A trusted Australian source told LifeSiteNews today that Cardinal
Pell’s appeal is already underway. The source called the ruling a
"terrible injustice" that revealed the jury's "outrageous bias," adding
that there was "total astonishment" in the court at the jury's decision.
The source said that the jury came to its decision despite the
prosecution having only one witness and no other evidence.
The cardinal has always maintained that he is innocent of any
incident of sexual abuse. His friend George Weigel, who has known the
cardinal for fifty years, has compared the case to the Salem witch
trials.
Weigel wrote last June
that the charges against Pell were no surprise to “those familiar with
the fantastic campaign of false allegations of sexual abuse conducted
against the cardinal.”
Pell was subjected to such claims in 2002 and stepped aside as
Archbishop of Melbourne during an inquiry into the matter. After
examining the case, retired Supreme Court judge Alec Southwell cleared Pell.
Press title for article in which I think Church Militant has disobeyed Australian Law--are they obliged to follow it as the Vatican as chosen to do so?????? It's crickets every where else in Catholic blogdom and Catholic news! Peculiar, no?
Cardinal Pell Found Guilty on All Counts of Sex Abuse
Jury returns guilty verdict after three days of deliberation
Why we are unable to report on a case that has generated huge interest online
A very high-profile figure was convicted on Tuesday of a serious crime, but we are unable to report their identity due to a suppression order.
The person, whose case has attracted significant media attention, was convicted on the second attempt, after the jury in an earlier trial was unable to reach a verdict. They will be remanded when they return to court in February for sentencing.
A suppression order issued by the Victorian County Court, which applies in all Australian states and territories, has prevented any publication of the details of the case including the person's name or the charges. It was imposed after the court accepted that knowledge of the person's identity in the first trial might prejudice a further trial being held in March.
And this is from the National Chismatic Reporter (NCR). Seems like Church Militant is more forthcoming in their reporting!
If the Church is in schism (and it has been for a while now) the two ultra schismatic sects represented by the National Catholic Reporter and Church Militant is a case in study.
The NCR has been at its version of schism for a long time and as I have written before, I think its publication going back to the 1960's and widely read by almost everyone in the clergy and religious life, has contributed to the homosexual abuse of minors in the Church by encouraging progressive thinking Catholics to act on their whims especially at reimagining sexual teachings in the Church.
You can read the full NCR article about their evil twin by pressing the title below:
The chapel altar at Church Militant's offices (Peter Feuerherd)
Ferndale, Michigan — At
the door of the studios of Church Militant in this Detroit suburb,
visitors face a picture of Michael the Archangel putting the sword to
demonic hordes.
Previously a dispenser of catechetical videos, Church
Militant has been transformed into a prime player in the Catholic
culture wars by president and founder Michael Voris.
Voris, 57, rejects what he calls "the church of nice," a Catholic
belief in deference to church hierarchy and a willingness to incorporate
those who sometimes fall short of its teachings, particularly regarding
sexual morality.
Claiming three million supporters, Church Militant, with a full-time
staff of 34, sends out via the internet for $10 a month per premium
subscriber a daily newscast, panel discussion, and various other
commentaries, seeking a vision of the church in line with what Voris
describes as Catholic "orthodoxy." A visitor who uses the labels
conservative or traditional is quickly corrected....
This group of CSJ's are not the same province that taught me, which was St. Louis. Oddly enough, this news story prompted me to look at the St. Louis Province webpage and I discovered a nun who was very kind to the children and me at St. Anthony's School in the west end of Atlanta died this past June. She epitomized to us elementary school students in the late 1950's what a Sister truly was. We had some mean sisters there too (to include my sickly first grade teacher). But Sr. Loretta was a real gem of a Sister!
STATEMENT REGARDING FINANCIAL MISCONDUCT BY SISTERS
updated December 10, 2018
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet confirm that we have been
notified that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has filed a criminal
complaint with the Torrance, California Police Department against
Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang for misappropriation of
funds. As a religious community, we will not defend the actions of our
Sisters. What happened is wrong. Our Sisters take full responsibility
for the choices they made and are subject to the law.
