Trouble downloading? go to http://cityofangels13.blogspot.com/ for stories without videos

At age five, 1954, "the Bishop" (Card. Stritch) stood over me and said, "Stop babbling about what Father Horne did to you." It took me 40 years to talk about it again. Now, I babble. - ke
**********The City of Angels is Everywhere*********
in 2009 our ongoing coverage of the pedophile epidemic in the Catholic Church will be at City fAngels5. in 2010 at CityofAngels8

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

2 new pics of my perp - look what I found


Feels good to post these. I was going through boxes of pictures and found two shots of Father Thomas Barry Horne. With drinks on the table in front of him he grins for the camera at a party c. 1953 at right, and with a drink in his hand he toasts during his retirement in 1974 below.


Send pics to City of Angels to post

Sunday, October 26, 2008

30 more victims of one pedophile priest come forward when book published, probably just the tip of the iceberg


By Kay Ebeling

"I’ve sent the bishop eight survivors of Neary and each one said the bishop told them they were the only person that had come forward about Neary," said Charles Bailey, pictured at right. He is getting justice today for brutal sex crimes committed against him at age ten by Father Thomas Neary, by putting his story out in the public. His book In The Shadow Of The Cross gives graphic shocking disgusting PTSD-inducing detail of the serial felonies, and you cannot put it down. More alarming, Bailey went on a small book tour in the Syracuse area where the book takes place, and in venue after venue, people came up after he spoke and said, "my brother was also raped by Neary," or my uncle, my husband, my dad - dozens of people with the same horrid story of the same horrid modus operandi.

With young Bailey and numerous others, Neary insinuated himself into families, convinced reverent mothers that their young boys were almost perfect for the priesthood, they just needed personal counseling. In household after household in towns like Onondaga Hill, Hannibal, Jordan, and Skaneateles, Father Neary convinced mothers to keep the rest of the children aside as he took a 9 or 10 year old boy into a room - then while reciting The Lord’s Prayer he sodomized them, prepubescent boys, or forced his face-sized penis into the their mouths, all the time telling the boys that sodomy and fellatio are part of their training to be a priest.

In the Shadow of the Cross tells so outlandish a story, even I began to wonder if it could be true, especially since Charles Bailey says probably 30 people have come to him so far, saying they or a family member were assaulted by Neary. Yet, NONE OF THEM will tell their story alongside Charlie in public, or even to a reporter or blogger like me, even if we keep details anonymous.

No one will go public yet at least.

However go to Google and type in Father Thomas Neary and you begin to see the tip of the iceberg toppling. Two bloggers, one a renowned political satirist, the other the Editor of City Eagle in New York document the slow coming forward of other victims of pedophile priest Father Thomas Neary, (blogs quoted and linked below).

After Bailey spoke at Creekside Books in 2007, he said, “a dozen or fifteen people came forward, all of them to talk about young men assaulted by Neary. A woman said her husband, a Neary victim, committed suicide when their son was in his teens. She hoped the book would help her son, who a decade later still hates his father. She wouldn't talk about it much but she did say that after reading this book maybe her son would let go of his bad feelings about his dad.”

Neary, pictured below right, devastated Bailey’s body from age 10 to 12, and Bailey dives right in with detailed portrayals of Neary’s assaults. On page 4 he describes “I see him grin and groan as if he is in a really happy state” asNeary has an orgasm, how “he tells me to stop crying and clean myself up. I now know enough to keep a box of Kleenex on the floor under the edge of the bed. Just for his visits." Bailey writes: "I stuff tissues in my bottom and make my way to the bathroom. Don’t get blood anywhere, he tells me. I know that it has to be private between he and my priest, because I don't want to anger you more, God. As I close the bathroom door, I hear him telling my mother not to worry, as I may be upset. It is very emotional to be ‘counseled’ to become a priest.”

This is from Page 6:

“He makes me kneel before him and clasp my two little ten-year-old hands together, like when we receive communion. What are we doing? We pray the Lord’s Prayer. ‘Thy will be done,’ Father Neary repeats that part. I am on my knees staring at his zipper."

This is from Page 7:

“As he helped me to lower his zipper, here was this hard penis staring me in the face. It was hard, hairy, and smelly. Why is there hair? I have no hair except on my head. ‘This is special, just for men of God,’ Neary said. ‘You too will be like this when you get older and help other young boys become priests.' ”

*****************
You can buy the book at: http://www.intheshadowofthecross.net/home.asp
********************************


For three years Bailey endured brutal crimes more than a hundred times, with the pain, the systematic cleaning up, bleeding into the toilet, then stuffing tissues into his rectum to keep the rest of the blood from dripping down his legs. You picture him, carefully folding paper towel into one pocket, Kleenex into the other, he lived in fear that Neary would pick him up when he wasn’t prepared with tissue in one pocket Kleenex in the other exactly as Neary demanded.

Today Charles Bailey plagued with degenerative disk disease, neuropathy, the chronic pain with which it seems so many pedophile priest rape survivors live.

(Continued below after this commercial)
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
If you enjoy reading stories at City of Angels Network, please put a high five ($5) or higher on our Paypal Donate button in the top left corner, to help keep the blog alive -- I mean, guys, this is work
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


I asked Bailey,

Do you ever think that because you were so young - at ten years old you are still growing, your cells are still forming - that having these experiences with Neary sodomizing you, all that pain and the horror -- that it somehow put a kind of neural poison into your cells -- that the serial rapes with all that pain and internal confusion, actually damaged you at a cellular level, and is the reason you have all these health problems today?

BAILEY: I do think that. I’ve had two lower back surgeries as a young man and two cervical spine surgeries and I definitely think there’s a connection to the sexual assaults by Neary, because like you said.

Assaults by pedophile priests do damage to us at a cellular level, especially when we are young children when it happens, our bodies growing and cells still forming as we experience this trauma and process it the way we process it.

In fact as I read Bailey’s book In the Shadow of the Cross over a period of weeks, my own body pained up in its own brand of neuropathic dystrophy, whatever you want to call it - I couldn't write, could barely get my tape transcription jobs done - for the entire time I was reading his book.

Bailey said, “I went to pain management and was on 28 pills a day not long ago, and just the side effects the upset stomach and the nausea were awful

“And I was still in pain.

“So I quit them all, all the pharmaceuticals.’

How do you deal with the chronic pain?

“I just mentally tell myself that it goes along with the arena. It’s like the story, you feel bad about not having any shoes until see a guy with no feet. I tell myself I'm in agony, this hurts, but at least I can feel, there are people out there worse off than me.

“Many times, hair in the back of my neck stands up when people say pedophilia is only about power. It’s not.”

Bailey describes this scene in the book, and in a recent interview:

“I was holding onto the bedspread and I could see his expression. He’s having the time of his life back there and I was not a willing participant. It is about sexual pleasure for pedophiles.”

Bailey vents more on the topic of in Chapter 10: “Put It Behind You”

“Everywhere I have researched it, I have read that anal intercourse performed on a young boy by a man in his forties, (much less a Catholic priest) is illegal. It is a crime, and it should not be labeled as simply a mistake or mischief. It is not only a crime, but it is a felony crime. That is, it seems, unless you belong to the Catholic Church. . . .”

“These people who utter these ignorant words, put it behind you , it was so long ago, just forget about it, Move on. - and many other hurtful words, they just don’t get it. I sometimes feel they have ‘chosen ignorance,’ as I have dubbed it. they cannot allow themselves to believe the facts, of the sexual abuse by clergy, because then they would have to admit to the abuse done by their priests to countless children.

“These Catholics can’t seem to handle the truth. Otherwise they would be as outraged at their church as the victims are.”

*********************
BAILEY CONTINUES ON PAGE 68 of
In the Shadow of the Cross:
************************************


“Strange too, how there exists no statute of limitations on murder. Years passing mean nothing to a murder case. The victim can’t be there for the trial either. But I am here, and I can testify as to what, where, and how it happened. Isn’t that a leg up on a murder trial?”

I asked, Do you feel frustrated by survivors who won't go public or tell their stories to the media?

