May 22, 1213

EDITORIAL

Catholic Whistleblowers

 The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) salutes the Catholic Whistleblowers who are taking a public stand with a press conference today to encourage Roman Catholic Church insiders to report child sexual abuse by priests and nuns and to expose those who conceal.

 Among the 12 co-founders are two founders of NSAC, Robert Hoatson and Sister Maureen Paul Turlish. We are grateful for the strength and purpose of their backbones.

 We thank BishopAccountability.org’s Anne Barrett Doyle for seeing the similarities in their stories and bringing them together.

 The overwhelming silence of priests and sisters in the last decade plus one year since the Boston incarnation let alone all the years before Boston needs a strong piercing. Perhaps the courage of this group will be the needed instrument to light shine in, deflate hypocrisy and remove stagnation and go along easiness.

 Archbishop John Myers of the Diocese of Newark and Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph both need to be removed from their current seats of power yet the overwhelming numbers of clergy and religious in their dioceses go along with the emperor’s who have no clothes on. At best, they distance themselves with a shake of the head, or a vague “something ought to be done about it” or a “you can’t change the system” –bishops and religious community leaders hold the trump card of power.

 There is a price to speaking out and all of the co-founders and the others, totaling 50, listed on the new website www.CatholicWhitleBlowers.org has paid it – and those still living continue to do so. 

 But what they have done – standing up for justice, truth, and the protection of children – isn’t that what all of those who entered the priesthood and the religious life had on their motivating agendas?

 We sincerely hope the new sheriff in town, Pope Francis, reads, digests and acts on the letter the Catholic Whistleblowers have written to him.

 To those among our readers who can and should join this group we implore you not to wait. Children are at stake.

 — Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, KristineWard@hotmail.com

Landmark Legislation in Minnesota

Hats Off to Minnesota!

The National Survivor Advocates  Coalition (NSAC) salutes the hard but profoundly successful work of Minnesota survivors and supporters to protect children through the passage of a bill in the state Senate yesterday that will, if signed by the Governor, eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual abuse going forward. The Minnesota House recently passed the measure and the same hard work by survivors and supporters took place before the House vote. If a conference committee is not required, it will move directly to Governor Mark Dayton. It is expected that he will sign the measure. 

The legislation also provides for a three year window for those for whom the previous limiting statute had passed. We are pleased that they will have an opportunity for justice.

Minnesotans have been at work on this legislation for 13 years.  We are particularly and extremely proud of our own Bob Schwiderski, a founding member of NSAC and a SNAP leader,  for his dedicated and preserving noble work in this effort to build a coalition of supporters that crossed religious and political boundaries coming together to protect children.

Hooray!

Here’s a link to a news story http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/05/08/politics/senate-passes-bill-easing-lawsuits-for-child-sexual-abuse

— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC), KristineWard@hotmail.com

EDITORIAL

“ Is That All You Blighters Can Do?”

Words cannot solve the crisis of clergy and nun sexual abuse of children and minors.

Only action can.

That’s why it’s disheartening, to say the least, to read Pope Francis speech about a “courageous” defense of children to protect them from abuse at the end of the Mass he celebrated on Sunday.

But words, it appears, are the extent of it.

Here’s a link to a news story:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Pope+says+must+courageously+work+defend+protect+children+from/8339893/story.html

Pope Francis, and Pope Francis alone, holds the power to remove Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph. MO  Bishop Robert Finn and Archdiocese of Newark, NJ Archbishop John Myers  and to remove them now, at this very moment, in the next minute, the next hour and all of today and tomorrow for as long as he occupies the papacy.

And not only these hierarchs but all the others who did not courageously defend children but actually put them and kept them in harm’s way by  protecting their perpetrators and  covering-up the rape and sodomy these children suffered by the priests and nuns that were and are part of these hierarchs’ responsibility as moral and spiritual leaders.

Sunday’s remarks come after it was reported recently that Pope Francis spoke to the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith about aggressively tackling sexual abuse cases. This Congregation is where the cases are lodged. And we used the word lodged intentionally since these  cases move to resolution at a snail’s pace.

So far, we still await the avalanche of the resolution of these cases. In the meantime the priests in these cases remain on paid vacations.

