At age five, 1954, "the Bishop" (Chicago's Cardinal Stritch) stood over me and said, I had to "stop babbling" about what the priest did to me. It took me 40 years to talk about it again. Today, I babble.

Moving to City of Angels 8

In 2010, City of Angels will move to its next step: "Action" at City of Angels 8 We are on hiatus until January 15th.

Shop City of Angels

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The City of Angels is Everywhere...
Also by Kay Ebeling: Read Sunset Boulevard, work in progress at City of Angels 2
This site is copyrighted by my statement. Kay Ebeling

Monday, December 21, 2009

Shared by a friend

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WILD GEESE
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Let donations fall off organically. These bishops need prosecution

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Here is a sample from a post I just put up at City of Angels 2 :

Okay there’s this buzz in the “survivor community” to stop giving money to the Catholic Church because of its pedophile priests. I assume this means you would still go to the Church every Sunday and stay for their after service Donuts and Coffee. You will be putting your body heat in their air conditioned building, drinking their wine, eating their Eucharist wafers.

It’s deceiving to go to a Church and not give it money. It's false, misleading. It’s like … how do I explain this.

A few years back, after going on antidepressants, mandatory as we were in a homeless shelter, I remember the way the drug made me feel. It did indeed control my mood. It was like a steel grip, a vice, was at the top of my brain and then steel-like tentacles reached out from the vice and just held my brain in this grip.

I bring all this up now because as I observe people stuck in that religion so bad that they don't want to give it another dime, but they'll still file in its doors at least once a week, I think of that vice like grip the antidepressant drug had on me.

A Steel Vice-Like Grip

It looks a lot like a zip file, when you download several documents at once into your Word folders, then go to open them, the icon will look like this vice like grip, with steel-looking tentacles wrapped around and protecting the openings to what's inside the documents.

The steel grip of Catholicism is like a zip file in their brains. Turn the icon in your computer sideways, put it on top of your head, that's what it feels like to be on anti-deperessants when you really don't need them, and it’s much the same as the grip the Church has on people who think the best way to protest against child sex abuse in the church is to stop donating to the church.

You're still walking in the church doors, you're still giving them power in numbers by your presence, you're still listening to their mind altering even hypnotizing, often untrue, sermons they preach, and then there’s that mesmerizing group prayer they do, everyone repeating the same words in a droning monotone.

Yeah, maybe Ray and Jim and Bill and Dave are all correct.

It is brainwashing, only it's a year 1300 state of the art form of brainwashing.

IT'S Dishonest to Go to a Church and then not put money in its baskets.

You're eating their Eucharist, breathing their air conditioned air

AND

Asking the bishops to resign, or asking the pope to fire the bishops, doesn't really accomplish much either.

Those out of work bishops will not stand in any welfare office lines, they will still never drive east of La Cienega or the equivalent in whatever city they're in. Worse yet, some Catholic person with a lot of money who doesn't like the poor will instead provide for the out of work bishop with a home, a stipend, a couple of servants, a car. On a beach probably in some perfect climate.

The bishops belong in prison.

The church needs to feel the full brunt of people not coming in its doors anymore. It’s an organization so full of dishonesty and filth going back probably more than a thousand years, if that's where you think you're going to find God, my hat is off to you, my friend. Good luck.

FEEDBACK:

Email to me just now said hurting them in the pocketbooks is the only thing they feel.

True, but I say, if you stop donating, it's the local church that suffers.

Why not just find a church where you trust the pastors.

But the emailer did make a good point: He could eat a few of their donuts, and it's like getting money back after his family had donated to the local archdiocese for all those decades, like getting money back from Bernie Madoff ...

I think I'm lucky I stopped going to Catholic Church at age 13.

DELETED PARAGRAPHS:

I got on the pills because Lizzie and I were living at Hope Again’s shelter for homeless women at the time. Nowadays, if you are in a shelter like that, they insist you go get on medication, I mean, I didn't need medication. I was depressed because we’d been living in our car for six months, and well, my dad was murdered in 1997 and the woman also embezzled his money, so I lost my inheritance to a murderer and was living on the street 6 years later. Yeah I was a little depressed.

My Catholic friends tell me that withholding donations is the best activism about pedophile priests you will get from Catholics, they'll never leave their churches. Some call it brainwashing, I don't think that's the right word for it.

****

Can't seem to do a hiatus this year...

********

Just arrived by email this minute:

An Irishman goes into the confessional box after years of being away from the Church.

There's a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates.

Then the priest comes in. "Father, forgive me, for it's been a very long time since I've been to confession, but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be."

The priest replies: "Get out. You're on my side."

MORE FROM EMAIL TODAY:

From Irish Central:

Bishops battling each other in Irish Catholic Church abuse scandal

The Wolfhound: Let's avoid 'Mass' lunacy on Christmas

****

Oops, meant to say:

"The bishops who let children be raped belong in prison."

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

One last slap in the face by Church as holidays begin. Online action group forms. City of Angels on Hiatus until Jan 15, 2010

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By Kay Ebeling

Once more the Catholic Church talks out of one side of its mouth to look good in the news on the other side of its face. In a December 8th story about its treatment of African American plaintiffs, the Chicago Archdiocese says it is "righting the wrongs" of its pedophile priests "no matter how long ago the abuse occurred." Well, my claim goes back to 1953, and I contacted the Chicago archdiocese for help in 2005. I'm still here, unsettled, at the end of 2009. So while trying to please the black Catholics, the bishops are lying about how they treat older claimants.

Plus, City of Angels has reported how hard the Church works to influence high courts in California. I doubt the bishops' lawyers were lobbying and filing briefs in favor of their crime victims last October when the Supreme Court for the state of Illinois ruled against child sex abuse claims for plaintiffs over age forty. So we get one last slap in the face by the Church for the holidays.

Meanwhile, there's a new Online Message Group forming now. Since the pedophile epidemic in the Church is proven to be a global problem, with Ireland and Australia exploding in 2009 and the Pope "dismayed," activists need to interact more globally, instantaneously, and seamlessly to find a solution. If anyone wants to connect up, talk, and start projects, City of Angels started a Yahoo group where we can hold online, but private, conversations.

New Yahoo Group for online messaging and taking action: Click here to join: Molested by Priests Online Group at Yahoo

This new group could break barriers like its working title name: City of Angels SONAR: (Support Online for Networking and Resources). (Gotta work on that name.) SONAR is a place to share survival techniques, make friends, compare notes, and find ways to take effective action in the near future.

Lots of action. 2010 will be the year of PROJECTS here at City of Angels.

But when the indoor trees and lights go up and that music starts to play, my head just won't go to the topic of pedophile priests,* a subject matter that begs for breaks, respite, even reprieve. There is a lot to be said for rest and recuperation. I love how December has become an entire Sabbath month so to speak, here in caffeinated America. City of Angels has big plans, projects for the future. We will be back January 15, 2010, ready to take things to a higher level.

******************

The Chicago Archdiocese Slaps Victims One Last Time before the holidays

The Chicago Archdiocese and Cardinal George sent out the year 2009 talking out of both sides of their heads again. As usual the Church thinks it can tell one group of people one thing and another group another thing and get away with it.

Here is what the Final Call reported:





According to officials from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, every effort is being made to resolve cases of sexual abuse involving priests in order to right the wrongs of the past, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

Well Kay Ebeling is living proof that that's not true, as my case dates back to 1953-55 and as far as I know, Illinois lawyers for the Catholic Church petitioned long and hard to get that state high Court to rule in its favor. The Supreme Court of the State of Illiois passed a ruling last October that pretty much cut off anyone older than age 40 from filing a claim against the Church.

We've seen how many law firms file briefs in the California state high court to influence decisions in favor of the Church in this state.

That’s why I read that quote in The Final Cut and went, what the -- because as my long time readers know, my case would have been settled in Illinois, if they hadn't gone to great lengths to beef up their laws against adult victims of child sex abuse by corporate entities, i.e., the Catholic Church.

So I'm living proof that the Chicago Archdiocese is not righting the wrongs “no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.”

You know what, before the Internet that kind of fraud was a lot easier to pull off.

************

2010 at City of Angels
will be the year of
Crimen Solicitationes

We should take out billboards, we should send it to newspaper editors. The Public does not yet realize that sex crimes were aided and abetted from the Pope down and THIS POPE BENEDICT ARNOLD RATZINGER helped write the policy.

Crimen Crimen Crimen Crimen Crimen!

**********
2010 will be the year of

PROJECTS

(I think that Projects will be the word at the top of the blog, for the year 2010, like Epimeno in 2008, but haven't decided yet.)

See you in mid-January. We will start the year with the Santa Barbara Story parts 6 and 7 AND a special feature about Arthur Baselice and his plans for justice for adult victims of pedophile priests in Pennsylvania in 2010.

*********

Any Victims from Boys Town, Nebraska?

One Midwestern survivor asked City of Angels, "If you could, ask if there are any survivors from Boys Town of Father Peter Dunne or Dr. Ott Thank you for your time."

If there are any other victims from Boys Town in Nebraska of those two perps or any others, contact Kay Ebeling at cityofangelslady@yahoo.com and I'll put you in touch with the victim in the Midwest who is searching.

We will write more about Boys Town in Nebraska next year.

From Wikipedia:


Boys Town is a village in Douglas County, Nebraska, United States. The village of Boys Town is headquarters of the Boys Town organization, also known as "Father Flanagan's Boys' Home" founded by Father Edward J. Flanagan.

Boys Town Nebraska was dedicated to the care, treatment, and education of at-risk children

See ya next year.

(Hopefully with funding, so we don't have to keep saying:)

We now pass the PayPal cosmic hat.

Click one of the Donate Donuts on the left and send me all your money.


