*
The real beauty of this survivor “movement” is its organic quality. So many of us were going through life thinking it was just us, just me - like I was this over sexed five year old who caused the good priest to break his vows, or other ideas pedophile priest rape crime victims live with.
If it hadn’t been for the internet, the pedophile epidemic in the Catholic Church would probably have continued a few hundred years more.
Something to ponder when you think Thanksgiving thoughts this weekend.
It was the internet and other early 21st century communications that made it possible to find out there are thousands of us, and that the pattern was the same in city after city. We are sex crime victims not born floozies or what not -
Happy Thanksgiving from City of Angels Network
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Two sex predator priests honored in LA black Catholic evangelical award, while Cardinal Mahony looks the other way
*
Cardinal Roger Mahony slapped the face of clergy sex crime survivors once again last week, allowing the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization to give out two awards that bear the names of two priests identified as sexual predators, Vance Thorne, who is number 67 on the LA Archdiocese's own 2004 Report, and Paul GoPaul, identified in two pedophilia charges.
At least one GoPaul victim committed suicide. At age 17 Patrick Ryan, pictured here, hung himself after a brutal sexual encounter with the traveling priest. His sister Rita Prince has written the entire story and we have it here scanned in full at City of Angels: click enarge and read. Rita handed the story out Thursday at a press conference denouncing the Bishop Carl Anthony Fisher Awards in front of the LA cathedral.
Here is Rita Prince in her own words, plus two of twelve letters which document the accusations against Paul GoPaul. Click and enlarge for a Sunday read.
Rita Prince runs SNAP Las Vegas. Here are two evidentiary documents:
Paul GoPaul taught at Cal State Dominguez Hills in South Central LA in 1971.
Cardinal Roger Mahony slapped the face of clergy sex crime survivors once again last week, allowing the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization to give out two awards that bear the names of two priests identified as sexual predators, Vance Thorne, who is number 67 on the LA Archdiocese's own 2004 Report, and Paul GoPaul, identified in two pedophilia charges.
At least one GoPaul victim committed suicide. At age 17 Patrick Ryan, pictured here, hung himself after a brutal sexual encounter with the traveling priest. His sister Rita Prince has written the entire story and we have it here scanned in full at City of Angels: click enarge and read. Rita handed the story out Thursday at a press conference denouncing the Bishop Carl Anthony Fisher Awards in front of the LA cathedral.
Here is Rita Prince in her own words, plus two of twelve letters which document the accusations against Paul GoPaul. Click and enlarge for a Sunday read.
Rita Prince runs SNAP Las Vegas. Here are two evidentiary documents:
Paul GoPaul taught at Cal State Dominguez Hills in South Central LA in 1971.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Recovered memory was Reconciliation for me. It explained everything, even lies I told as a spokesperson for NASA.
*
By Kay Ebeling
People wonder about recovered memory. I can understand why. I would wonder myself about stories like mine that are part of the clergy crisis in the Catholic Church, if it hadn’t happened to me. Even as a teenager, I was drawn like in a fugue state to movies like Sybil and parts of The Chapman Report that dealt with suppressed memories, and their effects on a person in adult life.
What people don’t realize is how the person having the recovered memory knows the memory is real. In my case and in Peter Saracino’s whose story we posted yesterday, a Reconciliation came with the recovered memory.
Funny to choose the word for the sacrament that comes with Confession, since the perpetrators of our crimes were Catholic priests, but the word Reconciliation really works. For me and others, recovering a long suppressed and affecting memory is like a gonging bell has been going off in your head for decades, and suddenly SPRROOONNNG the bell stops clanging and everything in your life falls into place.
What I created in my mind to remember instead was what any 5 year old child would create if a Catholic priest was towering over them conducting sexual activity.
I thought I had been visited by Michael the Archangel.
I went from age five through teenage and then adult years all the way to age 45 thinking, deep inside to myself, that I had some special sexual thing about me, because of this very special visit i had had from a horny archangel at age five.
Through the 1970s and 1980s therapists told me over and over again that most people remember a few things from before age six. I could never remember anything - ANYTHING - from before age six.
If you can’t remember anything from before an age it is a sign something traumatic happened at that age. I didn't remember anything from before age six.
Then there is the part about the bishop. I’ve pretty well identified him as Cardinal Stritch, who ran the Chicago Archdiocese in the 1940s and 1950s.
The strongest and most vivid memory that was not suppressed but just there in my head my whole life, was that “bishop” standing over me, in a dark room, his face was almost all you could see, and he was saying, “Stop babbling about what Father Horne did to you.” I said to him all of six years old, something like, wouldn't that be lying? And he answered “Sometimes you have to lie in order to protect a greater good.”
Sometimes you have to lie in order to protect a greater good.
That line of dialogue is all over the place in my journals.
It is also all over the case files of the LA Clergy Cases settled in July 2007.
I actually used the bishop and his lying techniques as a spokeswoman for NASA later in life
More decisively, I actually used the persona of that bishop in the Chicago archdiocese later on in my adult life.
I was working at NASA in the Public Information Office, aka Newsroom, at LBJ Space Center in Houston. It was early 1980s, the space shuttle had a lot of design problems, but especially the tiles. That's what is eerie about this connection to the lies of the bishop in Chicago, because it has to do with the tiles, the low-cost budget saving tiles that were put all over the space shuttle airship to protect it on reentry.
Lots of news people were questioning the safety of the tiles back in the late seventies, writers from places like US News and World Report and ABC and the New York Times. First launch of the space shuttle had been delayed for months, into years, and in the press room, we kept putting out stories with later and later projected launch dates for STS-1.
The tiles on the space shuttle were a serious problem as far back as 1978.
Journalists who specialized in aeronautic and space topics were causing the public information office at NASA in Houston a lot of problems.
We found ourselves having to defend a design flaw that a lot of us knew was really a flaw. A more expensive safer technique of protecting the space shuttle on reentry had been shot down, where they would spray one layer of ceramic over the entire ship, with with potential cracks. People blamed it on Nixon era federal overseers.
Journalists who specialized in aeronautic writing were asking, won't the space shuttle burn up in re-entry if there is the slightest nick in a tile.
That is exactly what happened on February 1, 2003, when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, with the loss of all seven crew members
The tiles cracked like people said they would in 1978, and the Columbia burned up leaving a trail of debris over Texas.
What does that have to do with Cardinal Stritch and my recovered memories?
At NASA we knew the shuttle could burn up in reentry because of cracked tiles back in 1978. Some public information specialists in the newsroom did not even want to deal with questions about the tiles. That is probably how I, the lowest on the totem pole of the group, ended up making any kind of comment to the press.
Probably the journalist worked his way down the office hallway until he got to my door, and since no one else would say anything, he asked me:
Won't the space shuttle burn up on reentry because of a small crack in these tiles?
I’d been briefed by Rockwell. There was a tainted but true message that Rockwell PR had suggested we use when explaining the tile problem to the media. Most of the staff in the PIO balked.
I had no problem at all giving out this almost true information.
I knew deep down inside it was okay to lie for the protection of a greater good.
