constantly reminded of the abuse over a decade or so by the very Victims he was ignoring.

Prior to the recent election of Father Tesfaye to the post of Superior General, his electors had been canvassed by the Victims, sexually abused when they were children by members of his Order, to ensure that a worthy man was elected – one who would at last acknowledge the crimes of abuse and the condonement of that abuse by numerous members of the Comboni Missionary Order’s hierarchy since reports of the abuse were first notified to them in the 1960s. So, before the turn of 2015, the Victims had a glimmer of hope that the Old Guard of the Order – Fathers Glenday, Sanchez, Devinish and their entourage – who were each steeped in the very failures of denial, castigation and slander that Pope Francis was condemning – would be replaced with a more enlightened leadership. Perhaps it is too soon to judge Father Tesfaye, but so far, and I state this a matter of fact by this public record, he has been as silent as his grieviously unworthy predecesors.

Father Tesfaye made another worthy comment in his broadcast and that was that he announced to his brethren that the European nations – in which he included Great Britain by name – were also to be a “fundamental space for anouncing the Gospel”. That was not a surprise to me because I had already noted that the London Province’s Charity Account Mission statement is that the purpose of the Order in the United Kingdom was to spread the message of the Gospels both “at home” and “abroad”. All familiar stuff – but which Gospels are the Comboni Missionary Order referring to? I deduce that they are not the same set of Gospels to which Pope Francis is referring – for he talks of the cherishment of children and repentance of the Catholic Church for the grave sexual sins of clerics of Catholicism against children. He talks of dialogue, compassion, understanding and seeking forgiveness from the Victims of abuse. “There is no place in the Church for clerics who have abused children” he has stridently announced. The Vatican has even accepted that the sexual abuse of children is a form of torture due to its punitive, cruel and degrading nature – as declared by the United Nations Human Rights Commission Against Torture.

It was not a co-incidence either that hitherto, at the very same moment as the Pope was meeting the Victims of clerical sexual abuse in the Domus Sancte Marthae in 2014, that an Archbishop in Rome was addressing a gathering of English speaking Catholic prelates and child abuse specialists. He commenced, “Abuse will remain a wound in the side of the Church until the day in which every single survivor of abuse has achieved the personal healing he or she deserves. What happened should never have happened in the Church of Jesus Christ – because Jesus Himself tells us that children are a sign of the Kingdom of God. This means that our understanding of Faith and of the Kingdom is measured in the manner in which we protect and respect and cherish children, or in which we fail children. … The Church must lovingly embrace Victims, those wounded men and women whose wounds cannot be sanitised from a distance. The Good Samaritan is the one who carries the wounded man in his own arms. …Jesus also said that we must leave the ninety-nine and go out to seek the one who is lost. This refers also to the Church’s attitude towards victims of abuse. The Church must go out of its way to seek and find even more victims and survivors …as the healing of wounds inflicted by the Church will derive only from a new vision of a “healing” Church”.

This is all very much out of tune with the absolute refusal of the hierarchy of the Comboni Missionary Order to have any contact or dialogue whatsoever with the Victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by members of their Order – let alone apologise or make meaningful reparations or show compassion and understanding. Indeed, publicly, members of the Order have stated slanderously that the Victims are “money grabbers” and have maintained by suggestion that there is not a semblance of truth in their claims. Clearly, the hierarchy of the Order just wishes that the Victims will disappear in time and that they can then get back to their old regime of neglect and indifference – and, no doubt, the re-establishment of their self-assuring and self-assumed superiority and self esteem. In that warped version of reality, they must long for the “good old days”! The problem is that the Victims are not going away – and those “good old days” are never coming back. They may dream, but the only pedestal they can ever hope to grace in the future is one of lifeless, cold stone, upon which they can perch high, un-feeling, blind and out of sight in the facade of an ancient Cathedral. They appear unaware that there is a new reality amongst the legal and civil populations of the world who have championed the rights of children and demanded justice for victims – to the shame of the Bishops and Religious leaders of the Orders of the Catholic Church who have been dragged kicking and screaming in a reluctant game of “catch up”! But catch up they will – either in the spirit of Gospel enlightenment, or by the slow realisation that the alternative is increasingly a destiny as a curious anochronism and, ultimately, waning extinction.

So, Father Tesfaye is unequivacally wrong. Daniel Comboni is not happy. The Comboni Missionary Order is at odds not just with the civil populations of the world, but also with their Pope – and with the Gospels of the Evangelists. The Order cannot proclaim the Gospels “selectively”. They either embrace every tenant or they are just like an empty vessel making meaningless noise. Only charlatans preach, but do not practice. The choice of how history records Father Tesfaye’s personal contribution to his Order – either a revival in the enlightenment of the Evangelists or the Order’s further headlong dash to destruction – is in his hands. Father Tesfaye should make no mistake: he is being watched in what he decides and does – not just by Victims now, nor just by the media, nor ultimately also by the British Government in their forthcoming Public Inquiry. He is being watched also by the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the British Isles who have now, through their most senior Cardinal prelate at Westminster, assured Victims in writing of his practical support to the Victims of abuse perpetrated within Father Tesfaye’s Order. The result of this is that the Vatican too will be fully aware in the greatest detail of the allegations of abuse made against members of his Order, allegations of the historical condonement of that abuse by his hierarchy, allegations of attempts to conceal the truth by silence, denial and obfuscation, allegations of hierarchical re-victimisation of and discrimination against Victims – and also the grave allegation that his Order has sytematically protected the very clerics who are alleged to have committed those heinous, sexual abuses against children and minors.

CHILD ABUSE NEWS IN BRIEF FROM RECENT PRESS ARTICLES

Abridged By Brian Hennessy

An interview with Sarah MacDonald, a journalist based in Dublin

Irish clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins has said she hopes 2016 will see results from

the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, despite the

“frustratingly slow” pace of the reforms being developed by it. Collins, a member of the

Pontifical Commission, admitted that she has found Vatican bureaucracy “very difficult.”

She warned that “there is still resistance” within the church to safeguarding protocols and

that is why the commission’s work is “essential.”

