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Welcome to The Catholic Cover Up
Saturday, July 31 2010 @ 05:30 PM EST

If you would like to share your story of abuse from the Catholic Church Please email me admin@tor.id.au and I will put your story in this section.

This should not have happened to a child

Thursday, July 15 2010 @ 10:58 PM EST

Tag: england

Two decades after he was abused by a Catholic priest, Mark Dixon is still waiting for the Catholic church to acknowledge his pain. In the second of two articles, he tells Chris Lloyd how he confronted his past.

"I WOULD kill him,” says Mark Dixon coldly, referring to the priest who sexually abused him years before he was in his teens.

I was abused at the hands of a priest

Thursday, July 15 2010 @ 01:02 PM EST

Tag: england

A FORMER altar boy told last night how he was sexually abused by a priest during retreats to Holy Island and Lourdes.

Mark Dixon, 38, of Darlington, told how he was ten when he became a victim of Father David Taylor, then the youth chaplain for the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.

Abuse victim’s life sentence

Wednesday, July 14 2010 @ 01:00 PM EST

Tag: england

More than two decades later, memories of the abuse Mark Dixon experienced from a priest are still vivid. Chris Lloyd explains the man’s anguish in the first of two articles.

IT’S just so vivid, says Mark Dixon. “It’s there. It will never, ever leave my mind.”

Alan Elsworth turned on innocent priest after history of abuse in Catholic child care homes

Tuesday, July 13 2010 @ 01:53 PM EST

Tag: england

A MAN sexually abused as a child while in the care of the Catholic Church has been ordered to stay away from an innocent priest he was harassing.

Alan Elsworth kept his horrific past a secret for decades, but his life started to unravel when his devout Catholic wife of 30 years tried to persuade him to go to church.

Victim of priest sex abuse gives advice to parents

Thursday, July 08 2010 @ 11:14 PM EST

Tag: usa

By Tom Roussey - bio l email

GAFFNEY, SC (WBTV) - David Fortwengler says he knows what the man who came forward alleging abuse by a North Carolina priest feels like. Because he's been there.

The latest allegations are against Father Joseph Kelleher, who allegedly sexually abused a 14-year old boy in Albemarle in 1977 while serving at Our Lady of the Annunciation.

Thomas Roberts, victim of sexual abuse by Catholic priest

Wednesday, June 23 2010 @ 02:37 AM EST

Tag: usa

Tag: youtube

On Tuesday, news anchor Thomas Roberts co-hosted ABC’s ‘The View’ although comedian and actor DL Hughley, acted as moderator. Roberts was also the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a former Catholic priest.

The Man Who Brought Down the Catholic Church

Monday, June 21 2010 @ 04:06 AM EST

Tag: usa

B Tom Matlack

In the fall of 1997, I was introduced to a gentle, funny man who had a photographic memory for Hollywood birthdays. "Princess," as many of his friends affectionately call him, was one of the people I came to trust and upon whom I relied.

He would take my late-night phone calls whenever I felt myself sinking in my troubled personal life as a divorced father of two small children.

A convert to Catholicism, woman says she was abused by priest

Wednesday, June 16 2010 @ 11:21 PM EST

Tag: nigeria
flag_ireland

Tag: ireland

By Oliver Moore

Now a resident of Yarmouth, N.S., Dolores Atwood is at the centre of the latest scandal rocking the Irish church.

Almost every cabbie has a story; here's one of self-redemption

Thursday, June 10 2010 @ 03:42 AM EST

Tag: usa

By Brianna McClane

Filing process for sexual abuse allegations The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review receives and reviews sexual abuse allegations of children.

The allegations are formalized through meeting with the director or assistant director of the office. A representative of the Office of Assistance Ministry is also present during the meeting including a person to provide support if the accuser desires.

A clergy sex abuse victim speaks publicly for the first time ever

Tuesday, June 08 2010 @ 05:53 AM EST

Tag: usa

Savannah, GA,

Man who settled for $4.3 million comes forward

Victim speaks publicly for the 1st time ever

Convicted predator priest’s status is in doubt

New arrest warrant was out for him last week

Cleric violates parole by not registering his address

But he’s now “compliant” again & some say he’s very ill

Still, group wants his whereabouts disclosed to the public

SNAP begs other “victims, witnesses & whistleblowers” to come forward

Victim remembers rules

Sunday, June 06 2010 @ 09:29 AM EST

Tag: usa

It was 1971, and Agawam was a sleepy suburb of Springfield, where nothing very exciting happened. She was 15, and there were problems at home, so she went to see her priest at St. John the Evangelist, the Rev. Al Blanchard, because she figured he could help.

Blanchard “helped,’’ she says, by having sex with her.

Abused as a child: ‘The buried memories started to take over’

Saturday, June 05 2010 @ 02:17 AM EST

Tag: england

By Ruth Tierney

For more than two decades, Barbara Wilmer was unaware of her husband’s devastating childhood secret. But then, with the emergence of an old school photograph, the bad times came flooding back. Here Barbara tells their story

Still breathing

Tuesday, June 01 2010 @ 01:59 AM EST

Tag: australia

By BARNEY ZWARTZ

IT HAS taken most of her life to discover, but Noreen Wood knows now she is a fighter. Like most victims of sexual abuse, she has many needs - financial, physical and emotional - but the most urgent, the one that drives her even when she feels that tackling the Catholic Church is like tilting at windmills, is for the truth to be heard and acknowledged.