Juxtaposed to the personal style of the papacy changes he has made, the formation of the super Cardinals commission, and his down to earth talk about any number of modern problems that affect humanity and the world, on the home front of Catholicism, the time grows dangerously thin on the credibility front for Pope Francis to do more than talk about what needs done to resolve this largest crisis in the Church in the last 500 years.

We have seen the running of this script before from the previous Pope and the one before him.

Sunday’s remarks call to mind lyrics from the musical My Fair Lady. All the fair lady wants is a bit of “show me” but instead of that, it’s a deluge of words. And so she sings, “

“Words, words, words, I’m sure sick of words,

I get words all day through,

First from him, now from you.

Is that all you blighters can do? “

Well, is it?

— Kristine Ward, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC), KristineWard@hotmail.com

EDITORIAL

April 18, 2013

Complicit

For a Church whose very name – Catholic – means broad, big and universal, it has become head shakingly predictable that when caught and called out in media exposure regarding sexual abuse it ducks head first in to the internal, the interior, the parochial.

The most recent case in point: the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in Pennsylvania.

This diocese is one of a number in which the estimated dozens of victims of Franciscan friar Stephen Baker, who committed suicide on 1/26/13, have come forward.

Besides Altoona-Johnstown, Baker victims have come forward in the Diocese of Youngstown, OH as well as Orchard Lake, MI., and St. Patrick’s Church in Inver Grove Heights, MN.

Links to news stories:

http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x437164960/Altoona-Johnstown-diocese-launches-abuse-investigation

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/569937/Baker-probe-ongoing.html?nav=742

http://news.msn.com/us/attorney-dozens-more-in-pa-ohio-claim-abuse-by-friar

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is doing an internal investigation. Yup, internal.

Catholics in this diocese need to stand up and yell until their lungs burst that every penny, every minute, every ounce of energy that goes into an internal investigation is a monumental waste of money, time, and effort – and they won’t stand for it.

We have learned things in this largest crisis in 500 years in the Church and one of the most obvious is that dioceses, bishops, and chanceries investigating themselves produces more stonewalling not less.

No internal investigation has resulted in getting to the bottom of anything in this crisis.

It’s way past time for an internal investigation in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

In fact, it’s the internal, and the over protection of it, that got us into this mess in the first place.

Independent, outside, trained investigators are the path to truth – that and the release of documents.

Any other route is simply a stroll down a garden path to buy time and look interested until the media lose interest.

This does not, we repeat, does not protect children or provide access to justice for the survivors.

No Catholic needs to think, believe or act that they are first Catholic, first Diocese or first anything anymore in this crisis. There is plenty of knowledge available. Easily and readily available. No need to start from scratch with an “internal investigation.”

Need a starting place? Pick up a copy of Michael D’Antonio’s new book Mortal Sins. Then sit down and become educated. Then act.

Insiders, stand down.

Catholics, step up and bring in the justice system professionals.

To remain silent and to go along with this so called internal investigation ploy does not make Catholics innocent bystanders, it makes them complicit.

—- Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC), KristineWard@hotmail.com

New Review Board Chair and Francis’ First Acceptance of a Resignation

SHORT TAKES

 New Review Board Chair and Francis’ First Acceptance of a Resignation

 USCCB’s National Review Board

 There is a new chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board. He is Francesco C. Cesareo, who has been on the review board since last year. He is president of AssumptionCollege, Worcester, Massachusetts.

 Cesareo’s appointment was made by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who chairs the USCCB.

New review board chairs have been mostly the same as the chairs they succeed:  invisible and largely ineffective. That’s except for the first two – Frank Keating, the former governor of Oklahoma, who chaired the first review board, and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke. They both served on the first review board which actually came close to being an independent review board.

 Keating, you may recall, likened the USCCB members to the Mafia as he handed in his resignation.

 The boys club denied the title of “chair” without an adjective to Justice Burke. By the bishops’ decree, she was known throughout her time at the helm as “interim chair. Burke has remained outspoken about the bishops in the decade plus one years since the initial review board was set up in the white heat of media coverage of the crisis in 2002.

 For subsequent review boards the bishops created panels of people with wonderful resumes but no guts to stand up to their appointers and hold their feet to the fire to make the necessary changes to the Charter beginning with the inclusion of penalties for bishops (read cardinals also) who covered up crimes let alone for bishops who become criminally convicted covering up crimes as has Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph Missouri Bishop Robert Finn.

