MUST READ: Tom Doyle’s new year’s reflections
Received via email from Tom Doyle, 1.2.2010.
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Reflections from 25 Years of Experience
At the Start of the New Year
Thomas Doyle, J.C.D.
It is the beginning of 2010. Back many years ago when a new year would dawn, I remember when I would predict that this would be the last year of the Catholic sex abuse scandal. This year the Church will change. This year the bishops will shift gears and focus on the thousands of victims. This year the lawsuits will end because they will no longer be necessary.
Some would call that wishful thinking. Others may believe it to be delusion. In either case it was obviously magical thinking based on unreality.
None of my past hopes have come true and I doubt they ever will. The contrast between the reality of what has happened and continues to happen to victims at the direction of bishops, and what the bishops themselves claim they have accomplished is a chasm the depth of which defies the imagination.
As this new year of pragmatic action starts I’d like to share some random reflections from my experiences with the Catholic Church and clergy sex abuse. I have been closely involved on all levels since 1984. As many know, I did extensive research on the Church’s historical response for the book I co-authored. I have been involved in thousands of clergy abuse cases as a consultant, expert witness and/or pastoral minister in the U.S., Canada, Ireland (North and South), the U.K., Mexico, Italy, Malta and Israel.
In all of the research I have done and in every case I have seen or been involved in, the initial response of the official church whether it is on the part of the pope, a bishop or religious superior has been to hide the facts from the public. The second response has been just as consistent. The bishops have done everything they could to prevent the case from public exposure. If it does, then they do all they can to manipulate the truth so as to protect the image of the hierarchy first and the institutional church second.
In all of my research and in each and every case I have studied on any level, I have found something profoundly disturbing. I have not seen evidence of one single instance where the bishop or religious superior’s first response was to even ask about the condition of the victim much less reach out to the victim. I know there have been exceptions, but they have been very few and far between.
In every case where the bishop has met with victims, and this has only happened since 2002 with only a very few instances known to me between 1984 and 2002, the meeting has not been a spontaneous gesture by the bishop. In every case known to me the meeting took place because the bishop was mandated to do so in the terms of the settlement.
Throughout the U.S. there have been many cases brought to court where there has been little doubt on the part of either side that the sexual abuse actually happened but where the case was thrown out because it was outside the Statute of Limitations. I know of no such case where the bishop has, in spite of the lack of a civil process, offered to make monetary reparations to the victim. Uniformly…the victims are ignored. The bishops and their lawyers think they have won. They have protected their precious church’s money. But have they won…really? Hardly! They continue to reinforce the image of the “church” as a callous and insensitive business enterprise.
Since 1984 thousands of priests, deacons and brothers have been exposed. Many have ended up in jail or prison. Since 2002 the bishops have been scrambling to get rid of every cleric who has ever abused…but not because of a sense of Justice. Rather, getting rid of them creates the illusion that they are doing something. Getting rid of them reduces the liability!
Over two-thirds of the U.S. bishops have knowingly covered sexual abusers and in so doing have directly caused the ruination of the souls and often the bodies of countless more victims. The almighty Vatican, for all its carefully tooled statements of concern has not called a single bishop to accountability. A few have resigned but so what? They have committed crimes with impunity. Why? Because they are bishops and in the magical thinking of the papacy, bishops are above hard-ball justice. Some bishops have even been sexual abusers themselves. None have been defrocked.
I have seen consistent, hard evidence of a radical disconnect between the mandate of Christ in the Gospel in reference to such matters, and the actual actions of the bishops and the popes. In short, the popes (JP2 and Benedict XVI) and the bishops have not acted as Christians but rather as agnostic, self-serving businessmen.
Thomas Doyle, J.C.D.
January 1, 2010
49 Responses to “MUST READ: Tom Doyle’s new year’s reflections”
January 2, 2010 at 4:26 pm
I’m sure you have seen the movie “Doubt” and I suspect the ambiguities in all that has been revealed in our church’s abuse crisis continues to complicate the plight of the abused and how churchmen handle accusations and reach out to victims. As soon as a lawyer is involved, either on the part of the victim or the church, legal procedure takes precedence. I had this occur with a school teacher who felt her contract was unjustly brought to an end. Once she contacted a lawyer, it was hardball all the way and I was not as pastor permitted to speak to her about the details. Only after the legal settlement and as a part of the agreement, I was asked by her lawyer to apologize and only then over the phone. This is not how I would have wanted to do things, but we do live in America and we do have to follow civil law. Part of the accusation against the administration of the school was understandable the other part was false. She won on both counts.
Be that as it may, I wonder how many cases where a child was abused that the parents themselves wanted secrecy to spare the child and to forgo a public trial with media attention. It seems that the desire for secrecy was a two way street and more so in the past. Today it is a different story, but I wonder. I know if I were a parent, I wouldn’t wantmy teenage son or small child to have to go through a public inquiry that hits the press. I suspect most teenage boys wouldn’t want it either. I’d do all that I could to prevent it. So let’s be honest about the secrecy–it is human nature in these situations. I suspect too, that mothers/wives who ignore what their husband is doing in terms of molesting their children is based on many of the same things church people do–we don’t want to call law enforcement, a lawyer and prosecute a family member. Do you think bishops saw their priests as family members? Yes, the children abused are too, but I suspect the same dynamics of the wife who looks the other way while her husband abuses their children are involved.
Hopefully our more open culture will find better ways to eliminate the threat of and the actual occasions of abuse and that we who call ourselves Catholic will find better ways to deal with sin and crime rather than resorting to rage, revenge, and legal maneuvering. That’s my hope and prayer for the New Year. Maybe then we’ll understand why we need the incarnation of Christ and His passion, death and resurrection. Forgiveness and reconciliation combined with mercy and justice. On all sides, laity and clergy, this is sorely lacking.
January 2, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Blessings on you and all you hold dear, Father.