At least four generations of Noreen's family have been shaped by the Catholic Church. Once, like her great-grandmother - a generous donor to Mary MacKillop - she would have seen this as a blessing. No longer.

A SURVIVOR OF KID ABUSE BY A SISTERS OF MERCY SPEAKS OUT

Thursday, May 27 2010 @ 02:36 AM EST

Tag: ireland
youtube

Tag: youtube

Irish lady Christine Buckley was put in to a Goldenbridge Industrial School in Inchicore, Dublin when she was only 4 years old.

Goldenbridge was a scandalous eremite establishment which was run by a Irish Sisters of Mercy. Christine says she suffered horrible as well as redundant abuse by a nuns during a propagandize until she left Goldenbridge when she was 17. In this video remove she tells Irish broadcaster Karen Coleman her story.

Catholic Church: I DEFECT!

Friday, May 21 2010 @ 02:49 AM EST

Tag: usa

I finally got around to it. I just sent off my official request for defection from the Catholic Church. I have been a lapsed Catholic since about puberty, but it has gotten to the point that the mere thought of my name on their rosters seemed offensive to me.

Given their actions on child sexual abuse, their positions on contraception, women, gays, etc. etc. etc, I felt the need to put as much distance as I could be me and the Pope.

John Fidler: Abuse victim shows courage in quiet strength of his voice

Friday, May 07 2010 @ 04:08 AM EST

Tag: usa

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Profiles in Courage," then-U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy chronicled the experiences of eight U.S. senators who spoke out against sometimes overwhelming forces of political opposition.

This is another profile, no less courageous than the senators', for the quiet strength of its voice against the louder voice of a powerful institution.

It is the story of a man who has harbored a secret for most of his life and who has decided the time is right to reveal it.

Quilt tells abuse victims' stories

Friday, May 07 2010 @ 03:47 AM EST

Tag: canada

Irene Williams says she draws strength from speaking out about the emotional devastation she endured as one of dozens of children sexually abused by Rev. Charles Sylvestre decades ago.

"Every time I speak it's a healing process for me," Williams said. "When I speak about what happened to me, it gives me my power back. It gives me strength and purpose to keep going."

‘I was a victim of abuse. This is what the Pope must do to stop it’

Wednesday, May 05 2010 @ 05:06 AM EST

Tag: england

By Colm O’Gorman

It was not being raped by a priest at the age of 14 that shattered my faith; it was the horrifying realisation that the Catholic Church had wilfully, knowingly abandoned me to it, the knowledge that they had ordained the priest who abused me despite knowing he was a paedophile and set him free to abuse with near impunity, ignoring all complaints.

Jeffersonville man speaks out about priest abuse

Saturday, May 01 2010 @ 02:49 AM EST

Tag: usa

By MATT THACKER Matt.Thacker@newsandtribune.com

Tennessee priest charged after reportedly confessing

JEFFERSONVILLE — For decades, Warren Tucker lived with a secret that affected almost every aspect of his life. It took two failed marriages, countless failed friendships, depression and drug and alcohol abuse before Tucker admitted he had been sexually abused by a priest when he was a child.

Broken trust, broken lives: Survivors of priest sexual abuse speak out

Friday, April 30 2010 @ 08:12 PM EST

Tag: usa

By Kevin Clarke

For many, it is one of those assuring, evocative aromas, the kind that launches a cascade of warm and welcome childhood memories and recollections of sacred and peaceful moments. But for Christopher Dixon, it's the smell of burned candle, the blackened wax, that drives him away from Mass. It's a smell that never fails to remind him of "Father [John] Fischer with his finger pointing at me, `Come here; calling me back to the sacristy"

Broken trust, broken lives: Survivors of priest sexual abuse speak out

Friday, April 30 2010 @ 03:30 AM EST

Tag: usa

By Kevin Clarke

For many, it is one of those assuring, evocative aromas, the kind that launches a cascade of warm and welcome childhood memories and recollections of sacred and peaceful moments.

But for Christopher Dixon, it's the smell of burned candle, the blackened wax, that drives him away from Mass. It's a smell that never fails to remind him of "Father [John] Fischer with his finger pointing at me, `Come here; calling me back to the sacristy"

Out of the shadows

Thursday, April 29 2010 @ 10:56 PM EST

Tag: usa

BY YONAT SHIMRON - Staff Writer

FUQUAY-VARINA -- For Charles L. Bailey Jr., the triggers serve as a constant reminder of the past.

There's the sight of the square white clerical collar, the "click" of the door closing, the words of the Lord's Prayer, and especially, "thy will be done."

From out of nowhere, these random sights, sounds and phrases take him back to two horrific years from 1961 to 1963 when Bailey was repeatedly raped by a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y.

Tens of Thousands Have Been Affected by Abuse

Wednesday, April 28 2010 @ 10:52 PM EST

Tag: global

By Mona

In a recent editorial on the Commonweal site ( http://commonwealmagazine.org/seeking-sign) a reference is made to the tens of thousands of lives that have been directly affected by the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

I immediately thought of the numbers in my own family, and then the numbers of past-students my revelations might have negatively impacted. Then there was the number of people affected by my son’s suicide, which I cannot but feel was encouraged by this whole awful mess.

Catholic sex-abuse crisis: A victim’s parents to speak Sunday in Ormond Beach

Friday, April 23 2010 @ 05:59 AM EST

Tag: usa

The parents of a young man who said he was abused by a Catholic priest will tell their story this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Ormond Beach Public Library.