Stick 'em up. Merry Christmas

Remember, Pagans started the tradition of bringing a tree in the house to put lights on it. It counters the SAD syndrome from winter darkness. As do Jingle Bells.

Enjoy

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My New Religion

At least NASA is looking for planets in other galaxies that look like they support life as we know it on Earth. That's my hope for the future, my religion, looking at the physical Universe as what it genuinely is.

Expect to see more about the years I worked at NASA in Houston, as I continue to write City of Angels 2. NASA is also actually a part of all the stories going up at City of Angels 1-30 in the next 20 years, so stay tuned.

***************

My Spiritual Slumber, Spiritual Dreams

Thanks to the Catholic bishops, for religion, I'm looking to NASA.

The sites of City of Angels 3 2007 and City of Angels 4 2008 sites got filled up with all the Christian Gospel music, specifically black Gospel music, as I went through this spiritual "thing" for a few years.

Glaringly absent anymore from this blog are references to Christianity and anything that stems from the Catholic Church. It finally hit me recently, I don't really believe what Christians say, I only believe maybe half of what they say.

The Gospel music, it’s great, except when the guys start screaming, and they always start screaming towards the end of the song. Black gospel music, as cool as it is, does not reach me as much as plain old R&B Soul sounds.

Over the last years, I even was going to the Bible Studies that have sprung up all over L.A. But that soon deteriorated into me disagreeing in my head with everything they said. I’d come home disgruntled, so then I'd quit going.

I started reading the Bible online instead. For most of 2009, I just read Proverbs and Psalms - and they are really reassuring and comforting…

Except for the violent parts.

Alwyas in the Bible, just as you're reading something reverant, they switch up and call for the annihilation of whole tribes, or whole villages, or armies. I have to skip those parts. “Oh lord, smite mine enemies,” um, no, that Bible is not talking to me.

Then There’s Cardinal Roger Mahony and Head U.S. Bishop Francis George

But most revealing have been the two times I’ve had face time with Cardinal Roger Mahony. I left perplexed after meeting him, he is so empty.

I called Roger Mahony the Cardboard Cardinal, but that didn't quite describe him.

Then throughout the year 2009 listening to Francis George, praised even here, the last years, me dreaming that since George is the new CEO of the Bishops, he would now turn things around.

Then I had this sort of

Reverse spiritual awakening


Realizing hey, these bishops who I have grown to disbelieve in total are descendants of the same guys who perpetrated this whole myth from the beginning, actually from about the Year 300 or so, when they started taking Jesus' message and morphing it to suit their purposes.

As great a guy as Jesus was, the New Testament is really part of the Catholic Church's perpetrated story. Undoubtedly Jesus was a very prayerful and spiritual man who walked the Earth, studied in the “East,” where he learned to fast and pray. And he had a big following, lived from The Year One to around The Year 33. But everything we really know about Jesus is really word of mouth.

Word of these bishops’ mouths.

THESE GUYS!

The same guys who perpetrated the story that priests were celibate, while feeding the priests children to rape to take care of their sexual needs.

These are the same guys who started the whole Jesus story as we know it.

So I’ve ended 2009 thinking Christianity is all lies, stories designed to keep people under control, not enlighten us.

That does not keep me from praying.

But it explains why the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals all seem to be made of cardboard.

****************

Back to that face time with Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Both times I was in His Presence were in the past two years. During that time, I was living in this state of regenerated belief in Christianity, fed by neighborhood Bible studies and singing in the choir at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

Remember that?

I was so prayerful in those days.

And I faced the Cardinal expecting him to reflect back that same prayerful spirit.

AND THERE WAS NOTHING THERE

BOTH TIMES

Just like there is no reflection of that spirit back when you watch Frances George on a Chicago News Team TV report. I'm beginning to see: If there is anybody who is truly disconnected to the Christian spirit, it’s these guys who perpetuated the stories about it.

Bishops are really just corporate CEO’s.

Capitalist men in dresses, not holy men.

**************

How Does NASA tie into all of this?

I'm beginning to see the way things tie up in your life, how everything you've done in your life leads you to where you are in your life at the moment.

I’ve wondered so long how the time I was at NASA, 1978 to 1983, ties in with all the rest of this stuff. I mean there’s the sexual compulsion to go after men connected to the sky after being sexualized by a priest at age five, I’ve told that joke about a hundred and eighty times now, it’s not really that funny.

I'm arriving at what could be a spiritually barren time, accepting that Christianity is all probably a lie.

But this time for me is not barren, it's bursting out overflowing full. Because I have an understanding of what's really going on in Space, in the sky, in the Heavens, if you will, after those years I was a Public Information Specialist in the News room at LBJ Space Center in Houston.

The way NASA now ties in with my story of pedophile priests is not in the compulsion I had to have sex with astronauts.

NASA’s role now is the resolution of my spirituality.

You get a reverance for the miracle of life on Earth and potential life in other parts of the Real Universe from studying Space as science, the physical reality of planets and stars, treating all of creation the way, well-

Treating Space the way Jesus would.

A Religion of Reality.


But as for the bishops, the World Court needs to fire all the guys who stand on altars preaching in dresses, then hold a massive eBay auction of all that garish art, those golden objects they've piled up in The Vatican while millions of people around the Earth starve.

These guys and their lies are the cause of some of Earth’s biggest problems.

So I'm putting my focus on discoveries that will come out of NASA in the next few years.

And look, in the sky, it’s Santa Claus.

No it’s not it’s a premier opening night spotlight from the Kodak theater up the street.


See you all in early 2010.

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What Good Does Firing Bishops Do?

Dear Ireland, Australia, and all Catholics worldwide, I hate to constantly be the bitch here, but think about it.

They Should be Prosecuted. If they're fired they'll end up living on a seacoast in a villa that some guilty Catholic donates to them. Getting Fired isn't punishment enough.

PROSECUTE Prosecute prosecute

happy new year

__________

* Re holiday lights and my head, that's not completely true. Truth is my daughter practically screamed at me last week, "Once this tree goes up, I don't want to hear one more word about this stuff, you know what stuff I mean." My daughter, who was so much a part of this story, because when she turned age five, I started remembering what happened to me at age five, unfortunately, she's also gone on a wild ride since then with me.

So, we're just having our holiday, both of us working overtime on our jobs, will be back in 2010...

*****

Read about my new religion at NASA: The Keppler Mission .

*****************

Wrote the story above and then got this in my email: Archdiocese of Chicago settled with accuser for nearly $1.4 million

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One last time for 2009:

Don't Forget the PayPal High Five Campaign

After each post we pass that hat, using PayPal Donate Buttons on the left. That's how this works. (Hopefully next year we won't have to ask for cash here anymore...)

Sunday, December 13, 2009

john B story

Can you keep a secret or is this criminal activity?

In support of the thousands of victims in Ireland. They have our support and sympathy for being amongst the worlds most forgotten people and the most abused and the most abandoned by their church, Christianity, their state, their police just like so many others of us right across the globe and despite the silence of much of the media here we offer you our support and we offer you any assistance we can provide.

JohnB

On Catholic oddities re Criminal Catholics and their criminal Christian mates. There are many of them.

While the rest of the world recoils in horror at the scale of the abuses in Ireland, Canada, Alaska, USA and more the Vatican is so concerned that it has the time to sanction miracles and to make a saint out of a criminal. Surely they would be better occupied in removing all the secrecy clauses for crimes committed by clergy from the law of the church so that for the first time in our history they will be able to operate legally in our country as for the past generations while the Decree Crimen exists the Catholic church must operate ill-legally in any country which has attempted to address domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse issues.

* Ireland. The most recent of reports states that abuse was systemic and endemic. The prime focus was on protecting the "good name" of the church, its property and business interests as well as protecting sexually abusive and pedophile priests and others in their employ. The report shows that this must have been going on for centuries. The report also shows that Police were seriously implicated due to those in position of authority being Catholic. The denial of justice was virtually total through the adept use and support of statute of limitations laws which were used regularly to defraud victims. The practices and methods of Catholics and the Catholic church over the past centuries is nothing short of a guide to unregulated pedophilia in the name of their God and in the name of Jesus Christ as we know him - now that is the biggest crime possible as they have hi-jacked him and his ideals into supporting the covering up of the sexual crimes of clergy as well as defrauding taxpayers into funding these processes they also went on to 'direct' and 'guide' our political world and our way of life through their obsession with everything sexual.

* Alaska. Alaska is described as the dumping ground for the Catholic church's pedophile priest community. The effects in Alaska describe the total breakdown of a large number of communities. Pedophile priests from across the world were transferred to Alaska, their sexual crimes forgotten while men of God were provided with every incentive to spread further throughout the communities by spreading the word of God. The hi-jacking of God in Alaska is responsible for the horrors Alaskan communities face on a daily basis. The only compensation provided to Alaskan people has been when the Catholic church has been dragged into court and forced to pay a pittance - each and every claim is fought to the maximum with the full resources of the church deployed against them.

* Canada. Genocide. The genocide of 50,000 children. The Catholic church along with the Anglican church are responsible for the deliberate deaths of these children. Right across the country huge tracts of the lands belonging to the native people has been stolen from them through the good works of the church and their fellow Christians, their women and children have been raped indiscriminately. Just as in Ireland and in Alaska priests were moved when things became 'hot'. They were all covered by statute of limitations laws and protected through parliamentary connections and people in positions of power and authority.

* United States of America. Billions of dollars in payments. Bishops and thousands of priests found to be sexual abusers, the vast majority with memory difficulties as well as the ability to repeatedly blame others and to call the victims crazy or they attempted to buy them off. Widespread political manipulation and influence has provided the grounds for such a long-term crime spree. The entire population of Cardinals, Bishops and priests stand accused of covering up the same crimes using the same methods. The church faces charges of fraud and racketeering for some of its crimes. They are attempting to depose the Pope through their legal system for the part he has played in the crimes against so many American women, children and vulnerable. The theft of native American lands as in so many other American countries is only a part of the story of their exploitation at the hands of the religious.