“In some countries, there is still an attitude that clerical child sexual abuse “is not a

problem and never will be problem, or that it is a Western problem or a problem within

English-speaking countries, or it is being exaggerated, or that it would never happen in

our country because of our culture,” she said. “It is very difficult to convince people to

put safety measures in place if they think it is never going to happen. They can’t see the

point,” Collins commented. In countries where the church is tackling the issue, she

detects an attitude of “When will this be all over and we can stop having to put all of

these provisions and policies in place? When can we go back to being the way we were?’

You have to try to get through that and say you can never go back to where you were.”

Marie Collins believes that it will be survivors of abuse in Africa and Asia who will force

the church there to implement change. To date, in countries where abuse has been

uncovered and better safeguarding practices have been implemented, it has been a

survivor-led movement. “It is not that the church wanted to listen, it is they were made to

listen by survivors and I don’t think anything will change in that respect,” Collins said.

“You are still dealing with some people in the church – I am not saying everybody – who

have those defensive attitudes that survivors exaggerate, are looking for money, or they

are trying to destroy the church,” Collins said. “What is important is the work and trying

to make children safe in the future.” she said. But in Collins’ opinion, the bishops “have

to balance their duties towards their members against the duty towards children or minors

in their care.” Referring to the paramountcy principle, which would require people to put

the welfare of the child first, she told National Catholic Reporter, “If you always make

your decisions on that basis, then you are much clearer about what the priority is: The

priority is that children or young people must be kept safe. So it is not a question of

balancing equal rights, and I think that is a point that is missed a lot. If it comes to a

situation where you are thinking about their rights and the rights of children, you have to

put the safety of the child first.” Under Pope Francis, she believes, the Catholic church

has been a less judgmental church. “It is wonderful that we have a more humble church,

because my problem with the leadership has always been the arrogance and putting

themselves up on pedestals.”

Page 1 of 8

CHILD ABUSE NEWS IN BRIEF FROM RECENT PRESS ARTICLES

(Abridged by Brian Hennessy)

An interview with Marie Collins by Sarah Mac Donald,

a journalist based in Dublin.

Irish clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins has said she hopes 2016 will see results from

the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, despite the

“frustratingly slow” pace of the reforms being developed by it. Collins, a member of the

Pontifical Commission, admitted that she has found Vatican bureaucracy “very difficult.”

She warned that “there is still resistance” within the church to safeguarding protocols and

that is why the commission’s work is “essential.”

“In some countries, there is still an attitude that clerical child sexual abuse “is not a

problem and never will be problem, or that it is a Western problem or a problem within

English-speaking countries, or it is being exaggerated, or that it would never happen in

our country because of our culture,” she said. “It is very difficult to convince people to

put safety measures in place if they think it is never going to happen. They can’t see the

point,” Collins commented. In countries where the church is tackling the issue, she

detects an attitude of “When will this be all over and we can stop having to put all of

these provisions and policies in place? When can we go back to being the way we were?’

You have to try to get through that and say you can never go back to where you were.”

Marie Collins believes that it will be survivors of abuse in Africa and Asia who will force

the church there to implement change. To date, in countries where abuse has been

uncovered and better safeguarding practices have been implemented, it has been a

survivor-led movement. “It is not that the church wanted to listen, it is they were made to

listen by survivors and I don’t think anything will change in that respect,” Collins said.

“You are still dealing with some people in the church – I am not saying everybody – who

have those defensive attitudes that survivors exaggerate, are looking for money, or they

are trying to destroy the church,” Collins said. “What is important is the work and trying

to make children safe in the future.” she said. But in Collins’ opinion, the bishops “have

to balance their duties towards their members against the duty towards children or minors

in their care.” Referring to the paramountcy principle, which would require people to put

the welfare of the child first, she told National Catholic Reporter, “If you always make

your decisions on that basis, then you are much clearer about what the priority is: The

priority is that children or young people must be kept safe. So it is not a question of

balancing equal rights, and I think that is a point that is missed a lot. If it comes to a

situation where you are thinking about their rights and the rights of children, you have to

put the safety of the child first.” Under Pope Francis, she believes, the Catholic church

has been a less judgmental church. “It is wonderful that we have a more humble church,

because my problem with the leadership has always been the arrogance and putting

themselves up on pedestals.”

Page 2 of 8

Catholic Whistleblowers’ Petition to the Vatican by Brian Roewe,

a National Catholic Reporter staff writer.

After years of raising concerns to U.S. bishops about potential holes in their clergy sexual

abuse policies to little avail, a group of Catholic advocates has requested Vatican

intervention.

Catholic Whistleblowers, in a formal request for investigation, alleges the U.S.

Conference of Catholic Bishops has not followed through fully on its policy of zero

tolerance toward abusive priests and deacons, in part because its guidelines lack a

mechanism to assure that bishops send the necessary cases to the Vatican’s Congregation

for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, the organization argues that the conference uses

a higher bar than church law to determine which cases require review by Rome. “In a

deliberate and ongoing way, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops reneges on its

commitment to zero tolerance. The conference does not exercise the leadership necessary

to assure that known sexually abusive priests and deacons are removed from the

community and that the community is warned about the sexually abusive priests and

deacons,” Fr. James Connell, a canon lawyer and a member of Catholic Whistleblowers,

said in the letter.

The 13-page letter, dated Jan. 4, is addressed to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the

Congregation for Bishops, and was mailed to more than 450 U.S. bishops. It requests a

formal investigation into the U.S. bishops’ practices, arguing that the U.S. bishops’

conference has caused harm and scandal through its policies and behavior to address

sexual abuse.

Since July, Catholic Whistleblowers, a network of priests, religious and laypersons, has

asked the Vatican to investigate Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., and Cardinals

Justin Rigali and Raymond Burke. In 2014, it asked for review of Bishop Robert Finn,

then head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese. Last fall, it joined other

organizations in appealing to President Barack Obama to convene a national commission

investigating all sexual abuse of children.