Toni and Joe McMorrow will tell how they grew frustrated with what they describe as the church’s reluctance to act in the case of the priest who molested their son, Brandon Rains, who is now in his early 20s, in 2001 and 2002 when the family lived in Maryland.

A victim’s parents to speak Sunday in Ormond Beach Catholics — posted by anika palm on A

Friday, April 23 2010 @ 03:53 AM EST

Victim speaks about retired priest's arrest in sex abuse case

Tuesday, April 20 2010 @ 10:27 AM EST

Tag: usa

Warren Tucker, who said he was abused by Father Bill Casey, feels the arrest of Casey marked a great day for justice and for the victims of clergy sex abuse around the world.

"I feel the arrest is very important and proves to others that justice delayed is still justice," Warren told 10News. "I'm not going to be having any parties over it. At the same time, I feel very vindicated by it. I thank the McDowell County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina and the Greene County Sheriff's Department in Tennessee for not only doing their jobs, but understanding the importance of this for so many people."

Xaverian Missionary Priest Child Sex Abuse Victim Breaks Silence

Sunday, April 18 2010 @ 02:43 AM EST

Tag: usa

Tag: youtube

Child clergy abuse survivor Joseph Callander speaks to Boston news media on Friday, April 17, 2010. Joe broke a confidentiality agreement to speak publicly for the first time about the repeated sexual assaults he endured by Fr. Mario Pezzotti at the Xaverian Missionary Fathers minor seminary in Massachusetts when Joe was 14 years old.

A priest's accuser: Tickling, at first, then a descent into sexual abuse

Monday, April 12 2010 @ 09:50 AM EST

By Jesse McKinley and Katie Zezima / New York Times

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A San Francisco woman, who says she was molested by the Oakland priest at the center of a case which has raised questions about Pope Benedict XVI's handling of sexually abusive clergy members, described in vivid terms on Sunday how she was sexually abused and later intimidated by her attacker.

Abuse victims speak out amid outrage toward Catholic Church

Sunday, April 11 2010 @ 08:18 AM EST

By Jesse McKinley and Katie Zezima, New York Times

OAKLAND � When his grandmother and grandfather died, Wayne Presley deeply wished to attend their funerals. But Presley couldn't bring himself to walk through the church doors. Inside, at the lectern, was the man who Presley said had sexually molested him as a child.

Presley on Sunday joined the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support organization of self-help groups, at a demonstration outside the Cathedral of Christ the Light, mother church to the 84 Catholic parishes that make up the Diocese of Oakland.

Oakland Priest�s Accuser Describes Sexual Abuse

Sunday, April 11 2010 @ 07:25 AM EST

By JESSE McKINLEY and KATIE ZEZIMA

OAKLAND, Calif. � A San Francisco woman who says she was molested by the Oakland priest at the center of a case that has raised questions about Pope Benedict XVI�s handling of sexually abusive clergy members described in vivid terms on Sunday how she was sexually abused and intimidated by her attacker.

For US abuse victims, crisis reawakens past trauma

Friday, April 09 2010 @ 03:17 AM EST

By JAY LINDSAY (AP)

BOSTON � The clergy sex abuse stories surfacing around Europe stir a sickness in Kristen Merrill's stomach and lure back the sweat-covered nightmares of her own abuse.

Beginning at age 13, she said, she was molested by a priest in a small town parish in North Andover, north of Boston. It happened 30 years ago, but she said the news out of Europe made it seem like today.

"It's horrible," Merrill said. "It's reopening everything."

Woman abused by Smyth wants Dr Brady to apologise

Wednesday, April 07 2010 @ 04:18 AM EST

PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent

A WOMAN who was repeatedly sexually abused as a girl by Fr Brendan Smyth has called on Catholic primate Cardinal Se�n Brady to apologise to her and to �walk the walk� over his handling of a church investigation into the paedophile priest.

�Samantha�, who was abused by Smyth between 1974 and 1979, asked �how can he expect to head the church knowing that I was abused and raped because he didn�t do what he should have done?�

sex-abuse victim reflects on the current crisis facing the Catholic Church

Wednesday, April 07 2010 @ 03:26 AM EST

There was a time when Troy Gray wanted to be a priest. That ambition died in a cheap motel room off Interstate 10.

Troy Gray also wanted to be a musician�and he�s now a professional guitarist, playing gigs all over town. That is a personal victory. After all, he could be dead. He has tried to kill himself more than once.

Northland Man Speaks Out About Sexual Abuse In Catholic Churches

Tuesday, April 06 2010 @ 05:22 AM EST

A Northland man, who was molested by a priest as a young boy, is standing up against the way the Catholic Church is handling the recent resurfacing of sexual abuse cases.

Verne Wagner is speaking out against the allegations against Father Lawrence Murphy who allegedly molested 200 deaf children in Milwaukee before being transferred by the church to a parish in Superior.

He hopes the bishops responsible step forward.

Letter from clergy sex abuse survivor Pete Saracino to New York archbishop Timothy Dolan

Friday, April 02 2010 @ 03:04 AM EST

The letter below is from clergy sex abuse survivor Pete Saracino to New York archbishop Timothy Dolan. The archbishop�s blog, which is referenced by Pete in his opening sentence, is called The Gospel in the Digital Age and can be accessed by clicking here.

Pete�s letter was brought to my attention by Tom Doyle who called the letter a �terrific summary.� Tom emailed me to say Pete gave him permission to send it on to be included here.