The Sisters of St. Joseph are committed to work with the Archdiocese
to discover the amount taken. We are unable to confirm any sum until the
discovery phase is completed. We intend to make restitution to St.
James School as soon as a total is known. Justice demands this of us.
Canonical Restrictions have been imposed. The two Sisters are removed
from their residence and placed in a religious house under the
supervision of community leadership. They are also removed from all
public ministry.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet are concerned and saddened by
this situation and regret any pain this has caused many in our Church,
especially the families connected to St. James School. We hold the
sorrow of our Sisters’ actions deep in our community hearts.
Sister Loretta Costa
(Sister Loretta Joseph)
September 28, 1923 - June 10, 2018
“Loving, thoughtful … a faithful friend” --Sister Rita Moriarty “I have known Loretta since I was a child. She was the epitome of
love. She always made me feel like I was perfect! Loretta was beautiful
... deep down to her soul.”
—Sister Anna Kerns
Lawrence and Loretta (Callahan) Costa of Athens, Georgia, welcomed
their first child, Mary Elizabeth, on September 28, 1923. She remembers
her time growing up with younger siblings, Theresa, Fran and Jerry as
being happy. Her education began at a private school, but she was
enrolled in public school for a year when her family lost their
business. Seventh grade through her sophomore year of school, she
attended a boarding school run by the Sisters of Mercy. Not quite 16,
she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph on September 18, 1939, receiving
the habit and the name Sister Loretta Joseph on March 19, 1940. She
graduated from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota
(1961), with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. A master’s degree in
sociology was earned at St. Louis University (1970.)
Sister Loretta began teaching in Georgia elementary schools: Sacred
Heart, Savannah (1942); St. Francis Xavier, Brunswick (1949-50, 1956-57,
1960-66); St. John the Evangelist, Valdosta (1950); Sacred Heart,
Milledgeville (1954); St. Anthony, Atlanta (1957); and St. Mary on the
Hill, Augusta (1966). Next was Holy Cross in Champaign, Illinois, as
principal and teacher (1967), then principal at St. Luke the Evangelist
in St. Louis (1975).
Sister Loretta served in leadership of the Sisters of St. Joseph as
regional superior and provincial councilor (1977-1984). Following this,
Sister Loretta returned to Georgia to be the purchasing agent/dietitian
at the Village of St. Joseph in Atlanta. Sister Loretta spent sabbatical
time at Mount St. Joseph College in St. Joseph, Ohio (1987). She was
then a geriatric care administrator, first at St. Thomas Personal Care
Home in East Point, Georgia (1988), followed by St. Teresa Manor in
Riverdale (1989).
Sister Loretta was development coordinator for the Atlanta
Archdiocesan School Office (1990), and afterward, regional development
director for Southern Regional Development in Decatur (1993). In 1998,
Sister Loretta volunteered as a reader for the blind at Georgia Radio
Reading Service, Inc. in Atlanta until she retired in 2006. In 2013, she
moved to St. Louis to carry out her ministry of prayer and witness,
residing at Nazareth Living Center until she moved to Laclede Groves
Senior Living (2017).
Flannery O’Connor, a great American storyteller, took piano lessons
from Sister Loretta who, over the years of their friendship, also edited
several of Flannery's books.
Associate Allen J. Grieve remembers Sister Loretta as “so loving, and
so devoted to inspiring others, lifting their spirits, and
strengthening their faith.” During his recovery from an accident, Sister
Loretta sent him over 120 cards! “And she got her money's worth ...
there was no blank space on any card ... but lots of encouragement,
prayers, suggestions, and a tremendous amount of love ..."
When Sister Charleen Bloom arrived at the University of Illinois
"knowing no one,” S. Loretta, superior/principal at Holy Cross, “reached
out to the Albany CSJ on campus” changing her life as a “student,
religious, and person ..." Sister Loretta’s “warmth, hospitality,
thoughtfulness, generosity and humor enriched and enlivened” her study
time—and the 51 years since.
Fourth grader Sister Laura Anna Grady met Sister Loretta in Savannah,
Georgia. She recalls that the whole parish “loved her beautiful smile
and cheerful greeting.”