Almost every place Bailey speaks in the rural area near Syracuse pictured here (click to enlarge), he finds more victims of the prolific pedophile priest Thomas Neary. “One mother came up and said her son committed suicide about eight years ago, that he was he was an altar boy, in Skaneateles. Another guy is coming up from (a southern state). He says since reading the book, he realizes he has unfinished business. He’s a (professional) and this journey has interrupted his life but he has to come back. So he’s taking an indefinite period of time off work to come here and find out what happened to him.”

Still none of them wants to come forward in the public with their stories and stand beside Bailey, which frustrates the author as well as myself.

“The more people that come forward, the more credible this becomes,” Bailey said.

He understands the fear of “coming out”

Sort of. Bailey says:

“Most of the new Neary victims are prominent people in the area here. They're still in a job or career, some are politicians or doctors or lawyers, and they don't want their name associated with being a survivor of this, and I have to admit if I wasn’t retired, I would probably feel the same way.”

BUT

“I think the more victims stay silent in the case of Neary and other perpetrators the more these guys are out there still abusing children,” Bailey said. “By not coming forward, they're, I don't know if I’d use the word enabling -

“But yeah-

“By not coming forward, they're pretty darn close to enabling their perpetrator and others like him to continue perpetrating.”

So the iceberg topples.


POLITICAL SATIRIST and Radio commentator BARRY CRIMMINS, pictured at right, says Neary tried to make him a victim but he didn't succeed because he was savvy from a previous childhood experiences. In his BLOG, July 2007, Crimmins wrote this about encountering Charles Bailey in Skaneateles, that he almost got assaulted by Neary. Crimmins says he fought off Neary.

“(Neary) knew he couldn't sexually abuse me. On two occasions, when he started to massage my shoulders, I literally hit him as hard as I could with an elbow and fled.

“I had an added-on survival reflex (due to a previous assault) that kicked in as soon as the monstrous Neary put his slimy hands upon me. He persisted a bit and offered me rides in his car.


“Most of the children in town soon knew you should never take a ride from Father Queery."

FATHER QUEERY
Hey, they were kids, they did not know any better

You can read Climmens entire post at:

http://www.barrycrimmins.com/index.php?page=news&display=317

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
If you enjoy reading stories at City of Angels Network, please put a high five ($5) or higher on our Paypal Donate button in the top left corner, to help keep the blog alive -- I mean, guys, this is work
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


In addition

Here is another account of a survivor of Neary coming out because of Charles Bailey’s book In the Shadow of the Cross at:

http://cnylink.com/cnynews/view_news.php?news_id=tE1188488025t46d6e35912b85

by Ellen Leahy, Editor/City Eagle 08/30/07

“Alfie and my friend started again to discuss the book, as Alfie had had a run-in with Rev. Neary. He said that as a young boy he had worshipped with his family at St. Mary’s and had really looked up to Neary. You have to put yourself into a young boy’s mind, and the reverence one has for their priest, especially 40 years ago.

(emphasis mine, Neary picture below left)


“Alfie said Neary started out with some inappropriate touching that was very confusing and then he made a move on him, which included shoving his tongue down the young Rossi’s throat. Alfie went home and told his father he didn’t want to go to church anymore and his father without question said, okay. They never discussed why at the time.”

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

BAILEY: “My Wife Susan is the angel God sent me, at least half the reason why I'm here at all."

They have been married 35 years

BAILEY: She is my personal pit bull.

Read why below:


“We can forgive if you clean this up,” Susan Bailey said.

STORY CONTINUES AFTER VIDEO


Susan Bailey told me:

“I called Bishop Moynihan in Syracuse and I met with him. At first he said I don't want to talk about this, but after awhile, I talked him into giving my husband free counseling once a week for six years.

“Charles got stronger with each therapy session. In the very beginning Charlie was truly a victim. He was broken down and he needed counseling. I'm the one that went in and talked to the bishop."


***********
She even tracked down the pedophile priest's brother, and went to his house. She wanted to know everything.

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

Susan Bailey, pictured at right, continues:

“I was so angry I even went to Fr. Neary’s brother’s house and wanted to know everything.

“Oh he doesn't live too far. My husband got on the computer we found Mr. Neary to see if he would apologize for his brother.

"I went to the brother’s house, banged on the door and said, I used to live in this neighborhood and wanted to talk to you. I went in and I said, I want to talk to you about your brother and he automatically said, leave the room to his daughter.

"I sat down with him for at least two hours and he told me everything and spent hours with me.

"Then before he left he said, I would like to apologize to your husband. And he did."

*****************
She realized it was the same house where much of the abuse of Charlie Bailey by Father Thomas Neary took place -

It was the same exact house
**********************************


Susan Bailey continued:

What was freaky is the house. I was looking around the house and it was all antiques..

In that very room Mrs Neary, his wife, used to give Charlie and other boys cookies after they were molested in the room nearby.

SUSAN: I said did Father Neary bring children to the house? And he said, yes, all the time. They would go to the back room and he would counsel them.

***********
And so the iceberg topples a little bit more
*************************************


Wherever Bailey and his wife Susan go, they take cards with an 800 number and information about the book, Bailey still makes public speeches.

They continue to find more survivors of Neary and other priests in the region but:

“They don’t want to talk,” Susan Bailey says.

“In the beginning, I understand it. I found this one survivor. One of my friends called me and said, I know this guy that's a cop and firefighter on the weekends and he was a victim of Father Neary. I know because he was always with him, I just know he was.

Susan Bailey continues:

“I picked up the phone and called him at the police station. He called me back. I said I heard you were abused by Father Neary. So was my husband. He wanted to meet right away.

"I got in my car and met him in a restaurant, then he came to our house and he spent five hours at our house.

But he said I don't want anyone to know about this and don’t use my name even with the bishop. He gave us the name of other possible victims.

Then by the time he left, he said okay to say his name to the bishop but not in the news media.


*******************
Well City of Angels has expressed before how we feel.

Keeping the story secret of felonies committed on you by pedophile priests is being self destructively timid - the only way we will ever see justice is when there are hundreds of stories documented and we can see the similarities from state to state, city to city:
**************************************


“So many of them do the same thing,” said Susan Bailey.

“Constantly you can pick up any book, almost every story is exactly the same. When you talk to other victims, these guys do the same thing to their victims, it’s like they were taught in seminary.”

*****************
BAILEY: I’ve sent the bishop eight survivors of Neary and each one said the bishop told them they were the only person that had come forward about Neary
********************************


“I’ve sent the bishop eight survivors of Neary and each one said the bishop told them they were the only person that had come forward about Neary

“Eight Neary victims I know of were told that nobody spoke about Neary before they did by Bishop Moynihan..

BAILEY: What I found is, I’ve spoken to 4 to 500 abuses so far doing the hotline and some of the peer counseling I do. When it comes to someone that's a victim of the same perpetrators. it kicks it up a notch. It’s a lot more difficult to, I don't know what the right word is even. You connect but it’s almost like you connect too much.

Bailey is documenting Thomas Neary’s 45 year career of raping kids

“I disclosed in 2002 what happened to me, and after the one article they've been calling me to say they too are a victim.

“One guy called me at midnight and said I just had to call you. You were on the news talking about sexual abuse with a picture of Neary. He just sat up and said that's him that's him. His wife said what, and he said, that's what I’ve been holding in 37 years. Then he took next days off from work to tell his family and friends.

“He had thought about it but he thought he was the only one.


"These guys (pedophile priests) are masters. I also thought Neary was an anomaly. I thought I was maybe one or a couple."

CHARLES BAILEY: Thomas Neary had a 45-year career of raping children, and the story is just beginning to come out.

***
Onward. . .


***
Giving credit where credit is due: I got the tip to track down Charles Bailey for a story after Peggy Warren interviewed the author on her monthly internet webcast/cable TV show Educating to End Abuse from Wichita, Kansas on WCTV.

For more information go to: http://www.educatingtoendabuse.com/id36.html

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Interview with Charles Bailey to be posted Sunday - here is his wife Susan talking on video:

*
This is going to be a very difficult story to write.



Watch here Sunday October 26, the story of one crime victim coming forward, self publishing a book about his experiences, and finding dozens of other survivors of the same perpetrator, Thomas E. Neary, of Syracuse, New York.

Watch here tomorrow for the story. Here is a related video, where Susan Bailey talks about her husband's journey. Susan is the "angel that God sent to me" says Charles Bailey.

Because so many of Neary's victims have committed suicide.