AW
January 2, 2010 at 6:28 pm
All I can say is,
“THANK YOU” Thomas Doyle
I stand by you & all the victims!
All for Love!
Deanna Leonti
January 2, 2010 at 7:12 pm
This is all certainly to the point. Our leaders treat the church like some version of AT&T with a Mass schedule and invest their concern and energy into shoring up life style (for them) and cash flow. Can’t think of anything further from the gospel especially since they continue to pretend to act in the name of Christ.
January 2, 2010 at 8:14 pm
We need to see priest and bishops in jail for their crimes.
January 2, 2010 at 8:23 pm
The days when a bishop, or even the pope, could say, “This (or that) is so because I say it’s so, NOW DROP IT” are over. No longer does the Faithful accept as, “Gospel” what comes out of the mouths of the Catholic Hierarchy. When the scandals of the sexual victimization of children, young people and vulnerable adults first hit the news, all the bishops and pope had to say was, “We’re Sorry. We Made Mistakes. We Want To Make It Right”. Instead these unfeeling, uncaring enablers of clergy sexual predators mounted a campaign to revictimze the victims with years of legal delays and lies.
If church leaders had played straight with the Faithful and the Victims, things could have been different….. So much could have been saved if they had….. So much has been lost because they did not.
January 2, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Once again Father Thomas Doyle has sadly hit the nail on the head. It is unfortunate that the leaders of the Catholic church do not see what they are doing to the very church they say they are defending. People are leaving the church in droves. Those who stay are questioning everything they once believed in. Victims are still left hurting and adrift. Priests, bishops, cardinals and popes remain untouched. Nothing has or will change. How sad.
January 2, 2010 at 9:35 pm
This forgiveness meditation may be of support
http://ILoveForGIVEness.com
Blessings…
January 2, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I met you at the Unity Club Tom over in Falls Church when you were leading a meeting. You are a good man. You have helped a lot of people. I thanked you then during my share, although it more or less confused everybody else because only you knew what I was talking about.
But let me thank you again. You have done necessary and Godly work here and for many years.
Tom Barnes
January 2, 2010 at 11:20 pm
I remember when I first met Thomas Doyle, it was in So. CA. & Richard Sipe was also there. I had driven from Las Vegas, NV. Bishop Geoffrey from Australia was there. All spoke, it was then my long search was over. I didn’t know where to go or whom to listen to, but after that Press Conference. I knew.
I also bought Sex, Lies & Secret Codes and had 2 of the authors that were there sign it.
I had also bought the book the Bishop wrote & had him sign it.
Thus was after I went to AZ to see another Bishop get sworn in.
That was I needed to confirm my feelings & imaginations of somewhere out there somebody knows what in the “Hell” is going on with that church.
January 3, 2010 at 12:57 am
I am convinced that, as long as the money keeps coming in, nothing will change. Most bishops live in a peculiar hyper-clerical culture, isolated from reality and oblivious to the devastation around them. Their measure of the health of the Church and the support of the people of God is from the collection basket. The only way for the faithful to force some degree of accountability is by withholding funds. We have no other weapons.
January 3, 2010 at 1:21 am
God bless the good father. Because of people like him I hang on to some semblance of my faith.
January 3, 2010 at 3:14 am
Its really hard to understand what in the hell is being said with all the lukewarm tone speeches going on…..testing 1,2,3 Hello..I wonder what one poster is referring to? is he trying to sway an opinion using fear tactics?. I also wonder how many child abuse cases were caused from clergy abuses cases past down from generation to generation? Has anyone gotten those figures yet?. The RCC in all of their BS splendor have created a culture of “Spiritual Death” through murdering the soul of innocent children, what happens to those children when they grow up” what are their chances to make it past all of the addictions that go along with clergy sexual abuse? what are their children like? oh it goes on forever…since the beginning of the church’s. History tells us that!
The only saving of souls that this church does is for to feed off of by their abusers! This church still wants to scapegoat this problem on the parents, Heard that one before…save it for some else who buys into the the RCC BS diversion tactic. Well it was your religion who taught your Bias theology of God, and created this culture of Christians, who are afraid to speak out & question by whose authority do you have & who gave it to you to steal, rob & rape the spirit & flesh of a child, teenager or vulnerable adult?.
Not by your consecrated A–!, nor anyone who claims they come in the name of Jesus!
I beg to differ, on account of similar resemblances of certain priests ambiguities was a major part of me leaving this hell hole church. No, my faith is no longer the same its better since I left!
Don’t you wonder what the priests do to help victims before attorney’s get involved, do you think that they are going to be on the victims side or the priest’s side? what measures will they take to go the distance in distracting the victims problem?, or helping the victim get help?
No way, I am not buying that one either!
Lets call a Spade a Spade it all boils down to perversion & abuse of power!
Husbands & Wives are different they do not hold the same role as clergy members do “in persona of Christ”, this is what was taught and pounded into the Christian culture for eons!
I call no one on earth Father, especially if he is wearing a collar.
The book I was referring to is;
“Sex, Priests & Secret Codes”
Doubt was just one of many movies made from true life, get it true life
“Deliverance from Evil” put me over the edge and drove to So. CA to hear Bishop Robinson speak.
However, I got more out of reading the material that is out there.
January 3, 2010 at 3:19 am
To Tom Doyle, thank you for all that you have accomplished! Your journey has not been easy but is much appreciated!
To Fr. Allan McDonald, please research before you write. Parroting the bishops lends no credence to what you have to say. You are not a parent and you are not a survivor. In following the “dictates” of the corporate institutional church and not listening to the nun who was/is the victim, you became an enabler. Perhaps with time you will grow to understand the amount of damage done, perhaps not. That decision is up to you. Perhaps you will even grow to understand the message brought by Christ. And consider this: Perhaps all who have been abused by this church (and all have been abused in one form or another) are in fact the one true church, a church with no walls, no prejudice, a church built on Truth and Justice. It exists and it is real.