Theologically I am in total agreement with him that the Christian New Testament speaks of a preferential option for the poor, a radical call to abolish violence, and a moral duty to protect children. From the moment he assumed the pontificate, Francis has appeared to be a shining example of humility, hospitality, and hope.
So, it is with consternation that I listened to his latest comments regarding homosexuality in the clergy. During an interview given to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the Pope said it is a “serious matter” that “worries” him. Francis described homosexuality as "fashionable", and urged clergy to observe their vow of celibacy, going on to say that the Church had to be "demanding" in choosing candidates for the priesthood. And those responsible for training priests must make sure candidates are "humanly and emotionally mature" before they are ordained. "For this reason, the Church urges that persons with this rooted tendency not be accepted into ministry or consecrated life."
Heavy words from the leader of 1.2 billion followers worldwide.
To be blunt: I say keep everyone out of the priesthood. Let’s not stop with homosexuals. I say institute a universal ban on religious authority all together. If you, Pope Francis, are as humble and service minded as you present, do something to show the world that you are a true equal. Forfeit your cloak. Step down from your position of eminence and be with the people as one of them. There is nothing about being a Pope that makes you more or less enabled to serve the poor, stand up for children, and stop war. So why be one? What is being a Pope about if not claiming superiority over others? What is being a priest about if not categorizing people by gradations of worthiness?
Pope Francis, don’t stop with homosexuals, keep going until you have banned all people from the priesthood. If you do that, the Church may be saved yet.
(George Cassidy Payne is an independent writer, social justice activist, and domestic violence counselor. He is a CityWatch contributor.)
UPDATED, UPDATED, UPDATED! GO TO THE BOTTOM AND SEE HOW YAHOO NEWS, UK, DEPICTS THE NUNS!
When I was taught by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Corondelet based in St. Louis, in the late 50's and early 60's, this is what they looked like. I think they had two or three habits at the most and that was it as this was before they reimagined the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience:
But this is how they look now and "renewal" has brought new ministries and maybe even prison ministry! Press title for full story:
Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper (left) and Sister Lana Chang admitted to embezzling about US$500,000, and using the funds over the years for travel and gambling in Las Vegas. (Credit: Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet.)
LOS ANGELES, California - Two nuns who worked for decades at a Catholic school in California embezzled a “substantial” amount of money from tuition and other funds and used it to pay for gambling trips to Las Vegas, church officials said Monday.
The embezzlement from Saint James Catholic School in Torrance appears to have gone on for as long as 10 years, Archdiocese of Los Angeles media relations director Adrian Alarcon said.
During that time Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper was the school’s principal and Sister Lana Chang taught eighth grade students. Both retired earlier this year. Neither has been charged with a crime.
The amount taken from tuition payments and other funds is still being tabulated, Alarcon said, adding she couldn’t confirm some reports that it was as much as $500,000.
My comment and question: I was just listening to Gus Lloyd's, Seize the Day program and he was having a call-in discussion about this same topic and if the two Sisters should be charged, put on trial and do prison time. There is some talk that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles may not press charges, but that is up in the air. Given all the news about priests who abused minors and were given a pass when clearly they broke the law, should the Church just turn these crimes, all of them, over to the authorities and let civil trials decide their fate???????????
And Yahoo News, UK uses this picture for the same story. I wonder if the nuns depicted in this picture can sue Yahoo UK for using their photo as the nuns who are accused in the US?????????????????? John Nolan should know!
Two nuns have admitted embezzling funds from their school (File photo: PA)
Is this an attempt at the press trying to be fair and balanced?
Catholicism is such an easy target for exclusive reporting about sexual abuse because we keep SECRET ARCHIVES which in fact are what everyone else calls confidential personnel records. These are confidential because of civil late btw.
Congregationalism does not keep global personnel records. They fire their ministers and if they get a new ministerial job elsewhere, who cares!