Thanks, Pete.

Thanks, Tom.

How a Molesting Case Emerged Decades Later

Thursday, April 01 2010 @ 03:59 AM EST

By NICHOLAS KULISH

ESSEN, Germany � The case that has raised questions about the future pope�s handling of a pedophile priest in Germany came to light three decades after it occurred, and then almost by chance. It happened when Wilfried Fesselmann, an early victim, said he stumbled on Internet photographs of the priest who sexually abused him, still working with children.

Catholic sex abuse scandal: One man's story

Wednesday, March 31 2010 @ 11:34 PM EST

Dean Weissmuller says that when he was a boy at a Milwaukee school for the deaf, Father Lawrence Murphy routinely molested him. Now he's asking why the future Pope Benedict XVI let him go unpunished.

Reporting from Chicago - Dean Weissmuller lost his hearing at age 3 when he was struck by a car on Chicago's North Side.

He says lost his innocence about six years later when a priest at a boarding school for deaf children and a dormitory supervisor repeatedly molested him.

Catholic sex abuse scandal: One man's story

Wednesday, March 31 2010 @ 05:37 AM EST

By Manya A. Brachear and Marie Rohde

Reporting from Chicago � Dean Weissmuller lost his hearing at age 3 when he was struck by a car on Chicago's North Side.

Dean Weissmuller says that when he was a boy at a Milwaukee school for the deaf, Father Lawrence Murphy routinely molested him. Now he's asking why the future Pope Benedict XVI let him go unpunished.

He says lost his innocence about six years later when a priest at a boarding school for deaf children and a dormitory supervisor repeatedly molested him.

Rugman in Rome: victims refuse to shake priest�s hand

Sunday, March 28 2010 @ 05:56 AM EST

Just after 9pm on Friday night I found a myself in a television studio in Rome as a member of the audience of an Italian television programme called �Brought to You by Rai Three�.

The show was broadcast live, with between 3 and 4 million Italians watching at home. I was briefly distracted when a television camera fell on the head of an audience member, obliging the TV staff to bundle the victim off the stage; but that was a surreal moment in an otherwise gripping show.

Trevor Baylis sexually abused at church

Sunday, March 28 2010 @ 05:32 AM EST

Trevor Baylis, the inventor of the wind-up radio, has revealed that he was sexually abused by a curate at an Anglican church as a child.

Time to heal: After 30 years, local woman speaks about clergy abuse

Sunday, March 28 2010 @ 05:03 AM EST

By Brian Messenger bmessenger@eagletribune.com

NORTH ANDOVER � It came without warning, a subconscious flash flood washing up images from a forgotten childhood. Painful details Kristen Merrill unwittingly suppressed for decades made their return. She thought she was dreaming.

The distinct wallpaper in the rectory kitchen. The green linoleum counter top and a red tin filled with cookies her grandmother made. Her yellow blouse.

The Words of a Victim

Friday, March 26 2010 @ 05:48 AM EST

Steven Geier, 59, is among the former students of St. John�s School for the Deaf who has accused the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy of sexual abuse. He spoke Thursday to David Callender, a reporter covering the story for The Times, in Madison, Wis. The following is a transcript of their conversation. It has been edited and condensed, and it contains mature language.

German tells of childhood abuse by Catholic priest

Friday, March 12 2010 @ 01:12 AM EST

Germany's northern coast is still in the grip of winter.

In the seaside town of Scharbeutz, the almost deserted beach looks more like a glacier, with thick carpets of ice spreading out along the sea.

Norbert Denef loves the Ostsee, even in winter. He lives just a few minutes from the beach and often comes here for walks, or even for a morning dip in the icy waters.

"This place is like a therapy for me," Mr Denef explains as we stroll along the shore.

Interview with Ritual Abuse Survivor, Jeannie Wills

Thursday, March 11 2010 @ 04:04 AM EST

I first met Jeannie years ago at a SNAP conference. I continue to appreciate her wisdom, honesty, transformation and joy.

JR: Thank you for participating in this interview. I experience you as a nurturer or guide in various kinds of survivor healing efforts: the Farm, SNAP, and individual support. How would you describe your kind of advocacy?

A sexual abuse survivor speaks out

Friday, March 05 2010 @ 03:33 AM EST

�Brother Tony� in prison for JP crimes

�I�m a 38-year-old person, and my life has been riddled with drug abuse and crime directly related to what happened to me as a kid,� said Scott Kimball in his Southie accent, talking on the phone from his new home in New Hampshire. �It seems like my past somehow always becomes my future.�

What happened to Kimball is that, at age 13, he was sent to Jamaica Plain�s Nazareth Child Care Center and met Brother Edward Anthony Holmes.

�Brother Tony� was a child rapist who is now in prison for sexually molesting three children. Those abuse survivors include Kimball, who told his story of pain, crime and quest for redemption for the first time publicly to the Gazette.

Dutch Catholic Church faces child sex abuse scandal

Friday, February 26 2010 @ 07:49 AM EST

By Robert Chesal / Radio Netherlands Worldwide

"There was a knock at the door. I tried to scream but I couldn�t utter a sound." Janne Geraets, now 57, suffered repeated sexual abuse from the age of 11 at the hands of a priest at the Roman Catholic school where he was a boarder.