January 3, 2010 at 4:33 am
I believe that you are right Father…hierarchy and recent Popes have become agnostic…but also, they have become the heretics that they themselves sought to eradicate. If they actually believed the Gospel messages, and lived them through practice; our Church would not need to be protective of perceived power…and certainly would do no harm at any level. Nonetheless, we are the church and we are bound to Christ. Within some cities, we are oppressed and are the church in chains.
Saint Louis in Chains
January 3, 2010 at 5:44 am
It is a new year but I expect the same bs and sins from the heirarchy of the RCC. The culture insures its sucession thru the way it is run. I will neither contribute to nor support what is possably the most rotten organization on earth today.
January 3, 2010 at 7:32 am
Tom,
Your courage and persitstence in telling the truth is an inspiration to me. I chose voluntary exile five years ago rather than continue to represent the Church here in the Diocese of Oakland as a priest. An abuse survivor of a former pastor of my parish told me the tragic story of how he and his brother were abused in the very rectory in which I was living. These brothers could have been spared this abuse if my diocese had not assigned this priest to the parish in the first place knowing that he had a prior police record of sexual deviancy. Tom your advocacy and truth-telling is a light shining in the darkness. You have my full support and gratitude cause I know the cost.
January 3, 2010 at 7:52 am
McDonald your rationalization of keeping those dirty little secrets about the sexual butchery of children, young people and vulnerable adults by Roman Catholic Clergy in order to save the victims and their parents from the embarrassment of public disclosure is utter nonsense.
You trivialize the suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who’s major misfortune in life was being born Roman Catholic Faith. Catholic Priests, Brothers, Deacons, Nuns and Bishops, with GOD on their lips, have raped and sodomized their way through generation after generation of children and young people. Some Bishops have even risen to their present positions of wealth and power over the bloodied, brutalized and tortured bodies of these poor Victims; that was the “Reward” for the Bishops who kept those dirty little secrets.
January 3, 2010 at 10:30 am
To Fr. McDonald,
Do you think lawyers would have been needed in this scandal if the hierarchy had defrocked the perp priests and enabling bishops, tell the truth to the parishioners, offered help to the victims ?
You aren’t a parent,———- or are you ? If you aren’t, you haven’t any business telling anyone what you would do or not if your children were sexually abused by a priest.
Do yourself a favor and read–Sex, Priests,and Secret Codes–The Catholic Church’s 2000 Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse. It’s not only the last 50 years that catholic priests have been sexually abusing children and others.
January 3, 2010 at 11:58 am
Lionel, I thank you for your words; and I say, “BRAVO” to you!!!!!!
But if you are trying to get through to this priest McDonald, believe me, you are whistling in the wind, my Friend.
As far as telling the truth to Parishioners? The people in the pews have intentionally kept themselves conveniently ignorant about the details of what the pedophile and sexually predatory clergy have done to the victims, myself included. We victims were forced into acts so perverted that some men would hesitate to request such things from professional prostitutes. And yet for other clergy and bishops to know that such thing were going on and still did nothing to stop it…..There is a special place in hell for such monsters, the perpetrators and their enablers.
January 3, 2010 at 2:51 pm
I remain grateful to Thomas Doyle, who continues to put his extraordinary gifts at the service of those victimized by my sinful Church.
Mary
January 3, 2010 at 3:40 pm
In response to Victoria Martin, I’ve read all the pertinent books on the topic, was vocation director for our diocese, screened candidates using the Abel Screen (out of Atlanta) and had a committee of lay men and women to help in screening candidates. I’ve also written in the secular newspaper in my hometown and in our diocesan newspaper about the perversion of power and the lack of accountability from enabling bishops. I have counseled people betrayed and molested by priests and their parents. But the greatest grace that I have experienced is from those who live with the reality of what happened to them, not with 20/20 hindsight and forgive their perpetrators and the institutional enablement of it. They seek reform just as I do, but not revenge or monetary balm. Lawyers are the last thing on their mind even in some of the most egregious situations.
The most moving experience I have ever had is the conclusion of a trial of a pedophile or sexually molested and then murdered a 6 year old boy. Law enforcement had released him from prison after being convicted on previous accounts of pedophilia. There was a breakdown there of the criminal justice system. When the mother was allowed to say her peace to the convicted murderer of her son, she said I forgive you and she meant it. At that point the murderer broke into tears and acknowledged for the first time his guilt. He was later executed for the crime–against the mother’s wishes. She harbored no rage and revenge either to the man or the system. She’s working now to reform the system but out of love not revenge.
January 3, 2010 at 4:48 pm
McDonald I commend on your empathy & compassion with this one story of forgiveness.
However, I do not know if your intentions are true for you posting here, knowing the depth of bondage with your fellow brotherhood of priests.
Are you trolling here for info?, are you a secret “Santa” agent for your church?.
Did you step out of the concentration camp box of prescribed Christian readings & what is & isn’t good church reading material to seek the truth in this serial pedophile problem if “the church” that claims to be one, holy & above everything seen & unseen?,
go fish somehwere else in seeking forgiveness out of instilling guilt.
The facts remain true your people do not have a sincere bone in their body, that make up a body!
January 3, 2010 at 6:16 pm
The fact is, the Catholic Church is nothing more and nothing less than a pedophile organization.
January 3, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Yes, McDonald, You have “read all the pertinent books”, you have listened, you have spoken. None of this however, means that you have experienced. You have not felt the pain, the degredation, the fear, the blood, the suffering that many others have felt with the Victims. You offer lip service to episodes of unspeakable horror.
I once spoke to an auditorium filled almost exclusively with mostly nuns. I said, “You will stand in the freezing rain to protest the execution of some mass murderer, but you will not stand with us to publicly protest the sexual victimization and sexual slavery of children.”
None of you priests and nuns and other clergy have anything of worth to offer the Victims/Survivors while you continue to cower in the shadows.