I donned the persona of the “bishop” from Chicago circa 1954. As the reporter asked me about the tiles, my voice changed, became melodic and higher pitched, and a little sarcasm and condescension entered the tone-
I looked down through my nose and said to the reporter in this melodic voice.
“They have tested these tiles over and over again. They don’t chip. If they do chip or crack, it will not be a problem for the astronauts to repair them during the mission. The space shuttle tiles are not really that big a problem, you are listening to alarmists who just want to keep finding something wrong.”
Something like that. The words aren’t important, because it was me adopting the persona of the bishop. I had to in order to do my duty and tell a lie for the protection of a greater good. . .
Seven astronauts got killed in the Columbia disaster. I knew some of them, though I was long gone from NASA by 2003.
I don't adopt personae anymore. Ever since I experienced that “reconciliation” or ever since the clanging of the bell in the bell jar stopped, I have not needed to adopt persona to make it through life.
Before the recovered memory, I don't think I ever was truly myself.
When I went to work at NASA in 1978, I was adopting the persona of Faye Dunaway in Network. As a hippie mom my persona was a fantasy female in long skirts, flowers in her hair, always graceful and at peace - unless someone brought up the Vietnam War. Then I became a female version of Jerry Ruben. There were years as a yoga instructor, years as editor in chief of a tacky magazine. Through it all, I adopted personae to make it through life.
Recovering the memories caused the clanging to stop. I know I’ll probably never win a lawsuit or get any kind of acknowledgement from the Chicago Archdiocese, as I could never prove my case in court - unless some other victim of Father Thomas Barry Horne in Bartlett Illinois 1950-53 comes forward.
That would be my Confirmation.
Since I can’t prove my case to the constraints of a legal lawsuit, the Catholic Church, ever in servitude and worship of civil law and authority, does not have to acknowledge my case, or give me any help at all.
So now I'm sixty years old.
I was not myself from age 5 to age 45, I was adopting other people’s personalities, lives, mannerisms, speech patterns, not to mention physical appearance. Until age forty-five when the memories came in.
It is hard not to get stuck mourning the loss more or less of 40 years of my life. I have to appreciate that at least I get these “golden” years, to be myself for the first time.
All the behavior that was tormenting me as an aging adult, wondering with no explanation, why did I do this, why did I say that. Plus add the element of sobriety. I had been clean and sober for two years straight, probably the first time in my adult life. Plus in the story add the element that my daughter turned the age I was at the time of the molest, which is such a young age that it’s understandable the memory was suppressed.
I know who I really am now. That is something.
Onward. . .
By Kay Ebeling
People wonder about recovered memory. I can understand why. I would wonder myself about stories like mine that are part of the clergy crisis in the Catholic Church, if it hadn’t happened to me. Even as a teenager, I was drawn like in a fugue state to movies like Sybil and parts of The Chapman Report that dealt with suppressed memories, and their effects on a person in adult life.
What people don’t realize is how the person having the recovered memory knows the memory is real. In my case and in Peter Saracino’s whose story we posted yesterday, a Reconciliation came with the recovered memory.
Funny to choose the word for the sacrament that comes with Confession, since the perpetrators of our crimes were Catholic priests, but the word Reconciliation really works. For me and others, recovering a long suppressed and affecting memory is like a gonging bell has been going off in your head for decades, and suddenly SPRROOONNNG the bell stops clanging and everything in your life falls into place.
What I created in my mind to remember instead was what any 5 year old child would create if a Catholic priest was towering over them conducting sexual activity.
I thought I had been visited by Michael the Archangel.
I went from age five through teenage and then adult years all the way to age 45 thinking, deep inside to myself, that I had some special sexual thing about me, because of this very special visit i had had from a horny archangel at age five.
Through the 1970s and 1980s therapists told me over and over again that most people remember a few things from before age six. I could never remember anything - ANYTHING - from before age six.
If you can’t remember anything from before an age it is a sign something traumatic happened at that age. I didn't remember anything from before age six.
Then there is the part about the bishop. I’ve pretty well identified him as Cardinal Stritch, who ran the Chicago Archdiocese in the 1940s and 1950s.
The strongest and most vivid memory that was not suppressed but just there in my head my whole life, was that “bishop” standing over me, in a dark room, his face was almost all you could see, and he was saying, “Stop babbling about what Father Horne did to you.” I said to him all of six years old, something like, wouldn't that be lying? And he answered “Sometimes you have to lie in order to protect a greater good.”
Sometimes you have to lie in order to protect a greater good.
That line of dialogue is all over the place in my journals.
It is also all over the case files of the LA Clergy Cases settled in July 2007.
I actually used the bishop and his lying techniques as a spokeswoman for NASA later in life
More decisively, I actually used the persona of that bishop in the Chicago archdiocese later on in my adult life.
I was working at NASA in the Public Information Office, aka Newsroom, at LBJ Space Center in Houston. It was early 1980s, the space shuttle had a lot of design problems, but especially the tiles. That's what is eerie about this connection to the lies of the bishop in Chicago, because it has to do with the tiles, the low-cost budget saving tiles that were put all over the space shuttle airship to protect it on reentry.
Lots of news people were questioning the safety of the tiles back in the late seventies, writers from places like US News and World Report and ABC and the New York Times. First launch of the space shuttle had been delayed for months, into years, and in the press room, we kept putting out stories with later and later projected launch dates for STS-1.
The tiles on the space shuttle were a serious problem as far back as 1978.
Journalists who specialized in aeronautic and space topics were causing the public information office at NASA in Houston a lot of problems.
We found ourselves having to defend a design flaw that a lot of us knew was really a flaw. A more expensive safer technique of protecting the space shuttle on reentry had been shot down, where they would spray one layer of ceramic over the entire ship, with with potential cracks. People blamed it on Nixon era federal overseers.
Journalists who specialized in aeronautic writing were asking, won't the space shuttle burn up in re-entry if there is the slightest nick in a tile.
That is exactly what happened on February 1, 2003, when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, with the loss of all seven crew members
The tiles cracked like people said they would in 1978, and the Columbia burned up leaving a trail of debris over Texas.
What does that have to do with Cardinal Stritch and my recovered memories?
At NASA we knew the shuttle could burn up in reentry because of cracked tiles back in 1978. Some public information specialists in the newsroom did not even want to deal with questions about the tiles. That is probably how I, the lowest on the totem pole of the group, ended up making any kind of comment to the press.
Probably the journalist worked his way down the office hallway until he got to my door, and since no one else would say anything, he asked me:
Won't the space shuttle burn up on reentry because of a small crack in these tiles?
I’d been briefed by Rockwell. There was a tainted but true message that Rockwell PR had suggested we use when explaining the tile problem to the media. Most of the staff in the PIO balked.
I had no problem at all giving out this almost true information.
I knew deep down inside it was okay to lie for the protection of a greater good.
I donned the persona of the “bishop” from Chicago circa 1954. As the reporter asked me about the tiles, my voice changed, became melodic and higher pitched, and a little sarcasm and condescension entered the tone-
I looked down through my nose and said to the reporter in this melodic voice.
“They have tested these tiles over and over again. They don’t chip. If they do chip or crack, it will not be a problem for the astronauts to repair them during the mission. The space shuttle tiles are not really that big a problem, you are listening to alarmists who just want to keep finding something wrong.”