Story to come Sunday.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Coming Soon


Author Charles Bailey's journey since publishing In The Shadow of the Cross in 2006, story coming Sunday. Click http://www.intheshadowofthecross.net/home.asp for more info. Pic of book cover at rigth (click to enlarge)
The American Catholic Church was so desperate to find priests that it took anybody, especially in the last half of the twentieth century. So when one got caught raping a child, it was more important to hold onto the priest than protect and treat the children. So they transferred the priest and made it look like nothing bad really happened.

A church that would make that kind of a policy decision on a national level - is something other than a gospel believing and practicing church.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Bishops ask taxpayers to fund research on pedophile priests. Just cooperate with subpoenas, testify under oath, and no study would be needed

*****
By Kay Ebeling


In St. Anthony Messenger released this morning an interview explains the Catholic Church's next step in bandaging its hemorrhage with pedophile priests, by doing a study as to why there are pedophile priests. The Roman Catholic Church wants American taxpayers to pay for its research.

"We’ve made applications to several federal agencies that would ordinarily fund studies of this kind, like the Centers for Disease Control," says Judge Michael R. Merz, the current chair of the Catholic's own National Review Board, in the November issue of the Catholic's own magazine released this morning.

Come on, bishops. Stop hiding behind the First Amendment and priest-penitent privilege every time someone asks a question as to what you knew about pedophiles proliferating in the inner sanctums of the church. Or fire the PR Firms and three fourths of the lawyers the bishops hire to fight the crime victims, and the Church will have plenty of money to fund its studies.

Shoot, just tell the truth and you do not need to do any study.

Of course Americans HAVE been spared the expense of civil trials re pedophile priests, with settlements reached just in time to keep bishops from testifying. And the same taxpayers are also spared any expense for criminal trials, because the Catholic Church hides behind the statute of limitations to keep from responding in any way in most cases.

In fact, if the church cooperated with public prosecutors and civil attorneys, the Review Board could use that documentation to do its study, and the truth would have been found out by now through civil and criminal trials.

Instead, The Church turns to American Taxpayers to pay for its study on why pedophiles seem to proliferate in Catholic Churches -

NO WAY -

Not until the church opens its files, turns over documents, stops having bishops answer “I don't remember” to every question in a deposition,

AND when the church starts paying taxes on some of its structures like parking lots -

The church bleeds cash in settlements to a small portion of victims, the ones with the most blatant and easily prosecutable cases. The settlements surrepticiously stop victims from talking.

The Church carries briefcases full of cash to myriad PR firms and consultants to convince the public the church is still benign.

Instead of just being benign.


Of course this is the same institution that thinks firing pedophile priests and turning them loose on society with no monitoring is somehow sacrificial and compromising on the part of the church.

Not only do the defrocked pedophile priests have free reign to find children anywhere in the world, American taxpayers support them as they are unemployable and usually end up on Social Security and Medicare

The church needs to take off this smiling face image it is paying millions to PR firms to propagate, and start wearing the same scowl worn by most of the crime victims, while facing the reality of the crimes committed:

Serial sodomy on hundreds maybe thousands of young boys who thought they were being prepared for the priesthood,

The same patterns of crime committed in thousands of cities across the country as priests used their position to insinuate themselves on families and rape the children

Refusal to turn over documents to Grand Juries or testify truthfully under oath when subpoenaed.

-

If the church wants to prove it is facing its problem:

Stop coddling the criminal priests and above.

Start offering significant treatment and services to crime victims

Acknowledge the true nature of the crimes, open up your files and stop lying.

Don’t ask taxpayers to fund a study and tell us it is more good works by a gospel preaching church.

Here is the entire quote:

Q. Was it the seminary training they had?

A. The preponderance of offenders reported in the “Nature and Scope” study are priests who were trained before Vatican II. Nobody coming out of the seminary immediately began abusing. There’s a lapse time for everybody. And we’ve got to figure out why.

That is why it is really important to do a serious social-science study of the pattern, instead of accepting people’s off-the-cuff explanations, like suggesting that the sexual revolution hit Catholic priests the same as everyone else, but 10 years later. Or suggesting this all could have been avoided if Catholic priests were allowed to marry. Or suggesting gay priests be eliminated. None of these things will explain the data we now have

Q. Is the reason for the upcoming “Causes and Context” study?


A. Yes, that’s precisely what we’re studying. The “Causes and Context” study is ongoing, but needs more funding. The bishops pledged a million dollars for this study, and have already released, I think, $400,000. There are other sources from which we are trying to raise the money. We’ve made applications to several federal agencies that would ordinarily fund studies of this kind, like the Centers for Disease Control. And we have made some requests to various foundations and individuals who are known to contribute to Catholic causes. So at present we are not expecting to have to go back to the bishops for more money.

The entire interview is at (Have barf bag handy, they never mention that religious order priests are not covered by the Dallas Charter, by the way):

http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/Nov2008/feature3.asp

Onward. . .

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Coming Soon


Author Charles Bailey's journey since publishing In The Shadow of the Cross in 2006, story coming Sunday. Click http://www.intheshadowofthecross.net/home.asp for more info. Pic of book cover at rigth (click to enlarge)

I stand by what I said

*
Altar boys were originally "Acolytes" in the Roman Mass, that would be at least 400 years past the time of Christ. The acolytes set up to pretty much do the priests' bidding, whatever they needed - and with celibacy this developed into altar boys, young adolescents who provided an outlet for celibate priests having trouble being celibate.

Read the stories from the 20th Century, how priests just helped themselves to altar boys between Masses, on outings, as if the youngsters were there just for the taking and services of the man of cloth.

So no, I think if a person really understands the depth and degradation of the organized crime that is the pedophile network in the Catholic Church, that you would not insult and further denigrate the crime victims by continuing to go to Catholic churches.

Become a Methodist, try out the Presbyterians, they are SO CLOSE to Catholic, without the secrecy and inherent sexual deviancy that goes with men taking an oath of celibacy. There is something evil at the very core there, and we crime survivors have had enough knives in our souls.

In fact it is an insult to me, seeing people continue to walk into Catholic Churches, especially with their numerous children in hand. . .

To me it belittles the crimes committed against me as well as all the altar boy, and altar "servers" (girls) and children of reverent families with vulnerable structures --

**********
It is belittling to me, a crime victim, watching people continue entering and supporting the institution that perpetrated these thousands of crime. It belittles the crimes, makes them meaningless.
**********************


It belittles these HEINOUS crimes committed against us when people who KNOW about these crimes continue to go to that church.

Yes, there ARE other churches.

Pedophile priests are criminals who are indigenous to Roman Catholic church heirarchy and structure. That's why there are thousands of us who live with the collateral of these crimes -

there has never been any real justice -

AARGH it made me feel so. . . defeated, to see both Obama and McCain sitting on either side of Cardinal Egan of New York, his pudgy goofy-eyed smile throughout the event revealing the depth of the roots. Roman Catholic heirarchy are a network of little George Bushes, same goofy smiles, same front men standing up in public while the real crime goes on behind doors that are WAY closed.

Not just closed doors, but steel encrusted gated tentacles that stretch into the courts, the media, the schools, local and national and international politics.

Truth is once we really root out the story of these pedophiles and those who protected them - we will also see all the other crime which they protected the pedophiles to prevent the public from seeing.

So No I am not going to quit this blog. . .
I do not know how anyone can witness the lies, hundreds of lies, shattered lives, concerning pedophiles in the priesthood - priests who are supposed to be celibate having secret sex with chidren - how can you see that and continue to believe anything that comes out of that church? Especially the lie they tell you that if you go to other churches you are somehow damned - DAMN that is incredible control they have over people. DAMN, that so many people can't let that go.

People who still bring children to Catholic events must have cataracts filtering truth from their brains

*
By Kay Ebeling

Nothing has changed really. The elements that allowed the pedophile priest who got to me are all still in place, in spite of recent "reforms" done by Catholic dioceses. All the new sex education classes and screenings are for the lay teachers, the coaches.

None of the reforms can keep the kind of men who enter the priesthood to have access to children from entering the priesthood. Plus no religious orders have agreed to go along with the Dallas Charter from 2002.