January 3, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Victoria and Deanna… You speak for me.I don’t know about you but Iam no longer a RC and am proud to be a lover of my Lord Jesus Christ and not the lover of a beastly institution, as I once was, starting at age 11 to become a RC along with my mother. We wished to bring my father back to his Catholic roots [good intentions go a long way]and that was accomplished with our year long instructions with a priest , once a week and eventual Baptisim on Fathers Day with his whole huge RCatholic family in attendance. Oh yes(we didn’t know it then) but we became a brainwahsed ROMAN Catholic family like all the billiions of other poor sad brain washed people that came before us. What a hold they had .NO MORE !!! INSTANT COMMUNICATION HAS LEFT THE DEVIL BEDEVILED! PTL
I am now over 80 yrs old and came to the realization in 2001, along with my husband,(of 50 yrs) that we could no longer belong to a church that took care of itself before it’s most precious comodity “it’s children”. They would carry on God’s Holy work. But there was no God’s Holy work for them but years of agonizing self hatred or confusion beyond all imagination. This is the only religion that says “The Priest represents Jesus Christ here on earth.” Otherwise ,why would I confess my sins to him, if he wasn’t and they said they were.?
THIS ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IS AN ABOMINATION TO GOD ALMIGHTY! THE PEOPLE ARE THE CHURCH.. GOD ALMIGHTY DOES NOT TAKE AWAY MY FREE WILL , HOW CAN THEY (THE RCC), MAKE ME DO THINGS AND SAY I WILL GO TO HELL IF I DON’T DO AS THEY SAY? WELL, GET OUT OF THE RCC AND YOU’LL FIND OUT WHAT BEASTLY LIARS THEY ARE AND HAVE BEEN FOR MILENNIA. [S]. My prayer is that every God loving human being in the RCC, that still believes their beastly lies will leave , Including all the Fr’s that still make excuses for staying. How can anyone live with the Devil and really get anything Godly accomplished? The Devil is real and he lives in the RCC.
January 4, 2010 at 12:55 am
Yes, Gloria…the people were always the Church. The Church is on the inside and not the outside of the self. Jesus knew it, Thomas knew it…Judas even knew it!
January 4, 2010 at 1:08 am
I agree, it appears that most Catholics worship “the church” One cannot serve two
Masters… My suggestion for the sake of your soul is to leave the Catholic church and
worship where people worship our Lord Jesus Christ – the Son of God. There is no perfect
church but at least your soul would be fed Spiritually. God looks at your heart and not
“the church”….
January 4, 2010 at 2:16 am
Lorraine, you are close when you speak of “worship of the church”. I however refer to such people as “clergy worshipping Cathaholics” as the problem…..Catholics who place false divinity in their priests, bishops, popes and major superiors. Such people will drop to their knees in worship of anyone or anything wearing vestments. It could be the devil himself, but as long as that person is dressed in vestments many catholics will drop to their knees, giving over the honor that should belong to Almighty GOD.
January 4, 2010 at 3:42 am
Gloria,
From your lips to God’s ears!
Your words come from your heart and your heart is with the Lord
and the Lord shines his Glory of Heaven through you and everyone who seeks & speaks the Love of Truth out of LOVE, and for LOVE!
God Bless You & Your Husband!
Many Bless full loving years to come for you two.
Deanna
January 4, 2010 at 11:05 am
Tom, what you say is right and valuable. However, you said one thing in Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes that for me has pretty much negated everything else you’ve said in the book and since “Healing can only come through Jesus Christ”. That is the most pernicious piece of BS I’ve ever read. Why? Because it is belief in this Imaginary Friend that has *caused* *all* of the abuse throughout Christian history. IMO, the only way to heal is to totally *reject* “Jesus Christ”, the imaginary friend and see that belief for what it is – belief in an imaginary “friend” who doesn’t do diddly for anyone at all. He’s *not there*, get it? The entire Christian belief system is inherently disordered at its roots in Abramism, the belief in a mentally ill imaginary friend. Its next disordered step is that the central myth of christianity *begins* with the *rape of a young girl child*. That rape is prettied up to make it look like a good thing and celebrated as something beautiful every Advent, culminating in the birth of her rape baby/Imaginary Friend/Zombie. The horror that stems from all of this is beyond belief and has gone on for several thousand years. The only way to stop it is to get off the Imaginary Friend-worshipping bandwagon once and for all. The fewer people bamboozled and extorted into belief in an imaginary friend who doesn’t exist, the fewer that will be abused by an inherently sick system.
Tom, you’ve done a good job and snaps to you, but I only hope that you have retracted that insidious (Stockholm-Syndrome-inducing) statement that you probably made in all ignorance (after years of drinking the JC Kool Aid). I hope you have learned and evolved from your belief in those statements. Until you retract that statement, I will never trust you (because through abuse I’ve been taught to trust no one, especially men who insist on being called “Father” when they have not earned that title via biological reproduction. Drop the pretense, drop the arrogance, drop the dog collar, stop drinking xtian kool aid. Then maybe I will trust you. Thanks.
January 4, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Deanna
Thank you for your blessings on my husband (of 58 yrs,) Tom and myself. We do feel blessed and I will continue to speak out as long as God gives me His grace to do so and in all areas that are keeping HIS children captive. He WILL set the Captives Free. I believe it with all my heart. Bless you and your family.
Cleveland Girl
God Bless you for where you are today. The Lord is good and He will. My father’s family were all from Cleveland. I have many nice memories as a small child and as an adult there. I went to the Cleveland Insitute of Art, affiliated with Western Reserve Univ. in the 50’s and was married in Lakewood, O.