Something like that. The words aren’t important, because it was me adopting the persona of the bishop. I had to in order to do my duty and tell a lie for the protection of a greater good. . .
Seven astronauts got killed in the Columbia disaster. I knew some of them, though I was long gone from NASA by 2003.
I don't adopt personae anymore. Ever since I experienced that “reconciliation” or ever since the clanging of the bell in the bell jar stopped, I have not needed to adopt persona to make it through life.
Before the recovered memory, I don't think I ever was truly myself.
When I went to work at NASA in 1978, I was adopting the persona of Faye Dunaway in Network. As a hippie mom my persona was a fantasy female in long skirts, flowers in her hair, always graceful and at peace - unless someone brought up the Vietnam War. Then I became a female version of Jerry Ruben. There were years as a yoga instructor, years as editor in chief of a tacky magazine. Through it all, I adopted personae to make it through life.
Recovering the memories caused the clanging to stop. I know I’ll probably never win a lawsuit or get any kind of acknowledgement from the Chicago Archdiocese, as I could never prove my case in court - unless some other victim of Father Thomas Barry Horne in Bartlett Illinois 1950-53 comes forward.
That would be my Confirmation.
Since I can’t prove my case to the constraints of a legal lawsuit, the Catholic Church, ever in servitude and worship of civil law and authority, does not have to acknowledge my case, or give me any help at all.
So now I'm sixty years old.
I was not myself from age 5 to age 45, I was adopting other people’s personalities, lives, mannerisms, speech patterns, not to mention physical appearance. Until age forty-five when the memories came in.
It is hard not to get stuck mourning the loss more or less of 40 years of my life. I have to appreciate that at least I get these “golden” years, to be myself for the first time.
All the behavior that was tormenting me as an aging adult, wondering with no explanation, why did I do this, why did I say that. Plus add the element of sobriety. I had been clean and sober for two years straight, probably the first time in my adult life. Plus in the story add the element that my daughter turned the age I was at the time of the molest, which is such a young age that it’s understandable the memory was suppressed.
I know who I really am now. That is something.
Onward. . .
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
His perp is a parish priest. A scream inside says children are still at risk, go public with the story from Immaculate Heart seminary in NY
*
By Kay Ebeling
The church finally admits that thousands of children were damaged by sexual predator priests and pays close to a billion in settlements to adult survivors the last decade. As crime victims we should feel vindicated. But thousands of us got no acknowledgement. The church only responds to cases that come with fully documented lawsuits. If you can’t find other victims, if there is no hard evidence, if local law makes prosecution impossible, the Catholic Church does not count your crime in with its statistics about the clergy crisis. You feel your case counts for nothing.
Survivor Peter Saracino, pictured at right, knows his perpetrator is still in a parish, the bishop more or less acknowledges the priest is a pedophile, but the Capuchin religious order “investigation” did not include interviews with those closest to the accused priest. The talk in the town, at the local bars and coffee shops, is that local kids learned to stay away from Immaculate Heart Of Mary Seminary. But many victims keep their experience at the hands of serial pedophile Catholic priests a secret, especially in regions like upstate New York, where the Catholic Church is built into the foundation of city and county governance. The crime victims’ hesitance is understandable, but in Saracino’s case it means the perpetrator priest is still in a New Jersey town, serving Mass, even “babysitting” according to the parish pastor.
“To this day I have received no confirmation from another victim that they were abused at the seminary – let alone by Father Anthony Blank. That is part of my reason for making it public now – and part of my reason for my willingness to name names. my hope that I will find other victims of this man,” says Saracino. “To this day I'm still afraid he is going to come back and rape me.”
Saracino and I deal with recovered memory as well. Pete says he always knew there was something wrong with him, and in therapy even identified, he had been molested at some time as a child. He pondered and brooded over it, who in his family would have done that. I had a similar experience. For years therapists told me I had all the signs of someone who had been molested as a child, but I couldn't imagine anyone in my family doing that. Saracino and I both recovered memories decades later as adults.
On Saracino’s new commute to a new job he drove past Geneva on the Lake resort, and as he’d get close to the former Immaculate Heart Of Mary Seminary land, memories started colliding in his brain. He pulled in to the parking lot to find out why he was going so crazy -
And the memories began to pour in.
Much like when my daughter turned five years old, I pulled her away from a window where I was sure she’d been exposing herself to neighbors, but of course she wasn’t, and then memories began to pour in of what Father Horne did to me when I was five years old, and why that made me behave the way I did, from five years old on.
It is not an experience a person gets over quickly.
It is not the kind of case attorneys like to take on either.
So Saracino and I and thousands of other pedophile priest crime victims remain un-named, un-numbered, un-resolved, and un-restituted. Still Saracino and I keep putting one foot in front of the other, hoping by getting our stories out, a few more people will see the name of the perp, the seminary, the parish, or remember other incidents, and more survivors of childhood rape by a Catholic priest come forward and make the crimes known.
In 1989 Saracino started remembering what happened to him at the hands of Father Anthony Blank, Capuchin
Now almost 20 years later Saracino is finding strength and courage to put his story into new media as a way to reach more potential victims, by posting his story here at City of Angels Network. Below in Peter Saracino’s own words, is his experience at the hands of a pedophile priest, the effect it had on his life, and his current frustration trying to run his own investigation with no help from the church, no help from attorneys (his case is too hard to prove for your usual civil lawsuit, like mine is), but with a little help from new friends he’s found in the national pedophile priest crime victim community.
He sent me his story recently, and here are excerpts.
***************
Peter Saracino, in his own words.
The seminary was run by the Province of the Sacred Stigmata out of Union City, N.J. We were kind of close to the priests there. My Father signed us up to be in the “Third Order of St. Francis, a group of lay folks who helped out with food baskets at Thanksgiving, etc. A number of these priests would often come down to St. Pat’s parish in Seneca Falls to say Mass. It was common for them to stop at our house after mass to have coffee. My mom and aunt were kind of close to these guys. It was also common for these priests to take many young boys from Seneca Falls up to the seminary to go swimming.
I believe my abuse happened on one of these swimming trips to the seminary.
While I still remembered the NAMES of the priests from back then, I couldn’t connect a name with a face. I wondered who the priest might be. I got my hands on an old year book of the place and started looking at the pictures. When my eyes landed on the photograph of the abuser, I looked down and saw his name – Father Anthony Blank, OFM Capuchin, (City of Angels cannot run his entire name as he is still alive.)
Father Anthony GiudiceOFM Capuchin.
It was the one priest who I was really hoping it would NOT be – I had just named my second child BLANK!!
***********
Saracino and I share this. My sister named her son Damian, not even remembering at the time our perpetrator was at St. Peter Damian Church outside Chicago
*****************************
Peter Saracino, In His Own Words, Cont'd:
It was a perfect summer’s day and I was so glad to be alive. The grass was so green, the sky so blue and I was going on an “adventure”
I believe something happened that day. Ever since I’ve had a “feeling”, a “perception”, a very weird “knowing”/”unknowing” that “something” happened that day. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I had a sense that, deep down inside, at my very core, I had been “changed” – and not for the better.