The whole reason they invented altar boys was to give "celibate" priests an outlet, with medieval values of children that carried over into the Twentieth Century. Culturally children were disposable, not too many centuries back. The current Catholic Church response with reform has literally been to do as little as they can get away with.

Nothing has changed in the way priests are trained in isolation or in the unrealistic way they are forced to live - celibacy. This ability they have to live a life devoid of normal human sexual impulse - makes you believe the priest is something higher up than human.

Hah.

Secrecy is still at the core of Catholic church operations - and lies told for the greater good of the church are not sinful, even when told under oath. Read any transcript of a bishop deposition. They lie bare faced outright, while under oath.

I cannot get the image out of my mind of families with children in hand filing into St. Peter Damian Church in Bartlett last summer, the church my perpetrator Thomas Barry Horne founded outside Chicago in 1949, where two more pedophiles served on staff through the 1990s, a church named after a man whose main contribution was writings against "paedophilia" and other sex crimes among Catholic priests in the 11th century, St. Peter Damian.

All those people still in the pews with their kids, it's as if they have cataracts on their eyes, filtering truth from their brains. Don't they even read the news? Don't they see that the same people telling them they HAVE TO keep coming to the church are the ones perpetrating these crimes? How can anything this church does still have crediblity?

They continue to think that man in a dress blowing incense in your face and repeating hypnotic words could not possibly represent anything evil. . .
A good analogy is = pedophile priest rape survivors are much like persons who have been picked up and taken on trips by UFOs. We have this bizarre experience that most people do not even believe took place, yet when we reach out on the internet we find there are thousands of other people around the world who had similar experiences, right down to the details.

The truth is in the details.

Monday, October 20, 2008

I keep getting shot down. I'll have a story developing and the hearings get canceled, the judge just issues a decision with no public hearing, or worst yet, the survivors decide they want to keep their stories secret.

Every time I get something going, it gets shot down. I was shooting stuff at the cathedral when my camera got too hot, so now I have lost that major form of expression.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO SUPPORT for survivors in LA, or if there is, I do not hear about it. The real result I think of giving a lot of people settlements is they become of another class and -- disappear. Everyone disappears.

The two or three people who are supportive of me here are great, but truth is, I am doing this very much alone, and this is not a pursuit that should be undertaken completely alone. You start to imagine things and there is no one to tell you it's your imagination.

I feel overwhelmed by the sheer wealth and endless strength of archbishops etcetera to control everything, keep people mystified, brainwashed. The most discouraging thing in my life, perhaps, was seeing all those families filing into the church with their children, when I went to visit my perpetrator church last summer, and realizing no matter what we do --

They just keep doing what they have always been doing and kids are still in danger in Catholic churches, and I have to sit here on the sidelines and just watch, unable to do anything.

This blog is done on zero resources, created literally out of thin air. Some months I cannot even buy bus fare downtown to go to hearings. My perpetrator church has acquired acreage and has perfect landscaping on every square foot. . .

This blog has caused me to lose all my friends, and make no new ones. . . it wears me out, puts worry lines on my face, and has made me have a defeated attitude and lose the flower child faith I used to have in people. . .

I don't know if I will be able to put out any more posts. I feel like Tinkerbell fading, and no one is applauding.

How soon they forget. . .

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Follow-up: A church is just a building. Stained glass is just a way to play with light. From burlesque to Mass it is all just entertainment...

.
Here is Mabel from the planet Oblique - infiltrating one of these so called church places by becoming a member of the choir.

She says, I am Kay and only whispers Oblique, come to observe your spiritual ceremony and oh I get it, it is all a show. That explains how you can say the priests are celibate, when they are really banging altar boys backstage.

From burlesque to High Mass it has all been nothing but entertainment, really. And towards the end they pass the hat.

Not that there’s anything wrong with these Sunday shows. I am Kay from the planet Oblique come to watch you do church. Coming in the backdoor almost. Been so caught up in stories about children being raped by priests, and all the ceremonies that went with it, I have been denying myself this experience.

And It is All a Show. An entertaining one at that.

What finally got me back into a church was standing in the front, on the “altar” which is, when you get down to it, really just a stage.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Something wonderful happens when people pray together and sing praise songs. Why not find a way to do that and be theatrical at the same time. People have a show to come to every week, and towards the end we pass the hat. It’s theater. When you get down to it, the ceremony on Sunday in a church, from a Mass to snake handling, it is theater.

The basest of all theater where you pass a hat. I loved it being in the choir. I was talking to them, not passively letting them talk to me.

But being from the planet Oblique I scanned the crowd for fellow travelers. Maybe someone read the blog and would come up after to talk? Go for coffee? No. I don't know where the “survivor community” went in LA, it’s hard to believe 500 plus people just got settlements - what happened to the cross? No one seems to care. Where did everybody go?

Being up on the altar, it was me, I have something to say to you, not me, okay I will listen.

Then the Presbyterian preacher started talking. Apparently with Presbyterians a long sermon is a major part of the ceremony.

You know what?

I’d rather be singing.

The Mass, the songs, it is all a performance.

The ones who do it better have bigger churches. Like those who produce big movies get big studios.

So for those wondering how it went today, it was a release. Entering the church from behind the altar, being on the altar facing the pews - I wanted it to change my perspective and it may have. I'm going back next Sunday because at this church the 11:00 o'clock service has no ceremony to it at all. Instead people who are performers and Christians locally get up and sing, it’s mostly singing together, performances

except for that long sermon.

We could start a group there and call it Damaged Catholics. I think they would give us a room at Hollywood Pres.

I wish someone would have shown up today.

I'm getting frustrated with this population of people, pedophile priest rape survivors. I keep holding long conversations with people, and they know I am a journalist, and then after telling me their whole story, they say, oh but don’t write anything about me. It’s especially exasperating if the interviewee knows I'm not just another survivor but a journalist who is taking busy notes, actually working quite hard, the whole time the story is coming out of the person’s mouth, and then after all that you say, oh but don’t write about me.

If I call you and say tell me your story and I'm asking you how do you spell that again, etcetera and say to you, I'm writing this down - it’s on the record. When you are talking to me, the story IS going to end up here.

IT HELPS EVERYONE when you tell your story…publicize it. Put it in print and Video if you can and post it on YouTube.

What makes our stories significant is the similarities, the areas where we can point out patterns that prove collusion on the part of the bishops, communication across state lines. One of the reasons I keep trying to put people’s stories up is to in the end prove the organized crime element of what happened to us.

But people in this population keep disappearing. A survivor will emerge, say a few words, speak at a conference, and then suddenly be afraid to tell their story anymore. So of course that means never returning a phone call from me again.


So I am Mabel from the Planet Oblique, wondering if any of my fellow infiltrators on Earth will ever contact me.

It’s happened over and over again since I’ve been producing this blog. People appear in my life, become intimate even deep inside me, as we share our stories, and then two days or two weeks later, they have disappeared.

I am paranoid enough to think someone calls them after we talk and tells them not to talk to me again. There is almost no other explanation for it.

This pattern keeps happening over and over again.

Keeping silent plays into the hands of the priest bishop felons. They don’t want you to talk at all. They are the ones who don’t want these stories to come out.

Meanwhile I'm back to work, 50 percent pretty much since our mini recession started. Have to put in eight hours between now and tomorrow morning on “Make Me A Supermodel” season 2.

Girl’s gotta make a living…

So please put a high five or higher on the PayPal button as I need to raise $200 to buy a new camera. My old one got fried in the last heat wave.

Onward

Saturday, October 18, 2008

My first singing gig in years - and it is in a church - Yikes!

*
By Kay Ebeling

I haven't been able to post more than a week. I was beating on a pillow at 3:00 in the morning, crying through gritted teeth, “What they did to us was heinous and they're getting away with it.” Then at 3:20 I was standing beside the bed laughing out loud. No I can’t just put it behind me, this pedophile priest rape survival experience follows me wherever I go.