The list of countries goes on and on where abuses of the law and the legal systems of each and every country has been manipulated to cater for the sexual crimes of Catholic priests. New Zealand, Australia, Belguim, Spain, France, Wales, Scotland, England, Norway, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Germany, China, Vietnam, Malta, Singapore, The Philippines, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Mexico - in fact each North and South American country, the entire continent just as in Africa is detrimentally and morally affected by the same atrocious actions and the same socially destructive consequences from the same hypocritical causes.

Just as in all these countries there are few dissenting voices from other religions as they too are so embroiled in their own sexual inequalities and sexual dysfunctions to take the time to stand up for the children. A pox on them as well for their inaction and abeyance to something so obviously wrong. Instead they go on today as though the fundamentals are and still are infallible and many of them today continue to spread their polluted words based on their gospels and words they have taken from a Bible the Catholic church effectively wrote - the very same words which permitted these atrocities in the first place as there is copious evidence that these activities have gone on for centuries. They have not questioned their own involvement and complicity as their focuses have been the same as those of the Catholic Church - their shining light of leadership. This leadership has bled poor so many of its followers while at the same time they have leeched their community funds through obtaining for themselves tax and other benefits and in many cases they have taken control of the health and community services across entire countries to provide jobs for those who remain silent and those who actively participate with them.

That the catholic way as it has been has become and is the greatest pox ever faced by humanity.

Where would we be if they had their way as they want to.

A land where the people could walk the streets and observe the sexual rape of a child by a priest done openly and publicly. The acceptance would be mandatory on all members of the community as no policeman or politician would be permitted to question the teachings of God or to go against the words of a bishop. If it is necessary there is always the possibility of an update to the statute of limitations laws where the limit for any individual to report these crimes would be brought forward to 15 minutes. Other than that they could be provided with forgiveness through the confessional where with the use of the Decree Crimen and the deployment of some 'mental reservation' your vulnerability and availability for sexual exploitation can be carried across the globe in diplomatic pouches as a part of the never mentioned war on women and children waged by the Catholic and other churches.

Tony Abbott and Kristina Kineally have opinions on all aspects of our lives except the existence of the Decree Crimen and its effects on society.

The Decree Crimen is a part of the Canon law of the Catholic church. It clearly and simply states that the sexual crimes of clergy must be kept a secret. For the Catholic church to operate in this and other countries it must first be in compliance with our laws. Clearly they are not.

What actions are George Pell, The Pope, Tony Abbott and Kristine Kineally along with Premier Rann and other Premiers as well as the Prime Minister and the Attorney General, Police Ministers and Police Commissioners going to do about ensuring the Catholic church is in compliance with our laws before they are permitted to operate. Until then their property should be ceased and sold to immediately compensate victims and the remainder held until they show they are in complete compliance with our laws. Any disputed property should be returned immediately to the original owner or their family as this crime of deathbed theft is common to all the countries above as well as many other criminal activities by Catholic clergy and their hierarchy. Will Mr Rudd consider these facts in this "time of reflection" or is it that he is not permitted to think for a moment lest he lose his soul of the facts of those harmed and destroyed by these crimes - crimes he has taken a sworn oath to prevent.

How is you politician or policeman situated in all of this? Are they a part of the 'silent' majority or are they as recently shown in Ireland to be complicit or simply stupid. Ask them if they put the rule of law before the Catholic church's need to cover up their sexual and other crimes? Ask them what are they doing about it to fix it?

Those who have attempted to speak out in the past have been villified and often treated as criminals. Countless numbers have been channelled through mental health services as a method of silencing them through the use of forced medications, ridicule in the community or through isolation and hours of enforced mental olympics should they persist in their statements about the atrocities of the Catholic church and the crimes which have been committed against them.

Many have been deceived time and time again by the deceived as this is a recipie for social disaster on a scale never contemplated before. It is important now more than ever when scientists and reformers are attempting to straighten our world to bring health reform and an ending to the use of war to resolve our conflicts which are based on our poluted beliefs as built up over the centuries by the broken and dysfunctional leading light of Christianity in the name of Jesus Christ, God, the Catholic Church and Christianity. A look at the problems in the Jewish communities and the problems for Islam and they pale in comparison with the sexual slaughter of thousand upon thousand of our women, children and the vulnerable which leaves it as the greatest social pox and the greatest criminal coalition along withtbeing the largest ever identified pedophile ring on the face of the planet. humanity has never faced such a pox and such a broken system as this and your politicians are doing nothing about it other than argue religion and ideals and line their pockets as it suits them as they work away doing their little bit to keep these crimes and their existence a secret.




rgds

JohnB



JohnB
Forgotten Australian
Our "millennia horribilis" is rapidly concluding.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
Our wish for you for this holiday season and in the coming new year is to share the knowledge that we are entering a new millenium where the protection and safety of women, children and the vulnerable will gain its appropriate place of priority in our society that it deserves.

JohnB & all those who have provided support.

Forgotten Australian along with 2 million others sexually abused and forgotten in the recent Forgotten Australian apology by our forthright, honest, truthful and upstanding Prime Minister who has repeatedly failed his sworn oath to our country and the Australian community.

The World's most despised Catholic due to bringing to the world a definitive and appropriate solution to the global clergy abuse crisis.

What are you doing to provide an appropriate solution to the global clergy abuse crisis?

Twitter @JohnBS1

--
September 1, 2009

http://www.september12009.com/

The September 1 initiative aim is simply to bring to the world a definitive and appropriate solution to the global clergy abuse crisis

Saturday, December 12, 2009

New Online Action Group forms as City of Angels takes holiday hiatus. Returning early 2010 ready to take it to a higher level

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Post in Construction for publication Week of December 15:

City of Angels has formed an Online Group where Adult Victims of Pedophile Priests and their loved ones can post messages and start reaching out to each other online.

This new group could break barriers like its working title name: City of Angels SONAR: (Support Online for Networking and Resources). A place to share survival techniques, make friends, compare notes, and find ways to take effective action in the near future.

Lots of action. 2010 will be the year of PROJECTS here at City of Angels.

New Yahoo Group for online messaging and taking action: Click here to join: Molested by Priests Online Group at Yahoo

************

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Pedophile Epidemic is about as bad as Rain on a Bake Sale, to hear the Vatican respond to it

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By Kay Ebeling


The Vatican response to the Dublin Archdiocese Murphy Report is "shame, shock and dismay," according to news outlets around the world today, using the same news release. What? Those are words you use for something mundane, a small incident. Dismay? Oh, it rained on our bake sale. "Shocked" is what you say when someone swears in public. "Ashamed?" You have food in your front tooth. All three words refer to what Catholics used to call "venial" rather than "mortal" sins.

What's needed is for real news to be made, like action as a result of all the evidence we now have that pedophilia and child abuse is an international problem in the Catholic Church: in Dublin, Connecticut, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas, Australia.

A World Court trial in The Hague might finally resolve this issue.

The response from the Vatican should be "ENOUGH!" Stop all activity on anything else and get to the root of this problem. Make it the Highest Priority, even more important than keeping gays from forming families, more important than inflicting their religion on American medical policy.

As one of the very damaged adult victims of a pedophile priest, I am so tired of watching the Vatican, and apologists for the Church, and local bishops and priests - AND victims' advocates - getting up in front of reporters to throw words at this problem. How many times can you say "ashamed shocked and dismayed" for the media? Worse yet, reporters then copy and paste all these press statements and call it news.

Meanwhile, even if it takes The Law to force them, the Church needs to open the doors, open the files, clean out the crime, admit the sins, and pay a penance in a penal institution. Catholic priests have to get out of their dresses, roll up their sleeves, and dig down to the roots of the Church to get out this disease, maybe drop out of the free lunch that is the Church and become real parents.

Start out by letting the public know about Crimen Solicitationes. Who started that Vatican policy for handling sex predator priests, how Crimen was applied, and who will spend time in prison because of it.

Everyone, please stop making statements to the news and start doing something that in the end makes genuine news. But don't stand up there saying, "dismayed, shocked, ashamed" when the subject is thousands of children raped worldwide.

*****************

Here is how the BBC reported it today:

The Vatican is ashamed by the findings of the Murphy report into clerical abuse in the Dublin diocese, the Pope's representative in Ireland has said.

Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza expressed his shock at how Church and state authorities handled allegations of child abuse against 46 priests.

"We feel ashamed about what happened, I must express again my shock, my dismay," said Archbishop Leanza.


*****************

Here is a string of them from Abuse Tracker by Kathy Shaw, see what I mean? Just more officials standing up and throwing out words. I want to see action.

December 8, 2009
Vatican 'ashamed' at handling of abuse claims
IRELAND
The Irish Times
The papal nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, has said there was no intention on the part of...

Vatican 'ashamed' of Irish abuse report
IRELAND
BBC News
The Vatican is ashamed by the findings of the Murphy report into clerical abuse in the Dublin

Vatican 'ashamed' of abuse report
IRELAND
Louth Leader
Published Date: 08 December 2009 The Pope's Ambassador to Ireland has said the Vatican is ashamed by the devastating findings

Papal Nuncio: Pope will respond to Murphy report
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
The papal nuncio to Ireland says a response on the findings of the Murphy report on clerical sex abuse can be expected from the Pope.

********
As reported in the last story linked above, next week the Pope himself will respond to the Murphy Report from Dublin. He will likely stand up and say he is "ashamed, shocked, dismayed," wave his hand with that pointed toothed grin he has, and go on to the next topic.