Throughout my life I found myself continually fighting depression, despair, sadness. It was very difficult being close to people. More than once I felt like ending it all. In spite of my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to shake these feelings. Friends grew up and got married, had families, raised kids. Pete Saracino, on the other hand, seemed to be a loner – with no wife, kids, etc.
Finally, with no hope remaining, I turned to God for help
I was now on a spiritual journey that has lasted to this very day
Little, by little, however, “it” began to surface. I gradually came to understand that I had been molested as a young boy. This, by the way, was a bit before the scandal began to surface with Frank Fitzpatrick going public with the Father James Porter story in Massachusetts. In fact, it was just a few years before that – perhaps 1989. I was shocked and dismayed………and very worried…………WHO could have done such a thing? Was it my dad, my uncle, a brother, WHO?
Around this time I was commuting to a job by a road that took me past the old seminary. It is now a world class resort called “Geneva on the Lake”
As I drove by, I knew I did NOT like the place…..that something horrible had happened there. T hen, one day as I drove by and again said to the little guy within me, can you please tell me……………………….and then, just after I spoke these words, came to my mind the image of a face……………it was a Capuchin priest – the dark eyebrows, the beard……..the face. I was shocked; I was absolutely dumbfounded. It couldn’t be possible…..A priest? I had to be the only person in the world ever molested by a priest. Who would ever believe me.
I wondered who the priest might be. I got my hands on an old year book of the place and started looking at the pictures. When my eyes landed on the photograph of the abuser, I looked down and saw his name – Father Anthony Blank, OFM Capuchin. It was the one priest who I was really hoping it would NOT be – I had just named my second child the same name as the priest!!
I gradually began working up the courage to begin investigating. I called Barb Pedeville, a woman who works with the Diocese of Rochester as an advocate for abuse victims. Little by little, with each phone call, I began telling her my story – WITHOUT telling her my name. She promised to “ask around” to see if she could dig anything up. At one point she told me that she had spoken with the Bishop – at the time, a retired former bishop of the Rochester Diocese. She informed me that when she questioned him about any “goings-on” of a sexual nature at the seminary back then, his reply was “that place was a mess…………that’s why it closed” . I gradually found the courage to identify myself. Slowly I developed a relationship with Barb.
Meanwhile, through spiritual direction and therapy, the memories began to surface. They continue to this very day.
*****************
'If you ever tell, no one will believe you over a priest.' It is little wonder that my mind kept this experience hidden from me for so many years
********************************************
Peter Saracino in his own words, continued:
I just remember a feeling like being a “pig on a spit” – being pierced through both ends and slowly being turned and cooked over a fire…….
I remember his words to me – more devastating than the abuse itself………..”if you ever tell, no one will believe you over a priest…………….if you ever tell, the Blessed Mother (Mary) won’t love you………besides, she won’t love you because YOU did this horrible thing…………….if you ever tell, I will come and kill you!
It is little wonder that my mind “kept” this “experience” hidden from me for so many years………….
I finally found the courage to have a meeting with Bishop Clark to disclose the whole story.
Bishop Clark seemed to believe me
Bishop Clark said that he had little jurisdiction over Father Anthony Giudicebecause he was a Capuchin and not a priest of the Rochester Diocese
****************************
Yes, we knew he was raping children, but he is in a religious order, we are an archdiocese. So it is not our responsibility.
Me, I am tired of hearing that excuse - ke
********************************************
Peter Saracino In His Own Words, continued:
When I first approached the Capuchins of Union City, NJ, I spoke with the Provincial who did tell me that Father Anthony Giudicehad been sent to St. Luke’s in Maryland for “testing”. Evidently he stayed there for just a day and the tests – according to the Capuchins, showed no cause for concern.
The Capuchins did agree to an investigation.
For their investigation they spoke with people about Father Anthony Giudice– friends of Father Anthony Giudicewho had nothing but great things to say about him.
They decided that it was his word against mine. Nothing was done to him. In fact, shortly thereafter, I was told that he had returned to Geneva and was babysitting!!!
**************
His perp was in Geneva New York Babysitting
BABYSITTING!!!
************************
Peter Saracino in his own words, continued:
I continue investigating
A psychologist told me that in group therapy, two of his clients mentioned they had been sexually abused at Immaculate Heart Seminary. While the therapist could not give me their names, he promised to give those patients my name and phone number in the event they wanted to call me. To this day I have never heard from them.
My mom recently told me that when I was little - during the days of kids going to the seminary to swim – there came a day when I began begging her NOT to make me
******************
Fr. Anthony Giudicefound out Saracino was asking questions about him around town. The priest reacted like a criminal, almost stalking Saracino, intimidating him into a few more years of silence.
********************************
Peter Saracino In His Own Words continued:
Anthony Giudicekept asking my friend and neighbor the name of the street where we lived. My friend began to feel uneasy and refused to tell him. That night, Anthony Giudiceshowed up on the street where I lived. He simply sat in a parked car looking down the street toward my apartment. His presence was discovered when this same friend came out to jog and ran right by the car. As he passed the car he realized that he recognized the face……it was Father Anthony Blank. Realizing that he had been caught, Anthony Giudicesped down the street at about 45-50 miles/hour.”
Also in my investigation I discovered that a number of important individuals – including priests who were family friends and who were at the seminary at the time of the abuse – Fathers (Names cut) and another Capuchin Brother, were Never asked if they knew anything!!!!
I also spoke with Father "Blanket" who also said he knew nothing. Angelus told me, however, that, as a young seminarian, he, himself, had been abused by a Capuchin friar. In order to force Fortunato to call these priests himself, I was forced to write a letter to his Superior in Rome!!!! Then, and only then, did he contact them. Then, and only then, were they even an official part of this “investigation”.
Meanwhile I continue in therapy, both individual and group. I participated in a male survivors’ group in Rochester, NY for four years.
At one meeting, I personally called Father Anthony Giudiceand “had it out”. I confronted him. His answers were very short. He was denying everything I said. You could tell he just wanted to get off the phone. I finally said to him: “Do the people in Geneva you come back to visit know the kind of person you really are? Do they know you are a murderer of souls?” For the first time there was silence at the other end……then he dropped the phone! Then he hung up.
*******************
‘To this day – and much to my disappointment – I have received no confirmation from another victim that they were abused at the seminary’
***************************************
Peter Saracino In His Own Words, continued:
Of late, I continue on my healing journey. For the past six years I have co-facilitated a support group for men who were abused by priests. We hold our meetings in Geneva, NY.
I have tried to be a voice for the voiceless – I have appeared a couple of times on TV; written an op-ed piece in the local paper in response to a B.S. piece written by the local bishop. I have also written a number of letters to the editor. I have attending four national conferences for clergy abuse survivors – two in Chicago, one in Toronto, and one in Louisville. A few days ago I visited the local police department and reported my abuse as a crime. I now have an official record of the horrible events.
I called down to St. Francis of Assisi parish in Hackensack, NJ and confirmed that Father Anthony Giudiceis a priest there.
Also, to this day – and much to my disappointment – I have received no confirmation from another victim that they were abused at the seminary – let alone by Father Anthony Blank. Part of my reason for making it “public” now – and part of my reason for my willingness to “name names” is my hope that I will find other victims of this man.