For years I haven’t been able to walk into a church, so instead I found storefront parishes, living room Bible studies. A few months ago I started singing with Hollywood Mass Choir. We sing black rooted gospel songs like the ones I feature in videos here at City of Angels 4. A big highlight of my little old lady life lately has been Wednesday night practice with this choir. I'm opening up the voice I got as a gift and putting it to use again. I used to sing Joni Mitchell songs and pass the hat as a hippie, so singing with Hollywood Mass is reawakening the performer in me, opening up my voice so I can hit those notes, singing this music that to me is as passionate as anything that came out of the sixties, or HAIR! I think black gospel music is going to accompany America’s recovery from 8 years of Bush, and this music is Hot- I Mean! Janet Jackson born again now talking to God is what I channel as I belt out those high notes, “Emanuel” --

At 3:20 in the morning other day I realized, oh no, singing in a choir, that means I'm going to be performing in churches. I'm being forced to return to a church, not as a parishioner, but through the back stage entrance, up on the altar, performing.

This experience should be empowering - if I don't have to run out in the middle of a song and puke on the doorstep.

In a conversation I had this morning, I suddenly remembered, this all harkens back to when we were homeless. My daughter and I lived in our car and shelters in LA from 2003 to 2005. As a result we got to know a lot of other homeless people in LA. That is how I learned about this inner city deep in the ghetto gospel music, the Massage on KJLH 102.3 FM in LA every weekday and the music they play on Sunday afternoons. I started listening to those songs and singing along, then I found Hollywood Mass Choir.

We sing in those same songs in Hollywood Mass Choir, the songs that became part of my life when we were homeless.

I keep saying, nothing happens in God’s world by mistake. Now in order to sing these songs I love,

I have to get over it

a bit

and be able to sing in a Church.

Starting tomorrow morning at 11 AM.

I am a little scared.

Along the side of this blog I run YouTube videos of different choirs performing the type of songs we perform in Hollywood Mass Choir. I sing them around my house all the time. I wanted to get back to performing --

For years I heard about this group Hollywood Mass Choir, but thought they were a Catholic group because of the word "Mass." In the choir's name the word "mass" has to do with Masses of people - most of our songs we try to get people to sing along with us.

It just did not dawn on me until 3:20 AM the other day that singing in a choir means singing in churches. The particular church where we will be performing tomorrow is one I have tried two maybe three other times to attend. Because I know I need the social structure of a church in my life, I have tried for years to be part of churches. I’ve seen so many people do better than I do through hard times because they have a church in their lives.

So for years, no decades, I have tried to join different churches.

Honest.

I’ve jumped up and down at Pentecostal services when I was living deep in the redwoods of Northern California.

Oh, and I really wanted to join up with a polygamous family in a Mormon sect for a while back in the late 1970s. I really “got” the way they connected God with sex and procreation and all that, polygamy in Mormonism really turned me on for a while.

It still does. I could not take my eyes off episodes of Big Love, watching them over and over again just last year.

But recently I’d given up on trying out churches. Because to be honest, every time I go to a church and then let the pastor know I am a pedophile priest rape survivor, I have felt doors close in my face. My calls stop being returned.

In some cases I have suspected that the pastor himself was afraid I was there to investigate him, and he was carrying on with someone, maybe even a minor, I don't know.

I can’t trust any of them. That's a big part of it too. I sit there in the pew watching almost any pastor and start wondering who he’s banging behind closed doors. It’s hard to keep my mind from going there.

Now I find myself singing tomorrow at Hollywood Presbyterian Church where the architecture, even the structure of the service, harkens really close to a Catholic cathedral. When I’ve tried to attend a service at this very Hollywood church, I’ve had to get up and run out of this church - as recently as two or three months ago.

In fact it was during one of those panic attacks out in the church garden area, that someone told me about Hollywood Mass Choir. They rehearse Wednesday nights in that building right over there.

All I really want to do is sing.

When I sing I feel no pain.

So at the same time I was running out of the church, I joined up with the choir. We rehearse in the music room on Hollywood Pres grounds. Still it just didn't dawn on my until 3:20 AM that day that I am going to be performing in this church and other churches on Sunday mornings.

I didn't plan for this to happen. I was just looking for a group to sing these gospel choir songs with.

You have to remember that one thing that made me vulnerable and available to the pedophile priest was a passion I had, even as a child, to find out more about Jesus. I remember “getting it” at a really early age. But since the same person teaching me Catechism classes and preparing me for First Communion was this priest who also took advantage of whatever chance he had to get sexual with me and get me aroused. Me and my sister, he really liked pretty little girls. So to this day I am confused. Am I drawn to spiritual pursuits in spite of a pedophile priest arousing me at age five, or because of the pedophile priest arousing me at age five.

Or there is no connection at all.

Right now I have to convince myself not to let the architecture of a church keep me from taking part in performing Sunday with the choir.

This morning I held a conversation with a woman in the middle of the country who was raped as an altar server in the 1970s. She and her mom had worked hard to get the church to allow her to be the first female altar server, and she at age 10 was also full of a passion for god and Christ. The first time she put on the robes of an altar server she felt better than she ever had in her life.

Within weeks the parish priest had her alone in the rectory sitting on his lap - you know the rest. This morning as she related experiences in her life to me, there were so many similarities between her story and mine, between her story and hundreds of others I’ve listened to in the past two years.

One of the most amazing things about being a priest rape survivor is finding out there are people all over the country who have had almost exactly the same experience you had, even though the experience had set you apart as awkward, antisocial, unable to connect with people, outright unable to be intimate - most of your adult life. It’s almost like we are all visitors from another planet, forever aliens in our communities, but with this connection to each other all over the country, when in actuality, in many cases we have never met in person, just communicated with through electronics, through the Internet and phone.

For years I’ve been yearning to go back to performance, some kind of performance, even though I'm approaching old lady-hood and my energy really isn’t there to audition, get an agent, and build up a portfolio, the way people do here in LA. But I have this voice. As a hippie girl I traveled around with a guitar and sang a lot of Joanie Mitchell songs, imitated Joan Baez, I have this gift of a soprano voice that goes about as high as a soprano can go, and sounds good doing it. I even used to do Mariah Carey type arias, but that part of my voice is long smoked and Jacked away.

I really joined this choir just for the fun, the spiritual release, of rehearsing on Wednesday nights, but now I'm going to have to face demons from whom I have run most of the last years. I have to go perform in the sanctuary of a church that I could not even enter without getting physically sick just two months ago.

Tomorrow at 11 AM

To read about how I trashed my performing career go to City of Angels 1 and read the chapters about Hollywood in the 1960s, I don't want to go there right now, that's why I posted it at City of Angels 1 two years ago. I don't ever want to think or write about it again.

Just going to sing, starting tomorrow at 11 AM.

And no I am not going to stop producing this blog. Just have to replace the camera.

Beating the pillow that night turned into hysterical laughter, laughing out loud in the dark of my room 4 AM. Because so far I have never been able to stand being in the sanctuary of this church, a huge Presbyterian Church in the middle of Hollywood. I sing with Hollywood Mass Choir now and we rehearse in their music room. But every time I’ve tried to attend a service in the sanctuary of Hollywood Presbyterian Church I’ve had to run out of the church, the architecture itself has triggers. For some reason this Presbyterian church almost looks like a Catholic cathedral, all that is missing are Confessionals along the sides.

Thank God there are no confessionals along the side.

That's where I’ll be singing 11:00 tomorrow morning, unless I'm outside puking.

Stay tuned.
Sorry, folks, I am still too sick to write and post a story, but I have things cooking up for the future - ke

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I have been sick, but I will be back. Also the camera broke, because of being out in the heat a week or so ago. So the goal now is to raise money to really do this right, like with a travel budget. Apply for grants. Stay tuned, there will be more to come shortly. - ke

Thursday, October 9, 2008

*
Below, click to enlarge, the foreward to Charles Bailey's book, In the Shadow of the Cross, reproduced with permission of the author. We are reading this book, for a story to come soon...



.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The heat comes in from the windows facing south, even though they are covered with thick heavy dark red curtains. I push up farther and father away from the windows, seal off all but one room, point every fan in the house towards me, and then stay just in that one spot in the room - day after day, October heatwave in LA.

Still the heat comes in further and earlier each day.

Nuclear blasted cells of poison air seeps in through cracks under the door. I wanted to see a while a go, is it cooling down? Opened the door. The skanky smell of concrete, gas, smoke, garbage, all the odors of the city cooks into the sidewalks and stucco walls and stays there all night. It stays in all night then as the new heat comes with morning, the molecules all generate up -- gazillions of recombining atoms, days' accumulation in the air,

Stays here for days, weeks, never washes away as rain is something we remember from last February or March.