Victims tell of Brooklyn priest sex abuse

Tuesday, February 23 2010 @ 05:53 AM EST

The Sins of The Father as Father George Zatarga had his 40 year reign on the innocent lives of the church members. He is fianlly being brought to justice by the church ..

His perverted tactics precluded the outcome of many of the youth in the church especially one family who he took advanatage of the whole family was molested by him in Queens New York..

clergy abuse recovered memory Ireland/US, ritual abuse

Friday, February 12 2010 @ 10:46 AM EST

By eassurvey

Child abuse monster Father Brendan Smyth ruined my life By APRIL DREW, Irish Voice Reporter

2/10/10 Helen McGonigle, 48, was just six years old when Father Brendan Smyth, a notorious sex offender from Co. Cavan, first abused her.

McGonigle, now a successful attorney in Connecticut, says Smyth destroyed her family. She blames Smyth for the death of her sister and brother and the demise of her beautiful mother.

Clergy sex abuse victim reacts to Pope's address

Thursday, February 11 2010 @ 11:12 AM EST

(Stephen Iandoli, NECN) - The church sexual abuse scandal broke in Boston, so many New Englanders are watching the Pope's visit through a very discriminating lens.

Many clergy sex abuse victims would have liked to see the Pope in person when he addressed the sex abuse scandal...but that didn't happen.

Colm O�Gorman � Survivor

Sunday, February 07 2010 @ 12:19 PM EST

Colm O�Gorman (born 1966) is an Irish survivor of clerical sexual abuse, from County Wexford, who first came to public attention by speaking out against those involved.

Colm subsequently founded One in Four, an Irish charity which supports men and women who have been sexually abused and/or suffered sexual violence. He is also a former director of that organisation.

Actor Gabriel Byrne tells of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy

Thursday, January 21 2010 @ 10:28 PM EST

By Daily Mail Reporter

Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne has revealed he was sexually abused as a child in Ireland and later as he trained as a priest in England.

Byrne, who starred in The Usual Suspects and Enemy of the State told Irish television he was abused by Christian Brothers when he was an altar boy in Dublin, the Telegraph reported.

�In Treatment� Star Gabriel Byrne Reveals Past of Childhood Sex Abuse

Thursday, January 21 2010 @ 09:56 AM EST

Gabriel Byrne plays therapist Paul on HBO�s hit series In Treatement, delving out advice to his patients while simultaneously battling his own neuroses with a personal therapist played by Dianne Wiest.

Gabriel has just revealed that his off-screen life has some hidden skeletons in the closet. The actor admitted on an Irish talk show this week that he was sexually abused when he was an 11-year-old altar boy.

Sex abuse hurt me deeply, says actor Byrne

Tuesday, January 19 2010 @ 03:42 AM EST

By Lynne Kelleher

HOLLYWOOD star Gabriel Byrne has revealed how he was "deeply hurt" by sexual abuse inflicted on him as a child by the Christian Brothers.

The film star opened up about the abuse in the first show of Gay Byrne's 'Meaning of Life' series on RTE television last night.

The actor talked frankly about his battles with alcoholism and depression in the past and expressed shock at the drinking culture among Ireland's young people.

The Survivor�s Dream

Sunday, January 17 2010 @ 08:47 AM EST

The Survivor�s Dream

I have a dream that one day the pain of clergy abuse survivors will be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church and the laity will grasp the immense harm done to all the victims of clerical abuse.

I have a dream that one day the red hats of the hierarchy will openly admit the length and breadth of the clergy abuse without having the courts impose their will upon the church.

Surviving Catholic Pedophile Priest Abuse

Monday, January 11 2010 @ 12:10 PM EST

Skip Shea of Boston performs one-man show with slides of his art, telling history of molest by a pedophile priest.

Eric's story - Child abuse in rural Ireland; 1955

Sunday, January 10 2010 @ 01:05 PM EST

Crime, cruelty and concealment

This is a story of cruel abuse. A day in the life of Eric, a neglected 10 year-old child from a large poverty-stricken family, living in a two room cottage. His father was dead and his poor mother worked long hours for a pittance in a wet, cold, apple-peeling plant.

Clergy sex abuse victim speaks out on John Jay reports

Sunday, January 03 2010 @ 04:38 AM EST

THE JOHN JAY JOKE - A Clergy report of nonsense

by Joey Piscitelli

I am a victim of sexual abuse by Clergy of the Catholic Church. I won a California court jury trial against the Clergy predator who abused me, and personally fought with Cardinal Levada for years for protecting him. I have been a SNAP coordinator and advocate for abuse victims for 7 years. The Catholic Church seems to flaunt the John Jay Criminal Justice reports, claiming that the report states that only 4% of Priests are accused child abusers.

Victims of sexual abuse by priests share shocking stories

Friday, January 01 2010 @ 03:58 PM EST

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - As a 13-year-old girl in Chicago, Alicia Sample had her entire life ahead of her. She had dreams of being a childcare provider, and with supportive parents, this goal was within her reach.

Finding the public schools in their neighborhood lacking, like many parents, Alicia's chose to send her and their five other children to a prestigious Catholic school, St. Procopius, located on the lower west side of Chicago.

�My father made it clear to us that we were there for the education,� said Alicia. �Education was very key for my mother and father. They always made it clear that even if you were just a struggling Black person, if you have an education, they can't take that away from you.�

When I was a teenager at summer camp, a priest tried to rape me

Monday, December 28 2009 @ 06:23 AM EST

Pope Benedict must act now to bring about radical change within the Church, writes Derry Ann Morgan

BLESS me Father, for you have sinned. It is over 30 years since you tried to rape me, and, sadly, like many of your brothers, you got away with it -- thanks to the Catholic Church, which kindly covered up for its priests, not bothering how the victims felt or cared about what they went through.

