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Message to Rockville Centre bishop: Set up special trust fund to aid clergy sexual abuse victims

Saturday, September 4, 2010

For immediate release

September 4, 2010

Send the Bishops a Message

Media Advisory/Press Conference

Contact: Frank Douglas (520) 404-2489


Nationwide coalition of supporters of clergy sexual abuse victims/survivors to Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy:  Set up special trust fund to aid clergy sexual abuse victims

Coalition will hand-deliver 20,000 pennies and accompanying letter to Bishop Murphy

WHO

A nationwide coalition led by Tucson, AZ-based Send the Bishops a Message will deliver 20,000 pennies to Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy. The 20,000 pennies are a seed or starter donation for a proposed Diocese of Rockville Centre Good SamaritanClergy Sexual Abuse Victims’ Trust. The coalition represents over 25,000 people, including victims/survivors of clerical sexual abuse and groups and individuals supporting victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Four groups are the principal sponsors of this initiative: Send the Bishops a Message; Victims’ Voice (Hammondsport NY; Road To Recovery, Inc. (West Orange, NJ); and the National Survivor Advocates Coalition [NSAC] (Dayton, OH).

The trustees of the proposed trust must be independent of the Church. The principal sponsors propose that the bishop and the sponsors jointly nominate the trustees. The trustees must have relevant, significant, and proven skills and expertise in trust administration and management, financial management, the medical healing arts and sciences, and the civil justice system.

The proposed victims’ trust will be fully funded by the diocese of Rockville Centre. The trustees will distribute, in accordance with well-publicized procedures, grants and other support to help victims and their families recover and heal from the trauma that resulted from the abuse.

WHAT

Sidewalk press conference and hand delivery of 20,000 pennies and accompanying letter to Bishop Murphy

WHEN

Sidewalk press conference: Sunday, September 5, 2010, 9:45 a.m.

WHERE

On the public sidewalk near St. Agnes Cathedral, 29 Quealy Place, Rockville Centre, NY 11570 (corner of Quealy Place and Clinton Ave.)

WHY

The number 20,000—the number of pennies being donated–represents a conservative (low) estimate of the persons in the USA who experienced, as children, sexual abuse by Catholic priests, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, and other church employees since 1950. (We believe the actual number of sexual abuse victims in the USA since 1950 is well over 100,000).

A significant number of these 20,000 victims are victims of clerical sexual abuse in the diocese of Rockville Centre. Others who were violated elsewhere now reside in the diocese.

CONTACT:

Frank Douglas (520) 404-2489 or frankdouglas62@yahoo.com

Dick Regan, Victim’s Voice, Victim/Survivor,  (607) 368-0463

Richard Tollner, Victim’s Voice, (518) 428-5000

Fr. Bob Hoatson, Road to Recovery, (862) 368-2800

* * *

The following letter will accompany the donation of 20,000 pennies to diocese of Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy.

Send the Bishops a Me$$age

September 5, 2010

Most Rev. William Murphy

Diocese of Rockville Centre

50 North Park Ave. (PO Box 9023)

Rockville Centre, NY 11571-9023

Enclosure: 20,000 Pennies

Dear Bishop Murphy:

In the parable of the Good Samaritan in the tenth chapter of Luke, Jesus tells us what it means to love our neighbor. Here is an update to the Good Samaritan story to make it more relevant to the present crisis of credibility. A child was on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell prey to a pedophile priest, who stripped the child, viciously violated him, and departed, leaving the child half dead. Another priest saw the violated child but passed by on the other side. Similarly a bishop saw the child and passed by on the other side. But a Good Samaritan saw the violated child and was moved with compassion. He bound up the child’s wounds, and took care of him. The next day the Good Samaritan took the child to an inn and gave his own money to the host of the inn and said, “Take care of the child. I will repay whatever you spend.”

Bishop Murphy, are you a Good Samaritan?

We, the undersigned, on behalf of the four organizations identified below–and on behalf of over a dozen co-sponsor partners–donate to you and the diocese of Rockville Centre 20,000 pennies as a seed or starter donation for a proposed Diocese of Rockville Centre Good Samaritan Clergy Sexual Abuse Victims’ Trust. The trust will distribute grants to victims of clerical sexual abuse that occurred in the Rockville Centre diocese since 1950. The grants will help victims and their families recover and heal from the trauma that resulted from the abuse. The number 20,000 represents a conservative (low) estimate of the persons who experienced, as children, sexual abuse by Catholic priests, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, and other church employees since 1950. (We believe the actual number of sexual abuse victims since 1950 is well over 100,000).