Their petitions follow Pope Francis’ approval in June of a five-point accountability

system for bishops handling abuse allegations. The first point states that “there is the duty

to report all complaints” to the appropriate Vatican congregation. The new system also is

to establish a tribunal housed in the doctrinal congregation that will rule on bishops’

abuse of office pertaining to child sex abuse. The petition regarding the U.S. bishops’

conference outlines three major concerns:

 Resistance to statute of limitations reform;

 A higher bar for bishops to report allegations to Rome, one that “dilutes the

Church’s process” in identifying such cases;

 A flawed audit process that prevents verification that all cases that should be sent

to the Vatican are sent.

Page 3 of 8

The second concern addresses the difference between “sufficient evidence” in U.S.

bishops’ policies and “semblance of truth” in universal church law. Point six of the Dallas

Charter’s “Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of

Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons” mandates that preliminary investigation

of an allegation should take place “When there is sufficient evidence that sexual abuse of

a minor has occurred, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith shall be notified,” it

says. In contrast, Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela – the universal church law

promulgated in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and revised in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI –

states on moral crimes including sexual abuse: “Whenever the Ordinary or Hierarch

receives a report of a grave delict, which has at least the semblance of truth, once the

preliminary investigation has been completed, he is to communicate the matter to the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

Connell, a Canon Lawyer, said, “Sufficient evidence that the abuse occurred, we are

saying, is a higher standard to be met, without there being a trial. Beyond setting a

potentially higher bar, Catholic Whistleblowers says the U.S. bishops’ Essential Norms

provide no way of assuring that bishops pass any cases to the doctrinal congregation

because of its placement outside the audited portion of the charter. “As a result, no one

checks to verify that all the allegations of clergy sexual abuse of a minor or of a

vulnerable adult that ought to be sent to the CDF actually are sent,” Catholic

Whistleblowers said in the petition.

At times, Connell said, he’s received the impression that some bishops believe that by

apologizing to abuse survivors they have fulfilled what is expected. That’s not the case,

Connell said, explaining if he gets into a car accident, he can say sorry and the other

driver can forgive him, but there’s still the matter of fixing the car. In the case of clergy

sexual abuse, the bishops must take steps to repair the harm done by clergy, religious

orders and the church, he said. “It takes seconds to apologize; it might take years to repair

the damage. And reparation is called for in justice,” he said.

Msgr Lynn of the Philadelphia Archdiocese by Ralph Cipriano, Author and former

reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times,

He may have won a new trial, but Msgr. William Lynn — the Philadelphia archdiocese’s

secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004 – isn’t any closer to getting out of jail.

Lynn, convicted in 2012 on a single count of endangering the welfare of a child, has been

serving a three- to six-year prison sentence. He was the first Catholic administrator in the

country to be sent to jail for failing to adequately supervise a sexually abusive priest.

Williams, a Philadelphia District Attorney, told reporters that he has filed an appeal

seeking to re-argue the case before all nine judges of the state Supreme Court. In 2013,

the same panel of Superior Court judges unanimously reversed Lynn’s conviction,

Page 4 of 8

prompting an appeal by the district attorney to the state Supreme Court. The state

Supreme Court subsequently reversed the reversal of Lynn’s conviction.

Lynn, who had been out of jail on house arrest, was ordered last April to return to prison

by the trial judge, M. Teresa Sarmina. “We will fight to keep Msgr. Lynn in state

custody, where he belongs,” Williams said. And if there’s a new trial, “we’re fully

committed to empaneling a jury and going to trial again.” Judge Sarmina sentenced Lynn

to three to six years in prison. She has denied bail – expressing fears that if released, Lynn

might flee to the Vatican.

Meanwhile, Lynn continues to work six days a week in the prison library, checking out

books for fellow inmates for a salary of 19 cents an hour. In jail, he will be waiting out

the appeal process until he knows for sure what’s going to happen next.

231 Choir Boys Abused in Germany by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, the Austrian

correspondent for the London-based weekly Catholic magazine The Tablet.]

Two hundred and thirty-one young members of the famous German “Regensburger

Domspatzen” boys choir were abused between 1953 and 1992, three times the official

number published in the diocesan report of February 2015, according to an independent

lawyer.

At a press conference in Regensburg on Jan. 8, Ulrich Weber, an independent lawyer

called in by the diocese in May 2015 to undertake further investigations of the abuse

scandal, said he feared that the estimated number of unrecorded cases was far higher. It is

highly probable that every third pupil at the preparatory school for the boys’ choir was

exposed to physical abuse consisting of violent beatings, withholding fluids for up to five

days, forced feeding and sexual abuse “from fondling to rape” during those years. Weber

spoke of a “system of fear” which prevailed for decades at the school. The perpetrators

were a small circle of priests, teachers and employees which included, Fr. Johann Meier,

headmaster of the preparatory school from 1953-1992, Weber said.

Weber’s figures are significantly higher than those officially published by the Regensburg

diocese in February 2015 which found that 72 former members of the choir had been

abused. Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer apologized for the abuse at the time and

offered each victim 2,500 euros (US$2,730) compensation.

Georg Ratzinger, emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s older brother, was the musical director

and conductor of the “Domspatzen” from 1964-1994, for most of the period during which

the abuse occurred. The “Domspatzen” is Germany’s oldest and most famous boys choir.

It celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 1976. Ratzinger conducted the choir at his

brother’s consecration as Munich archbishop in 1977, and also when it sang in honor of

Queen Elizabeth II’s state visit in 1978 and Pope John Paul II’s visit to Munich in 1980.

Page 5 of 8

In 2010, when the first accusations of abuse were made, Ratzinger admitted in an

interview for the Passauer Neue Presse that he knew that boys were beaten when he was

chorus master but said that up to 1980, corporal punishment was allowed in Germany. He

himself had sometimes slapped boys but he had never “beaten them black and blue,” he

said. Ratzinger, who will be 92 on Jan. 15, told the Passauer Neue Presse on Jan. 10 that

he had no knowledge of any sexual abuse at the time. Beatings and slapping were usual

“in all educational fields and in families in those days,” he said. Ratzinger said he knew

that Meier’s slaps to the face and boxes on the ear were violent, but he had never seen any

traces of violence on any of the boys. He also said that on account of his “brutal

pedagogical methods,” Meier had been forced to retire in 1992.