CHRISTIANS BEHAVING BADLY #14

Tuesday, December 15 2009 @ 07:39 PM EST

One evening in the 1990's when I visited my mother, the TV news presented a segment about the current flurry of priests accused of sexual abuse.

My mother, who was in her 80's at the time, had always been embarrassed to talk about sex, but she suddenly opened up. She told me something I already knew, that Catholic clergy were not the only ones who were sexual predators.

'I could not tell anybody because I felt no one would believe me.

Sunday, December 13 2009 @ 10:33 PM EST

By MAEVE SHEEHAN

'I could not tell anybody because I felt no one would believe me. And of course, I felt that I would be held to blame. He was our priest. I was a schoolgirl'

In the wake of the appalling catalogue of revelations of clerical child abuse outlined by the Commission into the Dublin Archdiocese, one victim tells of her treatment by a man identified in the Murphy report only as 'Fr Horatio'

The Catholic sex abuse scandal: a victim�s view

Saturday, December 12 2009 @ 12:30 PM EST

When we think of Ireland we often think of green fields, friendly people and good music. But the recent reports, commissioned by the government and running thousands of pages, of the behavior of the Catholic Church paint a much darker picture. It was well known by those of us who had to attend Catholic-run schools that there was a sinister aspect to those entrusted to teach us.

September 1

Sunday, December 06 2009 @ 10:53 AM EST

The Holocaust ended in 1945.

When do we end the

Global Clergy Abuse Crisis?

HELP US SURVIVE THE
GLOBAL CLERGY ABUSE CRISIS

Child abuse: a victim's reaction

Sunday, November 29 2009 @ 10:32 AM EST

In the 1960s, from the age of two, Patrick Walsh and his brothers were locked away at the notorious Artane industrial school in north Dublin.

While there he suffered severe physical abuse at the hands of Christian Brothers, the Catholic order charged with running the schools across Ireland.

Victims of abuse react to report

Thursday, November 26 2009 @ 11:56 PM EST

Marie Collins, 62, was abused by a priest in the Dublin diocese when she was 12-years-old.

This is the end of a very long road for victims of abuse, particularly for those of us who spoke out for so many years and were vilified by the Church.

Trish's years of ritual abuse and mind control remained secret, even from herself, until she was 30 years old

Sunday, November 01 2009 @ 01:23 PM EST

Trish's years of ritual abuse and mind control remained secret, even from herself, until she was 30 years old, reaching conscious awareness during college social work classes about child abuse.

The decade- spanning healing journey that followed led Trish on a path of discovery that has now culminated in her life's purpose of spreading understanding, hope and inspiration.

Child abuse: They poisoned my mind against my own mother

Wednesday, October 21 2009 @ 03:27 PM EST

Tag: ireland

As Ireland is braced for more revelations about paedophile priests, one woman tells of the abuse she endured at the hands of nuns

Surviving sex abuse

Thursday, October 15 2009 @ 06:21 PM EST

Posted By MICHAEL PEELING
MPEELING@ STANDARD-FREEHOLDER.COM

Despite having spent 10 years in the residential school system where he was sexually abused, Phil Fontaine counts himself a lucky man.

The former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations said his experience in the Manitoba-based, church-run schools was "not unique."

Patrick W. Noaker outlines the clergy sexual abuse crimes of Raimond Rose

Sunday, October 11 2009 @ 05:33 AM EST

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Dan Casey: A haunted heart

Wednesday, September 30 2009 @ 12:44 PM EST

For years, Dr. Mark McAllister hasn't felt comfortable in his own skin.

You can sense that as the 39-year-old sits in a Roanoke coffee shop for an interview. His large eyes dart around the room as the words pour out. There's an edgy tone in his voice.

He looks haunted. When you hear his story, you understand why.

After clergy abuse settlements, a new suffering

Saturday, September 26 2009 @ 01:36 PM EST

LOS ANGELES - David Guerrero lies curled like a small child in bed, his teeth chattering and his fever spiked at 104 degrees. He has left his room only once since he crawled home from his latest crystal meth binge three days ago, to let his mother drive him to the emergency room for his soaring temperature.

Now, Minerva Guerrero hovers close to her 41-year-old son, making a mental list of the day ahead: she must change his bed linens, nurse him, pick up his new prescriptions.

ABC presenter recounts school sex abuse

Friday, September 25 2009 @ 03:08 PM EST

Former federal MP and ABC presenter Eoin Cameron has spoken publicly for the first time about the about the sexual abuse he suffered as a boy at a Catholic boarding school in the 1960s.

The Perth breakfast presenter says he was 12-years-old when he was first abused at the Marist Brothers College in Mount Gambier in South Australia.

My experience with pastors and domestic violence

Tuesday, September 22 2009 @ 04:04 PM EST

After having reviewed the book, Domestic Violence: What Every Pastor Needs to Know, on a previous blog entry, I would like to add my own account of how pastors dealt with me when I tried to get help as a victim of domestic violence.

At the time I was going to two churches. I attended the local Catholic church with my then husband and also sometimes attended a non-denominational church farther away. When I went to a young local priest for help, I?ll call him Don Paolo, he did listen to me. He was very sympathetic, but he did not know about the dynamics of a domestically abusive relationship.