January 4, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Gloria, thanks for the good wishes, but THERE IS NO “LORD”. There is no “God”. They/it are just imaginary friends, like little kids have. I have as much chance of being “helped” by your “lord” as I do being helped by “Hoober-Hobber”, my sister’s imaginary friend of her childhood (she also had one named “Connie Stevens”, not to be confused with the real-life actress of that name). If imaginary friends are all real, then why aren’t you honoring and making holy the name of Hoober-Hobber? You are an Infidel for not worshipping the One, True, Hoober-Hobber and recognizing my sister as his prophet! (sarcasm)
The only ones responsible for freeing the slaves of U.S. history were the slaves themselves and the *people* who believed that slavery was wrong and risked their lives to help. No god involved. No Big Guy in the Sky/Sky Bully to help or hinder. Just human ingenuity and realization that enslaving others is wrong because it’s wrong, not because some god said so (because the same “god” was also saying it was right) and threatened harm if one didn’t agree.
You can keep drinking the Abramist Kool Aid and believe that your god who encouraged captivity will also end it, if it makes you feel good. I myself don’t want to believe in a mentally ill imaginary being who can’t decide if he is good or evil and engages in both kinds of behavior simultaneously, is narcissistic, schizophrenic, bipolar, bloodthirsty, monomaniacal, megalomaniacal, bullying, extorting, misogynistic, and a hater and raper of children. It’s belief in the Abramist biblegod that has caused abuse of women and children and hatred of the same throughout the western world. The only purpose for belief in your god is to keep you sitting and spinning while powerful people control your life and pick your pocket and rape your children.
January 4, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Just say no to RCC Inc. – leave. Consult countmeout.ie for details. Defect!
January 4, 2010 at 9:47 pm
I have been an admirer and supporter of Tom Doyle for many years. However, his “new year’s resolutions” regarding the crisis of leadership in the church, leadership complicit in the rape and sodomy of children, goes only so far.
I would like to push the discussion into consideration of more tangible, proactive response(s).
What has unfolded in the Irish church this past year in the wake of government reports detailing the obfuscation and complicity of the Irish hierarchy is true remarkable! A true gift of the Spirit that in some small measure begins to redeem the suffering and sacrifice of so many survivors of sexual abuse.
The forced resignation of several Irish bishops has shaken the Vatican corporatocracy to its very core. The Vatican image-making machine must be working overtime these days. If the corporate clerics are to retain their control, they must contain this virulent strain of “power to the people” energy recently released on the Emerald Isle or it will spread around the world.
We here in the U.S. need to build on the groundwork laid by our Irish brothers and sisters. There are now movements in Irish society and in parliamentary circles to circumscribe long-standing prerogatives of the Irish Catholic Church. There have been multiplying calls for church leadership to be under local control of the Irish people.
To put it most succinctly: LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE!!!
We must put aside rarified theological constructions and/or immature psychological longings for a warm, fuzzy spiritual experience with “Holy Mother Church.” We have to stop cataloging again and again all our past injuries at the hands of the clerical corporatists who now control the church.
We have to clear our heads, put on our big boy pants and big girl panties, and look unflinchingly into the eyes of our opposition: this matter before us is NOT theological, it is POLITICAL!!!
The leadership of the Catholic Church is presently dominated by a cadre of aging celibate (of varying degrees) men, many, if not most, of whom are gay. And who act repeatedly in ways that advance their own self-preservation at the expense of the faithful who only want to live out Christian lives, if albeit imperfectly, for themselves and their children and grandchildren.
The first step in this process of reforming the church is to admit, mainly to ourselves, that these corporate clerics have always been enabled by all of us who occupy the pews by our continuing to fund and underwrite their twisted clerical worldview. We, “Joe & Mary Pews,” are the ones who gave clerics the money and privilege which allowed them to rape and sodomize our children with impunity.
Hard fact, but true. But it also reveals to us the primary path toward rectifying the problem.
Since this is a political issue, the golden rule of politics applies: He who has the gold rules!
Employing a broad spectrum of initiatives, the goal of reformers should be to deny the clerics the mother’s milk of political control: control of the purse strings. We should use this control of the purse to extract concessions and compliance on any issue that effects the common life of the church.
I’m not talking here about boycotting collection baskets. We need to be more sophisticated and targeted in our strategies employing tactics like directed giving and charitable foundations, for example, to focus our influence over the decisions of the church. We need to establish financial structures which will compel accountability from clerics, and make the corporatists dependent on winning our approval for decisions which affect the lives of all members of the church.
First and foremost would be the reform of the priesthood. Followed closely by a whole new governance structure for the church which inverts the present political power pyramid from a aging clerical feudalism to the democratic authority of the people.
It may take us decades, even centuries, to attain these goals. But we will get there. An inexorable evolution toward a peoples’ church has already begun. I believe that this is what has broken out in Ireland in our own time.
And all of us must help. No time for watching safely and carping from the bleachers.
Jim Jenkins
Berkeley, CA
January 4, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Clevelandgirl,
Tom Doyle is one of a few if not the only one from the RCC Inst. Who strongly advocates for the victims. Why he stays in the priesthood? He is still credible as a priest for victims, and he if were to teach any other doctrine than what the RCC prescription of “Christian Theology” he might be called in for an ” Inquistion” his integrity is not in question as his counter parts ex-brothers who didn’t keep the bond of truth as justice as their guide, they took the wide political e-rode.
All of the secret buddies who didn’t do, say anyhthing are the ones who should be defrocked!
January 5, 2010 at 4:19 am
clevelandgirl,
you pose some good questions.
What is it that pulls someone to do good?
If man evolved from cave men instinctive nature and began using his intuitive nature or reasoning “thought” skills what was it that sparked the thought to do what is considered right & seek to do right & not wrong? Could that be considered a higher power?, if not then why aren’t other mammals reasoning with us humans?.
How did man know that right is right?
IMO
Truth & Justice are One.
Where do they come from?
But when both of these are met there is Peace with in, why?