Dust and dirt everywhere, leaves of trees, cracks in sidewalks, grime, everything covered with grime, you try not to touch anything as you walk to run a day's errands. A few hours after dark I venture out thinking it will be cooler, but it is not. A strange red haze hovers over all the streets and buildings, making the heat wave night look like an eerie kind of dark daytime.

Your first instinct is to stay inside, hide from the poison, but there is an allure of the hot night. Lights further up the boulevard shimmer in the never ending heat emanating from the streets.

LA. It's home to me. I watch it deteriorate and daydream about crystal clear lakes in Northern Territories. . . .

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Are these people on Long Island behaving scandalously?

*
Story to come
*

Signs like these below are too shocking for parishioners? I say where was their shock at priests raping children?





Actually, I take issue with the above sign, as nothing can murder my soul.

Monday, October 6, 2008

And in New Jersey Sunday October 5. . .

*
Pictures and comments from Robert Hoatson:

Today, in Mount Ephraim, New Jersey, approximately a dozen supporters of Paul Fanuka gathered to offer him support and leaflet Sacred Heart Parish where his abuser is pastor. Paul’s mom and dad, two brothers, and wife joined several others to get the word out that the continued presence of Fr. Robert Dunphy in that parish is unacceptable. The attached are some photos of the day’s events.

Unfortunately, no media showed up, but we are trying other ways to pique their interest.

Special thanks are extended to Chris Naples who went “public” two weeks ago regarding his abuser, and Barbara and Karen Polesir, veterans of the “leafleting movement,” for supporting Paul in his efforts to hold Dunphy accountable. The attached photos are courtesy of Karen Polesir’s camera.

In general, the parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish were as rude and un-compassionate as most of the Catholics we encounter. When several parishioners were told to meet Paul so he could tell them his story, they refused…TYPICAL!

A few months ago, Paul was found credible by the Diocese of Camden, but the Diocese has refused to remove Dunphy from ministry, violating the letter and spirit of the Dallas Charter.

Congratulations to Paul for his courage and perseverance. We are planning other events to get the word out about Dunphy.

.
.
.
............................Bob
........................Hoatson

.
.
Click photos to enlarge

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Spiritual Redirection and Reaching Out drive the founding of upcoming events in Wichita, Kansas, and in Encino and Carlsbad, California

*****
By Kay Ebeling


I went to bishop accountability to read the stories about each pedophile priest in the database, starting with A. So I opened Rubin Abaya and found "Milla v. Tamayo, 187 Cal.App.3d 1453," where the State dismissed a Los Angeles decision. Abaya was one of seven perpetrator priests. In this case, a teenage girl got gang banged several times by a group of priests in South LA. The LA archdiocese did not deny the crimes took place, but won their

appeal to dismiss the case, because the family sued the church more than a year after the baby that was fathered by one of the priests was born, and besides, it was not the parents who were raped, how were they hurt enough to sue? The men of god tried but could not persuade young very Catholic girl to get an abortion, so they sent her to the Philippines to have her baby in abandoned squalor, until a family member finally found out and brought her home with the baby, both malnourished. That is just the first story under the first entry under A in bishop accountability - and it is so shocking most people reading it would not be able to get past the fact that Catholic priests would gang bang a 14 year old girl.

In 2005 I started getting regular emails from SNAP with a collection of recent news stories, and I had to unsubscribe at the time, as I could not read stories of priests raping altar boys between Masses without getting physically sick, back then. Now I dive into Abuse Tracker every morning and nothing surprises me. I have to stop and think. This could not be good for my soul.

Two “veterans” of the clergy sex assault survivor movement are running events in the coming weeks that open doors for survivors who are ready to take steps in new directions. In Wichita October 10-11, Hope in the Heartland connects clergy sex abuse with survivors of other child sex crimes and other forms of abuse.

“The lines cross,” says conference founder Janet Patterson. “All of us can help each other and so many times where can people go that have been verbally or physically but not sexually abused.” It is not too late to register for Hope in the Heartland this week in Wichita. Write to Janet at snapkansas@hotmail.com .

“It could be that because of our experiences, as horrible as they are, we have something remarkable we can do to the other extreme,” says Jaime Romo, “First step is to get out of the damaged place and start rebuilding.” Romo is running one-day Healing Hearts workshops in Carlsbad October 18 and in Encino November 23rd, in part because after five years running a SNAP group in San Diego, he saw the number of attendees dwindling. For more about Jaime’s workshops and workbook write to him at jr@jaimeromo.com

Romo’s case was part of the 2007 San Diego settlements, and he says, “This is new for me. I have a long career as a teacher of teachers.” These first workshops are free of charge and participants will go through the first two chapters of a workbook Romo has in development.

I plan to use Jaime’s workshop to work on healing the damage I’ve accrued. For years I have been so angry at these entities that are so huge, so overwhelming, the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the entire American justice system from a city to national level, for cooperating with these thugs in gowns instead of seeing their way to the real truth enough to stop serious felony crimes being committed against children. I know I need some spiritual healing.

.
.
.
.
.
JAIME
ROMO

.
.
.
.
.
Romo said, “For a long time my anger was about wanting something back, as well as the things that had happened, a kind of mourning. I wanted to get back that comforting connection to what was familiar for a long time.”

Spirit and Hope in the Heartland

There is an element of spirit in the roots of Hope in the Heartland conference next week as well.
Organizer Janet Patterson told me how she found the location for the conference: “The Baha’ii faith believe in social justice. So here in Wichita when Baha’ii members found out what had happened to our family, they wanted me to speak to them, so I did speak at a Baha’ii event. Then they were so gracious and non judgmental, I asked them if we could hold a conference there. They said not only that but we'll give you the space free of charge.”

What Happened to Janet's Family?
Robert K. Larson molested Eric Patterson when he was a 12 year old altar boy, and at 29, after years of turmoil and hospitalizations and after finally telling people in his family what Larson did, Eric shot himself, committed suicide at age 29. Janet Patterson, grieving over her son, did enough research to find out that bishops knew Larson was a molester and just transferred him, and that this was the modus operandi for a pedophile network in the church. She became an advocate, and spoke to the bishops in Dallas in 2002.

This year is the third Hope in the Heartland conference, and some people, including City of Angels Network Staff of One, had to cancel travel plans, as a result of money disappearing from arenas across the country in late September early October 2008 in America.

I'm only working about 50 percent as much as usual. Last few weeks they've “pulled the plug” on a lot of TV production, even the skinflint budget reality shows on which I, first when the stock market crashed two weeks ago and now who knows what's going to happen.

A side trip about the PayPal campaign

Money to fund productions just dried up. So please click my PayPal button, not to send me on lavish trips to places like Wichita, but to help City of Angels pay the rent in November.

But I digress.

Janet Patterson is reaching out to Wichita area homeless organizations and women’s shelters, inviting them to the Hope in the Heartland conference, which I its third year is still relatively small, under 50 people.

The retreat center in Encino has paths laid out for walking meditation.

I can’t wait. At the retreat center in Encino where Romo’s workshop is in November they have spaces for walking meditation. I rediscovered walking meditation the other day in of all places, the LA Cathedral Plaza, before a SNAP press event was going to take place. I went exploring, and way in the back on the cathedral grounds,
as far away from the street as you can get, is a little landscaped area, large enough for about 10 small trees, and a pathway. It criss crosses and stops in front of statues of animals sculpted with pure whimsy. You can stop and contemplate one of these statues, or do what I did, bringing up from a deep memory from the days I used to spend in yoga ashrams in the 1970s.

You take one step, and stop, repeat a phrase, any phrase, then take another step, stop, repeat the phrase. Some people use the words Hari Om, or some people say Jesus save me, or you can even say God Bless Rock and Roll. The idea is to quiet the mind. On a meditation pathway, there are usually small stones, so you can take one small step then stop, say your mantra, then take one more step.

For a person in Los Angeles this is a challenge, as you always want to just take off across the lawn a straight line to the end, the quickest route. What you develop from this exercise is patience. You HAVE to stop, say god bless rock and roll or hari om or jesus save me, then take the next step and repeat.

About two-thirds of the way through a walking meditation, you start to appreciate the specialness of each moment - and laugh at people walking by in a frenzy as you slowly take your next step. Because in the end, we'll end up in the same place at about the same time anyway. This little meditation walk area on the LA Cathedral property appears to have been designed and maintained by Japanese zen masters posing as landscape workers. . . .