***********
(And then here I go making my own statement in the press with this post...)

Monday, December 07, 2009

Placa accuser says, if Canon Trial can clear priest of molestation charges, clearly New York needs new laws

.
By Kay Ebeling


Richard Tollner was driving home from a meeting with a client Friday night when he found out from a reporter that the priest he accused of pedophile sex crimes had been “cleared” by a canonical trial.

“A Newsday reporter called me Friday night and asked what do you think of the results of the trial,” Tollner told City of Angels this morning. “I said what do you mean trial. She says, the canonical trial. I said, I wouldn't know. I’ve been calling the archdiocese the last two years, all they say is ‘We have nothing to report,” Tollner said.

“It’s occurrences like this, Placa being cleared, that create the need for a Child Victims’ Act in New York,” Tollner added. The current statute of limitations for Placa's charged crimes ran out in 1982. “The Church made it look like there’s only one person who’s come forward about Placa and that's not the case, there’s three known victims.”

Richard Tollner testified at that canonical trial that “cleared” Alan Placa and, before last week, had been waiting over two years to hear the results. “I used to call every month asking what are you going to do about Placa.”

At those Canonical hearings in the Albany archdiocese business offices, Tollner had to use Church provided legal counsel for the hearings: “The church provided me with a what they call a Promoter of Justice. Then he was always on vacation when I called him with questions,” Tollner said.

“We were basically supposed to just use the church people, I could use an attorney for counsel but not in the hearing.”

That “canonical penal trial” ordered by Vatican ended up clearing the charges and Alan Placa is now going to be reinstated as a priest.

"They had testimony, they just didn't listen."

“The hearings were right here in Albany, in the church offices, just in a conference room. It was a very simple thing, it was basically three judges, they were priests from upstate New York and a guy from Philadelphia

“We hit them right between the eyes with exactly what they needed, and they never heard us," Tollner said. "I'm surprised," with the results.

“We had five witnesses who were fellow seminarians, family members, and other victims

“Other victims

“Plural."

PLURAL

Sometimes they just submitted written testimony but they still submitted witness testimony to the trial.

“I was there five or six times, spent about two hundred hours on research and preparation, because this was super hard testimony," Tollner said.

News reports from last week state: "Placa was placed under investigation by the Church after he was identified as 'Priest F' in a grand jury investigation in New York's Suffolk County. The grand jury heard testimony from three alleged victims, two students and an altar boy, who said that a "Priest F" had molested them in the 1970s,” the paragraphs that are picked up and repeated in most the news articles about Placa’s cleared charges state:

City of Angels knows of at least two other victims of Placa who could be witnesses but refuse to come forward and testify.

When the Newsday reporter called Tollner, “Boy was she surprised because I was like, you've gotta be kidding me,” Tollner said. “Because I thought they’d do something. I was expecting them to do something, I didn't know if they would laicize him, but that's what they wanted them to do.

Tollner says he testified before at least five times in the canonical hearings two years ago along with several other witnesses.

Still, “A lot of people I talked to are not surprised that Placa was cleared,” Tollner said, “because Placa was also an attorney for the church, he was handling their sex abuse cases.

“If people find out that the attorney who handled their cases and talking people out of going to the police, which Placa did, he talked victims out of filing charges. When they find out he was sexually abusing kids himself, you’d think that would go to his character, as an attorney.”

I asked Tollner, What are you going to do, if the Child Victims Act passes, and he said, “I’ll be very happy for the other victims.”

****************

How Mainstream News Covers the Story:

New York Daily News
Msgr. Alan Placa, longtime friend of Rudy Giuliani, not guilty of molesting ...
New York Daily News - Rachel Monahan - ‎Dec 6, 2009‎
Msgr. Alan Placa, a close friend of Rudy Giuliani, is cleared of allegations that he molested a teenager in 1975. ...

Bishop confronted over clearing priest of abuse charge Newsday (subscription)

Church clears Giuliani friend in abuse case The Associated Press

all 195 news articles »

ABC News

Sex Abuse Victims' Groups Outraged By Vatican Decision to Clear Accused Priest
ABC News - Avni Patel - ‎1 hour ago‎
The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced on Friday that the Catholic Church had found Monsignor Alan Placa not guilty of molesting teenage boys, ...

Former vice-chancellor of LI diocese cleared of sex abuse claim
Commonweal - Paul Moses - ‎14 hours ago‎
... ago against a former vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Monsignor Alan Placa, over an incident that allegedly occurred 34 years ago. ...

Placa's diocesan career
Newsday (subscription) - ‎Dec 4, 2009‎
Monsignor Alan PlacaAge: 65Education: BA degree from Manhattan College; Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham University; JD from Hofstra University School of Law. ...

*************************

Alan Placa may be cleared by a Canonical Trial but here's his record in Bishop Accountability:

Source:
Newsday 4.17.02;
NY Times 4.19.02;
Newsday 5.14.02;
Newsday 6.03.02;
Newsday 6.07.02;
Newsday 6.14.02;
Suffolk Co. Grand Jury Report 1.17.03;
NY Times 2.01.03;
Telegram & Gazette 2.17.03;
Newsday 2.11.03;
NY Times 2.20.03;
Compasso et al v. Volmer et al, 4.14.03;
Newsday 4.15.03;
NY Times 12.04.03;
Worcester Telegram & Gazette 7.22.07

Assignments:
ABC News 10.23.07 (add'l article);
EDGE Boston 10.24.07 (add'l article);
Albany Times Union 11.07.07 (add'l article);
Inside Catholic 11.26.07 (add'l article);
Statement by Diocese of Rockville Centre 12.4.09 (add'l article);
BA.org Assignment Record and Other Info

******************

City of Angels interviewed Richard Tollner for a 2007 story:

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Giuliani hired the pedophile priest who crafted Church defense of pedophile priests, while a New York pedophile priest predator himself
*****
By Kay Ebeling
How did a predator pedophile priest end up as legal counsel at a center for pedophile priests, crafting Catholic legal strategies for pedophile priests at the same time as he was committing sex crimes against minors himself? Today that same Monsignor Alan Placa is close advisor to Rudy Giuliani who is running for President of the United States.

AND HERE:

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Giuliani as president would mean advisors like Alan Placa, the pedophile priest/attorney who created Church policy for pedophile priests
*****
By Kay Ebeling
A New York grand jury ends its report on Alan Placa, pedophile priest, with these words: “Ironically, Priest F would later become instrumental in development of Diocesan policy in response to allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.” Irony? More like criminal conspiracy. Below are more quotes from Suffolk County about Placa, who today whispers in Rudy Giuliani’s ear, plus an interview with Richard Tollner, one of Placa’s more vocal accusers. ...

***********
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After each post we pass the cosmic hat, that's how City of Angels works.
.
Blog produced by Kay Ebeling, Hollywood, California

**
Sorry to rush this post out, folks, gotta get back to my job on Scream Queens Season Two oh, and also, am working Donald Trump's new show. Imagine what City of Angels could do with a budget where I could drop one of my other jobs, travel to do these stories in person with video, and do City of Angels full time...

Click my PayPal ... please
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SB 5 Craig & Ernesto, followed by Saindon which is filed in Dec 2009 pictures


Santa Barbara Story, Part 5

At least one agent of the Franciscans not only was put on notice of Johnson’s propensities but observed and likely participated in one of his sexual assaults long before Johnson assaulted Ernesto.

Unfortunately, as the school year came to a close yet another notorious perpetrator and faculty member, then religious brother and future priest, Gus Krumm, inflicted another violent sexual assault on Craig. Specifically, one night as Craig walked down a seminary hallway he passed by Krumm’s office and heard what sounded like grunts or groans coming from inside.

As the front office door was open, Craig entered and asked if everything was ok. Krumm emerged from his bedroom shortly thereafter; Krumm appeared to be sweating and smelled bad, and looked disheveled wearing only Corduroy shorts and a gray t-shirt. Krumm angrily asked what Craig was doing in his office, and Craig explained he had heard strange noises and thought someone needed help.

This enraged Krumm who proceeded to grab Craig, spin him around, and drive Craig forcefully into the office wall.

************
Krumm then pinned Craig from behind to the point the boy could not move, pushing Craig’s face against the wall
************************


Krumm then pinned Craig from behind to the point the boy could not move, pushing Craig’s face against the wall. Krumm then began thrusting his groin against Craig’s buttocks, placed his mouth next to Craig’s ear, and reached around and grabbed the terrified and immobilized boy’s genitals, squeezing them tightly to the point Craig was in so much pain he began to cry.

Eventually Krumm said something to the effect of "you didn’t see anything here, you didn’t hear anything, and you’re not wanted. And you’re probably not coming back."

Craig was so terrified and in such pain he agreed immediately. Krumm then released Craig’s genitals and shoved the still crying boy out of the office.

***

When Craig first arrived at St. Anthony’s he felt tremendously relieved to be away from his abusive home-life. Catholic schools and parishes had long been his sanctuary, and St. Anthony’s felt particularly safe as it was located far away from his stepfather in another state. As a result, Craig's initial sense of relief was overwhelming, almost to the point of euphoria.

The Perpetrators, acting as managing agents of the Defendants, utilized the trust and reverence inherent in their status as a Franciscans to isolate and abuse Craig.

Craig was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family that idolized priests, was taught by Defendants to trust, revere and obey priests as God’s representatives on Earth, and had long viewed priests as the caretakers of his sanctuary from an abusive home-life. The Perpetrators exploited Craig’s hope of having been rescued from his abusive home-life and also utilized Craig’s trust and resulting vulnerability and deference to priests to manipulate Craig, who was approximately fourteen (14) and fifteen (15) years of age during the period of abuse.

**************
Medical Exams by Franciscans with no Medical Training, strangely all centered on the pubic area...
************************


One of the manipulations resulted in Craig’s abuse in the infirmary during the purported physical exam. When Craig was instructed to go to the infirmary he did as he was told. Once there, Father Robert Van Handel fraudulently informed Craig before the assault that Craig was there for a "check-up" to be performed by the Perpetrator.