Jesuit Fr. Klaus. Mertes was the pioneer whistleblower of the priestly sex abuse crisis

which swept across Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2010, which Austrian Cardinal

Christoph Schönborn of Vienna called a “tsunami. People’s first reaction was to adopt a

defensive stance against the victims. They did not want to hear what the victims had to

say. Five years after the priestly sex abuse “tsunami” of 2010, it is “outrageous” for those

responsible in the church “merely to go on and on apologizing” as that was not sufficient,

Mertes said. “Continually looking for scapegoats, traitors who were fouling their own

nests or blaming the press must stop and those responsible in the church must now really

accept their responsibility – including the responsibility for hushing things up,” he said.

“But now we not only have to clarify the sexual abuse but also why it was hushed up at

the time and then get down to finding out why the hushing up was hushed up,” Mertes

said.

Spotlight by Fr. Peter Daly is the pastor of St. John Vianney parish

in Prince Frederick, United States

“Spotlight” is a very good movie. “Spotlight” is a very sad story”. Spotlight” was a

tragedy brought on by sins of priests and bishops. The damage is not yet finished and the

perpetrators of these crimes have never been held fully accountable. The movie is the

story of The Boston Globe investigation of the priest pedophilia scandal in the

Archdiocese of Boston. The scandal exploded into public awareness in 2002. The

investigative team of the Globe, known as “Spotlight” had generally investigated

corruption in government or the police. But they turned their attention to the Archdiocese

of Boston with devastating effect. While the scandal broke in 2002, it had been

simmering below the surface for years.

As a parish priest I found it painful to watch. I was ashamed. I went to see the movie

alone. When the movie was over I sat in stunned silence in the theater and waited for

everyone else to leave. I did not want to have to talk. Above all I did not want to run into

any parishioners. Our church behaved horribly. Every seminarian should see this movie.

The US Catholic Conference of Bishops should spend an evening watching it together

and discussing it. The only disinfectant that will really lead to cleansing is the bright light

of truth. The Archdiocese of Boston would never have reformed without the Globe

stories.

Page 6 of 8

At one point in the movie the reporters interview Richard Sipe, the former priest and

psychologist, over the telephone. He has spent 40 years treating and studying the sexual

behavior of priests. Sipe’s character in the film points out what I have long felt to be true:

the root problem is celibacy. It creates a culture of secrecy and mendacity. People lie to

themselves and the church about their abstinence from sex. They become accustomed to

not telling the truth. Bishops are caught up in that clerical culture of mendacity. Sipe

points out that 6% of priests act out sexually with children, which was nearly 90 priests in

Boston.

The movie captures well the clannish and insular atmosphere of Catholic Boston – where

53% of the Globe readership was Catholic. The resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law was

one result of the stories. The movie hints at the arrogant clericalism in Boston, that led

priests and bishops to think they were above the law and accountable to no one. Just

before the final credits roll in the movie, a few words on screen mention that Cardinal

Law resigned but was never held accountable. He was reassigned to Rome at St. Mary

Major in a cushy sinecure. No American bishop has ever gone to jail for covering up

these felonies on their watch.

As good as the movie is – it tells only the first part of a continuing story. There is a need

for a follow-up movie to tell the story of the enormous payouts of cash and huge

settlements to victims, the stonewalling of many bishops, and the bankruptcy of eight

U.S. dioceses. That movie could also tell about the many people who have stopped going

to church and how parish after parish has closed. Maybe the next movie could be called

“Fallout.”

Thirteen years after the scandal broke many people have still not gotten the message.

There is a new clericalism and arrogance among many of the younger clergy today.

Several years ago, at a meeting of priests in our archdiocese, a bishop said to us,

“Gentlemen, after the scandals of 2002, priests no longer get the benefit of the doubt.”I

remember leaning over to the priest sitting next to me and saying, “The bishop only gets

half the message. After the scandals of 2002, bishops don’t get the benefit of the doubt

either.”

Two Bishop Resignations

by Brian Roewe, an National Catholic Reporter staff writer.

Two U.S. bishops who prematurely resigned their posts amid clergy sexual abuse

scandals each have found new landing spots outside their previous dioceses.

A southern Michigan parish announced over the weekend that Archbishop John

Nienstedt, formerly head of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, will help out

temporarily in the coming months, while Bishop Robert Finn, former head of the Kansas

City-St. Joseph, Mo. diocese, began last month as chaplain for a Nebraska community of

women religious.

Page 7 of 8

Within the span of two months last spring, Finn, 62, and Nienstedt, 68, stepped down —

years before the traditional age of 75 when bishops must submit their resignations to

Rome – as shepherds of their respective dioceses, both of which teemed with anger and

anguish for their church’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations. In the case of Finn,

it was a 2012 misdemeanor conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse that

drew a probationary sentence in civil court but no recourse from the church. For

Nienstedt, his abdication, along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché, came just 10 days after

the Ramsey County prosecutor brought criminal charges against the archdiocese for its

handling of abuse allegations. Both Finn and Nienstedt now have new homes.

Nienstedt has agreed to assist in pastoral ministries at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church

in Battle Creek, Mich., in the Kalamazoo diocese. The Kalamazoo diocese in a statement

said Nienstedt is welcome in the diocese, while reiterating its commitment “to providing

safe environments for all people.” “As is the case for any priest or bishop ministering in

the Diocese, Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt begins his temporary ministry at St. Philip

Parish as a priest in good standing, having met the Church’s stringent standards required

to attain that status,” it said. It remains unclear, though, if the Kalamazoo diocese was

made aware of, or given access to, the investigation to alleged sexual improprieties by

Nienstedt with seminarians and other adults, which extended to his time in Michigan in

the early 1980s.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, objected

to Nienstedt’s move and urged people in Kalamazoo to educate themselves on the abuse

crisis in Minnesota. “This decision shows that Catholic officials still put the wishes and

needs of their brother bishops ahead of nearly every other consideration, including the

safety of the flock,” he said in a statement.