The trustees of the trust must be independent of the Church. We propose that you and we jointly choose the trustees, who will collectively have proven skills and expertise in trust administration and management, financial management, the medical healing arts and sciences, and the civil justice system. We suggest that we meet with you in the next 6o days to start discussing the details of the proposed trust and how it will work.

Best regards,

Frank Douglas, founder/president, Desert Voices, Inc.; 7850 N Silverbell # 114-178, Tucson, AZ 85743; (520) 404-2489; and national director of Send the Bishops a Message, an initiative of Desert Voices, Inc.

Richard Tollner, associate director, New York Victims’ Voice

Rev. Robert Hoatson, president/founder, Road To Recovery, Inc.

Kristine Ward, chair, National Survivors Advocates Coalition (NSAC)

Posted in Abuse and Cover Up, Church Culture, Finances and Ownership, Friends and Partners, Must Read, Reform | 34 Comments »

YA GOTTA READ THIS…IT’S BRILLIANT, INSIGHTFUL, AND QUOTABLE

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Received by e-mail, 8.29.2010.

Published with the author’s permission.

I have taken the liberty of using bold font to highlight those parts I found to be particularly insightful.

I invite you to use the comment capability to share what you think.

* * *

THE WHOLE TRUTH ENHANCES CHURCH HISTORY

by

Robert A. Tavaris

“Of all the faculties of the mind,

Memory is the first to flourish,” said H.I.,

And the first to die.” Bravo English Poet.

So be it, with my knowledge of history.

A doctored version of Church History,

Was, once, taught to my generation,

Is my naivety ‘Ignorantia or Karentia’?

The guilt is mutual. We now pay the price.

Raised a fundamentalist or a conservative,

Then cast to wolves of secular disciplines,

“ De Fide Divina et Catholica Definita,”

That mantra was to be my perennial formula.

Pius IX doctored Vatican Council I agenda

Brooked no opposition, bent all minds,

This was not the Pusillus Grex Christ envisioned,

We got what we paid for through Pius the Ninth.

Had we been honest about a certain Benedict,

Or the ‘Innocents of numerical distinctions’,

The Medici’s and Borgia’s were an open wound,

Yesterday’s skeletons are mass media’s fodder.

Are these ruptures glossed over or forgotten?

Why give Martin Luther et al, negative credits?

Blame not the media for unearthing our dirt,

If they are wrong, let’s correct the errors.

Ratzinger clones have clustered at Gondolfo,

Imagining they are the Church’s chosen ones,

A feast of left-over ideas, a famine for others,

As the call for Vatican Council III is ignored.

Why is Christ wasting away in the slums?

Drenched in sweat and soiled garments?

Is He shying away from pious liturgies?

Praying is so easy, when work’s a challenge.

Those who can, do; those who can’t, pray,

Those who can, speak out; the rest just obey.

Those who can, keep sowing; others wave.

Those who can, research; others dress gay.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us,

The Spirit of the Lord is articulating,

The Spirit of the Lord empowers prophets,

Prodding them to lead the lost sheep.

August 28, 2010

Posted in Church Culture, Friends and Partners, Must Read, Reform | 8 Comments »

Bishop Murphy, are you a Good Samaritan?

Saturday, September 4, 2010

The following letter will accompany a donation of 20,000 pennies to diocese of Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy.

* * *

Send the Bishops a Me$$age

September 5, 2010

Most Rev. William Murphy

Diocese of Rockville Centre

50 North Park Ave. (PO Box 9023)

Rockville Centre, NY 11571-9023

Enclosure: 20,000 Pennies

Dear Bishop Murphy:

In the parable of the Good Samaritan in the tenth chapter of Luke, Jesus tells us what it means to love our neighbor. Here is an update to the Good Samaritan story to make it more relevant to the present crisis of credibility. A child was on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell prey to a pedophile priest, who stripped the child, viciously violated him, and departed, leaving the child half dead. Another priest saw the violated child but passed by on the other side. Similarly a bishop saw the child and passed by on the other side. But a Good Samaritan saw the violated child and was moved with compassion. He bound up the child’s wounds, and took care of him. The next day the Good Samaritan took the child to an inn and gave his own money to the host of the inn and said, “Take care of the child. I will repay whatever you spend.”

