Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church

A word on the Catholic Church.

         My father has been spending some time recently in an attempt to get the Catholic Church - more specifically the Camden Diocese - to reveal what they know about the sexual abuse and cover-ups that has gone on for decades.  The church was stonewalling him.  Then he was contacted by the d
iocese's Bishop Galante.
         The bishop told him that he was sorry for what happened to me, and that he has been putting measures in place to ensure that this would not happen to children in the future.  He also said - as did nearly everyone else from the church that my father spoke to - that the church has to move forward and not dwell in the past, especially when so many of the priests and bishops involved are now dead.  The bishop then asked if my father thought it would be helpful for me to talk to him.
         I thought about it for awhile.  The following is my response to my dad, who forwarded it along to Bishop Galante and a few others.

*******

Dear Dad,

I greatly appreciate the steps you have taken to persuade the Camden Diocese to reveal the truth behind its involvement in child sexual abuse and cover-ups.  I also appreciate your insistence on getting my permission before each step you have taken. 

I must decline Bishop Galante’s offer to meet with me in person.  Even though he may be working to ensure that the Camden Diocese will protect against future child sexual abuse and cover-ups, he chooses to take the stance that the church cannot “move backwards” and that most of the guilty are now dead, thereby taking no responsibility for the effects of the church’s past crimes.  This pitiful response to victims of child molestation makes my blood boil.  If it is known that previous bishops were guilty of covering up abuse, then why has Bishop Galante not disclosed this information and shared the truth?  Because the church is still in the mode of covering up.  It is clear that the Catholic Church as an organization is still more interested in protecting itself and its assets than it is in helping the countless victims whose childhoods – and in many cases adult lives – were ruined.  The Catholic Church continuously re-victimizes the now grown children by refusing to be truthful about the cover-ups that occurred.

If Bishop Galante, the pope, or even one priest had the guts to assume responsibility for the cover-ups and the shuffling of pedophile priests to unsuspecting parishes, and he came forward speaking truthfully to the media, for all to hear, then I would be interested in meeting that person face to face.  He would be a person with great integrity. 

I have no interest in being placated or otherwise glad handed by a church mouthpiece who will give nothing more than a lip service apology.  His apology, indeed any apology by a member of the Catholic Church, I would find false until the day the church opens up its files –  all its information – and says:

“This is what we did.  We allowed children to be abused and raped.  We knew it was going on.  We did not try to stop these defilers of children.  Instead, we encouraged it to continue by taking these people who were raping children, and moving them to other churches, churches in which the families who trusted us were unaware of the monsters that we were sending to them disguised as spiritual leaders.  Then, to our shame, we attacked these victims again in the courtroom with our pit bull lawyers and forced them to relive the horror of their abuse and rape again while we, through our lawyers, picked apart their lives and called them liars and greedy.  We are sorry we did this.  And in good faith, to show that we are sorry, and to ensure that this will never happen again, we are opening all our files including our “secret files” to be investigated by the police.  We are turning over every person that we know who has committed these heinous crimes.  We are also going to reveal everything that we as individuals know about these abusers and cover-ups, and we are going to demand that our priests reveal all that they know about abuse incidents, abusers and cover-ups.”

The Catholic Church is a religious organization that is run by men who are more like politicians than spiritual leaders.  These men appear to be in place to protect the money and assets of the church rather than to do the will of Jesus.  It is doubtful that the church will admit guilt without the insistence of the people of the church, people like you, who demand full disclosure and insist that it takes full responsibility for the past. 

I am glad that Bishop Galante is taking seriously the fact that there are children today who need to be protected from pedophiles both inside and outside the church.  He also needs to realize –  as do all church leaders – that what happened to me and to countless other victims is not in the past.  It will not be in the past for as long as we are alive.  It will not be in the past for as long as our words carry on into the future about what happened to us, how we were raped and molested by priests while the church did nothing to stop it. 

First, we were raped by those who perpetrated the actual attacks.  Second, we were raped by the Catholic leaders who covered it up, thereby allowing it to happen continuously until the victims – despite the money that the church tried to use to buy their silence –  no longer remained silent.  Finally, the church still victimizes the survivors of sexual abuse today by keeping their files sealed and their mouths shut, and by continuing to employ lawyers and even priests who treat victims and their relatives like little more than dirt on their shoe – like the priest and lawyer that you encountered on your quest to get the truth from the church.

I will not site the numerous ongoing cases in which the Catholic Church continues to attack victims.  You know them, and so does the church. 

There is a disease in the church.  Instead of rooting out the disease, the church leaders are festering in it.  The question you were asked by so many of the leaders that you encountered: “What do you want us to do?” has such a simple answer: tell the truth.  Keeping the church’s collective mouth closed is lying.  Tell the truth.

I have not lost faith in Love, but I have no faith in the organization of the Catholic Church or its leaders.  It showed me the hierarchy of importance that it operates under when it chose to protect itself and its pedophile priests over protecting innocent children.

Please pass this letter along to the bishop and to the others you have talked to in the church.  Maybe it will help them to understand that the legacy of abuse that the Catholic Church engendered will not be forgotten by any of us.  It will not be swept under the rug, and it will never go away.  There are those of us who will always speak out about it and remind the world of how the Catholic Church treated – and still treats – children.

Thanks again for everything.

Your son,

Andrew