The Perpetrator then fraudulently informed Craig he had to conduct a "test" on Craig. This use of what on its face appeared to be a legitimate medical purpose, while in the school infirmary, coupled with Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s trusted status as Franciscans, inhibited Craig’s awareness of the wrongfulness of this conduct until recently.

Van Handel and the Perpetrator thus exploited Craig’s having been raised in the Catholic church, as well as Craig’s desperate need to feel he was finally safe, and fraudulently induced Craig to believe he had been called to the infirmary for a legitimate medical purpose. Consequently, while sensing something was wrong Craig could not comprehend why he felt ashamed and embarrassed after the supposed exams, and was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct until recently, within the last three years.

*************
Craig finds out other students had the same abusive medical exams through previous cases.
*************************


Specifically, it was not until after he began recovering his memories of the abuse by Johnson and Krumm that he first sought out and read other accounts of St. Anthony’s students who were sexually abused, it was during this time that Craig first learned that many students had been abused during fraudulent physical examinations conducted by Franciscan perpetrators.

Only after reading these accounts did he begin to suspect Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s statements were fraudulent, and had been utilized by the two Franciscans to make him vulnerable to the abuse by the Perpetrator. Until then, Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s fraud, coupled with Craig’s inherent trust in the words of the priests and his desperate need to believe he was finally somewhere safe, resulted in psychological blocking mechanisms that prevented Craig from facing and realizing the Perpetrator’s conduct in the infirmary was wrongful and had caused him injury.

With regards to the assaults by Johnson and Krumm, shortly after the assault by Krumm, Craig returned to Phoenix for the summer. Initially Craig was hopeful things had changed at home, but the abuse there continued soon after his return. Feeling trapped between two terrifying choices – physical abuse at home in Phoenix versus physical and sexual abuse at St. Anthony’s – Craig turned for help to the only remaining person and place he felt he could trust, one of the priests at his home parish.

That priest had always been supportive of Craig in the past, helping him gain admission to St. Anthony’s. As a result, he was the only remaining person Craig felt he could speak honestly to about St. Anthony’s. Craig hoped that priest would be able to refer him (Craig) and help him gain admission to another school outside of Phoenix, one without the horrors to which he had been subjected at St. Anthony’s. Much to Craig’s dismay when he went to the parish he was unable to find his perceived savior, instead encountering Father Thomas O’Brien, a priest who would go on to become the Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix. (See Parts 2 and 3 of this story)

SB 7: Ernesto & Craig case Perps took boys to Yosemite, openly touched, massaged, and wrestled with them. Santa Barbara Story Part 6

.
[In the 1980s, seeking refuge from a broken home, Ernesto becomes an altar boy and dreams of becoming a priest. He ends up living in a nightmare when he goes away to high school at St. Anthony's Seminary in Santa Barbara. A Franciscan would mishandle him in the hallways "on a sometimes weekly basis." Then two Franciscan perpetrators take Ernesto and another boy for a camping trip to Yosemite, the experience in the tent haunts Ernesto to this day. Ernesto's experience is documented here in the words from another lawsuit. Here is Part 6 of the Santa Barbara story (2009), direct quotes from First Amended Complaint in Case 1337577 filed October 5, 2009 in Santa Barbara Superior Court (more attribution below):]

10. Plaintiff Ernesto C. grew up in Richmond, CA, and was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family. They attended Mass every Sunday and Ernesto served as an altar boy. He began attending Catholic School in sixth grade, and soon thereafter decided he wanted to become a priest. During 8th grade he applied to several seminaries, ultimately deciding on St. Anthony’s.

Like so many victims of clergy abuse he also was the product of a broken home. The absence of a father figure in his life made Ernesto all the more dependent on paternal figures such as priests, and made him all the more vulnerable to predators willing to exploit this void in Ernesto’s life. St. Anthony’s was home to a horrific number of such predators.

***************
Franciscan perpetrator Dave Johnson was everywhere at the school, he'd wrestle with them ...
**************************/strong>>

When Ernesto enrolled at St. Anthony’s for his freshman year in 1979, it was immediately clear Franciscan perpetrator Dave Johnson was everywhere at the school, and was permitted to have extensive and inappropriate physical contact with students. Johnson openly touched and massaged students, wrestled with them, and engaged in regular physical contact with students in public places.

Such conduct between students and faculty was part of the accepted culture created and fostered by the Franciscans at St. Anthony’s. During Ernesto’s sophomore year in 1980-81 he was a frequent recipient of Johnson’s abusive conduct.

On a sometimes weekly basis that year Johnson would approach from behind and without invitation massage Ernesto’s shoulders when walking down the halls. Johnson was openly and inappropriately affectionate towards Ernesto, and was observed massaging Ernesto’s chest while in public on school grounds. During Spring break of this school year Johnson escalated his conduct into more extreme abuse.

Johnson asked Ernesto and another student, Victim #850, to go camping at Yosemite with Johnson and another perpetrator, Br. Berard Connolly. The entire school and faculty were aware that these two men were taking the two boys on an overnight trip as, at least amongst the students, Ernesto and Victim #85 were considered lucky and cool to have been chosen.

*************
A Drunken Trip to Yosemite, with at least two sexual assaults: Two Perps and two Teenage Boys ...
**********************


No efforts were made by the Franciscans to stop the trip from happening, and the four left from the school without objection by the Franciscans. The two men and the two boys drove to Yosemite in a school van. Ernesto remembers thinking it was a bit strange he and Victim #85 had been invited as they were not friends.

The fact they had been targeted for abuse never crossed Ernesto’s mind. At the campground there were two tents, with Victim #85 and Connolly in one, and Johnson and Ernesto in the other.

Over the next two days Johnson sexually assaulted Ernesto on at least two occasions, including an assault while hiking and another the first night in the tent they shared.

Before the assault in the tent the four had been sitting around the campfire. Connolly and Victim #85 eventually went to their own tent and Ernesto found himself alone with Johnson. After they left Johnson smiled and said "I’ve got a surprise for you, " pulling out a bottle of Bacardi.

******************
The fact Johnson now wanted to provide him with alcohol to celebrate something they accomplished together made Ernesto feel special
*******************************


Ernesto was euphoric, believing Johnson meant this as a celebration for their having completed a long hike together earlier that day. Ernesto looked up to Johnson as a spiritual counselor, an authority figure, and, most important, as someone who spoke with the voice of God. Johnson in many ways filled the paternal void created when Ernesto’s father abandoned their family.

The fact Johnson now wanted to provide him with alcohol to celebrate something they accomplished together made Ernesto feel special, and provided Ernesto with feelings of paternal validation he had long craved. Johnson handed the bottle to the boy and induced him to drink about half the bottle.

Once Ernesto was very inebriated, Johnson walked the boy to the tent where Ernesto fell face-first onto his sleeping bag, drunk, groggy and wanting nothing more than to go to sleep. Johnson had other plans.

Knowing he had rendered the boy into a vulnerable state Johnson exploited the situation and sexually assaulted Ernesto. Ernesto recalls struggling against the assault, hearing the noise of the struggle from the rustling of the sleeping bags, but being too groggy and intoxicated to stop the abuse by the much bigger and stronger man.

Ernesto was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family that idolized priests, was taught by Defendants to trust, revere and obey priests as God’s representatives on earth, and had enrolled at St. Anthony’s with the dream of himself becoming a priest. Ernesto also was the product of a broken home and was desperate for paternal validation. Johnson exploited these things to manipulate Ernesto, who was approximately fifteen (15) years of age.

When Johnson showered Ernesto with praise and affection while grooming him for abuse, Ernesto was euphoric at receiving such long-craved paternal attention from a man he considered the voice of God and thus infallible. When Johnson’s grooming became sexual abuse Ernesto’s subconscious was unwilling and unable to recognize the wrongfulness of Johnson’s conduct as doing so would have destroyed his long-held faith in the infallibility of Roman Catholic priests.

It also would have ripped away the newfound paternal validation that he craved and that Johnson had mercilessly recognized and exploited during the grooming process.

***************
To this day there remain parts of Johnson’s assault in the tent that he has been unable to recall
**************************


As a result, when the abuse began Ernesto was overwhelmed with shock and confusion. Unable to acknowledge that this man he had been groomed to trust, admire and depend on was sexually assaulting him, Ernesto shut-down and disconnected, dissociating himself from the horror of what was taking place and repressing all memory of the abuse. It was not until many years later that Ernesto began to recover memories of Johnson’s abuse.

To this day there remain parts of Johnson’s assault in the tent that he has been unable to recall, and he still has no memory of waking up the next morning. In an illustration of both his desperation for a trusted father figure and the strength of his repression he recalls having a special feeling towards Johnson the morning after the assault, as if they were family and shared a strong familial connection.

He recalls thinking it was nice to have such a wonderful connection with a father-figure who Ernesto also considered a brother in the Lord. Ernesto has been able to recall little of the remainder of the trip. He knows they spent a second night at the camp, but has been unable to recall what occurred.

**************
Ernesto even asked his perpetrator Johnson to officiate at his wedding in 1985 (something we've seen in many cases around the country, that attachment...)
*******************


Further illustration of the extent of the repression of the memory of the abuse is the fact until relatively recently Ernesto considered Johnson a special person in his life. Ernesto asked Johnson to officiate at his wedding in 1985, wrote Johnson for guidance, felt compelled to share with Johnson in approximately 1998 the fact he (Ernesto) had a profound religious experience at a Cursillos, and as recently as 2000 or 2001 felt compelled to tell Johnson he loved him (Johnson) as a brother in the Lord.