(Unfortunately City of Angels had to replace the name of the man Peter says raped him, because he is still alive and could sue me for - my typewriter. . . )
A recent Good Friday, I once again phoned Father Blanket who is now at a capuchin friary in Beacon, NY. As stated before, I told him of my conversation with my mom and asked him if he could/would shed light on it. He said that he knew nothing about the conversation or any abuse at the seminary. He was put off that it was Good Friday and that I had “bothered” him. I told him that, with all due respect, every day of my life since I was seven had been a “Good Friday” for me. This means I have struggled my entire life with feelings of despair, depression, unworthiness before God and other people, an inability to be close to people’ feelings of suicide, etc.
What would I like to have happen? I would like to continue regaining my “voice” – my sense of myself taken away by the abuse. I would like to continue healing from the pain, of the past. I would like to protect little children. So, In this order:
1. I would like to have the abuse acknowledged.
2. I would like an apology from both the order and Father Anthony Blank
3. I would like to see Anthony Giudice“retired” and jailed………….at the very least, I would like for him to be unable to hurt any more kids.
4. I would like to find other survivors of Father Anthony Giudiceand the Immacualte Heart of Mary seminary. As I’ve said, I’ve been unable to locate any – including my cousin, Jim, who claims he knows nothing about any abuse happening there.
5. I sure would like Father Anthony Giudiceand the Capuchin Order held accountable………..Anthony Giudicefor his abuse; the order for their lack of willingness to even attempt a good-faith effort to arrive at the truth
6. If being “accountable” means paying monetary restitution, then so be it.
END OF PETER SARACINO IN HIS OWN WORDS
***************
Pete told me, to this day he is “always afraid Father Anthony Giudiceis going to come back and rape me.” He said:
“In light of what I'm going through now, I look back and realize, I used to think what's the matter with me.
“I’d see friends getting married. . . .”
“In spite of efforts to enter pain and move through it, it’s there’s always more stuff inside. It’s surprising and disconcerting the depth of it and how profoundly you're affected by it.
"It is like a scream."
Peter Saracino: My Big Concern is Children are still in harm’s way.
**************************************
Psychologists cite the number as about 1 in 10 or even 1 in 20 persons come forward about child sex abuse. The numbers are likely higher when the perpetrator is a Catholic priest, which is probably a reason pedophiles flock to the profession.
*************
The statute of limitations makes justice a crap shoot for sex crime victims, depending on what state you are in, you get some kind of justice or none at all.
****************************
The statute of limitations to file criminal charges or a civil lawsuit is a crap shoot, depending on what state you were in at the time of the rape. In Maryland and Delaware, there is no SOL on sex crimes, in California they opened a one-year window in 2003 for civil lawsuits then reinstated the SOL on January 1st 2004. In New York you have from age 18 to 21 to file suit, then the statute of limitations runs out.
I was raped by a priest outside Chicago, so I'm left with restrictions of Illinois law, and of course the Chicago Archdiocese has no need to respond to me, I’ll never file a lawsuit.
Those of us who can take no civil or criminal action are invisible to the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church has no legal or financial obligation to the thousands of crime victims unless they arrive armored by lawsuits with blatant evidence.
To get a response of confirmation from the Catholic Church you have to make them an allegation they can’t refuse.
Onward. . .
By Kay Ebeling
The church finally admits that thousands of children were damaged by sexual predator priests and pays close to a billion in settlements to adult survivors the last decade. As crime victims we should feel vindicated. But thousands of us got no acknowledgement. The church only responds to cases that come with fully documented lawsuits. If you can’t find other victims, if there is no hard evidence, if local law makes prosecution impossible, the Catholic Church does not count your crime in with its statistics about the clergy crisis. You feel your case counts for nothing.
Survivor Peter Saracino, pictured at right, knows his perpetrator is still in a parish, the bishop more or less acknowledges the priest is a pedophile, but the Capuchin religious order “investigation” did not include interviews with those closest to the accused priest. The talk in the town, at the local bars and coffee shops, is that local kids learned to stay away from Immaculate Heart Of Mary Seminary. But many victims keep their experience at the hands of serial pedophile Catholic priests a secret, especially in regions like upstate New York, where the Catholic Church is built into the foundation of city and county governance. The crime victims’ hesitance is understandable, but in Saracino’s case it means the perpetrator priest is still in a New Jersey town, serving Mass, even “babysitting” according to the parish pastor.
“To this day I have received no confirmation from another victim that they were abused at the seminary – let alone by Father Anthony Blank. That is part of my reason for making it public now – and part of my reason for my willingness to name names. my hope that I will find other victims of this man,” says Saracino. “To this day I'm still afraid he is going to come back and rape me.”
Saracino and I deal with recovered memory as well. Pete says he always knew there was something wrong with him, and in therapy even identified, he had been molested at some time as a child. He pondered and brooded over it, who in his family would have done that. I had a similar experience. For years therapists told me I had all the signs of someone who had been molested as a child, but I couldn't imagine anyone in my family doing that. Saracino and I both recovered memories decades later as adults.
On Saracino’s new commute to a new job he drove past Geneva on the Lake resort, and as he’d get close to the former Immaculate Heart Of Mary Seminary land, memories started colliding in his brain. He pulled in to the parking lot to find out why he was going so crazy -
And the memories began to pour in.
Much like when my daughter turned five years old, I pulled her away from a window where I was sure she’d been exposing herself to neighbors, but of course she wasn’t, and then memories began to pour in of what Father Horne did to me when I was five years old, and why that made me behave the way I did, from five years old on.
It is not an experience a person gets over quickly.
It is not the kind of case attorneys like to take on either.
So Saracino and I and thousands of other pedophile priest crime victims remain un-named, un-numbered, un-resolved, and un-restituted. Still Saracino and I keep putting one foot in front of the other, hoping by getting our stories out, a few more people will see the name of the perp, the seminary, the parish, or remember other incidents, and more survivors of childhood rape by a Catholic priest come forward and make the crimes known.
In 1989 Saracino started remembering what happened to him at the hands of Father Anthony Blank, Capuchin
Now almost 20 years later Saracino is finding strength and courage to put his story into new media as a way to reach more potential victims, by posting his story here at City of Angels Network. Below in Peter Saracino’s own words, is his experience at the hands of a pedophile priest, the effect it had on his life, and his current frustration trying to run his own investigation with no help from the church, no help from attorneys (his case is too hard to prove for your usual civil lawsuit, like mine is), but with a little help from new friends he’s found in the national pedophile priest crime victim community.
He sent me his story recently, and here are excerpts.
***************
Peter Saracino, in his own words.
The seminary was run by the Province of the Sacred Stigmata out of Union City, N.J. We were kind of close to the priests there. My Father signed us up to be in the “Third Order of St. Francis, a group of lay folks who helped out with food baskets at Thanksgiving, etc. A number of these priests would often come down to St. Pat’s parish in Seneca Falls to say Mass. It was common for them to stop at our house after mass to have coffee. My mom and aunt were kind of close to these guys. It was also common for these priests to take many young boys from Seneca Falls up to the seminary to go swimming.
I believe my abuse happened on one of these swimming trips to the seminary.