January 5, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Deanna, I’m reluctant to trust anyone who is here to “help” abuse survivors who still identify with the corporation that promotes abuse (and its ancillary breakaway denominations, all xtian). Robert Hoatson is a priest, and I’m sure Road to Recovery is all about “reconciling to (bible)god”. There is nothing to reconcile to unless one wants to re-submit oneself to more exploitation and abuse by those into exploiting power and control via religion. In the survivor community there is this food chain: Stockholm-syndrome captives who are still insistent on being Catholic; ex-catholics who drank the fundagelical evangamentalist anti-catholic Kool Aid who still believe Jesus is their friend; and the rest of us, the nonbelievers, who are bullied by the first two even within the survivor community. I believe that most people who tout themselves as “helping” the survivors are doing so with an either “come back to catholicism” agenda or a “come to jesus via protestant fundagelical evangamentalist xtianity”. Where are the nonbeliever helpers who will validate nonbelieving survivors? Where are the helpers without a religious agenda? I’d love to get some help, but often the religious agendas are hidden until you’ve been hooked in, then the evangelizing starts. The situation really sucks. There is no one counseling survivors who can be trusted, even that woman therapist in NC, as she’s still a believer. Many counselors say the right things up front, then you get an evil surprise about accepting jesus again. Hell, even a New Wage counselor forced me to say “i love jesus” during a session – I fired her immediately after (felt I had to say what she compelled me to say in session due to religious compulsion, or she’d start bullying me, but I didn’t say it with any sincerity and only said it because she forced me to). So, you can’t even trust woo-woo people to not shove jesus down your throat!
Tom is already a heretic and schismatic because he isn’t a RCC Inc. corporate man. He’s been repeatedly demoted and fired from various authorized jobs within RCC Inc. Why is he afraid of an Inquisition at this late stage? Why still be a believer at all? Why trumpet a “no healing except through Jesus” stance which leaves out a great many of us who see “jesus” as complicit in abuse as at least a symbol if for no other reason?
Tom, have you reconsidered your “no healing except through jesus” stance? Why should I trust you? Frank, please feel free to share my email with Tom, as I’d like him to defend his stance with me personally. However, I don’t expect him to do so, as he’s like every other xtian/catholic who sees those of us who are unbelievers as subhuman and beneath their notice. As far as I can tell, he only cares about preserving the xtian kool aid and fighting those who fired him, not helping *real* survivors who challenge his stance to remain xtian/catholic. BTW, I also don’t trust Wall or Sipe, as they are both still catholic and still priests, even though they have seemingly come over to the survivor side.
Proof of defection is what I require for proof of sincerity, as having the pair necessary to reject status in RCC Inc., reject the sacraments (is one afraid to die without last rites? If so, one has still drunk the kool aid), is to me a sign of true courage. Hedging one’s bets, living Pascal’s Wager, equivocating about “jesus is good, only priests are bad”, etc., is a sign of cowardice.
It takes more courage and faith to defect (wirewalking without a safety net) than it does to stay a member, how ever tenuously.
January 5, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Dear Fr. Doyle:
Thanks for having the fortitude to face the truth and to say it out loud. The Church has survived evil in its own ranks for two thousand some years and is choking yet again on some of the worst in history. It doesn’t help to run away but to kick it relentlessly as you and others are doing by the grace of God until the last minion either converts or goes to his frightening eternity.
January 6, 2010 at 7:20 am
clevelandgirl,
Yes, I can understand your feelings and I too have also been subject to therapists who eventually will try & use the christian mythology method for a healing technique. Well, it didn’t work…I do believe in God but the not institutionalized prescription God of RCC. All religions believe in a higher power, but somehow the religion end of it always wants to put regulations or market their God as being the true one, and in the meantime make $ off of it as a commodity through the use of selling morals & hope. The only ones who are making money off these techniques are the ones who are doing the preaching of “Feel Good” that God loves & cares for you & then when one feels good to hear that something out there loves you in your despair they get you to open your wallet & ask to share one’s wealth by giving, so naturally one does feel better after listening to a talk full of honey.
Well, then I feel sorry for the ones who still buy into the bs, but in the meantime if it works for them then so be it.
Here is what I believe, all religions have a similar anointed one, who may have had a great philosophy on life whether this philosophy came from experiences I am not sure, ( there were no books then and what did they do? just observe?) and I also think that all are capable of becoming similar to the ones who are held in high esteem by these various religions, but religions are in the business to make $ and if everyone thought like this there would be no funding for the ones who are preaching, and yes the preachers can look like super stars to the rest of the congregations for their presumptuous act of knowing all & seeing all about a higher power than the rest. Its a great game, and sad to be one of the acorns aka. gullible ones.
When people believe in something it gives them hope, but to make money off of it is wrong.
So, if one wants to believe in JC, Buddah, etc. than so be it, who am I to tell them not to believe, they are all still cults in the long run ( I think).
I had asked Frank before he got sick to give you my email if you would like to talk, but I do not think he does that kind of stuff. Do you think it would be safe to post my email address?
from one clevelandgirl to the next.
ps. I went to a conference in CO for the ICSA (International Cultic Studies Assoc.) it was interesting to listen to similar stories.
Take Care!
January 6, 2010 at 10:26 am
Thanks Deanna! I guess the bottom line is that if you hang out a sign saying “church”, people will see it and give all their money and their kids to you. It’s all a big scam.