When contacted by an investigator in the late 1990s and asked whether he had been abused at St. Anthony’s, Ernesto was adamant in stating he had not. It was not until Ernesto began to recover these memories that he realized Johnson, his perceived savior, had crossed the line into sexual abuse. As a result of his reverence for Johnson and his repression of memories of the abuse Ernesto could not understand the wrongfulness of Johnson’s conduct, and internalized feelings of shame, self-blame, and self-loathing, while blocking out and dissociating from those feelings, rendering him unable to perceive the injuries he suffered from Johnson’s abusive conduct and its effect on his lifeAfter the abuse Ernesto’s life began a downward spiral.

Without understanding his own behavior, Ernesto rebelled against authority figures and abused alcohol and drugs. The alcohol abuse went on for decades, and remains a continuing challenge for Ernesto. In the summer of 2006, Ernesto’s abuse-related self-medication with alcohol had grown so out of control that he began treatment for alcoholism that required substantial self-analysis and introspection. It was during this process that Ernesto first realized Johnson’s abuse had caused him injury. He also began for the first time to understand his own feelings surrounding the abuse, how the abuse has affected him, and how it continues to affect him.

Prior to the summer of 2006, Ernesto did not know or understand his own feelings regarding the abuse, much less that it had caused him injuries as an adult.

***************

Stories in this Santa Barbara series are copied word for word from First Amended Complaint for Damages and Relief, Filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court, Case Numbers 1338070 filed November 3, and 1337577 filed October 5, 2009. filed by

Law firm of Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale


The previous episodes of Santa Barbara Story 2009:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five



9.2 Defendants (Franciscans) knew or should have known of the risk posed by Brother David Johnson before he assaulted Ernesto. At least as early as the Fall of 1979 and again in the Summer of 1980, the Franciscans, including the rector, Father Mel Jurisich, received notice that Johnson was sexually assaulting St. Anthony’s students. Specifically, in the Fall of 1979 Johnson sexually assaulted St. Anthony’s student Craig (Last Name Redacted).

It was a physically violent and terrifying assault involving Johnson’s forcible attempted rape of Craig with a foreign object. Also present during the assault The Franciscans were put on notice of Johnson’s crimes against students again the following Summer of 1980.

Continued in Part 7 here

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Pedophilia is a Privacy Right, and other Appeals arguments of the Catholic Church, as Franciscan Friars fight release of documents

.
By Kay Ebeling


Part 5: The Franciscans of Santa Barbara are filing mounds of briefs with the Courts of California, fighting release of documents regarding pedophile priests among the friars. The Church is now working to obstruct release of files that would reveal its own crimes, because, as they say in their appeal briefs, the cases settled “without any finding of fact on the plaintiffs’ allegations by the court.” In other words, the cases never went to trial, so the Church never has to release the documents.

Since the sex abuse cases against the Franciscans settled in 2006 before going to trial, documents that would have been evidence in a trial do not now have to be released, even though release of those documents was part of the settlement, church attorneys argue in their appeal. I know, it doesn't make sense, but it doesn't have to. The Church has endless funds, so it can file appeals endlessly, on any twist of logic, even the definition of a word.

We've seen this abuse of the legal system in Connecticut, Oregon, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and we'll likely see it in Delaware, even though plaintiffs in Wilmington settled their lawsuits this fall, in a pre-trial decision that includes … release of perpetrator priest personnel files. Don’t hold your breath.

Now the Franciscans and their lawyers are pursuing every legal avenue possible to prevent documents from being released to the public about Franciscan Friars’ sexual felonies. Documents the Franciscans promised to release in May 2006, when pedophile priest civil cases settled in Santa Barbara, have yet to be seen by anyone other than the Franciscan Friars and a reviewing judge. Now the religious order is appealing an April 2009 L.A. Superior Court Order.

So let’s take a break from the graphic details of those two lawsuits in Santa Barbara in Parts 1-4 of this story to look at this appeal, although there are about three more posts left to write based on the two new cases.

Attorneys for the six Franciscan Brothers who were proved to be pedophiles in 2006 but never convicted are now pursuing every avenue possible in the courts to prevent release of parts of their personnel files, thus holding up release of all documents that Santa Barbara plaintiffs thought they would get in May 2006.

The Church Appeals release of documents, surprise, surprise

If this story sounds familiar it’s because last April we covered those hearings and rulings that, “The files were to be publicly released (Order #JA0270-374) following interlocutory rulings on the issues of privacy and jurisdiction.” That quote is from one of the defendant’s own appeal brief. Even with a Court order, even though the Church knows all the arguments have all been made, Church Attorneys just keep going and going with appeals and appeals. Attorneys for the Catholic Church always have the resources to keep going and going. Plaintiff attorneys aren’t even being paid anymore for their work.

******************

From Opening Brief of Appellant Franciscan Friars of California Inc. filed October 9, 2009

“Applicants seek relief from the order releasing their private and privileged records to the public,” begins one of the Church attorney briefs.

An attorney for the plaintiffs in Santa Barbara explained to me, “The next thing we do is file our responses, then they file replies, then oral argument in the Supreme Court of California, probably sometime in spring or summer.”

More from the perpetrators’ appeal:

“All of these appellants have a direct right to appeal given the res judicata impact of the court’s ruling on their protected interests.”

***************
“Appellants who were not parties to the litigation…” ? who do they mean? Who are they protecting?
*********************


More from Opening Brief of Appellant Franciscan Friars of California Inc. filed October 9, 2009:

“Plaintiffs in these consolidated cases filed, and later settled, civil lawsuits against the Franciscan Friars of California, St. Anthony’s Seminary high school, and the Santa Barbara Boys’ Choir, alleging that they had been sexually abused while attending these institutions.

Appellants are:

Samuel Charles Cabot
David Johnson
Robert Van Handel
Vario Cimmarusti
Gus Krumm
Gary Pacheco

Franciscans or former Franciscans


The cases settled May 25, 2006 “without any finding of fact on the plaintiffs’ allegations by the court.”

(Court designated Judge Lichtman of Los Angeles the hearing officer. He spent three years reviewing documents, then issued his orders to release. )

“None of the appellants were served with this application.”

(In other words since it was the Franciscans who were sued, and these six guys are ex-Franciscan priests who were perpetrators and caused the lawsuits, the priests themselves aren’t really parties to the lawsuits, so they weren’t part of the settlement, so they can refuse to go along with the settlement agreement to release records. )

******************
See how they twist things around. This circular logic is what you can expect to see on practically every appeal brief I’ve seen that was written by a church attorney:

FAVORITE CIRCULAR LOGIC:

The cases are settled, so there is no more case. The cases were settled without going to court, so there really is no admission of guilt or responsibility. The Church has just been giving away gazillions of dollars in pretrial settlements out of the goodness of its heart.

The church attorneys claim that during litigation before 2006, Judge Lichtman reviewed the files and “privacy objections by individual clergy members who were the subject of the personnel and confidential files were overruled given the compelling state interest in settlement.”

NO

That's not the reason privacy objections were overruled, it was because of the compelling state interest in protecting children. Not "the state interest in a settlement," the state interest to protect children.

See how they turn things around?

*****************************


“On November 7, 2005, the cases were released from the stay and all documents had been deposited in the document depository. The document depository was only accessible by the parties to the case. Depositions taken in the case were also the subject of a protective order.”

********************
THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT:

Here’s where you see the Church’s strategy:

The Church agrees to release documents that “would have been subject to discovery obligations in the litigation of the actions.”

“No third party privacy rights could be claimed by the Franciscans on documents deemed to affect ‘public safety issues relating to childhood sexual abuse’ or knowledge on the part of defendants of suspected childhood sexual abuse or the ‘cover up’ thereof.”

“Third party objections including those asserted by any defendant who is also an ALLEGED PERPETRATOR, are not bound by this contractual standard.” (Their emphasis)

“As such the Agreement between the parties to allow the hearing officer to consider ‘public interests’ does not apply to any objection raised by individual applicants.”

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I think what the Church Attorneys are doing here is once again taking advantage of the overlapping entities of the Catholic Church

It’s set up perfectly to run a crime operation.
The perpetrators were Franciscan Friars, but they aren’t anymore and the party of the lawsuit was the Franciscans, so rulings on the lawsuit don't apply to the perpetrators.

The L.A. Archdiocese did this buck passing endlessly during the Clergy Cases that finally settled in 2007. It was the religious order, no it was the hospital, no it was the nuns, no it was the bishop.

Nobody takes responsibility, and they have endless legal resources to pass the buck and pass thebuck.

Welcome to the world of Catholic Church abuse of the justice system.

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(NOTE: Several of these six perpetrators are living and working in communities around the country now. We have their last known addresses, but since this litigation, most of these perpetrators have … just disappeared into the landscape.)

More from the Perpetrators’ Brief, appealing release of documents for six Franciscan Friars who are also known pedophiles:

“Both the Franciscans and these appellants advised the hearing officer (that) their vows of poverty and vows of obedience left them no choice but to participate in psychotherapy if ordered to by their superiors.

“Their treaters had requested Franciscans’ input and oversight and ongoing consultation regarding the progress of these Friars.”

(April 2, 2009, appellants’ privilege objections were overruled and the documents ordered to be publicly released. The April 2, 2009, order overruled these appellants’ objections based on privacy.)

The defense appeal says:

“The psychotherapist-patient and physician-patient privilege objections were overruled.” because the information in the files is not “in rendering psychotherapy or treatment” The individuals knew the information was being released to the Franciscans.

The perpetrator priests appealed release of documents last May: “Expressly for the technical purpose of being added as parties to the litigation for purpose of appeal.”

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(NEW TWIST: The perpetrators got their names out of the litigation during the lawsuits, now they want to add their names to the lawsuits, so they can appeal the decision.)