The meditation walks pictured above in this blog are on the grounds of the retreat center in Encino where Jaime Romo is holding his free workshop in November.

I’ll be there, unless I'm singing that Sunday with Hollywood Mass Choir.

Me, I'm going in November, unless we're singing that Sunday (I'm in Hollywood Mass Choir now).

I can’t wait to do these two questions from the workbook: “Which image that I have created or accepted of myself am I willing to let go of? Where did I get that image I have of myself?”

Those questions relate so much to me.

I know that as a result of being sexualized by a priest at such a young age, my image of myself was “party girl”: Fast, cheap, easy, which led to heavy drinking, loud swearing tough woman.

Truth is

That's not me, that's not who I see today.

I'm really this bookish, quiet woman with thick lens glasses who produces a lot more from her head than her body. I mourn today, the decades of my life I lost to pursuing the party animal identity when it wasn’t even real.

It wasn’t even really me.

I have plenty to write in Jaime Romo’s workbook when I get it.

City of Angels will try to run photos and a story through phone interviews with people at Hope in the Heartland next Saturday, so while they are partying in Wichita, we will be here being studious and bookish working with the words and pictures in LA.

Onward...

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Church Objection to Transfer of Personnel Files (on behalf of 31 priests) says: No one agreed to release of private papers belonging to the Pope

*****

Objection brief by church attorneys is copy and pasted here at City of Angels Network below. List of 31 priests is just before "Conclusion."

Quotable quotes: “These priests are presumptive child molesters. Not a single one of the objecting individuals consented to a process where a retired judge reviewed their files. The relationship between a Roman Catholic priest and his employer, the Archdiocese in this case, is a uniquely close, all-encompassing one, in which the employer is also the direct spiritual superior of the employee, and between them there can be no secrets.”

So is the relationship spritual or business, or are the crimes of pedophile priests part of whichever relationship is convenient for the Los Angeles Archdiocese at the moment. Apparently Cardinal Roger Mahony knows everything these priests did, and he knew it from the time they committed the crimes. Why the US Attorney or local DA does not cease these documents, I do not understand. More quotable quotes:

“Two important interests that will be seriously damaged or destroyed by the process of forwarding their files for public disclosure after the cases have been dismissed: their Constitutionally protected privacy rights will be violated, and their reputations will be harmed.”

“While the plaintiffs pursued monetary damages, these (31) individuals had no interest in the outcome of that litigation. (Then) settlement documents sought to reach farther than monetary damages. "The cases have been dismissed," and the proposed process "threatens public disclosure of employee records.”

“Hearing-Oral Arguments” on this and similar filings, October 8th in Dept. 308, the Superior Court on South Commonwealth Ave. Here is the objection in full filed by Donald Steier, who has testified in Supreme Court of CA that he is paid by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

OBJECTION TO PROPOSED TRANSFER AND RELEASE OF EMPLOYEE RECORDS AND ASSERTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS TO ALL PARTIES AND THEIR RESPECTIVE ATTORNEYS OF RECORD:

The individuals listed below, none of whom are parties to the settlement and release executed between Plaintiffs and Defendants in these coordinated actions, by and through their attorney Donald H. Steier, appearing specially, hereby OBJECT to the proposed transfer of their personnel files and employee records to Justice Panelli or any other judicial officer or referee for the purpose of eventual public disclosure of any part of the contents.

This objection is made on the following grounds:

1. THESE OBJECTING NON-PARTIES ARE “INDISPENSABLE PARTIES” WHO ARE NOT SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THIS COURT.

In this historic litigation, the Plaintiffs pursued monetary damages from various religious institutions that employed individuals as clergy. With few exceptions, the individual alleged tort feasors were never parties to the litigation, but were referred to as non-party “Perpetrators.”1 All of the persons objecting herein were alleged perpetrators in the litigation.

While the plaintiffs pursued monetary damages, these individuals had no interest in the outcome of the litigation. However, the settlement documents sought to reach farther than monetary damages. Although the plaintiffs have accepted monetary payment and the cases have been dismissed, the plaintiffs and religious entities-defendant agreed to create a process that threatens public disclosure of the employee records of the objecting individuals herein, as well as other non-party priests.

The plaintiffs have contended they must disclose the contents of these private files to notify the public that these priests are presumptive child molesters. Not a single one of the objecting individuals consented to a process conferring jurisdiction to permit a retired judge to review their files. All employees enjoy legally protected rights in the contents of their personnel records.

*****************
"Now, after all the cases have been dismissed, the plaintiffs seek to exact vigilante justice...
***********************


While a corporate employer may not have a right of privacy from the California Constitution, Article I, Section 1, the individual employee does enjoy such a right as to the entire contents of his employee files. “[I]t is clear . . . personnel records and employment history are within the scope of the [privacy] protection provided by the state and federal Constitutions.”

San Diego Trolley, Inc. v. Superior Court [2001]
87 Cal. App.4th 1083, at 1097; Board of Trustees of Stanford University v. Superior Court
[1981] 119 Cal. App.3rd 516; Harding Lawson Associates v. Superior Court [1992] 10 Cal. App.4th 7; El Dorado Savings & Loan Assn. v. Superior Court [1987] 190 Cal.App.3d 342.

In many of these cases, the personnel files contain records pertaining to psychotherapy obtained by the employees, as well as ecclesiastical disciplinary information, medical records, financial information, and other extremely private and even intimate information concerning the employee, and sometimes, other third persons who are not parties to this litigation. The relationship between a Roman Catholic priest and his employer, the Archdiocese in this case, is a uniquely close, all-encompassing one, in which the employer is also the direct spiritual superior of the employee, and between them there can be no secrets.

Disclosure of the information contained in these confidential employee files will clearly violate the Constitutional privacy rights of these objecting individuals. In Susan S. v. Israels [1997] 55 Cal. App.4th 1290, the court held that the unauthorized “reading and dissemination” of private files obtained by court process was a “serious invasion of the person's privacy.” And it was found to be actionable.

*************
"Simply put, the Panelli process part of the settlement agreement was made by parties who had no right."
*********************


California adheres to the “primary rights” principles to define causes of action. One of those primary rights is the right to freedom of injury to reputation. Burdette v. Carrier Corp. [2008] --- Cal. App.4th ___, WL 152706; 4 Witkin, Cal.Procedure, Pleading § 23. The clear goal of the plaintiffs in attempting to finesse a post-settlement disclosure of the personnel records of these objecting non-parties is to further destroy their reputations.

Thus, these objecting individuals have two important interests that will be seriously damaged or destroyed by the process of forwarding their files for public disclosure after the cases have been dismissed: their Constitutionally protected privacy rights will be violated, and their reputations will be harmed.

In contrast to these damages, the settling entity-defendants, as custodian of records, have no rights at risk in the process – the contents of the files relate only to the individual priest-employees, and only those priests will have their privacy rights invaded and personal reputations damaged. The Archbishop, as employer and custodian of these confidential records belonging to the priest-employees, has an affirmative legal duty, in fact – to defend the contents of these files from disclosure.
People v. Superior
Court [Laff] [2001] 25 Cal.4th
703 Code of Civil Procedure § 389

provides that a person is “indispensable” to litigation when that person “claims an interest relating to the subject of the action and is so situated that the disposition of the action in his absence may . . . as a practical matter impair or impede his ability to protect that interest.”

The disposition of this action by the process of exposing these individual objectors to disclosure of their confidential personnel records will definitely “impede or impair” their privacy and reputational interests. Failure to join indispensable parties so that they may defend their interests violates the Due Process of those persons.
Shields v. Barrow [1854] 58 U.S. 129;
Fletcher Aircraft Co. v. Bond [1977, D.C. Cal.] 77 F.R.D. 47.

But plaintiffs cannot now join them, because the applicable statute of limitations has lapsed as to all of these individuals.

Code of Civil Procedure § 340.1;
Sierra Club, Inc. v. California Coastal Commission [1979]
95 Cal. App.3rd 495.

With regard to those individuals not included in this objection, but similarly situated, the court has an independent duty to raise the issue of an absent indispensable party sua sponte.
Francis v. United Technologies Corp. [1978]
458 Fed. Supp. 84.