The shuffle
Pastors abused children, then found refuge at other churches
How a network of independent fundamental Baptists covered up crimes and relocated offenders
BY SARAH SMITH
NEIL NAKAHODO McClatchy
FRANK BELLINO The Press-Enterprise
A scandal of abuse and coverups at Faith Baptist Church in Wildomar, California, exploded into public view this year as four women accused its pastor, Bruce Goddard, of downplaying abuse allegations and shipping alleged abusers out of his church.
Malo Victor Monteiro pleaded guilty to molesting two girls in his youth group in California. A third woman’s allegations were past the statute of limitations.
ROB HART Special to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Rachel Peach was molested by her youth pastor when she was a teenager at her California church. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 13, 2018.
April Heck Avila and her husband, Aurelio. Avila says she was molested.
Faith Baptist Church’s school in Wildomar, California, had been intimately involved with a 17-year-old student.
He rented the 35-year-old principal a U-Haul and shipped him out of state. He did not call the police.
The accused wound up at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, a church affiliated with Goddard’s alma mater, working again with teenagers. The abused girl was later told that church officials in Indiana were aware of his involvement with her when he arrived.
An eight-month investigation by the Star-Telegram shows that what happened at Faith Baptist is just one example in a nationwide pattern of cover-ups and shuffling of suspected abusers among churches and universities that, like Faith Baptist, are part of the independent fundamental Baptist movement.
The cover-ups are reminiscent of the scandals of the Roman Catholic Church, but distinctly different.
Decisions in the Catholic Church are made within a hierarchical structure that governs all churches. Independent fundamental Baptist churches operate with no oversight or structure outside their own walls.
One thing does bind the churches that face abuse accusations: a culture that uses fear to control and gives men in power the role of unquestioned and ultimate authority. In that environment, abuse has visited scores of fundamental Baptist churches.
And many abusers have escaped consequence-free, often with the help of the pastor in charge.
“A lot of times, it’s phone calls and meetings, because I mean, generally speaking, these type of pressures are not memorialized in writing, OK?” said David Gibbs III, a Florida attorney who represents victims of church abuse. “So we’re not talking like, here’s the text, here’s the email, here’s the letter: ‘Dear abuse victim and your parents, don’t go to the police.’ So there’s a lot of quiet pressure.”
Interviews and documents obtained by the Star-Telegram show three main tactics used by the church to transition abusers to new jobs and hide their actions:
• Pastors ship suspected abusers to other churches or church-affiliated schools led by one of their friends from Bible college or the speaking circuit. Both have full knowledge of what happened, according to former members and pastors familiar with the movement.
• Pastors recommend a suspected abuser for a new job without informing the church or school about the allegations. In a culture where well-known pastors are elevated to near-godlike status, their recommendations are weighty.
• In other cases, pastors pressure victims to keep quiet, telling them they’ll ruin the alleged abuser’s ministry or the pastors simply don’t believe the accusations. They can also bring in a law firm that specializes in the independent fundamental Baptist movement. Victims told the Star-Telegram that lawyers, working on behalf of the church, have tried to intimidate them into silence.
Even if criminal charges are brought against a church leader, he might be allowed to continue in ministry. Facing charges that he had sex with a 14-year-old, a pastor left his Indiana church for Miami, where he told his new congregation that the girl was “promiscuous.” Though he pleaded guilty to felony stalking in 2009, he didn’t leave the church until 2014. He maintains his innocence.
He’s one of nearly four dozen men who were allowed to continue in their ministry after facing sexual abuse allegations — and even convictions, the Star-Telegram found.
“It’s a little bit trippy, looking at the independent Baptist world I grew up in and thinking, ‘We’ve always heard bashing on the Catholics for their system of religion, for the way they shuffle around perverts,’” said Pat Cook, who unknowingly started a church in 2013 with a suspected abuser, on the recommendation of his pastor.
“Unfortunately, we’ve definitely seen it in the independent Baptist world.”
‘THERE’S A SITUATION’
Faith Baptist in California stands at the epicenter for how churches in the movement handle sexual abuse cases.
One man can connect decades of allegations and several troubling cases against the staff there: Pastor Bruce Goddard.
In 1992, Goddard called 17-year-old Kathy Durbin into his office to ask about her involvement with Laverne Paul Fox, the principal of the church’s affiliated school.