So it wasn’t so much the new chair that caught our eye in the USCCB’s announcement but one of the new members: Scott Wasserman. Wasserman, the USCCB’s news release says, is a Kansas City, Kansas attorney whose law practice “focuses on legal issues involving children, especially abused children and children with special needs.”

 Kansas City, Kansas isn’t Kansas City, Missouri but it’s close enough for this attorney to indeed be more aware than most Catholics about what Finn did and the fact that he is still a sitting bishop.

 Here’s the link to the USCCB release:  

http://www.usccb.org/news/2013/13-065.cfm

His opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Keating and Burke awaits. Will he take it?

On the Eve of Deposition, Archbishop’s Resignation Accepted

Pope Francis has accepted the tendered resignation at age 73, two years younger than the age required for resignation by bishops, of Archbishop Jerome Hanus of Dubuque, Iowa.

Archbishop Hanus says his resignation is for “health reasons”.

In two weeks, Archbishop Hanus was scheduled to be deposed in a case of a former priest, Bede Parry. This priest has said in an interview that he told Archbishop Hanus about what he had done. Subsequent to the Archbishop having this information, Parry abused other children. Parry admitted to his conduct in 2011. 

So, Hanus hands in a resignation, it’s accepted in the shadow of a court date. 

Finn is criminally convicted. He is still a bishop with jurisdiction.

— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) KristineWard@hotmail.com

 

 

 

EDITORIAL

A Dangerous Time

Pope Francis, who gave orders to the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to act decisively” against priests who rape and sodomize children and minors drug his feet, the Wall Street Journal reports, when it came to complying with the Vatican’s request for national conferences of bishops to set up policies to combat abuse.

We are providing the Wall Street Journal’s story to our readers today.  It’s a Wall Street Journal subscriber only story and we are providing it because of the importance, we believe, it carries and its great impact on survivors, survivor advocates, Catholics in the pew, Catholics out of the pew, and men and women of goodwill.

Here is the link (you may have to copy and paste into your browser): http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323646604578404304147967618-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwNjEwNDYyWj.html?mod=wsj_valettop_email

The Argentinian Bishops Conference was headed by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.   Twenty-five percent of bishops conference worldwide have not complied with the Vatican’s request. Most of the non-compliers are in Africa.

The Vatican deadline, the Wall Street Journal reports, was nearly a year ago.

Can geography make a difference here or is this a clue to how Pope Francis will respond to the largest crisis in the Catholic Church in the last 500 years?

Friday’s instructions to the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith did nothing to speak to the cover-up by Bishops, the other half of the horrendous scandal and Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the Congregation’s Prefect, can’t do anything but jawbone about the removal of criminally convicted Bishop Robert Finn who still heads the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri.

This is a dangerous development.

This pope in the era of good feeling stage of his papacy has no trouble making his point of view known in the actions he has taken to simplify the outward signs of his office: his clothing, where he lives, and how he takes possession of his basilica as Bishop of Rome.

His Friday remarks and the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on his action juxtaposed to the widespread favorable response he has received could create a climate that puts the survivors not in a position of deserved greater attention but in a position of being the party spoilers drowned in a new tsunami of pushing them into the background again.

The background is where the pain is.

Catholics must resist this.

So must all men and women of goodwill.

Priests particularly should examine carefully what happened on Friday. Pope Francis spoke of the crisis in terms of priest perpetrators – no mention of Bishops. No one argues that priest perpetrators should not be acted upon decisively but what about the other half of the crisis: the enablers of the crimes? Priests  grumbled and chafed privately when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) geared its policy making in 2002 to priests only.

In the reviews of this policy over the years, no additions were ever made to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People to deal with Bishops and Cardinals who obstructed justice, moved perpetrator priests around from parish to parish, opened avenues for perpetrators to flee the country or failed to report child pornographers as  did criminally convicted Bishop Robert Finn of the  Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph  who stills heads this diocese.

And so starts a new papacy with what it appears to be the same policy as the USCCB and the same policy as the former pope.

NSAC urges its readers to remain vigilant to the papal response on clergy sexual abuse.

NSAC urges its readers in this time of euphoria particularly  to  watch the actions of this Pope.

What gets said is one thing. What matters is what gets done .

The beginning of a papacy is an immensely important time.

No one should demure or be cowered or believe that just a little bit more time is the answer.

The only thing that has brought action in the sexual abuse crisis is public attention.