The Church is appealing the April 2009 order:
“In an abundance of caution, specifically to be added as parties to the proceeding in order to eliminate a technical and procedural issue on appeal.
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Actually, two of these perps were parties in the original lawsuits.
So for the other four perpetrators who are doing this appeal, this is a back-door attempt to become parties to the lawsuits now.
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Appellants filed their notice of appeal on May 26, 2009.

THE CHURCH CLAIMS:

Any person having an interest recognized by law may appeal.

Here is the privacy issues and interests of the “appellants.”

“They are all named as ‘alleged perpetrators’ in the plaintiffs’ complaints.

“They filed various objections to the release of their personnel filesduring the course of the litigation.”

“And again after the litigation was settled.”

(TURNED DOWN ALWAYS. ALWAYS KEEP APPEALING)

They appeared at court ordered hearings relating to their objections.

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Pedophilia is a Privacy Right:

The Franciscan Friars pedophiles are appealing release of their files because of: “Their constitutional rights to privacy and enforcement of various privileges relating to highly personal and private records.”

(I.E., they think their pedophilia is private.)

“Privacy and privilege describe rights which require resolution of fact by trial.”

(I.E., these cases settled pre-trial, nothing has been proved.)

The writings in personnel files are a property right.

(Honest, they are bringing that argument out again.)

Church claims a “procedural interest” a “Question of Jurisdiction to decide these constitutional and other rights”

The Court Orders “Automatically deprived” the appellants of their “Substantive and procedural interests in their constitutional rights to privacy.”

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ENOUGH
That's all from the Church appeals brief.
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We're talking about the crime of pedophilia taking place at a high school seminary in Santa Barbara where serial perpetrators molested dozens of children, not just the students. Some of the plaintiffs in the 2006 Franciscan cases were employed at the seminary as well.

And the Church has all the money and power it needs, so they'll probably just keep appealing and appealing, and we'll never see these documents until we're too old to be able to see them.

Such is justice in the United States today. Whoever has the most money wins.

The documents being released in Connecticut this week were sealed when those lawsuits settled, and it took The New York Times and three other newspapers to sue for their release, fighting the Church all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Considering that in Southern California you've got maybe two law firms, trying to get documents released. Lawyers for the plaintiffs already got paid all they're ever going to get paid in these cases, while the Church digs into its bottomless briefcase and keeps hiring more attorneys. Church appeals will go on for years.

So I don't believe we'll ever see any papers that the L.A. archdiocese and the Franciscan friars of Santa Barbara want to keep secret.

Unless somebody inside the Church leaks. And City of Angels is here for anyone who wants to leak secret documents.


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The Way the Catholic Church has responded to its sex crimes has caused me to begin to lose my belief in everything the Catholic Church has delivered

Including the story of Christ.


The Catholic Church criminal activity will cause people to become totally turned off to Christianity, to Christ in total, as after all, it started in the Catholic Church. Is anyone who is really a Christian in the Vatican paying attention?

I posted this on November 29, 2009, edited a bit here:

Nothing out of the church the last two decades concerning our pedophile priest claims makes sense

The Church often responds by offering to send the victims to Therapy. The bishops are the ones who are sick perverts who didn't recognize sodomy of a six year old is wrong, not us, the crime victims.

Why is the Catholic Church so reverent and faithful towards psychology as the solution to this problem? Isn't that a little bit secular?

It makes a Christian victim truly question the truth about everything that has ever come out of the church, including the story of Christ.

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Tuesday, December 01, 2009

ABOVE, Beverly Hills store Nativity Scene From KTLA TV Channel Five, News L.A. BELOW: Video from Ireland:

The Franciscan grabbed the freshman by the testicles and instructed the boy to cough as if it were a hernia exam. Just another day of Seminary Life.

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Franciscan friars with no medical training tested boys for "undescended testacles" at St. Anthony's high school seminary in the 1960s and '70s, as revealed in a new lawsuit filed in Santa Barbara last month and reported here in Part 4 of the Santa Barbara Story November 2009 here at City of Angels. Soon after the testicle exam, an assault by a group of unruly Franciscan friars fills out the plaintiff's first year of high school, apparently just another part of life at the seminary.

The legal documents in pedophile priest rape episodes again speak for themselves. Here are more direct quotes from: First Amended Complaint for Damages and Relief, Case Number 1338070 filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court November 3, 2009.

Assault During a Physical Exam in the School Infirmary, from First Amended Complaint Case #1338070: "Although initially thrilled to be so far away from his abusive home, the situation for Plaintiff at St. Anthony’s degenerated quickly. Specifically, within a month or two of school starting Plaintiff was called to the infirmary. Upon arriving Plaintiff observed notorious perpetrator Father Robert Van Handel sitting near an infirmary bed, along with another Franciscan he did not recognize. Van Handel then informed Plaintiff he was there 'for a check-up.'

"Unbeknownst to Plaintiff, this was a fraudulent misrepresentation as the Franciscans have never had any agents qualified to conduct medical exams, much less any such agents assigned to St. Anthony’s [seminary in Santa Barbara]. To the contrary, when a serious medical problem arose with a student, the Franciscans either called Paul Munch MD, or took the ill student to the hospital.

"Unfortunately Plaintiff had no knowledge of this fraud as the Franciscans had never notified law enforcement, parents or the community that physical exams of students by men with no medical training had been approved by the Franciscans almost two decades earlier, and had been utilized to abuse numerous students since then. Plaintiff also had been raised to trust priests and follow their every instruction."

Because these stories seem unbelievable, I asked Tim Hale, the Santa Barbara attorney who authored the briefs, how he came up with the details in these cases, as reported here November 23, 2009 Hale said: "Everything alleged in the amended complaints is supported by admissible evidence assembled from investigation and discovery conducted during the last eleven years of litigation involving the Franciscans." Hale works for Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale law firm in Santa Barbara.

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The second Franciscan told Plaintiff where to stand and to drop his pants, Plaintiff complied without question. The man then approached Plaintiff, grabbed his (Plaintiff’s) testicles, and instructed Plaintiff to turn his head to cough as if he was conducting some sort of hernia exam.
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More direct quotes from Santa Barbara Case #1338070:

Consequently, Plaintiff believed Van Handel’s fraudulent misrepresentation, and when the second Franciscan told Plaintiff where to stand and to drop his pants, Plaintiff complied without question. The man then approached Plaintiff, grabbed his (Plaintiff’s) testicles, and instructed Plaintiff to turn his head to cough as if he was conducting some sort of hernia exam. This ploy was utilized repeatedly during sexual assaults by Father Cimmarrusti, the abuser of at least twenty-three (23) St. Anthony’s students in the 1960s.

The Franciscan then told Plaintiff he had to perform another purported test, and without any further explanation instructed Plaintiff to bend over the infirmary bed. When Plaintiff again complied without question, the Franciscan proceeded to digitally penetrate the shocked boy rectally.

When the supposed exam was finished Plaintiff felt embarrassed and ashamed, and confused as to why he felt this way. However, he still gave no thought to questioning the Franciscan as, in Plaintiff’s mind at that time, Catholic priests were incapable of any wrongful conduct and were beyond reproach.

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The Assault by Dave Johnson
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First Amended Complaint Case #1338070 Continued:

Also during his first semester at St. Anthony’s Plaintiff was subjected to another sexual assault by two Franciscans, then religious brother and future priest, Dave Johnson and one other Franciscan who Plaintiff was unable to identify other than by his garb. However, there was no "check-up" charade this time. Instead it was a physically violent and terrifying assault involving Johnson’s forcible rape of Plaintiff with a foreign object.

Plaintiff was walking down the hall one evening after dinner having just finished kitchen duty. Another student told him he needed to go to Johnson’s office, and Plaintiff did so without question, knocking on the closed office door. Johnson told him to come in and immediately instructed Plaintiff to take all his clothes off and get down on his knees.

Shocked at the instruction and sensing something was horribly wrong, Plaintiff panicked and began crying. Johnson then angrily said something to the effect of "I told you to take your clothes/pants off," walked behind Plaintiff and violently tackled or pushed Plaintiff into the ground, simultaneously grabbing Plaintiff’s hair and shoving Plaintiff’s face into the carpet.

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Utterly panicked and terrified, Plaintiff continued crying, struggled, to no avail.
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SB Case #1338070 continued:

The door then opened and two more people entered, an adult dressed in Franciscan garb, and a student. However, he did not get a good look at them as Johnson was straddling his upper back. Plaintiff heard the door being closed immediately after they entered, heard Johnson say "grab his pants," and then felt hands pulling his pants off. To Plaintiff’s horror, he then heard Johnson say "and the underwear."

Utterly panicked and terrified Plaintiff continued crying, struggled to no avail, and began pleading with Johnson "please don’t do this, what did I do?" Now naked from the waist down, and feeling as if someone was lying on him at a 45 degree angle holding him on the ground so that his bare buttocks were exposed, Plaintiff heard Johnson yelling at him, saying "now it is my turn."

Plaintiff then began to feel something that felt like a big wooden stick first being poked and prodded between his buttocks, and then being pushed against his anus. Plaintiff now recalls at this point going into another state of mind, dissociating himself from the violent sexual assault. He prayed to God not to let this happen, while hearing himself crying and sobbing, and still pleading with Johnson to stop. As the assault continued Plaintiff stopped struggling and submitted, having learned from past experiences that this was sometimes the best way of ending an assault.

Plaintiff may have blacked out and recalls regaining a semblance of consciousness or awareness of the sound of Johnson and at least one other person in the room laughing. He felt people get off of his now limp body, and then either stood or was pulled up and pulled his pants up. He recalls seeing the student standing in the corner with a coat rack that may have been the foreign object used by Johnson during the assault. He also saw the second man standing over him, and recognizing the man was wearing the brown robes worn by Franciscans.

Johnson then told Plaintiff to keep his mouth shut about the assault or he would make matters worse. Plaintiff fled the room.