Fox had been having sex with Durbin, who was also a member of his church youth group, since Durbin was 15. She was disturbed and confused by the encounters but had kept them a secret.
Goddard asked whether they’d touched. Yes, Dur-bin said. Then, he asked if they kissed.
“I said, ‘Oh yes.’ I wanted him to know,” she said, “I said it dramatically, so he’d know there was more to it.”
Later, she said, Goddard asked whether she could be pregnant. She said no, she didn’t think so.
Tim Heck, a longtime deacon at the church, soon got a call from Goddard. Heck had never heard his pastor speak with such fear in his voice. He told Heck, who worked for the U.S. Border Patrol at the time, to bring his gun and badge and meet him at his car.
“He says, ‘Look, there’s a situation with our administrator Paul Fox,’” Heck said.
Goddard told him that Fox had been caught in his car making out with one of the teenage girls, and the girl’s father was threatening to kill Fox. Goddard was going to try to calm down the father, he told Heck, and would point out the presence of a law enforcement officer if things got heated. (Durbin later said Goddard made up the whole story about her dad.)
Goddard did not respond to email, mail or phone calls from the Star-Telegram.
Goddard stationed Heck down the street from Durbin’s house as he went to speak to her and her parents. He hopped back in the car 20 minutes later, Heck said.
As far as Heck knew, the two had just kissed. Goddard asked Heck whether he thought a district attorney would prosecute the case. Heck, thinking back to a recent case he’d worked on the job, said it was unlikely based on that case.
“He says, ‘I’m telling Paul Fox, I’m going to rent him a U-Haul and tell him to leave the state,’” Heck recalled.
Heck said he trusted his pastor and did not question the details. Within two days, Fox was gone.
By the next year, Fox was at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, which is affiliated with Hyles-Anderson College, Goddard’s alma mater. Durbin said Goddard told her that he had called Jack Hyles — pastor of First Baptist Church and the head of Hyles-Anderson College — and told him that Fox had been involved with her.
The church did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Hyles-Anderson College. Jack Hyles died in 2001. Fox also did not respond to requests for comment.
When Durbin graduated high school she, like many students from Faith Baptist at the time, went to Hyles-Anderson College. When she got there, she saw Fox working with the church’s teen department.
Meanwhile, she was forced to attend counseling and write an apology to Fox’s wife. The suggestion came from the wife of a pastor at the church. He is now in federal prison for sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl.
Heck didn’t find out what really happened with Durbin and Fox for many years.
“It really bothers me looking back that I was used that way,” he said. “I didn’t know any of the facts.”
The way Goddard handled the case — downplaying allegations to church leaders and sending the alleged abuser out of state — would empower another youth pastor at First Baptist to molest three girls.
One of that man’s first victims would be the daughter of an adamant supporter of the church: Tim Heck.
‘TRUST HOW I HANDLE THIS’
In November 2017, April Heck Avila finally told her parents about Malo Victor Monteiro, her youth pastor.
Twenty-five years after Goddard had first called Tim Heck about the Fox case, Avila detailed how Monteiro had kissed her for the first time in his office when she was in high school back in the early 2000s, and things progressed to fondling and oral sex while she was still underage.
Monteiro had left Faith Baptist in 2013 after Goddard heard complaints that Monteiro, who was married, was having an inappropriate relationship with a college student. Monteiro was now co-pastoring a church in Menifee, California.
Last year, Heck found himself approaching Bruce Goddard about allegations involving his daughter. Heck wanted to make sure to tell his pastor that Monteiro should not be allowed to work in the ministry.
He was also worried that the family didn’t have enough evidence, so he asked Goddard to not call the police just yet. They didn’t speak of it again for months — until Heck mentioned a lawyer.
Avila, now 32, had in late May called an attorney known by the church for his defense of abuse victims, David Gibbs III.
On Memorial Day 2018, Heck and his wife, Jackie, got a call from Goddard asking if he could come over. When the pastor arrived, he was sobbing. He said he felt awful.
The Hecks asked him one favor: Don’t tell Monteiro, because it would jeopardize any investigation.