Priest abuse hearing hinges on memory, time

Friday, August 21 2009 @ 05:41 PM EST

John Doe RG, as he is known in court papers, always struggled with trusting people.

Personal relationships usually lasted no more than a year. His second-guessing of his bosses sent him hopping from job to job.
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But it wasn't until 2003 that his therapist asked him a question that would unravel his life and rattle the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis: "Do you have any sexual abuse in your past?"

Clerical Abuse

Thursday, August 20 2009 @ 05:58 PM EST

One small segment in time and a window opens.

A blind to another world opens up.

You peep in, it closes.

What did you see?

I thought he asked for Baggott St Hospital and I was talking away at the time.

As they say, 19 to the dozen.

A bloke that I would figure was an introvert, coming out of his shell slowly.

A nice friendly enough guy.

When we came up via Barrow St my brain hit a blank spot.

Forced to my knees and told I had a demon inside me

Sunday, August 16 2009 @ 02:59 AM EST

By Jessica Gibb, 16/08/2009

The dimly lit room was filled with people and as the chanting grew louder, nine-year-old Helen Cruickshank gripped her mother's hand tightly.

One by one people started screaming, writhing and vomiting at the command of their leader - a man in a smart suit who was shouting frantically as he tried to cast out demons. Eyes wide, Helen stared as her mother watched, transfixed.

About religious cults and government.

Sunday, August 16 2009 @ 02:34 AM EST

I don�t talk about myself here. After all, this blog is about art, not me. I decided to make an exception today.

I have two older brothers, one of whom I remain close to. In the seventies, they both belonged to a cult called �The Brotherhood of the Spirit� or �Rapunzel�, a commune located in Massachusetts. I unhappily watched them, a teenager at the time, as they handed over our recently-deceased grandmother�s hard-earned inheritance money to the �community� where their flamboyant leader, Michael Metelica, would allow them to eat rice and beans and live in shacks without plumbing just so he (Michael) could buy million dollar recording equipment, Harleys, eat like a king and fly all over the world giving interviews�all with the toiling members� money. My father, who handled their inheritance, knew the money was going to be �flushed down the toilet� as he said, and expressed sadness that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Indeed.

Child abuse led man to take own life, inquest hears

Sunday, August 09 2009 @ 03:31 PM EST

Tag: ireland

A MAN who suffered years of abuse as a teenager took his own life following the publication of the Ryan report into clerical sex crimes, it emerged yesterday.

An inquest heard Damian Joseph Farrelly (42) was found dead by his wife at their home in June following a period in which he drank heavily and "couldn't cope with the pain" associated with the abuse he received 30 years earlier.

Limerick Person of the Month: Tom Wall, survivor of Glin Industrial School

Saturday, August 08 2009 @ 02:45 PM EST

By �ine Fitzgerald

TOM Wall, a survivor of horrific abuse at the hands of the Christian Brothers for 13 years at Glin Industrial School, has been named the Limerick Person of the Month for his courage in speaking out against the conspiracy of secrecy that shrouded the west Limerick institution for so long.
Mr Wall, now 61, was sent to Glin as a three-year-old and kept there until he was 16.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Sexual Abuse: A Survivor's Story

Monday, August 03 2009 @ 04:17 AM EST

Caution: This post may contain content which is an emotional trigger for others who suffer from PTSD and who have endured sexual abuse. So do proceed with caution and it may be good to have someone on hand you can talk to if you find yourself dealing with overwhelming emotions.

Gnarly: from abuse victim, to prostitute, to surfer, to minister

Monday, July 20 2009 @ 09:58 PM EST

Real life stories of redemption and healing don't get much better than this. How long until Lifetime turns it into a movie?

Donald Wuerl played both sides of the fence and lost

Monday, July 20 2009 @ 09:17 PM EST

On December 5, 1989, my son was the victim of gun shot blast to the back of his head. The gun was held just inches from his skull before the shooter pulled the trigger. The shooter then turned the gun on himself and successfully committed suicide. The prime witness in this event was now dead. Believe or not, that was not the worst of it.

How Well Does the Church Handle Abuse?

Wednesday, July 08 2009 @ 12:26 PM EST

by kmillecam

It took me until I was 18 and had moved out of my house to finally wander my way into the Counseling Center at BYU. I was having trouble in school, trouble sleeping, general anxiety. There began my awakening to what I was. I was abused as a child. I finally spoke the words aloud. I was broken. I was a victim.

UK Irish abuse victims 'losing out'

Tuesday, July 07 2009 @ 02:56 PM EST

Tag: ireland

By Helen Grady Producer, Law in Action, BBC Radio 4

Ron McCartan is 63 years old but still bears the scars of his childhood in Ireland.

Although he weighs 18 stone, his ankles are tiny - the result of malnutrition in his youth - and a string of beatings as a boy have left him deaf in one ear.

Catholic Church still at odds with the rest of our society

Thursday, July 02 2009 @ 03:48 PM EST

Tag: ireland

By MARIA HERLIHY MHERLIHY@CORKMAN.IE

ON Monday night as John Bowman presented his last Questions & Answers programme it was a trip down memory lane but, like all such trips, not all memories are indeed pleasant.

When the Ryan Report was discussed over four weeks ago on the programme the panel went back and forth discussing its content. It was only when 75-year-old Michael O'Brien, a survivor of sexual and physical abuse, spoke with tears in his eyes and his voice raising like a barometer at the frustration and disbelief at how he was treated that silence fell like a dark cloud not only on the panel and the audience but the entire country.