Are you familiar with rickross.com? It’s an anti-cult website that I’ve been finding very informative lately. I discovered it because I was looking for info on ManKind Project, and est-descendant LGAT that a friend’s ex-husband belongs to (and which contributed to the breakup of their marriage). Lots of interesting stuff, and you can look up any suspected cult leader and see if anyone has complaints against them. Their forum has had a good thread on James Arthur “Death” Ray, who ran the sweat lodge that killed 3 people in October. It’s now running about 35 pages (there might be others where he’s mentioned, but I draw your attention to that one). What has been interesting is the talk about covert coercive persuasion techniques that LGAT leaders use (L. Ron Hubbard and Werner Erhard were among the first). Extremely informative, as it outlines the techniques and steps used to suck people into these groups. Religions do exactly the same thing, especially RCC Inc. (and you can see televangelists like Rod Parsley use the techniques too once you know what to look for). Just as the Nazis learned how to set up concentration camps from RCC Inc., LGAT cult leaders learned many of their persuasion techniques from RCC Inc. I’ve also seen RCC Inc. in turn use LGAT techniques in sleep- and food-depriving “retreats” like Search for Christian Maturity (hubby went to one – no clocks, endless “witnessing”, about three hours of sleep in 48 hours, barely any food, love bombing, etc. – hubby came out glazed-eyed and would have stayed brainwashed if his mom had the money to keep sending him – as it is, the group had girls (not guys) send love notes to him signed with their “secret” password “in Christo” – what a bunch of crap to use sex and secrecy to keep him hooked in). LGATs (large-group awareness training or mass marathon training) have made use of RCC Inc. type pressure techniques along with advanced high-pressure sales techniques and abuse of such psychological processes as neurolinguistic programming (which can be good if self-applied or used in competent and ethical hands). I really recommend that thread highly, especially postings from AntiCult – search the forum using “James Arthur Ray”, then go to the thread with about 35 pages to it (there might be several at this point).
I guess the main thing is that the same brainwashing techniques are used by both LGATs and most religions. You can sell freezers to Eskimos if you know just how to do it. I checked out JAR because that retreat was called a Warrior Spirituality training, a similar term to that used by ManKind Project (New Warrior Training), so I thought it was a “ManProng” event (our nickname for the group). ManProng also uses unsafe “sweat lodge” techniques identical to JAR, except, instead of using fear of failure as pressure, ManProng uses insecurities about male manhood to keep their guys in beyond safety. I half-jokingly told my friend that she should take out extra life insurance on her ex (for their daughter’s sake) because he’d rather die than have other men see him as less than a man.
RCC Inc. and most xtian churches (especially the megas) *are* LGATs. RCC Inc. was the first.
Frank, I would also be happy to share my email with Deanna. Also, Deanna, if Frank can’t put us in touch, you can go to City of Angels and sign up for Kay Ebeling’s yahoo group. I know yahoo groups are old-fashioned, but hers is a safe place, and I’ve been able to pass on info on a pedopriest who she’s interested in investigating. I think her group is called MolestedByPriests if you access it via the yahoo groups website and search from there. Tell her I sent you!
January 6, 2010 at 3:09 pm
you know clevelandgirl I wonder if certain words (code words)are used to get one to feel an euphoria? take any word for example and now put all of the happy, secure & safe feelings tagged along on that on word, and when one thinks & talks about that particular word endorphins are sent out to ones body, and wa-lla! instant peace gratification. I think JC is a code word that has been built up since its origin. When it is said in the religious circles the religious assumes that they are JC.
Kind of like the word “Ice Cream” when talking about it, or thinking about it, most people get happy?.
and if they were told that it is a miracle substance, everyone would be eating it on a daily basis!
another example: Maslow dog, was it him who rang the bell?
ps. I really like how you write! Thanks!
January 7, 2010 at 9:59 am
Deanna, you are so right on this! Everyone is conditioned by Pavlov’s dogs to respond to various religious words and to associate them with rewards and punishments, whichever the religious authority sees fit. NLP was practiced by RCC Inc. long before it got that name. NLP, classical and operant conditioning, hypnosis, all used by religions to manipulate people.
All the endless droning on about scripture, dogma, doctrine, theology is nothing but a three-card monty game where words are the cards and are really nothing but a distraction while you’re being programmed and having your pocket picked and your children raped. If you watch someone like Rod Parsley, he strings together a bunch of buybull verses, supposedly on a unified theme, but all taken out of context and degraded into drivel that ultimately leads to the conclusion he wants – to have people come drop thousands of dollars on the altar as “offerings”. LGAT instructors do the same thing. Catholic retreats do, too.
One thing that catholics don’t notice is that the scripture readings are pieced together, not contiguous verses. It’s easy to discover, as catholic missals are stupid enough to show this at the heading: stuff like Mt. 6:1-4, 7-9, 13-18 (just a general example – don’t go running to your buybulls to check this). Why the gaps? Why not just read verses 1-18? It can’t be just to save time, as they’ve never really cared about taking up our time. What is up with the verses not read? Why aren’t they read? One of the ways I came to see the buybull as BS was to read *consecutively*, without skipping a word or a verse. When you do that, the contradictions, the inconsistencies, and the actual meanings stand out. Likewise when comparatively reading the Synoptics and seeing the inconsistencies and BS inherent there.
BTW, if you’ve ever witnessed three-card monty in action, you have the dealer making constant blurry motions and talking incessantly (his “patter”) about anything and nothing, but always including lots of compliments to you to suck you in. Then a shill does some prearranged picking and wins. Then it’s your turn to pick, and you lose because you’re being distracted. You lose twice, because the dealer gets your money because you’ve lost, and probably another confederate is behind you lifting your wallet and other valuables. There is NO difference between this, a church, an LGAT, or any other cult or high-pressure, high-level sales scam. Compare and contrast, spot the similarities, see the manipulation, see the truth of it all. It ain’t pretty, it’s hard to *want* to see the ugliness and manipulation. No one likes to admit they’ve been scammed because it’s embarrassing, hence the tenacious clinging to old beliefs because the disillusionment is too painful and why people still let themselves be suckered, either by the same outfit or another one promising similar, but false, results.