Two days later, Goddard asked to come over again after Bible study. This time, he wasn’t crying.
“He started telling us about the evils of attorneys, especially this attorney, that his goal was to destroy IFB churches and pastors and attack the cause of Christ,” Tim Heck said.
Goddard then let slip that he’d met with Monteiro the day before and told him about April’s allegations against him — exactly what the Hecks had asked him not to do.
At the end of the meeting, according to the Hecks, Goddard said, “I would think after 32 years of being your friend, your pastor, working together, that you would trust my lead and follow me and trust how I handle this.”
Jackie Heck stared Goddard down.
“No,” she said. “We’re 100 percent behind our daughter. Period.”
To the Hecks, it felt like Goddard was only concerned about the church’s reputation. On June 1, Goddard sent an email to staff to let them know that someone had made allegations against Monteiro. He downplayed the allegations.
Goddard’s email, which Heck shared with the Star-Telegram, infuriated him.
“They appear to be over a decade old and not involving sex but inappropriate enough to involve an attorney,” Goddard wrote. “I would ask that you refer all questions to me. If I am not around, you are welcome to give out my cell number. You are not required to talk about these matters, even to law enforcement.”
Over the summer, Heck and his family quit the church. April Heck Avila spoke to the police in California, but the statute of limitations on her case had run out.
THE FIXERS
The Christian Law Association has been involved in at least a dozen cases of alleged church abuse, according to court documents and interviews. David Gibbs Jr. started the association in 1969 and became close with Jack Hyles, the iconic pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana.
Advice from the association has run counter to mandatory reporting laws in many states that require people in positions of authority — such as teachers or members of clergy — to immediately report any suspicion of child abuse.
In a 2012 newsletter, the association recommended that church leaders talk to their attorney, conduct an internal investigation and contact their insurance carrier before considering a call to authorities.
David Gibbs III worked for his father defending churches for years. They split in 2012 and Gibbs III began his own Christian law practice.
Gibbs III represents victims of church abuse, although many women remain skeptical because of his earlier work. He said, in his experience, pastors often protect the church over the congregation.
“They can get very institutionally focused, you know, ‘We have to cover up child abuse because we have to protect the church,’” he said. “So these powerful men are wanting to hang onto their power or these churches are wanting to hang onto a status that they don’t really deserve, because bad things have happened, and they’re trying to keep that from being discovered.”
He said victims should be careful about talking to anyone but law enforcement, including church leaders.
“Anybody that’s coming at you from the church — a lot of times it can be board members, it can be legal counsel, it can be insurance, it can be the pastor — there is this intention to put pressure on,” he said. “It’s designed with an institutional interest, not your interest.”
Mindy Woosley saw how the Christian Law Association works when she tried to hold her abuser accountable decades after it happened.
Woosley’s father was the pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, when she was abused by Tony Den-ton, her music minister, in the late 1970s.
When he learned of the abuse, her father at first didn’t believe her, Woosley said. Denton remained in the church’s employ and, within two weeks, was molesting her again.
When Woosley came back with other victims years later, Denton had moved on to a nearby church. Her father called him, Woosley said, and told him to get out of the ministry. Woosley’s father declined to comment.
Denton found refuge at Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Woosley said her father told the pastor about the abuse allegations, but Denton stayed anyway. Trinity Baptist’s pastor, Bob Gray, was charged with four counts of capital sexual battery involving young girls. He died before he could go to trial.
In 2006, Woosley learned that Denton was a counselor at Trinity. She and Denton’s other victims wanted to get him out of any position of authority, especially one where he might have access to young, vulnerable women.
So one of the victims reached out to the Christian Law Association. The firm arranged a mediation meeting between the victims and Denton in April 2006 in Atlanta.
The initial mediation documents, obtained by the Star-Telegram, were drawn up by the Christian Law Association. Denton was not to work in the church or with children again. Denton’s pastor would need to inform his deacons of the abuse allegations. Denton would have an accountability monitor to check if he was following the agreement.