As for Finn, in December he began as chaplain of the School Sisters of Christ the King in

the Lincoln, Nebraska diocese, appointed to the position by Lincoln Bishop James

Conley. Both his former and current dioceses announced the new role in their diocesan

newspapers. Finn will reside at the School Sisters’ Villa Regina Motherhouse. In a story

published Friday morning, Conley told the Lincoln Journal Star that Finn has been well

received in the diocese, and that in the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis, Finn

deserves mercy, as well. According to JD Flynn, Lincoln diocesan spokesman, Finn had

to pass a background check and complete child protection training before beginning his

chaplaincy. In addition, Conley consulted with several ecclesiastical officials before

making the appointment.

“Of course, Bishop Finn has faced legal issues related to administrative decisions. He’s

addressed them appropriately, and they’ve been resolved. The faithful of our diocese can

be confident that his ministry as a chaplain to the School Sisters of Christ will be a grace

for all of us, and a witness to God’s enduring mercy,” Conley told the newspaper. Flynn

added that Finn made an administrative mistake – one he has since paid for – in not

immediately reporting former priest Shawn Ratigan to police for possession of child

pornography, and questioned those who continue to harp on the bishop’s past. “It doesn’t

Page 8 of 8

strike me as particularly Christian to search out a person who made a mistake and

continue to hound him about it,” Flynn told the Journal Star.

While rumors have floated in Kansas City that Finn might also teach at the St. Gregory

the Great Seminary, in Seward, Neb., attended by several Kansas City seminarians, its

rector, Fr. Jeffrey Eickhoff, told National Catholic Reporter that the bishop is currently

not teaching, and at this point nothing further has been determined.

ENDS

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NEWS IN BRIEF.docx

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Church child abuse scandals ‘tip of iceberg’ say real-life stars of Oscar-tipped film – By Fiachra Gibbons

Paris (AFP) – The child abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church are only the tip of the iceberg, the journalists who exposed one of the hierarchy’s biggest cover-ups said Wednesday.

Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for uncovering how the Church had hushed up the activities of nearly 90 paedophile priests in Boston, told AFP that thousands more have escaped justice in the United States alone.

With the Hollywood film “Spotlight” about their painstaking probe of the scandal for the Boston Globe newspaper nominated for six Oscars and a slew of other prizes, they said research showed between six and 10 percent of priests have abused children.

Robinson, who led the newspaper’s Spotlight investigative team, said they found that around one in 10 priests in Boston were molesters after “the Church was forced to make its records public.

“In many other places the numbers reported by the Church are very small because they have not been forced to tell the truth,” Robinson said.

“That is true in France and many other countries, and parts of the US also.”

– ‘Six percent are child abusers’ –

Experts at the University of Toronto and Royal Ottawa Healthcare group believe between 0.5 and 1 percent of the general population are paedophiles, although studies carried out in Germany, Norway and Finland have estimated that as many as five percent of men have had sexual thoughts about children.

A leading authority on clerical abuse, Richard Sipe — a former Benedictine monk — found around six percent of priests were abusers after a 25-year study into celibacy.

His book “Sex, Priests and Power” is cited in the film, which was voted best film at the Los Angeles Critics’ Choice Awards earlier this week — a reliable pointer to Oscar success.

Pope Francis said the Church itself estimates two percent of priests are paedophiles, according a private conversation he had in 2014 with an Italian journalist, details of which the Vatican later contested.

“This figure should calm me, but I must tell you it does not calm me at all,” the pope was quoted as telling the veteran founder of La Repubblica daily, Eugenio Scalfari.

While the Church’s attitude to such cases has changed radically since the election of Francis, who has vowed to root out abuse, Robinson and Rezendes suspect the culture of secrecy still runs deep.

“There have been big changes in how the Church deals with this in Boston,” said Robinson. “There are even classes for children in how to recognise molesters. But not so much (has been done) in other dioceses and around the world.”

Rezendes said the real problem was Church’s attitude to sex and its insistence on a celibate clergy.

“Because priests are people, many — maybe most — are having sex with women and men, and some with children. Because all sex is illegal in the eyes of the Church it is kept secret.

“A priest who is having sex with a woman or a man is not going to tell on a priest who is having sex with a child. Because all of it is wrong in the eyes of the Church, they protect one another,” he said.

Robinson — who is played by Michael Keaton in the film — admitted that part of the blame lay with the press for not holding the Church to account earlier.

He himself failed to follow through on a story about clerical abuse in Boston years before his Spotlight team launched their major inquiry in 2002.

“Our generation of editors were too deferential to the power and supposed moral standing of the Church. Clearly we missed clues,” he said.

“It was unthinkable that such an moral authority would allow and then cover up the crimes of thousands of priests for so many decades, and never care about what happened to the children.”

All four of the journalists who carried out the months-long inquiry are lapsed Catholics, and Robinson said it had shaken their confidence in the institution, if not his own faith.

The story also took a toll on the reporters and their families.

“It was very emotionally draining for us to listen to the stories of so many people whose lives were ruined as children. It was horrible. We carried this burden.

“My wife, who is a nurse, believes we had a touch of post-traumatic stress disorder. We were brought to tears by what many of the victims had to say.”

The Catholic Church, including Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, has broadly praised the film, with Vatican Radio calling it “honest and compelling”.

A senior Victorian Catholic priest has loudly proclaimed his solidarity with clergy sex abuse survivors.

A senior Victorian Catholic priest has loudly proclaimed his solidarity with clergy sex abuse survivors.

Following a trend in church leaders joining Ballarat’s Loud Fence movement, acclaimed clergy child sex abuse advocate, Father Kevin Dillon, tied bright coloured ribbons to the gates of St Mary’s Basilica in Geelong on Monday in support of victims. It comes days after Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird tied ribbons at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will return to the city next month as it continues to investigate the Catholic Church’s failings in recognising and responding to child sexual abuse.

However, Father Dillon said crucial element missing the from evidence given by clergy so far: Repentance.

“What I would like to see at the next hearing is genuine repentance from clergy leaders for what has been done and the suffering it caused,” Father Dillon said. “Jesus himself said “the truth will set you free” and in this instance, it could not be truer.”

