Slachtoffers Rooms Katholiek Misbruik and priesters

BXVI die ooit Ratzinger was, sprak zich uit in een mis met priesters.
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Received via email 7.20.2008 from the Ignatius Group/Paul Kendrick.
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Ignatius Group____
Response to Letter to Maine Priests
By Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., J.C.D.

This is an essential message (see copy of letter below)….it’s tragic that it has to be said but it’s all too true. I’m not able to send this response out to all on your list but you can share it if you wish.

I was ordained 38 years ago. I have been deeply involved in the sex abuse nightmare since 1984. The nearly universal response from other priests to me personally over the years has ranged from disbelief to anger to warnings that I was being a traitor to the brotherhood. I recall no priest asking what he could do to help victims. The general response of priests and priests groups has been silence.

Priests groups such as the NFPC or other small or large gatherings only began to speak out in 2002 and then it was a response to the Bishops’ “one strike and you’re out” rule. They were concerned about themselves and complained that there was no justice in the bishops’ rule.

They complained that all were being tarnished because of the crimes of a few. Still….no one expressed any concern about the victims.

Over the years I have met a small number of priests who have both spoken out and who have reached out and supported victims. These men and the real thing….men who are committed to the authentic concept of a priest as a pastoral minister and not just a cultic leader. Many if not all have been punished, challenged, threatened and/or isolated by the bishops.

Only two bishops out of 4500 on the planet have stood up and they have both been punished by the Vatican…..Benedict XVI’s Vatican…..the bureaucratic arm of the same pope who is now apologizing in the US and in Australia.

His words are empty and hypocritical as long as men like Tom Gumbleton and Geoff Robinson remain isolated.

His words are empty as long as the vast majority of priests remain too brainwashed by clericalism or too fearful because of their state of economic servitude to the monarchy to speak publicly about the outrage of sexual abuse (among other outrages) or to reach out and try to help a victim.

When I hear the whining of priests, the lies of the bishops and the hypocrisy of the pope and his Vatican, I cannot help but wonder if all the lofty theological sayings about the priesthood are nothing more than hollow prose the real purpose of which is to support the clergy’s self-created but clearly waning superiority in church and society.

All of this makes me profoundly ashamed to have been a priest and a Catholic and deeply disappointed that the clergy have deserted the calling to minister as Christ did, if indeed we ever had it.

Tom Doyle

A Dominican priest with a doctorate in canon law and five separate master’s degrees, Rev. Thomas Patrick Doyle, O.P. sacrificed a rising career at the Vatican Embassy to become an outspoken advocate for church abuse victims. Since 1984, when he became involved with the issue of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy while serving at the Embassy, he has become an expert in the canonical and pastoral dimensions of this problem—working directly with victims, their families, accused priests, bishops, and other high-ranking Church officials.
Doyle has interviewed 2,000 victims of clerical sexual abuse in the U.S. alone, and has been the only priest to testify in court in over 200 cases as to the legal liability of the Church. He has developed policies and procedures for dealing with cases of sexual abuse by the clergy for dioceses and religious orders in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As an expert in this area, he has delivered lectures and seminars for clergy and lay groups throughout the U.S. In 1989 he appeared as an expert witness before the legislature of the State of Pennsylvania concerning that State’s child protective legislation. As an Air Force major stationed in Germany, and who also recently served as a military chaplain in Iraq, he holds 16 military awards and decorations for distinguished service. He currently serves as a consultant/court expert in clerical abuse cases throughout the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Israel and the United Kingdom.
When The Voice of the Faithful honored Doyle with their first Priest of Integrity Award in 2002, David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), called Doyle “an absolute hero.” In recognition of his advocacy work for the victims of clerical sexual abuse, he has also received the Cavallo Award for Moral Courage (1992) and the Isaac Hecker Award from the Paulist Fathers (2003). In June of 2003 Doyle was also issued an official commendation from the Dominican Fathers for his “prophetic work in drawing attention to clergy sexual abuse and for advocating the rights of victims and abusers.”
Doyle is the author of several previous books including Meeting the Problem of Sexual Abuse Among the Clergy in a Responsible Way with Michael Peterson, M.D. and F. Ray Mouton (St. Luke Institute, 1985).
Doyle lives in Vienna, VA.


Letter to Maine Priests
Ignatius Group_______
In a recent homily, Rev. Michael Gendreau, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in South Portland, led parishioners to believe that the child sex abuse charge against Rev. James Robichaud is unfounded and based on little or no evidence.

Gendreau doesn’t know what he’s talking about. His remarks were irresponsible.

The woman who informed church officials that she was sexually abused by Robichaud, beginning at age 13, is not lying. Has anyone given a moment’s thought to her pain and suffering? Does anyone realize the amount of anguish and agony endured by a child abuse victim as they relive their abuse by putting aside their own desire for privacy to help protect other children and hold their abuser accountable? Child abuse victims often blame themselves for being abused, they think it was their fault. Has anyone considered that this brave woman might be blaming herself for Robichaud’s death? Well, Gendreau didn’t think about these things. Gendreau’s homily included a subtle message intended for people to believe that the child abuse victim in this case did, indeed, cause Robichaud to die of suicide. Disgraceful, but not unexpected from “Pastor Mike.”

Which brings me to another matter. During the past six years, Gendreau and you, his brother priests, have done nothing but whine about “unfair treatment to priests,” and “how difficult it is to be a priest because everyone thinks we are all child molesters.”

Stop feeling sorry for yourselves. Want to feel better? Get off your butts and help an abuse survivor. Listen to their story. Engage yourself in their innocent suffering. It would seem that everything about your ministry should have prepared you for this moment.

Which begs the question, why haven’t you reached out and helped those who were abused? Why haven’t you spoken out in the public square demanding truth and accountability from your bishop? Why haven’t you joined with abuse survivors and child protection advocates in their attempts to strengthen and change statute of limitation restraints? Why haven’t you demanded justice and restitution for the harms inflicted upon innocent children as a result of their abuse? And, if you do have evidence that accused priests are not being granted due process, or are being “railroaded,” then it is your obligation to speak clearly and forcefully to this issue. We agree that there is no defense for a process that is not fair and unbiased to both the accuser and the accused.

But, let’s not kid ourselves. Almost every priest in this diocese has done little to nothing to support those who were abused. Oh, sure, you all know how to say the right things such as offering your thoughts and prayers for those who were abused. Yet, it remains difficult for me to understand how any of you can preach the gospel with any measure of integrity while remaining silent and afraid to speak out for the vulnerable, ostracized, and sometimes despised victims of clergy sexual abuse. It’s all upside down in the church thanks to you. By your words and actions, you’ve helped make the abuse victims the enemy.

Finally, more and more ”lay persons” are discovering for the first time in their lives that they, too, are called to priestly ministry. No one ever told (or taught) Catholic school children that the most exciting news of all is that our Baptism calls all of us (not just the ordained) to be priest, prophet and king. Church is all of us, not just a group of celibate (and chaste?) males. It can now be said that if the “ordained” priesthood chooses to continue to remain silent, fearful and unwilling to carry the cross for those in need, then, please, get out of our way. There’s too much to do.

Paul Kendrick
Co-founder, VOTF-Maine, Ignatius Group
207 838 1319