************
No one “agreed to settle a dispute by releasing private papers belonging to the Pope.”
*************************


Plaintiffs have attempted to manipulate this court into being their unwitting instrument for violating the important rights of the non-party employees, but their stratagem is clearly prohibited by statute and important Constitutional principles. Inasmuch as all of the cases at issue have been dismissed, the court is without jurisdiction over the priest-employees whose private files and reputations are at risk, and in their absence may not enter an order that might have the effect of jeopardizing the rights of these objecting and “indispensable” individuals.

2. DUE PROCESS PROHIBITS THE COURT FROM MAKING ORDERS AFFECTING THE INTERESTS OF PERSONS NOT UNDER ITS JURISDICTION.

Closely akin to the concept of “indispensable parties” is the more fundamental protection of Due Process, part of Anglo-American jurisprudence since the Magna Carta.

A court cannot adjudicate directly upon a person's rights without such person being either actually or constructively before the court.
Hanson v. Denckla [1958] 357
U.S. 235; Mallow v. Hinde [1827] 1 Ohio Fed. Dec. 150.

A judgment cannot be amended to affect the rights of a person not under the court’s jurisdiction.
Boyer v. Jensen [2005] 129 Cal. App.4th 62.

As noted above, it is clear that none of these objecting priest-employees is, or can be, under the jurisdiction of this court. For the court to make an order that will affect their rights would be the most basic violation of the Due Process Clauses of the United States and California Constitutions.

3. THE PLAINTIFFS AND ENTITY-DEFENDANTS HAD NO RIGHT TO ENTER INTO A SETTLEMENT THAT SACRIFICES THE LEGALLY PROTECTED RIGHTS OF OTHERS

Another way in which the proposed Panelli process provisions of the release agreements violates basic principles of law is that it does not involve a ripe “case or controversy” between adverse parties.

It would be no different if one of these objecting non-parties agreed to settle a dispute by releasing private papers belonging to the Pope – they would have no right to do so. Neither did the Archbishop have a right to satisfy the plaintiffs by agreeing to public disclosure of the confidential employee files protected by the Right of Privacy of these priest-employees.

The recent case of O'Grady v. Superior Court [2006] 139 Cal. App.4th 1423 discussed these important principles. “The doctrine arises from several considerations. The requirement of a genuine controversy reflects the desirability of avoiding not only collusive litigation, but cases in which one or both parties lack a real motive to diligently contest the issues. If the competing considerations are not adequately explored and presented, the court may reach a less-than-circumspect result, potentially sending the law down a wrong precedential trail.”

In People ex rel. Lynch v. Superior Court [1970] 1 Cal.3rd 910, the Attorney General filed suit to declare rights under a prejudgment garnishment act – but the suit failed to include as a party anyone who actually was subject to such garnishment. The Supreme Court characterized the matter as an effort to obtain an “advisory opinion,” in violation of the ripeness doctrine.

That rule was followed recently in Phelps v. State Water Resources Control Bd. [2007] 157 Cal. App.4th 89. Similarly here, there is no party who agreed to the proposed Panelli process whose rights are actually affected by it – and thus, the matter is not “ripe” and suitable for this court to enforce.

*************
"The Archbishop (Mahony) threw in disclosure of these confidential personnel records to satisfy plaintiffs’ demands"
***************************


In this case, the Archbishop, having neither privacy nor reputational rights at stake, lacks the motive to protect those rights.2 “Throwing in” the disclosure of these confidential personnel records to satisfy plaintiffs’ demands has no cost to the settling entity, but it means everything to the individuals whose rights actually will be violated.

Simply put, the Panelli process part of the settlement agreement was made by parties who had no right to agree to any disposition that destroyed the privacy rights and reputations of these non-party objecting individuals. In Constitutional terms, it could be said to be a collusive settlement or a matter that is not ripe – but in any event, it cannot be permitted.

Indeed, the plaintiffs and the Archdiocese “have priors” in this regard. In December, 2004, in connection with this same litigation, plaintiffs and the Archdiocese agreed among themselves to disclose publicly mediation “proffers” derived from the contents of many of the same personnel files at issue here.

The appellate opinion of Doe 1 v. Superior Court [2005] 157 Cal. App.4th 89 prevented them from violating the rights of the priest-employees because the priests had not agreed to the process.

4. THE CONTENTS OF THE FILES ARE PROTECTED FROM DISCLOSURE BY THE RIGHTS OF PRIVACY AND OTHER PARTICULAR PRIVILEGES.

The objecting non-party individuals further hereby assert the following

Constitutional Rights and Constitutional and statutory privileges concerning the contents of the files, and thereby object to their disclosure:

Right of Privacy established in California Constitution, Article I, Section 1,
Therapist-Patient Privilege [Evidence Code 1010 et seq.]

Right to be Free of Unreasonable Searches and Seizures as provided in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution Privilege Against Self-Incrimination as provided in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Attorney-Client Privilege [Evidence Code 950 et seq.]

Work Product Privilege [Code of Civil Procedure 2018]

Priest-Penitent Privilege [Evidence Code 1030 et seq.]

Sexual Assault Victim-Counselor Privilege [Evidence Code 1035 et seq.]

Right to Free Exercise of Religion as established by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Physician-Patient Privilege [Evidence Code 990 et seq.] California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act [Civil Code 56.20]

Settlement Privilege [Evidence Code 1152]

Mediation Privilege [California Constitution, Article I, Section 1, and Evidence Code 1115 et seq.].

These individuals reserve the right to assert additional privileges in the event that they discover that the contents of their files include documents protected by such other privileges.

The foregoing objections are made on behalf of the following individuals:

MICHAEL BAKER
FRANKLIN BUCKMAN
MICHAEL CARROLL
LYNN CAFFOE
SEAN CRONIN
JOHN DAWSON
EDWARD DOBER
DONALD FARMER
WALTER FERNANDO
DAVID GRANADINO
RODERIC GUERRINI
BRIAN HANLEY
RICHARD HENRY
STEPHEN HERNANDEZ
PAUL KREUTZER
RICHARD LOOMIS
RICHARD MARTINI
GEORGE MILLER
DONAL O’CONNOR
SAMUEL ORELLANA
MICHAEL PECHARICH
JOSEPH PINA
DONALD ROEMER
MICHAEL ROBERT
GEORGE RUCKER
MANUEL SANCHEZ
CARL SUTPHIN
MICHAEL TERRA
FRANCISCO VITELLA
MICHAEL WEMPE
G. PATRICK ZIEMANN


CONCLUSION

************
The plaintiffs and entity-defendants have agreed between themselves...
******************************


The plaintiffs and entity-defendants have agreed between themselves to refer these individuals’ employee records to Justice Panelli for possible disclosure of their contents to the public. The plaintiffs, having signed releases in which liability by the alleged perpetrators is expressly denied, now, after all the cases have been dismissed, the plaintiffs seek to exact vigilante justice with the court’s help, and publicly brand all of the priests with infamy without the Benefit of any trials.

No matter what the reason or purpose for such a process, it cannot be undertaken without impairing and prejudicing – destroying, in fact – the legal rights these objecting individuals have in their own employee records.

Since all of the cases involving the objecting individuals have now been dismissed, and none of these individuals stipulated to confer jurisdiction for the proposed Panelli process, this court should not permit the transfer of files for any objecting person whose rights will be impacted by the relief sought by the plaintiffs.

January 2008 Respectfully submitted,

GUZIN & STEIER
DONALD H. STEIER
Attorney for Non-Party Objectors

DONALD H. STEIER [SBN 58391]
GUZIN & STEIER
4525 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD
SUITE 201
LOS ANGELES, CA 90010
[323] 932-1600 / Fax [323] 932-1873

Special Appearance by Attorney for Non-Parties Whose Interests Will Be Impaired
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
COORDINATED PROCEEDING
SPECIAL TITLE [Rule 1550 (b)]

The Clergy Cases
JUDICIAL COUNCIL COORDINATION
PROCEEDING NOS. 4286

Trial Coordinating Judge:
Hon. Emily Elias
Department 308 [CCW]
CALL: Target Crimes, LA DA's Office, to report sex crimes in the Catholic Church: Phone: (213) 974-5985

City of Angels Lady