Father Dillon urged people to tie their own ribbons at parishes across Victoria in support of victims. He hoped the basilica’s 300 metre long fence would soon be filled.

“My experience is the vast mob of ordinary people and active Catholics are very much in solidarity with victims,” Father Dillon said. “As far as they are concerned this should have never happened anywhere.”

The Geelong priest was joined by sexual abuse survivor Chris Pianto. Ballarat is often seen as an epicentre of clergy child sexual abuse and Mr Pianto said Geelong shared many parallels with the city.

Mr Pianto asked Father Dillon to join the campaign in support of the many victims still reeling from the abuse they suffered at schools and Catholic institutions across Geelong.

“This movement is a way for them (clergy) to show they stand with victims and don’t condone they way the church handled the situation,” he said.

The campaign began in Ballarat last year and has since gone viral with Loud Fences created all over the world including at the gates of the Vatican.

By Linen No. 50

The Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars providing pensions, housing, and private medical insurance to convicted paedophile priests despite branding them “evil” and having most defrocked.

The Melbourne archdiocese alone is still financially supporting six former priests who have been convicted for committing sex crimes against children.

Parishioners have unwittingly been partly funding the assistance through their donations into church collection plates, which they believed went towards the local church or fundraising for retired priests.

Church records show two of the paedophiles, priests Wilfred Baker and David Daniel, received hundreds of thousands of dollars alone in annual pensions and entitlements.

Their victims received one-off payments of $31,000 to $37,000 under the church’s Melbourne Response redress scheme.

The decision to continue financially supporting disgraced priests was made by senior church figures in Melbourne and the top advisory council at the Vatican, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

A spokesman for the archdiocese of Melbourne said the church is currently providing support to six priests with criminal convictions for child sex crimes, including four who have been “laicised” or defrocked.

Nine other priests have received pensions, housing stipends or private health insurance after their convictions and until their deaths. Many of them had also been defrocked.

“We want to stress that the process as it was through the 1990s and into the 2000s has been changing significantly to a point where now the support is of extremely modest nature,” said Shane Healy, director of media and communications for the archdiocese.

The church is obligated under canon law to support all priests in retirement and old age, but the assistance provided to convicted priests was now “very low”, according to the spokesman.

Among those who received lifetime assistance was Father Wilfred “Bill” Baker, who molested at least 21 children.

The church had received complaints about him as early as 1978. He pleaded guilty to to 16 counts of indecent assault and 1 count of gross indecency in 1999.

The year before, Baker had been allowed to “retire”, a euphemism the church regularly used for priests who were stood down over sex abuse allegations.

The Priests Retirement Foundation paid Baker a pension and housing stipend worth $21,000 a year, as well as covered the costs of his car payments, registration and medical and automotive insurance. The church believes Baker was only priest to ever receive any financial assistance for car.

Adjusting for inflation, the pension and stipend payments would be worth about $33,000 a year now.

In 2010, the assistance was made conditional on Baker obeying an agreement that forbade him to leave his accommodation without permission, approach children or adolescents, celebrate mass in public, or “draw attention to himself”.

He died in 2014 ahead of facing new charges.

In contrast, Baker’s victims received an average one-off compensation payment of just $31,000 under the Melbourne Response.

Not all priests were treated the same, but the church’s commitment to them was lifelong. No financial support was ever provided while they were in prison.

Father Desmond Gannon was convicted of sex crimes on five separate occasions over the past two decades – in 1995, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2009 – and the church cared for him up until his death.

At various times the support has included a pension, rental allowance and private health insurance.

In 2002, the archdiocese slashed his payments in recognition that the level of support being provided was “no longer appropriate” or consistent with the “Church’s response to issues relating to abuse of power and trust”.

Another convicted priest, David Daniel, was told the same year his stipend would be reduced to $12,000 a year.

But cutting them off completely was never considered an option.

In 2011, Archbishop Denis Hart petitioned to have Gannon defrocked by the Vatican because he had “perpetrated so much evil” and his continued presence in the church was a “cause of scandal to the faithful”.

“I do believe dismissal is imperative yet we will not neglect to care for him in his older age,” Archbishop Hart wrote.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith refused the request, twice, due to concerns about his “advanced age and his feebleness”.

Gannon died in April 2015 at an aged-care facility that cost up to $21,700 a year.

By comparison, the priest’s 22 known victims received an average one-off payment of just $33,000 under the Melbourne Response.

The church also continued to support Michael Glennon for nearly four decades in between prison stints from his first of five convictions in 1978, being defrocked in 1999 and his death two years ago.

The contrast in treatment between abuse victims and perpetrators has outraged Anthony Foster, the father of two of Father Kevin O’Donnell’s 49 victims.

The church offered $50,000 compensation for the trauma suffered by one of his daughters.

O’Donnell, on the other hand, was eligible for a pension and housing stipend between his “retirement” as an honoured pastor emeritus in 1992, conviction in 1995 and death in 1997.

The designation entitled a retired priest to additional remuneration and allowances because of its prestige.

“It’s horrific to think they offered Emma only $50,000 as way to move forward over the rest of her life, yet the church was willing to support a priest they knew was convicted and deserved nothing else than to have to go out into society and fend for himself once he was out of prison,” Mr Foster told The Sunday Age.

O’Donnell’s victims received an average one-off compensation payment of $31,000 each under the Melbourne Response.

Documents tendered to the royal commission also detail how past and current church leaders – including now Cardinal George Pell – took an active role in creating the support system.

In September 1996, then Archbishop of Melbourne Pell chaired a discussion about how three jailed priests – Desmond Gannon, Kevin O’Donnell and Michael Glennon – “can be helped” after their release.

“Possibility of a place (self-contained flat) in Box Hill. Father McMahon mentioned the need for treatment and was invited by the Archbishop to propose what is needed to assist them,” the minutes said.

The royal commission would later find that Gannon’s financial arrangements were orchestrated in such a way that the “support would not be likely to become public”.

