27/Jan/93 - 22:00
What's easilly observed by the not-Christians in America is not so easilly
seen by the Christians. This is true for many things which have their
roots in ideologies and the sciences. Yet one of the worse artifacts of
religion to face humanity in contemporary times is the increase in clergy
abuse -- an abuse which is not located within any one church; an abuse from
which no Christian church is exempt. (Claims that "my
church has no such problems" are always proven false
in time.)
The problem is so wide-spread that there have been calls from within the
Catholic church to shut-down the seminaries all over the United States
and abroad until the problem can be repaired. The problem is so wide-
spread that one-time clergy members are finally coming forward with personal
testimony as well as written research papers on the abuses they experienced
or they, themselves, caused.
A&E's "Investigative Reports" took a 1-hour-long review
of this problem as it stands in the United States. "Sins Of The
Fathers" is a video tape which may be ordered and information on
where to call for this tape is appended to the end of this. (I suggest
caution, however. Reviewing this video tape is greatly disturbed at
times.)
- Fredric L. Rice, 1993
The one hour review starts out (as is usually the case with such things)
with the overviews of several abuses given by the victims -- some in their
teens and some of them in their 20's or 30's.
After a few reviews, some statistics were offered. 400 clergy-related
sexual abuse cases were reported in 1982 with a recorded $400 million in
just the Catholic's legal and medical fees -- most cases handled out of
court in rewards and damages to the victim and the victims parents. Yet
Catholic clergy is only part of the problem. All told, there were over
200,000 cases of clergy abuse (counting all Christian sects) every year
in the last few years -- a number which is still growing.
In the Catholic brand priesthood, there is reported something around 53,000
priests in the United States. Though the report stayed mostly within the
Catholic sect, A&E wanted it to be very clear that this is a problem
which affects all Christian churches everywhere. (More on
why the Catholics are singled-out comes later in the show.)
Victims of clergy sexual abuse report that the people who victimized them
are hardly ever taken to cases about it by their previous masters. Only
when the victims bring the report to the police agencies does anything ever
come of their complaints to the clergy's masters.
When enough complaints are filed against a clergy member, the member is
hidden and is usually shipped-off out of state so that State authorities
have a tough time finding them. When police call to talk to the priest,
the remaining clergy of the church often don't "recall a priest of
that name working from this office." Eventually, the police run into
the priest's lawyer who will often claim that he has no idea where the
suspect priest is at the moment.
One case history is delved into in some detail. A "James R.
Porter" who has 100 charges against him was jailed for 10 years
after it was successfully proven that he raped an alterboy in 1961. With
a wopping 61 other cases against him settled out of court, we can only
wonder what his jail term would have been had all of them continued to
pursue the rightfull punishment for his crimes. (We can also only wonder
at how much money was settled out of court for 61 cases. Make a guess
where this money comes from. The Christian priesthod must have
immense financial resources to pay out as "hush money.")
At a Clergy Abuse group, various victims mention that they are often told
by their priest that they are responsible for the sexual
abuse they experienced. The priesthood tells the victim that the victim
is at fault for "temping a priest."
Jason Barry wrote a book about Clergy Abuse called "Lead us not into
Temptation." (This is the book that I've been trying to find for the
last five or six years... I had erroniously heard that the title was
"Clergy Abuse.")
More case histories are offered. A priest named Gothe' is exposed as
having had 33 counts of sexual abuse against minors applied towards him.
For these priestly duities, he recieved a sentence of only 20 years!
Someone named Bryan in Hawii is mentioned -- 5 years in prison.
Someone named Adamson, location I didn't catch -- 36 children spread-out
over 23 years was collected and doubtless many never came forth or
refused to testify. In any event, this one priest tipped-over the one-
million dollar mark in out-of-court setlements.
A detailed examination into another priest was offered. "Robert E.
Kelly." Here was a real bastard. The parents of the young girl
suspected nothing though they did have signs. This priest
would follow the 8 year old victim up to her room at bed time, touch her
in the chest and then in the vagina, then engage in oral sex. This
happened to this 8 year old over 100 times in a single year.
In this case, Kelly would charm his victims, telling each of them that
they were "better" or "favorate" or "chosen."
In 1985, Kelly disappeared alltogether. Eventually, it was found that
another girl had complained of being sexually abused and so Kelly was
sent to St. Louis for "psychological therapy." After he was
released from therapy, he went to another church three years later and
sexually abused another girl. He was found guilty in 1990 yet was only
give 5 to 7 years!
It turned-out that this priest had confessed to another priest and that
this other priest had merely told him to "stay away from little
girls." The priests who knew of these crimes, as do all other
priests/masters et al., rarely contact the police, thinking that it's best
to cover-up the sexual abuse for fear that they would reflect negativly
upon either their church or upon Christanity in general. (Those of us
who know the history of the religion can't really be surprised by this
behavior, can we?)