While I still remembered the NAMES of the priests from back then, I couldn’t connect a name with a face. I wondered who the priest might be. I got my hands on an old year book of the place and started looking at the pictures. When my eyes landed on the photograph of the abuser, I looked down and saw his name – Father Anthony Blank, OFM Capuchin, (City of Angels cannot run his entire name as he is still alive.)
Father Anthony GiudiceOFM Capuchin.
It was the one priest who I was really hoping it would NOT be – I had just named my second child BLANK!!
***********
Saracino and I share this. My sister named her son Damian, not even remembering at the time our perpetrator was at St. Peter Damian Church outside Chicago
*****************************
Peter Saracino, In His Own Words, Cont'd:
It was a perfect summer’s day and I was so glad to be alive. The grass was so green, the sky so blue and I was going on an “adventure”
I believe something happened that day. Ever since I’ve had a “feeling”, a “perception”, a very weird “knowing”/”unknowing” that “something” happened that day. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I had a sense that, deep down inside, at my very core, I had been “changed” – and not for the better.
Throughout my life I found myself continually fighting depression, despair, sadness. It was very difficult being close to people. More than once I felt like ending it all. In spite of my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to shake these feelings. Friends grew up and got married, had families, raised kids. Pete Saracino, on the other hand, seemed to be a loner – with no wife, kids, etc.
Finally, with no hope remaining, I turned to God for help
I was now on a spiritual journey that has lasted to this very day
Little, by little, however, “it” began to surface. I gradually came to understand that I had been molested as a young boy. This, by the way, was a bit before the scandal began to surface with Frank Fitzpatrick going public with the Father James Porter story in Massachusetts. In fact, it was just a few years before that – perhaps 1989. I was shocked and dismayed………and very worried…………WHO could have done such a thing? Was it my dad, my uncle, a brother, WHO?
Around this time I was commuting to a job by a road that took me past the old seminary. It is now a world class resort called “Geneva on the Lake”
As I drove by, I knew I did NOT like the place…..that something horrible had happened there. T hen, one day as I drove by and again said to the little guy within me, can you please tell me……………………….and then, just after I spoke these words, came to my mind the image of a face……………it was a Capuchin priest – the dark eyebrows, the beard……..the face. I was shocked; I was absolutely dumbfounded. It couldn’t be possible…..A priest? I had to be the only person in the world ever molested by a priest. Who would ever believe me.
I wondered who the priest might be. I got my hands on an old year book of the place and started looking at the pictures. When my eyes landed on the photograph of the abuser, I looked down and saw his name – Father Anthony Blank, OFM Capuchin. It was the one priest who I was really hoping it would NOT be – I had just named my second child the same name as the priest!!
I gradually began working up the courage to begin investigating. I called Barb Pedeville, a woman who works with the Diocese of Rochester as an advocate for abuse victims. Little by little, with each phone call, I began telling her my story – WITHOUT telling her my name. She promised to “ask around” to see if she could dig anything up. At one point she told me that she had spoken with the Bishop – at the time, a retired former bishop of the Rochester Diocese. She informed me that when she questioned him about any “goings-on” of a sexual nature at the seminary back then, his reply was “that place was a mess…………that’s why it closed” . I gradually found the courage to identify myself. Slowly I developed a relationship with Barb.
Meanwhile, through spiritual direction and therapy, the memories began to surface. They continue to this very day.
*****************
'If you ever tell, no one will believe you over a priest.' It is little wonder that my mind kept this experience hidden from me for so many years
********************************************
Peter Saracino in his own words, continued:
I just remember a feeling like being a “pig on a spit” – being pierced through both ends and slowly being turned and cooked over a fire…….
I remember his words to me – more devastating than the abuse itself………..”if you ever tell, no one will believe you over a priest…………….if you ever tell, the Blessed Mother (Mary) won’t love you………besides, she won’t love you because YOU did this horrible thing…………….if you ever tell, I will come and kill you!
It is little wonder that my mind “kept” this “experience” hidden from me for so many years………….
I finally found the courage to have a meeting with Bishop Clark to disclose the whole story.
Bishop Clark seemed to believe me
Bishop Clark said that he had little jurisdiction over Father Anthony Giudicebecause he was a Capuchin and not a priest of the Rochester Diocese
****************************
Yes, we knew he was raping children, but he is in a religious order, we are an archdiocese. So it is not our responsibility.
Me, I am tired of hearing that excuse - ke
********************************************
Peter Saracino In His Own Words, continued:
When I first approached the Capuchins of Union City, NJ, I spoke with the Provincial who did tell me that Father Anthony Giudicehad been sent to St. Luke’s in Maryland for “testing”. Evidently he stayed there for just a day and the tests – according to the Capuchins, showed no cause for concern.
The Capuchins did agree to an investigation.
For their investigation they spoke with people about Father Anthony Giudice– friends of Father Anthony Giudicewho had nothing but great things to say about him.
They decided that it was his word against mine. Nothing was done to him. In fact, shortly thereafter, I was told that he had returned to Geneva and was babysitting!!!
**************
His perp was in Geneva New York Babysitting
BABYSITTING!!!
************************
Peter Saracino in his own words, continued:
I continue investigating
A psychologist told me that in group therapy, two of his clients mentioned they had been sexually abused at Immaculate Heart Seminary. While the therapist could not give me their names, he promised to give those patients my name and phone number in the event they wanted to call me. To this day I have never heard from them.
My mom recently told me that when I was little - during the days of kids going to the seminary to swim – there came a day when I began begging her NOT to make me
******************
Fr. Anthony Giudicefound out Saracino was asking questions about him around town. The priest reacted like a criminal, almost stalking Saracino, intimidating him into a few more years of silence.
********************************
Peter Saracino In His Own Words continued:
Anthony Giudicekept asking my friend and neighbor the name of the street where we lived. My friend began to feel uneasy and refused to tell him. That night, Anthony Giudiceshowed up on the street where I lived. He simply sat in a parked car looking down the street toward my apartment. His presence was discovered when this same friend came out to jog and ran right by the car. As he passed the car he realized that he recognized the face……it was Father Anthony Blank. Realizing that he had been caught, Anthony Giudicesped down the street at about 45-50 miles/hour.”
Also in my investigation I discovered that a number of important individuals – including priests who were family friends and who were at the seminary at the time of the abuse – Fathers (Names cut) and another Capuchin Brother, were Never asked if they knew anything!!!!
I also spoke with Father "Blanket" who also said he knew nothing. Angelus told me, however, that, as a young seminarian, he, himself, had been abused by a Capuchin friar. In order to force Fortunato to call these priests himself, I was forced to write a letter to his Superior in Rome!!!! Then, and only then, did he contact them. Then, and only then, were they even an official part of this “investigation”.
Meanwhile I continue in therapy, both individual and group. I participated in a male survivors’ group in Rochester, NY for four years.
At one meeting, I personally called Father Anthony Giudiceand “had it out”. I confronted him. His answers were very short. He was denying everything I said. You could tell he just wanted to get off the phone. I finally said to him: “Do the people in Geneva you come back to visit know the kind of person you really are? Do they know you are a murderer of souls?” For the first time there was silence at the other end……then he dropped the phone! Then he hung up.