Silence is the culprit.

Eliminate it.

— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) KristineWard@hotmail.com

Pope Francis on Sexual Abuse Crisis

MEDIA STATEMENT
POPE FRANCIS on SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS

4/5/13

 Contact: Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) KristineWard@hotmail.com 

 Pope Francis doesn’t need to call for action in the Roman Catholic Church regarding the sexual abuse crisis. He can take action. Until he does, the status quo remains.

 We hope today’s news regarding his meeting with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is a first foray into this issue and not an exit and closed book strategy.

 If we keep doing what we’ve been doing that means we keep getting what we’ve got.

 What we’ve got is not the answer to the crisis.

 What we’ve got is the criminally convicted Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO still in office.  Telling the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to act doesn’t remove Bishop Finn.

What we’ve got are bishops and chancery and curia officials who deflect and dodge until the glare of media attention gets too hot to continue doing it.

 What we’ve got are credibly accused priests whose cases have never been acted on by the Congregation who remain on paid vacations. 

 What we’ve got is pain.

 www.NationalSurvivorAdvocatesCoalition.wordpress.com  

Short Takes: Australia, Milwaukee, Pope Francis, Dreamworks

EDITORIAL

 Short Takes: Australia, Milwaukee, Pope Francis, Dreamworks

Australia

 Down under, the hunt for truth is on.

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) salutes the courage of the survivors in Australia who would not rest until a vehicle was created for the truth. 

That vehicle, the Australian parliament’s inquiry, backed by Prime Minister Julie Gillard and known as Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, has begun its work. More than 5,000 victims are expected to testify and the commission says the number could go higher. 

5,000 – that’s a number that should be left to sink in upon the Church, the religious communities and the state institutions in which victims became victims. 

Free basic legal advice will be available to victims, the commission has announced.

As the commission began hearings  the Roman Catholic Church in Australia named members of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, the tool the Church will use to manage its response to the findings of the commission.

 Fine words, Truth, Justice and Healing.  

 And this time, as it was in the United States, and is in each country where the survivors have found the courage to come forward, the question hangs in the air:  why didn’t these words mean what they truly mean when the survivors and their families came to them in the first place?

 Milwaukee

 NSAC salutes the hard work of  SNAP leaders Peter Isley and John Pilmaier in Milwaukee in the wake of news that it has produced a trove of 3,000 pages of documents regarding sexual abuse.

 The documents are expected to include depositions taken from former Archbishop Rembert Weakland and now Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as well as Auxiliary Bishop Skliba.

 The Archdiocese has long fought the release of the documents but Cardinal Dolan, who was deposed shortly before going to Rome for the conclave, says he’s pleased the documents will be released.

Come July 1, the date the documents are set for release, we will see whether the rest of the Church will be pleased with Cardinal Dolan. 

 Pope Francis

 Pope Francis continues to be a hit with the choices he makes, the places he goes, and the things he says.  

 On Easter Sunday he included a reference to human trafficking in his Urbi et Orbi address from the balcony where he and the world make their acquaintance on March 13.

 We’re opposed to human trafficking but what bothers us about the pope’s comment is the worry that putting human trafficking front and center has had a tendency to be a shield for putting dealing with sexual abuse deeper in the closet  — sort of a shell change that it is hoped no one notices.

Indeed, this has been the case for religious orders of women who have been visible at high profile events, such as the Super Bowl, working for the elimination of human trafficking while continuing to refuse to meet with survivors who show up outside at their annual leadership conferences.

 The pope’s sister, who was interviewed by National Catholic Reporter this week, believes that Pope Francis will address the sexual abuse crisis. 

 Here’s the exchange:  

 John Allen, NCR: You mention the abuse cases. How do you think your brother will respond to them?

Maria Elena Bergoglio: I have no idea what he’ll actually do, but I know that he’ll do what needs to be done.

 She is down to earth, wise, open, and articulate throughout the rest of the interview. On this subject, we certainly hope she’s right.

 Dreamworks

 Dreamworks  Studio acquiring the rights to the Boston Globe Spotlight Team’s Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the Archdiocese of Boston’s cover-up of sexual abuse has to be a nightmare for Cardinal Bernard Law.   

 Now that’s something he has in common with survivors.

 — Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) KristineWard@hotmail.com

The Beloved Suicides, by Kristine Ward

On this most solemn day of the three in the calendar that leads to Easter, this Good Friday, our thoughts sit with the victims of sexual abuse who committed suicide and their families.