Then Archbishop Pell also personally ordered that Wilfred Baker be provided with the top-line pension of a pastor emeritus in 1998 despite being aware of his offending.

That same year, he also sanctioned payments to suspected paedophile Peter Searson, telling him he was entitled to the same benefits as “priests in circumstances similar to yours”.

The Priests Retirement Fund, which is largely funded by contributions from parishioners, was the entity used to support disgraced priests until recently. The archdiocese of Melbourne says it now pays for their upkeep.

“Every bishop has a requirement to provide a minimum living support for all priests, regardless of who they are,” Archbishop Hart testified before the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse in 2013.

The church has declined to comment on the total cost of supporting the 15 priests that have been convicted of child sex crimes or 15 other priests who have been identified as abusers but were never convicted in a criminal court.

The figure is likely to be at least several million dollars in total based on known payments to a number of the priests.

A representative of the archdiocese said the level support provided to convicted priests was determined on a case by case basis but was now “minor”.

“Private medical insurance is maintained to ensure these priests are not a burden on the taxpayer, and each priest’s financial circumstance is reviewed and decisions made according to their capacity to care for themselves. In some circumstances the archdiocese would provide rental accommodation at a modest level,” Mr Healy said.

“No one who is incarcerated ever gets any assistance or benefits while in prison.”

“The Catholic Church Sins Are Ours” —- By F. Bruni

It’s fashionable among some conservatives to rail that there’s insufficient respect for religion in America and that religious people are marginalized, even vilified.

That’s bunk. In more places and instances than not, they get special accommodation and the benefit of the doubt. Because they talk of God, they’re assumed to be good. There’s a reluctance to besmirch them, an unwillingness to cross them.

The new movie “Spotlight,” based on real events, illuminates this brilliantly.

“Spotlight” — which opens in New York, Los Angeles and Boston on Friday and nationwide later this month — chronicles the painstaking manner in which editors and writers at The Boston Globe documented a pattern of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests and the concealment of these crimes by Catholic leaders.

Because of the movie’s focus on the digging and dot-connecting that go into investigative reporting, it has invited comparisons to “All the President’s Men.”

But it isn’t about journalism. Or, for that matter, Catholicism.

It’s about the damage done when we genuflect too readily before society’s temples, be they religious or governmental. It’s about the danger of faith that’s truly blind.

It takes place in 2001 and 2002, and that time frame itself is a remarkable reflection of how steadfastly most Americans resist any intrusion into religious groups, any indictment of religious officials.

Eight years earlier, James Porter was convicted of sexually abusing 28 children in the 1960s, when he was in the Catholic priesthood. He was believed to have abused about 100 boys and girls in all, most of them in Massachusetts.

Major newspapers and television networks covered the Porter story, noting a growing number of cases of abuse by priests. Porter’s sentencing in December 1993 was preceded by two books that traced the staggering dimensions of such behavior. The first was “Lead Us Not Into Temptation,” by Jason Berry. The second was “A Gospel of Shame,” with which I’m even more familiar. I’m one of its two authors.

But despite all of that attention, Americans kept being shocked whenever a fresh tally of abusive priests was done or new predators were exposed. They clung to disbelief.

“Spotlight” is admirably blunt on this point, suggesting that the Globe staff — which, in the end, did the definitive reporting on church leaders’ complicity in the abuse — long ignored an epidemic right before their eyes.

Why? For some of the same reasons that others did. Many journalists, parents, police officers and lawyers didn’t want to think ill of men of the cloth, or they weren’t eager to get on the bad side of the church, with its fearsome authority and supposed pipeline to God. (After the coverage of the Porter case, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston announced, “We call down God’s power on the media, particularly the Globe.”)

“Spotlight” lays out the many ways in which deference to religion protected abusers and their abettors. At one point in the movie, a man who was molested as a boy tells a Globe reporter about a visit his mother got from the bishop, who was asking her not to press charges.
“What did your mother do?” the reporter asks.

“She put out freakin’ cookies,” the man says.

When the cookies finally went away, many Catholic leaders insisted that the church was being persecuted, and the crimes of priests exaggerated, by spiteful secularists.

But if anything, the church had been coddled, benefiting from the American way of giving religion a free pass and excusing religious institutions not just from taxes but from rules that apply to other organizations.

A 2006 series in The Times, “In God’s Name,” noted that since 1989, “more than 200 special arrangements, protections or exemptions for religious groups or their adherents were tucked into congressional legislation, covering topics ranging from pensions to immigration to land use.” That was before the Supreme Court, in its Hobby Lobby decision, allowed some employers to claim religion as grounds to disobey certain heath insurance mandates.

A story in The Times this week described how various religions are permitted to use internal arbitration procedures to settle disputes that belong in civil court. It cited a federal judge’s ruling that a former Scientologist had to take his claim that Scientology had defrauded him of tens of thousands of dollars before a panel of current Scientologists.

To cloak sexual abuse and shield abusive priests, Catholic leaders and their lawyers routinely leaned on the church’s privileged status, invoking freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, and the secrecy of the confessional. They thus delayed a reckoning.

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one,” says a character in “Spotlight.” Indeed it does: a village too cowed, and a village too credulous.

“Spotlight” – Release date in the UK – 29/01/16

If you are interested in this blog you may be interested in seeing the film Spotlight.

Spotlight tells the true story of a Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper’s tenacious “Spotlight” team of reporters delve into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world.

http://spotlightthefilm.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/10/spotlight-film-team-launches-investigative-journalism-fellowship

The film is released in the UK on 29 January.

How to Settle 575 Cases of Clerical Sexual Abuse and
Remain Financially Unscathed in Milwaukee.

(Adapted and abridged by Brian Hennessy from a report in the Catholic National Reporter).