Bishop Murphy, are you a Good Samaritan?

We, the undersigned, on behalf of the four organizations identified below–and on behalf of over a dozen co-sponsor partners–donate to you and the diocese of Rockville Centre 20,000 pennies as a seed or starter donation for a proposed Diocese of Rockville Centre Good Samaritan Clergy Sexual Abuse Victims’ Trust. The trust will distribute grants to victims of clerical sexual abuse that occurred in the Rockville Centre diocese since 1950. The grants will help victims and their families recover and heal from the trauma that resulted from the abuse. The number 20,000 represents a conservative (low) estimate of the persons who experienced, as children, sexual abuse by Catholic priests, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, and other church employees since 1950. (We believe the actual number of sexual abuse victims since 1950 is well over 100,000).

The trustees of the trust must be independent of the Church. We propose that you and we jointly choose the trustees, who will collectively have proven skills and expertise in trust administration and management, financial management, the medical healing arts and sciences, and the civil justice system. We suggest that we meet with you in the next 6o days to start discussing the details of the proposed trust and how it will work.

Best regards,

Frank Douglas, founder/president, Desert Voices, Inc.; 7850 N Silverbell # 114-178, Tucson, AZ 85743; (520) 404-2489; and national director of Send the Bishops a Message, an initiative of Desert Voices, Inc.

Richard Tollner, associate director, New York Victims’ Voice

Rev. Robert Hoatson, president/founder, Road To Recovery, Inc.

Kristine Ward, chair, National Survivors Advocates Coalition (NSAC)

Posted in Abuse and Cover Up, Church Culture, Finances and Ownership, Friends and Partners, Must Read, Reform, Restructuring | 8 Comments »

The latest from Sister Maureen: “The crisis continues worldwide…”

Thursday, September 2, 2010

The reader’s comments section of an article in America magazine carried on this blog and on the tbd edition of the NSAC News presents Sister Maureen Paul Turlish’s  latest analysis–which is provided below– on the state of the disunion, dysfunction, and disarray in the Institutional Roman Catholic Church.

Like everything written by the good sister, a.k.a. the Prophet from Delaware, the comment is well thought out, well written, and very professionally done start to finish.

Thank you again, Sister Maureen, for being a strong, courageous leader in the movement.

We look up to you for your honest assessments of this once glorious, now crumbling Roman Catholic Chucrh that gave so many of us our first glimpse of the grandeur of the Lord, that universal and well-regarded Church of our innocent and compliant younger years, that once solid rock of a Church that now which self-distructs almost daily and in blushingly  embarrassing fashion in print and electronic media worldwide.

Please keep m up the great work, sister. WE need you now more than ever.

Frank Douglas | Tucson, AZ | 9.2.2010

* * *

* * *

This latest example of the abuse of power and authority in the Roman Catholic Church by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the former leader of the Belgian Church, puts the lie to statements made not so many years ago by members of the hierarchy that the sexual abuse of children by clergymen was uniquely an American phenomenon.

Here in the United States previously sealed depositions that church authorities never expected to be made public support the fact that attempts at containment know no national boundaries.

Crimes against humanity?  No question.

Will the institutional Church take ownership for the complicity of its leadership in covering up for the actions of those who have preyed on the young and their own actions in putting so many more children in harm’s way?  Doubtful.

To date, have any complicit bishops in the U.S. been sanctioned for their actions? Rewarded, yes.  Sanctioned, no.

The crisis continues worldwide while in the U.S. bishops and state Catholic Conferences continue to viciously oppose legislative reform in any state where bills addressing it have been introduced.

Even in the state of Delaware which now has no criminal or civil statutes of limitations on felony sexual abuse of children, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington managed to get around the 2007 Child Victims Law and stopping the civil trials brought against it by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy almost a year ago.

Certainly not what one expected when the bishops promised Accountability & Transparency in 2002.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims’ Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

Posted in Abuse and Cover Up, Church Culture, Friends and Partners, Must Read, Reform | 23 Comments »

No mention of clergy sexual abuse and cover up in list of reform group’s proposed listening sessions

Monday, August 30, 2010

I received this notice in my in box this morning.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that there was no proposed listening session on clergy sexual abuse of children and its continuing cover up by the Roman Catholic Church.

Curious.

Frank Douglas | Tucson, AZ | 8.30.2010

* * *

Voice of the Faithful

of Greater Philadelphia

Keep the faith, change the Church!
Proposed Issues For Discussion In Break-Out Sessions At TheSaturday, October 9, Philadelphia Assembly At Chestnut Hill College.