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The Assault by Gus Krumm
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Case #1338070 continued:

Unfortunately, as the school year came to a close yet another notorious perpetrator and faculty member, then religious brother and future priest Gus Krumm, inflicted another violent sexual assault on Plaintiff. Specifically, one night as Plaintiff walked down a seminary hallway he passed by Krumm’s office and heard what sounded like grunts or groans coming from inside.

As the front office door was open, Plaintiff entered and asked if everything was ok. Krumm emerged from his bedroom shortly thereafter; Krumm appeared to be sweating and smelled bad, and looked disheveled wearing only Corduroy shorts and a gray t-shirt. Krumm angrily asked what Plaintiff was doing in his office, and Plaintiff explained he had heard strange noises and thought someone needed help.

This enraged Krumm who proceeded to grab Plaintiff, spin him around, and drive Plaintiff forcefully into the office wall. Krumm then pinned Plaintiff from behind to the point the boy could not move, pushing Plaintiff’s face against the wall.

Krumm then began thrusting his groin against Plaintiff’s buttocks, placed his mouth next to Plaintiff’s ear, and reached around and grabbed the terrified and immobilized boy’s genitals, squeezing them tightly to the point Plaintiff was in so much pain he began to cry. Eventually Krumm said something to the effect of "you didn’t see anything here, you didn’t hear anything, and you’re not wanted. And you’re probably not coming back." Plaintiff was so terrified and in such pain he agreed immediately. Krumm then released Plaintiff’s genitals and shoved the still crying boy out of the office.

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‘You didn't see anything here, you didn't hear anything here, and you're not wanted.’
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First Amended Complaint Case #1338070 Continued:

10.1 The sexual abuse and exploitation of Plaintiff and the circumstances under which it occurred caused Plaintiff to develop various psychological coping mechanisms which reasonably made him incapable of ascertaining the resulting damages from that conduct. Within three years of filing his lawsuit, Plaintiff discovered or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse.

When Plaintiff first arrived at St. Anthony’s he felt tremendously relieved to be away from his abusive home-life. Catholic schools and parishes had long been his sanctuary, and St. Anthony’s felt particularly safe as it was located far away from his stepfather in another state. As a result, his initial sense of relief was overwhelming, almost to the point of euphoria.

The Perpetrators, acting as managing agents of the Defendants, utilized the trust and reverence inherent in their status as a Franciscans to isolate and abuse Plaintiff.

Plaintiff was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family that idolized priests, was taught by Defendants to trust, revere and obey priests as God’s representatives on earth, and had long viewed priests as the caretakers of his sanctuary from an abusive home-life. The Perpetrators exploited Plaintiff’s hope of having been rescued from his abusive home-life and also utilized Plaintiff’s trust and resulting vulnerability and deference to priests to manipulate Plaintiff, who was approximately fourteen (14) and fifteen (15) years of age during the period of abuse.

One of the manipulations resulted in Plaintiff’s abuse in the infirmary during the purported physical exam. When Plaintiff was instructed to go to the infirmary he did as he was told. Once there, Father Van Handel fraudulently informed Plaintiff before the assault that Plaintiff was there for a "check-up" to be performed by the Perpetrator. The Perpetrator then fraudulently informed Plaintiff he had to conduct a "test" on Plaintiff.

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This check-up, what on its face appeared to be a legitimate medical purpose, performed by a perpetrator.
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This use of what on its face appeared to be a legitimate medical purpose, while in the school infirmary, coupled with Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s trusted status as Franciscans, inhibited Plaintiff’s awareness of the wrongfulness of this conduct until recently. Van Handel and the Perpetrator thus exploited Plaintiff’s having been raised in the Catholic church, as well as Plaintiff’s desperate need to feel he was finally safe, and fraudulently induced Plaintiff to believe he had been called to the infirmary for a legitimate medical purpose.

Consequently, while sensing something was wrong Plaintiff could not comprehend why he felt ashamed and embarrassed after the supposed exams, and was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct until recently, within the last three years. Specifically, it was not until after he began recovering his memories of the abuse by Johnson and Krumm that he first sought out and read other accounts of St. Anthony’s students who were sexually abused.

It was during this time that he first learned that many students had been abused during fraudulent physical examinations conducted by Franciscan perpetrators. Only after reading these accounts did he begin to suspect Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s statements were fraudulent, and had been utilized by the two Franciscans to make him vulnerable to the abuse by the Perpetrator. Until then, Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s fraud, coupled with Plaintiff’s inherent trust in the words of the priests and his desperate need to believe he was finally somewhere safe, resulted in psychological blocking mechanisms that prevented Plaintiff from facing and realizing the Perpetrator’s conduct in the infirmary was wrongful and had caused him injury.

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In the lawsuit here is the story of going to O’Brien in Phoenix to report these crimes in Santa Barbara, reported in City of Angels in The Phoenix Connection here
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[For Plaintiff] Countless days of extreme introversion and walking around in silence, emotionally shut down and unable to face the reality of his life, would follow. It was not until July of 2006 that Plaintiff began to recover the repressed St. Anthony’s memories sometime after an unexpected encounter with Johnson, or at least a man who looked like Johnson. In the weeks that followed that encounter Plaintiff suffered through numerous inexplicable sleepless nights.

Finally, after one particularly fitful night of disturbing dreams, Plaintiff awoke to the shocking realization he had begun recovering memories of the abuse by Johnson and Krumm. And it was not until sometime after he began recovering these memories that Plaintiff first realized the abuse had caused him injury. He also began for the first time to understand his own feelings surrounding the abuse, how the abuse has affected him, and how it continues to affect him.

Plaintiff’s repression also rendered him unable to recognize the wrongfulness of Johnson’s and Krumm’s conduct, and further resulted in Plaintiff internalizing feelings of shame, self-blame, and self-loathing. Blocking out and dissociating from those feelings rendered Plaintiff unable to perceive the injuries he suffered from the abusive conduct and its effect on his life.

11. As a direct result of the wrongful conduct alleged herein, Plaintiff has suffered, and continues to suffer great pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life; has suffered and continue to suffer spiritually; was prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing Plaintiff’s daily activities and obtaining the full enjoyment of life; has sustained and continue to sustain loss of earnings and earning capacity; and/or has incurred and will continue to incur expenses for medical and psychological treatment, therapy, and counseling.

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Defendants continue to conspire
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12. Plaintiff incorporates all paragraphs of this First Amended Complaint as if fully set forth herein.

13. Defendants continue to conspire and engage in efforts to:

1) conceal from the general public the sexual assaults committed by, the identities of, and the pedophilic/ephebophilic tendencies of, the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic agents;

2) attack the credibility of the victims of the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic agents;

3) protect the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic current and former agents from criminal prosecution and registration as sex offenders for their sexual assaults against children; and

4) exploit and abuse the protection for religious freedom provided by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for the purpose of escaping their obligation to report childhood sexual abuse under California Penal Code section 11166, all in violation of law.

14. The negligence and/or deception and concealment by Defendants was and is injurious to the health of, indecent or offensive to the senses of, and an obstruction to the free use of property by, the general public, including but not limited to residents of the County of Santa Barbara and all other members of the general public who live in communities where

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Defendants’ conduct has caused further injury to the public and severely impaired the safety of children
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Defendants conducted, and continue to conduct, their work and/or ministry, and was and is indecent and offensive to the senses, so as to interfere with the general public’s comfortable enjoyment of life in that children cannot be left unsupervised in any location where Defendants’ agents are present as the general public cannot trust Defendants to prohibit their pedophilic agents from supervising, caring for, or having any contact with children, nor to warn parents of the presence of the pedophilic agents of Defendants, nor to identify their pedophilic agents, nor to identify and/or report to law enforcement their agents accused of childhood sexual abuse, thus creating an impairment of the safety of children in the neighborhoods where Defendants conducted, and continue to conduct, their work and/or ministries.

Defendants’ conduct has caused further injury to the public and severely impaired the safety of children where Defendants have protected and concealed the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic agents from criminal prosecution and registration as sex offenders for their sexual assaults, where the Perpetrators and/or Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic agents subsequently have left Defendants’ employ, and where Defendants have disavowed any responsibility for the Perpetrators and/or Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic former agents despite the fact Defendants facilitated these former agents’ avoiding criminal prosecution and having to register as sex offenders. As a result of Defendants’ conduct, when Defendants’ former agents have sought employment placing them in positions of trust with children, Defendants are the only ones aware of the risk posed by these former agents, and potential employers, childcare custodians, and parents have no means of identifying the risk to their children posed by such men. Today’s children continue to be put at risk and abused under these circumstances by Defendants’ former agents, at least as recently as 2007.

15. The negligence and/or deception and concealment by Defendants was specially injurious to Plaintiff’s health as he and his family were unaware of the danger posed to children left unsupervised with agents of Defendants, and as a result of this deception, Plaintiff was placed in the custody and control of the Perpetrators, agents of Defendants, who subsequently sexually assaulted Plaintiff.

16. The continuing public nuisance created by Defendants was, and continues to be, the proximate cause of the injuries and damages to the general public alleged in paragraph 14, and of Plaintiff’s special injuries and damages as alleged in paragraph 15.

17. In doing the aforementioned acts, Defendants acted negligently and/or intentionally, maliciously and with conscious disregard for Plaintiff’s rights.

18. As a result of the above-described conduct, Plaintiff has suffered, and continues to suffer special injury in that they suffer great pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life; has suffered and continues to suffer spiritually; was prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing Plaintiff’s daily activities and obtaining the full enjoyment of life; has sustained and will continue to sustain loss of earnings and earning capacity; and/or has incurred and will continue to incur expenses for medical and psychological treatment, therapy, and counseling.

The Current Santa Barbara Series:

Part 1 is here

Part 2 is here

Part 3 is here

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-Blog produced by Kay Ebeling