January 7, 2010 at 10:47 pm
ClevelandGirl and Deanna Leonti,
criticism of institutional religions are valid. they seem to exist to perpetuate their own existance. to say JC is simply pablum is to agree with Marx that religion is the opiate of the masses. so be it.
to say there is no ’something’ that always existed (some call it God) is scientifically wrong. simply, what ‘was’ before the ‘big bang’? keep asking that question until you settle on some thing always was, this is a scientific certainty.
but that’s not the real question, which is; is that some thing Good, neutral, or hateful? if it’s good, then it logically follows the we inherited that goodness, which includes a belief in something more than the daily doses of life we all experience.
if on the other hand you believe that ‘it’ is neutral or hateful, then life is meaningless and simply a crap game or ouija board for amusement of the ‘always was’.
tom doyle’s hope for the human condition, not simply catholics, is JC. what’s yours? if you have one, then you obviously think ‘always was’ is good.
January 8, 2010 at 9:52 am
JC isn’t pablum, he’s entirely a fiction. He’s an imaginary friend that we’re all supposed to have after we’ve rejected the imaginary friends of childhood (if we had one – I personally did not).
I find your allusions to Marxism and Communism to be a sideways ad hom attack – so, if we’re not into jebus, then we’re communists? Puh-lease! That argument died when the Former Soviet Union collapsed. I suppose you think people of all faiths not dealing with jebus (over 2/3 of the world’s population are communist too.
One *can* find meaning in life without jebus and all the specious theological arguments surrounding belief in him. All of Abramism is disordered at its roots, and the central myth of xtianity *starts* with the rape of a girl child and degenerates from there. As Abramism only applies to about 1/3 of the world’s population, you are saying that 2/3 of the population has no meaning in life, which is entirely wrong, racist, colonialist, fascist, “white man’s burden”, “manifest destiny”, and a whole list of other evils no belief in any imaginary friend can cure.
BTW, I prefer that Tom speak for himself, not some minion of RCC Inc. Perhaps he has changed his views since he wrote Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes. I would like to know *from him* if he has or hasn’t. I give him credit for being a generally enlightened person who is capable of growing and changing his mind, as he’s demonstrated in his realizations about the evils of clergy sex abuse and his efforts at advocacy. Saying one *must* accept the imaginary friend jebus or you will not be healed is a bullying statement. Tom, are you a bully for christ? Do you still drink xtian Kool Aid. Inquiring minds sincerely want to know.
January 8, 2010 at 9:08 pm
What it is, was now & forever?
I wonder what the first baby thought of as he or she first saw her/his world
do you think the baby had thoughts of how he or she got there? or what was it like as an embryo?,
how many infants do you know that know where they came from? All they know it is they are here, and here has always been.
January 9, 2010 at 6:27 pm
ClevelandGirl,
Wow! You are certainly a survivor! I hear from those that have been abused, and also read about the incredible pain and confusion they must endure on their road to achieving a sense of peace in their lives, and for many, this seems nigh impossible because of the lack of trust they have in anyone or anything, any longer. But you, ClevelandGirl, have literally taken the bull by the proverbial balls and swung it around as far as you can possibly can. And who could blame you? I have done exactly the same in my pursuit of what ‘Truth’ is. I can honestly say though, that in my journey, it landed in a place of peace in my soul. And it can be no different for anyone – each must find their own landing place – their place of choice. This must be the eventual outcome, or you will rage against the machine for the rest of your life, and poison your body all over again with the self abuse you will be heaping upon yourself by living in rage without resolution. I know this because I am a survivor of emotional and physical abuse by my own father and am now married to a man who was sexually abused by three people in his youth – a priest during confession, an ex-priest and a parishioner. And my own father was sexually abused by his teacher in a catholic school. Oh yes, how the cycle goes around. But I am determined for this cycle to end within our lives and so that we will not pass on the ’sins of the father’ to our offspring. I certainly respect and value your ability to question everything in your path, how else can it be? I don’t want for a minute to preach to you, but I found that love was conditional in every part of my life and this brought me to my knees. This is where, in the most unlikely of places (nothing associated with religion at all) that Jesus presented Himself to me with a Love like no other, it was a free gift, no strings attached. I am still moving along on the journey of discovery of who I am, but more importantly now as well, who I am in relationship with others. For it is only in relationship with other that we begin to see more clearly – and moreso when we an learn to trust again. And I couldn’t agree with you more about counsellors, therapists, pyschologists and pyschiatrists – so many have a hidden agenda of one kind or another – it took my husband 30 years to find the one he has now – one that allows him to unravel his past WITHOUT any preconceived ideas as to it’s outcome and choices he makes. It has been really liberating for us both. I wish you all the very best and peace to your soul one day.
Tom,
Your articles have been incredibly inspiring and incredible, coming from a priest. Thank you and please keep them coming. I think one of the most poignant points you have pulled out is that of the relationship of the priest as ‘father’ to the child, and how this role has been abused. How much more devastating is when one sees not only the physical/emotional abuse suffered by the child, but the devastating spiritual abuse that deprives the child/youth/adult from engaging in free will to experience the divine love of God, experiencing instead, the degradation of their sense of worth, even in the eyes of God. My prayer is that many, many in the religious will rise up against such a worldy kingdom here on this earth, and instead, raise ministers of the soul.
January 11, 2010 at 4:01 am
IS Jesus just another code name for the Ancient Mysteries?
and the RC Priesthood just a continued replica from priests that served the great Pharaohs’ back in the day?
March 17, 2010 at 1:55 am
Dear Mr. Doyle,
I have been on the web an came to learn that you are in the work of heping victims and you were sentenced by your church. My deepest respect for all you work. I live in Germany and at the very moment a flood is waving over Germany, this means every day another case of sexual abuse by a priest, boarding school etc.
is beeing reported. I was raised a Roman Catholic, so when I found Christ my Saviour I quit the Roman Catholic Church. I was reading the Story of the former Jesuit priest Alberto Rivera, born at the Canary Islands and passed away in the US in 1997. He has publilshed his tesimony with http://www.chick.com. Maybe if you have time you could see it. Rivera says in one of his speeches that sexual harassment and abuse in his church was not an exeption but a permanent problem.
May the Lord bless you for your courage
Brisco Giuseppe