In less than two hours a US federal judge approved a plan that allowed the Milwaukee Archdiocese to emerge from bankruptcy after nearly five years of legal battles. Archbishop Jerome Listecki spoke briefly on 9th November 2015 in a courtroom packed with sexual abuse survivors and more than 20 lawyers. Listecki praised the abuse victims for coming forward, saying they had raised the consciousness of the archdiocese and elsewhere. He said, “There is no resolution that will bring back what they have lost,” and he added that he hoped the confirmation of the plan will turn the corner for the archdiocese, allowing it to focus on charitable, educational and spiritual work. “When we have a strong church, we have a strong community”, he said. What he did not say was that the diocese, in filing for bankruptcy, had got off almost scot-free!
Yet, of the 575 abuse survivors, about 120 received only $2,000 each; 336 shared what remained and the remaining 119 got nothing. The archdiocese had reviewed the claims themselves and had assigned the claimants to the various categories. It was a process criticized in court by survivor Steven Schmidt. The survivors were then required to vote on the plan. Some 93 percent of those in the group who were to receive the larger settlements voted to approve the plan – but only 61 percent of the group due to receive the smaller amount approved it. One survivor was placed initially in the category of those who would receive nothing because he could not identify his abuser by name. After he filed a formal objection with the court, the archdiocese identified his abuser. He then questioned how thoroughly the archdiocese had looked for unnamed offenders, thus denying some victims payment. “They knew who these offenders were and covered up their crimes,” he told the National Catholic Reporter. “If you cover up the crime, you shouldn’t be allowed to investigate it.” A dozen other survivors gathered on the steps of the courthouse and vowed to continue their fight for justice. Peter Isely, the Midwest director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and one of the first Milwaukee victims to come forward more than 25 years ago, charged that about 100 priests named in the claims filed by victims remain unnamed by the archdiocese.

Peter Isely also called for an investigation into financial fraud, particularly pertaining to the transfer of some $57 million into a trust fund for the perpetual care of the archdiocese’s cemeteries. As for the allegations, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2011, but Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who was named head of the New York archdiocese in 2009 and a cardinal in 2012, had been talking about the possibility of filing for bankruptcy as early as 2004. However, in 2007, before filing for bankruptcy Archbishop Dolan removed $57 million from the diocesan general fund into a Catholic Cemetary trust fund shortly after the Wisconsin Supreme Court opened the door to lawsuits. At the time, Archbishop Dolan’s letter to the Vatican and the latter’s rapid approval of the plan for the Cemetary trust fund made international headlines. In an editorial, The New York Times called the revelations “shocking.” Peter Isely asserted that the trust fund was created by the Archbishop, in part, to prevent courts from compensating victims of clergy sex abuse and that there seemed to be sufficient evidence and justification, to warrant an investigation.
A lawyer, David Asbach, confirmed that he met with Isely and others from the group but said he could not comment on the case or on whether he made a referral to the U.S. Attorneys Office for prosecution. Jack Ruhl, a professor of accountancy at Western Michigan University who has extensively studied Catholic diocesan finances said that the transfer of the money was unusual. He told the National Catholic Reporter that he had never seen a “reclassification” of funds like this one, albeit one California bishop had been scolded by a bankruptcy judge for not being forthcoming with financial data, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese had renamed a fund, making it the property of parishes, before filing for bankruptcy. “It probably has been done in the past in other dioceses, but it’s hard to detect,” Ruhl said. “They don’t have to release any financial data and what is released is not useful.” Ruhl also said the lack of information on how the Milwaukee archdiocese arrived at the amount of money needed for the perpetual care of the cemeteries was not transparent. “I found no explanation in the court documents for how they arrived at that number,” he said.
The losers in the bankruptcy case were not only the Victims who each received meagre payouts – or nothing at all because the diocese would not or could not identify the abusers, but also the State court lawyers who worked for years without pay and will receive up to 40 percent of each of their clients’ settlement. While those lawyers will receive something, they have battled in state courts for 20 years without compensation. The Messmer High School, an independent Catholic school that serves Milwaukee’s African-American community, lost $3.4 million in support that the archdiocese had pledged when the school took over two feeder schools from the archdiocese in 2007. “We Energies”, the provider of electrical power, lost revenue of $129,437 – a sum to be picked up by the other ratepayers in the area. The Milwaukee Water Works lost revenue of $25,589, a sum that will be paid by other users. The Green Bay diocese’s tribunal lost $15,000. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops lost $9,621. A number of contractors, office suppliers and other vendors lost between $773 and $9,888. In fact, all creditors were to be paid up to $5,000 of their bills, but lost the rest.
The winners of the legal settlement are, as always, the bankruptcy lawyers representing both the archdiocese and the creditors – who will receive about $20 million. Another $4.5 million will go to the lawyers involved in the cemetery trust litigation that the archdiocese says should not be included in the cost of the bankruptcy. Each of the parishes contributed $2,000 to a therapy fund for abuse victims and, as a consequence, those parishes bought immunity from future lawsuits. The Milwaukee archdiocese gained a fresh start without debt; it sold no property to reach the settlement. It emerged from the bankruptcy settlement largely intact. The diocesan cemetary fund is $57 million better off!

Leading pianist backs new bid to encourage victims of paedophiles to break their silence.

“Being heard, being met with belief, understanding and compassion, feeling safe from judgment, criticism and blame – these things are the keys to rebuilding trust and starting the healing process,” he writes.

… an article in today’s Sunday Observer — well worth reading.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/13/abused-pianist-says-threats-keep-victims-silent

Today for the first time in many years l have seen the name of Domenico Vallmagia who abused me when he was in charge of the infirmary. My reaction to this was to beg my parents not to make me return after the summer holidays. My father was adamant that I return. I couldn’t tell him my reason for not going back. I was duly bundled off to the station and sent back. I’m not really clear as to how things happened thereafter. I know that I started wetting the bed, a very humiliating occurrence in a shared dormitory. I was a very confident boy, this did not help. I think a small cohort of us got a bit rebellious. I might have got a little aggressive with one or two who thought of themselves as the chosen ones. I don’t remember the date but I was ignominiously booted out ( I can verify the date ). ” Sent home in DISGRACE!” My father picked me up at the station and didn’t speak to me for ten years! My home life from there on was a misery. This lead from me being a promising student to pretty much failing a every level. This has greatly affected my life choices. It was not until my mid forties that I established any sort of relationship with my father. It was not until his death that this all came flooding back. Although I still never broached the subject with him.