It is right and just that these victims not be forgotten.

It should go without saying that they should be held in reverence in our collective memory but we believe that is a strong tendency to deny that suicide is part of the crisis.

These victims should not be swallowed up and placed in a frozen state of past tense by a Church seeking to move on in an era of good feeling sparked by the election of a new pope no matter how humble, how close to the people, how down to earth he may prove to be.

When, and if, actions come from Pope Francis that deal with the crisis of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, those who committed suicide cannot be left behind.

They must be honored.

What happened to them must ring down through the centuries.

These are wrongful deaths. Not wrongful in the unloving way suicide is cast as the wrong act of the victim. Wrongful in the justice sense that these innocents were cast into death by the torture and tumult of their abuse and the wrong hung upon them because those in authority over their perpetrators did not act to save the innocents.

These are not the deaths of some far away and unknown strangers.

The victims who committed suicide are our first Communion partners, our altar boys, our classmates, our teammates, our choir mates, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, our children and our grandchildren.

They are victims who may have been able to portray a fine façade for a short or a long time to the outside world before the demons of a childhood brutalized by rape and sodomy could no longer be overcome.

The lives they touched remain touched, remain aching, remain disrupted, remain unsettled – especially in a holiday season and most particularly one that is focused on resurrection.

No matter how widely or how closely spaced the chairs, for these families no matter the holiday there will always be an empty place at the table.

On the day when the whole Christian world holds close to its collective heart the death of an innocent young man cruelly executed for the sins and crimes of others, we ask our readers to sit by the tomb and keep watch, keeping observant vigil for those victims of sexual abuse by priests and nuns who died by suicide and with tender reflection hold dear their memories while continuing to seek justice for them and their grieving families.

— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, (NSAC) KristineWard@hotmail.com

Action Alert Regarding Bishop Finn, by Kristine Ward

NSAC protest, 9/17/2012, Kansas City

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) has taken a strong stand that it is an imperative part of true healing in the Church regarding the sexual abuse crisis that criminally convicted Bishop Robert Finn who still heads the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri must resign or be removed.

We admire the work that Jeff Weis, the creator of the Bishop Finn petition (www.BishopFinnPetition.com), has done. The petition currently has 111,030 signers.

Today, we ask our readers to take action and support an email campaign that  Jeff has begun in connection with a provincial meeting of all of the Roman Catholic Bishops of the dioceses in Missouri this Sunday and Monday. Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of the Archdiocese of St. Louis will preside at this meeting.

The email asks Archbishop Carlson to speak with Bishop Finn during the meeting of the Roman Catholic Bishops of the dioceses in Missouri this Sunday and Monday to “counsel Bishop Finn to make the right and just decision in helping the people of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese to start the healing process by his resignation.”

Archbishop Carlson email address is: ABP@archstl.org

Jeff’s provided the following suggested text. He encourages the writer to send his or her “own thoughtful request as this journey is a very personal one for so many.” He adds, “I understand the need to present your own words but encourage you to help me present a united front with this very important issue.”

Here is the suggested text:

Dear Archbishop Carlson,

Your Excellency, I am contacting you today with the hope that you will listen to the pleas of those in Missouri who have grievous concerns with the moral aptitude of Bishop Robert Finn to continue to lead the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. This is in regard to Bishop Finn’s conviction last fall of a misdemeanor for failure to report suspicion of child abuse as mandated by the State of Missouri.

It is my hope that you and all of the Missouri Roman Catholic Bishops take the time over the weekend to address our concerns with Bishop Finn. With the election of Pope Francis I am looking forward to a new openness in the church and the renewal of faith to do the right thing for all, especially the children; the future of our church.  

NSAC believes this issue involves Catholics in and outside of Missouri.

We appreciate you as a NSAC News subscriber.

We ask for your action. The Church needs it. Children need it.

Please email now. Don’t think you’ll come back to it later today or tomorrow. Life has a funny way of coming up with all kinds of things to get you off your intended path.

It will only take a minute. Really.

It doesn’t take much. You don’t have to take a shower and get dressed, scrub a floor, shovel a driveway, go anywhere, make a speech, change clothes, find a telephone number or an email address (see above).

Please just do it.

Thank you.

— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, (NSAC) KristineWard@hotmail.com