As to what the mother of this 8-year-old had to say? "Somewhere there
is a god. But not there."
The report then asked the viewer (and christainity in general) "why
do priests refuse to impose standards of conduct among themselves?"
The priesthood of most Christian sects have no santions within themselves
for taking care of such activities. They don't release priests from
their vows and send them packing -- they reassign them elsewhere after a
stern talking to.
Another case history is looked into. A Sharon {someone} mentioned that
she was raped every week from the ages of 8 to 10 years old. It finally
stopped when another priest came into the rectory and found the priest
raping her. She was told to go to confession to "confess her sin"
and, of course, to tell no one about it. She was told by the priest
that she was the cause of making the other priest rape her
every week for 2 years!
I had hoped that blaming the victim had gone out of style back in the
1400's. But when you're dealing with "Men of God," they can't
possibly be at fault.
A comment that informing the church does no good and that only when the
victims parents contact the police does any action get taken is offered.
This comment is made several times during the one-hour presentation.
Another horror story about a Father Schlouoskis(sp?) was offered. This
guy was from a place called "Our Lady of Victory." He had been
orally raping a teenage boy at the Christian school. This priest would
tell this boy that it was time for another "biology lesson."
When the mother complained, nothing was done about the problem. When the
mother informed the police, the other priests claimed that they had never
heard of their pedophile fellow priest. Another layer of masterdom within
this church found a priest whom publically stated for the record that he
had never heard of this priest.
Eventually, the police questioned a Christian lawyer who stated that he
didn't know where the priest was. (The lawyer at least admitted that the
pedophile prest existed.) It turned out that this priest had previously
been shipped off to New Mexico for "psychological therapy."
A comment is made by a priest about how lawyers and insurance companies
are compounding the problem of killing clergy abuse. He mentioned that
the lawyers are making priests think like lawyers rather than people who
are supposed to have taken charge for other people's lives. They can't
live their own lives, it seems.
Eventually, the police were able to trap this priest on tape with a phone
call to his hide-away in Maryland. Eventually, he was give 22 years in
prison. (A&E didn't mention whether the other priests were charged
with aiding and hiding their pedophiles.)
Ironically, the mother claims that she will continue with Catholic mass.
After the courts were all done with, it was found out that this priest had
been shipped to "Our Lady of Victory" from another place where
he had sexually abused another boy.
A priest is brought to the camera to talk about how "troublesome
priests" are merely shipped-around. They're given a talking to and
then ignored.
Most importantly, Christians of all sects and flavors have a high instance
of homosexuals among their clergy. It was noted by a priest that, in the
clergy, most offenders engage in what could be called "homosexual
sex." ("Prey on boys" was his exact words.) In "the
real world" as he called it, most sex offenders prey on girls.
Jen Lenning at the FBI headquarters at Langley mentions that there is
a disproportionate number of homosexuals within Christian clergy compared
with outside of it in the real world. Before going into the statistics of
this thing, another case history is offered.
Dino Channel had taped 160 hours of his homosexual activities with young
boys; many of them performed within the rectory of his church. In 1990,
these tapes were entered into the deposistion as child pronography.
A Christian master from some church or another mentions that, "One of
the most dangerous forces that's on Earth today is a psychopath for god."
He states clearly that a priest -- as well as a deity-believer --
has a method whereby he or she may "rationalize the abuses they
perform" in many ways that a non-religious person can't.
One priest blamed his homosexual child abuse acts on the "homosexual
feelings that ran rampant within his seminary." He mentioned that
damned-near every single one of the priests within his church was so
overtly homosexual that he was exposed to and made privy to sexual acts
on a "constant basis" -- whatever that turns out to be.
Richard Sipe is a clergy member who has found a minimum of
25% of the Christian clergy to be homosexual. That's a minimum
which discounted that which is not overtly homosexual.
Jason Berry, the Christian author of "Lead us not into temptation"
finds that 25% figure to be too nice. He wants it spelled out the
way it is with no hold barred so that "the healing process may begin."
He finds a wopping 40 to 50 percent of Christian clergy to be
overtly homosexual.
A&E Investigative Reports asked, "how does the clergy system
perpetuate this abuse?"
One high master of some church or another mentioned that there is a sort
of a defacto "self protective network" of clergy which
"covers up sexual abuse cases."
The show then adds another comment that not only are Catholics involved
in these types and numbers of cases but all Christian sects.
A&E then asks why Catholics are singled out most in the public eye.
One Cardinal Bernardin comments. He claimed that it is because of
"our committment [to celibacy] is cause for wonderment." He claimes
that it's always good press "when a catholic priest falls."
He also mentions that clergy abuse must be publically exposed at every
chance else the problem will be hidden by most Christian churches'
"network of denial."