*******************
‘To this day – and much to my disappointment – I have received no confirmation from another victim that they were abused at the seminary’
***************************************
Peter Saracino In His Own Words, continued:
Of late, I continue on my healing journey. For the past six years I have co-facilitated a support group for men who were abused by priests. We hold our meetings in Geneva, NY.
I have tried to be a voice for the voiceless – I have appeared a couple of times on TV; written an op-ed piece in the local paper in response to a B.S. piece written by the local bishop. I have also written a number of letters to the editor. I have attending four national conferences for clergy abuse survivors – two in Chicago, one in Toronto, and one in Louisville. A few days ago I visited the local police department and reported my abuse as a crime. I now have an official record of the horrible events.
I called down to St. Francis of Assisi parish in Hackensack, NJ and confirmed that Father Anthony Giudiceis a priest there.
Also, to this day – and much to my disappointment – I have received no confirmation from another victim that they were abused at the seminary – let alone by Father Anthony Blank. Part of my reason for making it “public” now – and part of my reason for my willingness to “name names” is my hope that I will find other victims of this man.
(Unfortunately City of Angels had to replace the name of the man Peter says raped him, because he is still alive and could sue me for - my typewriter. . . )
A recent Good Friday, I once again phoned Father Blanket who is now at a capuchin friary in Beacon, NY. As stated before, I told him of my conversation with my mom and asked him if he could/would shed light on it. He said that he knew nothing about the conversation or any abuse at the seminary. He was put off that it was Good Friday and that I had “bothered” him. I told him that, with all due respect, every day of my life since I was seven had been a “Good Friday” for me. This means I have struggled my entire life with feelings of despair, depression, unworthiness before God and other people, an inability to be close to people’ feelings of suicide, etc.
What would I like to have happen? I would like to continue regaining my “voice” – my sense of myself taken away by the abuse. I would like to continue healing from the pain, of the past. I would like to protect little children. So, In this order:
1. I would like to have the abuse acknowledged.
2. I would like an apology from both the order and Father Anthony Blank
3. I would like to see Anthony Giudice“retired” and jailed………….at the very least, I would like for him to be unable to hurt any more kids.
4. I would like to find other survivors of Father Anthony Giudiceand the Immacualte Heart of Mary seminary. As I’ve said, I’ve been unable to locate any – including my cousin, Jim, who claims he knows nothing about any abuse happening there.
5. I sure would like Father Anthony Giudiceand the Capuchin Order held accountable………..Anthony Giudicefor his abuse; the order for their lack of willingness to even attempt a good-faith effort to arrive at the truth
6. If being “accountable” means paying monetary restitution, then so be it.
END OF PETER SARACINO IN HIS OWN WORDS
***************
Pete told me, to this day he is “always afraid Father Anthony Giudiceis going to come back and rape me.” He said:
“In light of what I'm going through now, I look back and realize, I used to think what's the matter with me.
“I’d see friends getting married. . . .”
“In spite of efforts to enter pain and move through it, it’s there’s always more stuff inside. It’s surprising and disconcerting the depth of it and how profoundly you're affected by it.
"It is like a scream."
Peter Saracino: My Big Concern is Children are still in harm’s way.
**************************************
Psychologists cite the number as about 1 in 10 or even 1 in 20 persons come forward about child sex abuse. The numbers are likely higher when the perpetrator is a Catholic priest, which is probably a reason pedophiles flock to the profession.
*************
The statute of limitations makes justice a crap shoot for sex crime victims, depending on what state you are in, you get some kind of justice or none at all.
****************************
The statute of limitations to file criminal charges or a civil lawsuit is a crap shoot, depending on what state you were in at the time of the rape. In Maryland and Delaware, there is no SOL on sex crimes, in California they opened a one-year window in 2003 for civil lawsuits then reinstated the SOL on January 1st 2004. In New York you have from age 18 to 21 to file suit, then the statute of limitations runs out.
I was raped by a priest outside Chicago, so I'm left with restrictions of Illinois law, and of course the Chicago Archdiocese has no need to respond to me, I’ll never file a lawsuit.
Those of us who can take no civil or criminal action are invisible to the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church has no legal or financial obligation to the thousands of crime victims unless they arrive armored by lawsuits with blatant evidence.
To get a response of confirmation from the Catholic Church you have to make them an allegation they can’t refuse.
Onward. . .
Monday, November 17, 2008
LA Update: Progress toward new referee for document release. And if survivors wonder about the cross, it is no concern to Mahony
*
By Kay Ebeling
Attorneys will file the application this week for Dickran Tevrizian to be the new referee in the LA Clergy Cases. Tony DeMarco said he received the retired federal judge’s Certificate of Availability last week so he can now take the next step towards replacing Edward A. Panelli as referee. If approved, Tevrizian will review personnel records and other items from the 560 plus cases, which settled with the stipulation that documents would be released to plaintiffs in July 2007.
Meanwhile the documents themselves are in geographic locations around the city, including attorneys’ offices, and the Archdiocese Archives building in Granada Hills. Don’t know who’s to keep those very ethical church employees from accidentally shredding the most condemning documents before they get to the new referee.
Call me hopelessly untrusting but it also bothers me that the Survivors Cross was never returned to LA plaintiffs, in fact no one really knows where it is. “It has pictures of the plaintiffs when they were the age of their abuse on it,” I hollered into someone’s ear in a recent phone conversation. “Doesn't it bother you that now the cross in a basement somewhere in the archdiocese for any pervert to come across?”
Last July, activist Debbra Bodkin wrote this in a letter to Roger Mahony, and the man did not even deign to respond:
Dear Cardinal Mahony:
I am a Catholic wife, mother and active supporter of justice and peace; especially as it relates to
the clergy sex abuse crisis that erupted in June 2002. This letter is written with respect and concern, hoping to clarify and disprove the serious accusations circulating throughout Southern California Catholic communities.
In June 2003, a group of sex abuse survivors, families and supporters proceeded toward the Cathedral’s entrance and placed a cross with photographs, in the alcove specifically “designated” by you for observance of the suffering of sex abuse victims. Unfortunately, there was a debate in front of live cameras at the time; however, the procession stopped at the entrance to the alcove, a brief statement was made to the press and the cross remained on display at the Cathedral since June 2003. However, we were recently told that the cross and photos have been removed from the site you specifically “designated” for observance of the suffering of sex abuse victims.”
Actually, City of Angels Lady is the one who discovered the cross had been removed. As one of the few pedophile priest rape survivors who can walk into the cathedral without barfing - (Yay though I walk into the valley of death I fear no evil) - I was the one who first saw way last spring that the survivor cross was no longer in its display area.
From what I understand, no one can get a straight answer or any answer at all from Tod Tamberg the archdiocese spokesman, or from Mahony or anyone else.
Hey, they paid the settlement, what more do you want?
What more do you expect?
Consideration?
*************
The cross meant a lot to many of the LA plaintiffs. Here is how one of the persons who helped carry the cross inside recently described the incident to me (name withheld):
The last Sunday in May 2003, Mahony calls the media and dedicates little alcove in the cathedral to the victims of sex abuse.
He had advance notice that we were going to hold a demonstration, and he thought his announcement would steal our thunder.