There will be two consecutive sets of break-out sessions in the morning, allowing each person to attend two of them. Please respond toinfo@votfgp.org, and inform us of your first three choices of which of two sessions you would like to attend.

1. Selection of Bishops: Appointment of bishops by the Pope is a relatively recent development in the church that violates the ancient teachings of least two popes, and it has resulted in a dangerous lack of accountability. It has been said that a return to the local selection of bishops is the one reform that is the keystone in the arch. Unless that is accomplished, all the other proposals for reform will inevitably be ignored by the hierarchy. As an example, a bishop controls virtually all aspects of the life of a diocesan priest. This would not be possible if priests had wives. Therefore, optional celibacy is a non-starter as long as bishops are answerable only to the Vatican. Accordingly, if the Detroit meeting does not convey the demand (not a request) for local selection of bishops by some kind of election for a defined term, then everything else could be essentially futile.

Bishops have been selected locally throughout the history of the Church, and still are in some places. The important factor is investiture, or institution, by the Pope, which can still occur for the case of a locally elected bishop. It would mean that the Pope would have veto power, but that is unlikely to be a real problem. Are you willing to demand and work for the election of bishops in your diocese (for a defined term) by its clergy and laity working together?

[See the tutorial on www.rccvideos.org, for more information.]

2. Celibacy for Priests: For the first thousand years or so of church history, priests, bishops, and popes married. Compulsory celibacy was imposed only in the eleventh century. Today, male protestant clergy who convert to Catholicism are frequently allowed to be Catholic priests in the Roman rite. In view of the growing shortage of priests, which has led to the closing of many financially stable parishes, and the growing practice of importing priests from African and Asian countries, are you satisfied with this, or are you willing to work for the return of optional celibacy?

3. The Status of Women in the Church: From the evidence in the New Testament, it is understood that the proto-Christians (who were initially all Jews) met in private homes (after attending their synagogues) for Eucharist celebrations. It is believed that at least some of these meetings were organized by, and presided over, by women. The later subjugation of women in the new church is thought by some to reflect its spread into the Roman-dominated society, in which the rule of stability was the “household code,” in which women, children, and slaves were to be under the control of the pater familias. Are you willing to work to return women to their rightful places in the church?

4. Intentional Eucharistic Communities: Eucharist celebrations (not masses) have been held without priests since the earliest days of the church and are still being held in various places around the world. In the U.S., this is done in parishes by deacons in the absence of priests in an approved form but also in evolving forms in what are called small faith communities or intentional Eucharistic communities. Would you be interested in learning more about this? [See the tutorial on www.rccvideos.org, for more information.]

5. Financial Transparency: The income and assets of parishes and the Diocese come from present and past donations by the faithful. These entities are unique among non-profits in that audited financial statements and balance sheets are not required by law. As a result, financial reporting is often irregular or non-existent. This can lead to problems. For example, according to studies by Professor Charles Zech and colleagues at Villanova University, as well as various news stories in the public press, embezzlement of parish funds by priests or lay workers is a not-uncommon occurrence. Are you willing to let parish funds remain under the absolute control of pastors and the financial and other assets of your diocese to be kept secret by the Archbishop?

6. The Church Today: We think of ourselves as members of the Catholic Church. But what is “Church”? It clearly means different things to different people. Vatican II defined it as the people of God, as a community of faith. To many, it seems that the hierarchy continues to act as if it means only the institutional church and themselves. So, what do we as Catholics want church to be–not merely theologically and as a concept, but actually in a real and experienced manner? In light of the recent scandals in the institutional Catholic Church and the analyses of its underlying causes, do we as Catholics need radical reform of the institution, for the sake of Catholic people and Catholic faith, or only moderate reform? If the current structure of the institutional Catholic Church needs to change, how do Catholics bring that about? If no one in the institutional hierarchy and in a position to do something about it seems to be listening, how do we compel change, and, if need be, how do we “take back the church”?

The VOTF-GP meeting will be held at Chestnut Hill College on Saturday, October 9 beginning at 10:00 am. Please plan on attending! See an earlier email message for complete details, or view it on the homepage of our website atwww.votfgp.org. You will also find a link there to a pdf file of the flyer which you can print out and distribute.

Posted in Abuse and Cover Up, Church Culture, Friends and Partners, Reform | 30 Comments »

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