Abuse in the Catholic Church

Tuesday, May 26 2009 @ 11:51 AM EST

Child abuse in church: Victim forgives

Monday, May 25 2009 @ 01:45 PM EST

The long-awaited inquiry into child abuse by Roman Catholic priests was published this week � but such abuse isn't confined to Catholic circles.

John Affleck's first contact with 'Christians' was as a 10-year-old choirboy in a church paedophile ring. Serially raped and rented to homosexuals for three years, Affleck recounts his experiences in his autobiography Abuse, now in its second edition.

Back from the brink of hell...

Monday, May 25 2009 @ 01:35 PM EST

By Garreth Murphy

Sexually abused at the age of five. Raped repeatedly by an older boy at the age of 10. Two-and-a-half years of sustained extreme sexual abuse at the hands of priest Sean Fortune, starting at the age of 14.

Homeless and living from day-to-day on the streets of Dublin at the age of 17, reduced to having anonymous sex with men in return for a place to sleep and a hot shower. Most would have crumbled under the weight of such overwhelming abuse, but Colm O'Gorman is a survivor.

How else could you explain how he has forged a successful life and career for himself? The director of Amnesty International Ireland, a former senator and the founder of the One in Four organisation, is, by any standards, a success.

Irish Child Abuse Report: 'People Know The Truth'

Friday, May 22 2009 @ 02:50 PM EST

By EFTEHIA KATSAREAS LONDON,

Tom Hayes' first memories are those of the physical abuse he suffered in a school run by priests of the Christian Brothers' congregation in Limerick county, Ireland.

Child sexual abuse requires greater parental indignation

Thursday, May 21 2009 @ 02:14 PM EST

Akin Akintayo

Where is the outrage?

Words have begun to fail me before I have finished the first paragraph but I will not relent until what is to be written is written.

I cannot muster enough righteous indignation to the lack of boiling outrage to the report about the abuse of children in Ireland and the implications to abuse all around the world vested in the bosom of the Catholic Church.

Child abuse victims seek justice

Wednesday, May 20 2009 @ 02:53 PM EST

BBC NI's Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison speaks to three people abused at institutions run by the Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland.

The man who faced his demons

Sunday, May 10 2009 @ 09:46 PM EST

Colm O'Gorman's story is not just another testimony of childhood misery and adult acceptance. It's also an exposure of the tacit evasiveness that held a country in a state of self-denial, bullied by authority and frozen in collective shame, writes Emily Hourican

A brave account of abuse

Saturday, May 02 2009 @ 05:15 PM EST

By Mary Popham � Special to The Courier-Journal

The Unbreakable Child is painful to read. Author Kim Michele Richardson writes of her treatment at the hands of The Sisters of Charity at the St. Thomas/St Vincent Orphanage in Anchorage, Ky., during the '60s. Although the incidents seem unbelievable, one need only read stories of the Holocaust survivors, or the accounts of Jonestown and the Branch Davidians, or the book, The Boy Called It, to know the truth of man's inhumanity to man.

Sex assault victim moves past stigma

Monday, April 20 2009 @ 06:38 PM EST

ELKHORN � Laurie Asplund is not ashamed of her past.

She talks about being sexually assaulted as a teen in the 1970s by a former minister at a Youth For Christ Campus Life program in Lake Geneva.

"We as victims, we already feel tainted because something really, really wrong was done to us," Asplund said. "We already feel tainted and dirty, if you may.

Remembering Eric - 2nd Anniversary Of His Death

Friday, March 13 2009 @ 01:09 AM EST

Dear Grandm�re Mimi,

Thank you for this opportunity to tell our story. Perhaps it will serve as a cautionary tale, to warn other families who naively trust their own church to �do the right thing� regarding clergy sexual abuse.

To hell and back for abuse victim

Wednesday, February 11 2009 @ 07:10 AM EST

COLIN ADWENT

Horrifically abused from the age of 12 for three years by a trainee priest, Noel Pattern's life spiralled into the most appalling despair. However, when he believed all hope was gone he found salvation in the love of a woman and rediscovered the faith he thought had been lost forever. COLIN ADWENT reports.

SCARS OF YOUTH

NOEL Pattern's extraordinary story is one of child sex abuse, armed robbery, terrorist gun-running, attempted suicide and ultimately redemption

SPOTLIGHTING THE SOUL

Monday, February 02 2009 @ 02:29 AM EST

Tag: canada

Posted By STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

THE VICTIMS OF HORRIFYING SEXUAL ABUSE COME TO TERMS WITH HAVING TO BEAR THE PAIN OF RELIVING THE ATTACKS

The Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness

Sunday, January 25 2009 @ 03:12 PM EST

Thirty-one years ago when my book of poetry, �The Aboriginal Sin� was published by Rupert Costo, editor of the Indian Historian Press, it was one of the first books written from a first-hand perspective of the abuse heaped upon Indian children at the Catholic Indian mission boarding schools.

Victim recounts clergy abuse in Southington

Thursday, January 15 2009 @ 03:38 PM EST

By JAMES CRAVEN Herald staff

SOUTHINGTON � As a 17-year-old, Rebecca Maxfield was sure of three things: the love of her family, of God and of the security she felt as part of her church. By her 18th birthday the betrayal by one would leave her alone, confused and questioning many of the core beliefs that sustained her.

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