So we went ahead with our plan. We had about 150 people outside, we had every damn news station in LA with TV, we had all sorts of preparations, we had people with pictures around their necks, we had lots of placards. It was like, you know, it was like a fiesta on Olvera Street, it was just teeming with people.
Even Mahony came out and Tamberg and at first they said no you can’t put that cross in here.
We kept insisting and then when there was a lull we were inside.
I don't remember the exact details, but a couple of people just looked around and said let’s just take it inside. I ran ahead and someone got the door. They had people standing in front of him, Mahony, some woman with her maroon security coat and her walkie talkie and the other guys were just moving forward. I recall seeing Tamberg shake his head, like don’t stand in their way.
So they stood aside, someone held the door open and they took it into the cathedral and we looked for the alcove. People were already there and they said over here. the alcove where Mahony had a little plaque for the survivors.
‘
Someone grabbed each end of cross with and they said there’s a space in the corner let’s go. It was all caught on tape, on Channel 11.
They had this plaque that said:
This space is dedicated to those who were affected by childhood sexual abuse.
Or something like that.
Well several months into this, they left it there, but they took down the plaque.
A lot of people saw the cross and pictures of children and didn't know what it was about, and so they put pictures of their kids who were shot in gang violence and who had leukemia and who had other illnesses and the whole thing was diluted.
Originally, a survivor wrote something like “I was four years old when father so and so ripped my hymen and I’ve had physical problems with my sexual organs ever since.”
The archdiocese employees would tear those pages out.
Then people started writing things in Spanish about the husband in jail and kids taking drugs please Angel Gabriel come and help, so it turned into that kind of thing, my nina lost his leg and he needs a job, stuff like that.
*********
Also coming up:
The church tries to seal documents that should have been unsealed, or unseal documents that shouldn't have been sealed - in a hearing December 10th.
Will report more later. Right now, my boss is calling me.
From LA Superior Court website:
12/10/2008 at 10:00 am in department 308 at 600 South Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005 Hearing-Oral Argument
1) RE MTN. TO UNSEAL COURT RECORDS FILED ON 6-13-08
2) HRG. RE OBJECT.TO CT. ORDER OF 10-31-08
3) OSC REPROOF OF BOND AND PROBATE CASE
Onward. . .
By Kay Ebeling
Attorneys will file the application this week for Dickran Tevrizian to be the new referee in the LA Clergy Cases. Tony DeMarco said he received the retired federal judge’s Certificate of Availability last week so he can now take the next step towards replacing Edward A. Panelli as referee. If approved, Tevrizian will review personnel records and other items from the 560 plus cases, which settled with the stipulation that documents would be released to plaintiffs in July 2007.
Meanwhile the documents themselves are in geographic locations around the city, including attorneys’ offices, and the Archdiocese Archives building in Granada Hills. Don’t know who’s to keep those very ethical church employees from accidentally shredding the most condemning documents before they get to the new referee.
Call me hopelessly untrusting but it also bothers me that the Survivors Cross was never returned to LA plaintiffs, in fact no one really knows where it is. “It has pictures of the plaintiffs when they were the age of their abuse on it,” I hollered into someone’s ear in a recent phone conversation. “Doesn't it bother you that now the cross in a basement somewhere in the archdiocese for any pervert to come across?”
Last July, activist Debbra Bodkin wrote this in a letter to Roger Mahony, and the man did not even deign to respond:
Dear Cardinal Mahony:
I am a Catholic wife, mother and active supporter of justice and peace; especially as it relates to
the clergy sex abuse crisis that erupted in June 2002. This letter is written with respect and concern, hoping to clarify and disprove the serious accusations circulating throughout Southern California Catholic communities.
In June 2003, a group of sex abuse survivors, families and supporters proceeded toward the Cathedral’s entrance and placed a cross with photographs, in the alcove specifically “designated” by you for observance of the suffering of sex abuse victims. Unfortunately, there was a debate in front of live cameras at the time; however, the procession stopped at the entrance to the alcove, a brief statement was made to the press and the cross remained on display at the Cathedral since June 2003. However, we were recently told that the cross and photos have been removed from the site you specifically “designated” for observance of the suffering of sex abuse victims.”
Actually, City of Angels Lady is the one who discovered the cross had been removed. As one of the few pedophile priest rape survivors who can walk into the cathedral without barfing - (Yay though I walk into the valley of death I fear no evil) - I was the one who first saw way last spring that the survivor cross was no longer in its display area.
From what I understand, no one can get a straight answer or any answer at all from Tod Tamberg the archdiocese spokesman, or from Mahony or anyone else.
Hey, they paid the settlement, what more do you want?
What more do you expect?
Consideration?
*************
The cross meant a lot to many of the LA plaintiffs. Here is how one of the persons who helped carry the cross inside recently described the incident to me (name withheld):
The last Sunday in May 2003, Mahony calls the media and dedicates little alcove in the cathedral to the victims of sex abuse.
He had advance notice that we were going to hold a demonstration, and he thought his announcement would steal our thunder.
So we went ahead with our plan. We had about 150 people outside, we had every damn news station in LA with TV, we had all sorts of preparations, we had people with pictures around their necks, we had lots of placards. It was like, you know, it was like a fiesta on Olvera Street, it was just teeming with people.
Even Mahony came out and Tamberg and at first they said no you can’t put that cross in here.
We kept insisting and then when there was a lull we were inside.
I don't remember the exact details, but a couple of people just looked around and said let’s just take it inside. I ran ahead and someone got the door. They had people standing in front of him, Mahony, some woman with her maroon security coat and her walkie talkie and the other guys were just moving forward. I recall seeing Tamberg shake his head, like don’t stand in their way.
So they stood aside, someone held the door open and they took it into the cathedral and we looked for the alcove. People were already there and they said over here. the alcove where Mahony had a little plaque for the survivors.
‘
Someone grabbed each end of cross with and they said there’s a space in the corner let’s go. It was all caught on tape, on Channel 11.
They had this plaque that said:
This space is dedicated to those who were affected by childhood sexual abuse.
Or something like that.
Well several months into this, they left it there, but they took down the plaque.
A lot of people saw the cross and pictures of children and didn't know what it was about, and so they put pictures of their kids who were shot in gang violence and who had leukemia and who had other illnesses and the whole thing was diluted.
Originally, a survivor wrote something like “I was four years old when father so and so ripped my hymen and I’ve had physical problems with my sexual organs ever since.”
The archdiocese employees would tear those pages out.
Then people started writing things in Spanish about the husband in jail and kids taking drugs please Angel Gabriel come and help, so it turned into that kind of thing, my nina lost his leg and he needs a job, stuff like that.
*********
Also coming up:
The church tries to seal documents that should have been unsealed, or unseal documents that shouldn't have been sealed - in a hearing December 10th.
Will report more later. Right now, my boss is calling me.
From LA Superior Court website:
12/10/2008 at 10:00 am in department 308 at 600 South Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005 Hearing-Oral Argument
1) RE MTN. TO UNSEAL COURT RECORDS FILED ON 6-13-08
2) HRG. RE OBJECT.TO CT. ORDER OF 10-31-08
3) OSC REPROOF OF BOND AND PROBATE CASE
Onward. . .
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Kay