One church in Chicago went through their paper history all the way back
to 1963 and found that there were 39 different priests that had claims
against them that were found to be well-founded. That number excludes
the complains for which there was no physical evidence, witnesses, or
confessions by the priests. The church didn't comment about how many
actual complaints there were.
Jeanne Miller organizes clergy abuse victims in Chicago. She was the
victim of clergy abuse and was told that, if she continued to press the
case, she would be excommunicated.
She had gone to Cardinal Bernardin and was told to "trust us"
in this matter. After nothing had been done and the priest was continuing
to be near young boys and girls, Miller went to the police. Eventually,
this case settled out of court (like so many do) for a fee of $15,000. In
any event, the guilty priest was merely reassigned to another parish.
(The priest's name sounded like: Mayor.) After another three reported
child sexual abuse cases, he was eventually caught raping two boys on the
roof of the church. This master's followers were told, after the
priest was taken away, that their priest had "resigned." They
had not been told that their master had been arrested.
Another case history is looked at briefly. A one-time alter boy talks
about having to masterbate a priest among other things. He talks about
how dysfunctional he had been in the last 25 years untill he finally
left the truth on a tape-recorder on a Valetines-day for his wife to
find.
Another case history; this time of a Texas priest who had been caught
sexually mollesting a 15 year old boy in his rectory some years ago in
another state. (He was not "serving" people in Texas at
the time.) After the exposure, this priest was sent to a California
hospital for "psychological therapy." After he was release
from this place, he was moved to the Texas church where he currently
"serves."
This Christian leader, already found guilty of sexually mollesting a 15
year old boy, said that his parishoners don't have the right to know what
his past has been.
The Catholic Pope has remained silent on this problem.
Some suggestions on how to cope with these world-wide, sect-wide, church-
wide problems was offered by clergy masters.
One other possible way to stem the problem is to assign homosexual masters
whom have been caught to work in old-age homes or in hospitals for AIDS
victims. This was offered from a clergy master at St. Luke Intitute in
Maryland.
Chales Socarides has written several books on homosexuality -- though not
specifically for or about Christian leaders/masters/priests what have you.
He finds that homosexual attitudes are not devient in any way nor unusual.
He also finds that homosexuality is not a "lifestyle choice."
These things are actually opposed to most Christian sect's teachings so
it's obvious that he gets called to task for exposing the truth.
You can get a video tape of this 45 minute show by calling the Arts and
Entertainment network line at 1-800-423-1212. If you mention the title of
the show you would like to buy, mention "Sins of the fathers."
The cost of the tape is some $19.95 for the video and some $3.95 for shipping.
All in all, it's probably a good idea to send-off $24.00 for the whole mess.
Return to the Clergy Abuse Index page.
Section 1:
A Report on "Sins of the Fathers" by Fredric L. Rice
A&E Network, "Investigative Reports"
Clergy Abuse. "Sins of the fathers. A church in crisis."
By Fredric L. Rice
Important reference
Homosexuality
[ed: 22/June/97 - Late addition: psychology recognizes that pedophilia
is neither inherently heterosexual or homosexual in nature -- it is the
morphology of children, not their sex gender, which motivates pedophiles.
It's inaccurate to consider sexual molestation of children to be of
either heterosexual or homosexual orientation reguardless of the sex
genders of the criminal and their victims. - flr]
Reference for another possible book
[ed: This is much less than the 60 percent that was attributed to the
pentacostal circus in Austin Miles book "Don't Call me Brother"
where he only counted those who had made overt homosexual acts and
"ploys." - flr]
Reference
[ed: Mormons excommunicate as well as Catholics and many other brand
names. Which specific church she was victimized by, then, is hard to
pin-down since it was not mentioned. Her having gone to a Catholic
Cardinal with her problem of being sexually abused by a Christian
master is not indicitive that she was a Catholic at the time. Many
clergy abuse victims will actually go to another brand of Christian
church with their problem rather than other members of their own church's
priesthood. - flr]
[ed: I personally found this guys testimony as being phony. This guy had
all the classical ear-marks of a "Satanic survivor" in that he
offered no details which could be traced. The rest of the A&E exposure
contained testable and falsifiable facts consisting of names, dates, and
locations. When one evaluates claims of child abuse, one must ignore those
claims lacking enough details for falsification, otherwise numerous false
claims detract from the efficency of stopping actual criminals - flr]
A comment of some note
[ed: these people are paying good money to have someone they can trust
to talk to and to help them with living their lives and basically tell
them what to do on a day-by-day basis. - flr]
[ed: In 1996, the Catholic Pope announced that the Catholic brand of
Christianity has a problem with pedophiles among their clergy. No shit.
- flr]
One last interesting note
Videotape is available
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