Even if the women believed Denton broke the agreement, they would agree to mediation because “lawsuits between believers are prohibited by Scripture,” the mediation document read.
The documents also included a confidentiality clause: The mediation agreement forbade anyone from talking about it. No party was to make “disparaging statements” about the other. Another version of the agreement forbade the women from publicly using Denton’s last name.
David Gibbs Jr., Woosley said, opened the meeting by outlining their options and goals. Then he told them, “No peace rests on bitterness and revenge.”
“SO THESE POWERFUL MEN ARE WANTING TO HANG ONTO THEIR POWER OR THESE CHURCHES ARE WANTING TO HANG ONTO A STATUS THAT THEY DON’T REALLY DESERVE, BECAUSE BAD THINGS HAVE HAPPENED, AND THEY’RE TRYING TO KEEP THAT FROM BEING DISCOVERED.” David Gibbs III, a lawyer who often represents victims
Woosley said she was dismayed by the Christian Law Association’s tactics and its mission as the church’s hired gun.
“They were God’s answer to every problem that comes along in the IFB church, in the IFB world,” Woosley said. “Are you freaking kidding me? A mediation settlement agreement? That’s what it was. And the first thing they do in it is remind us that we’re Christians.”
For the victims, peace wound up resting on going to the police and prosecuting Denton in North Carolina, which does not have a specific statute of limitations for felony sexual assault charges. He pleaded guilty in 2008 and is a registered sex offender.
“Beyond seeking specific legal justice for a wrong committed, I have learned that revisiting issues like this in a public domain rarely, if ever, brings healing and resolution to those who have been hurt,” Tom Messer, Trinity Baptist Church’s current pastor, wrote in an email. “Those issues were resolved by the legal system.”
TIME CONSTRAINTS
Statutes of limitations on sex crimes range from under 10 years to unlimited, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, varying from state to state and crime to crime.
Laura Palumbo, a spokeswoman at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center who was raised in a fundamentalist community, said the purity culture in churches can make it even harder for survivors to report abuse because they believe it was their fault.
“Fundamentalist communities draw this link between purity and virginity,” Palumbo said. “It creates a false idea that if you have enough diligence or discipline, this is something in your control.”
Statute of limitations laws — which dictate the time frame within which a crime can be prosecuted or a civil suit can be filed — were designed to protect the rights of defendants by ensuring that allegations had to be dealt with before witnesses died, their memories faded or evidence was lost.
Advocates, however, have pressed states to extend statutes of limitations on sex crimes.
“Not everyone’s going to have the same time line on when they’re ready,” said Durbin, who was allegedly abused by her school principal in California in the 1990s. “That means perpetrators get away with it.”
Any form of sexual assault can be difficult for victims to report, but it can be even more challenging for someone raised in the culture of an independent fundamental Baptist church.
“It takes years and years to overcome all that brainwashing,” said Denise Kodi, a former member of an independent fundamental Baptist church who says she was abused as a child. “People really, really struggle. Which I think is of course why things don’t come out about the abuse, because they’re so tightly controlled.”
Woosley, now 56, spent years in treatment before seeing her abuser prosecuted.
“This is why the statute of limitations must be changed, because the depression hits 20 years down the road, to the point I was suicidal before I got help,” she said.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Naomi Perez was a teenager at Grace Baptist Church in Gaylord, Michigan, in the early 2000s when she saw her volleyball coach, Aaron Willand, making out with one of the other girls.
Perez told the youth pastor, who said she was looking too far into things, she said.
She went to another assistant pastor. He told her she never saw anything and told Perez’s mother that she was lying. Her mother grounded her.
The pastor, Perez said her mother told her, then sent Willand to Washington state to be a youth pastor with a letter of recommendation. It was another arrangement that would yield hideous consequences.
What Perez didn’t know at the time was that Willand was molesting her younger sister, Ruthy.
It started when Ruthy Nordgren was 12, when she was a babysitter for Willand and his wife. Willand and his family moved to Washington state the next year. When she was 14, Ruthy Nordgren went with them to help with their new baby.
There, Nordgren said, he raped her every day for two weeks. He warned her not to tell and always listened to phone conversations when she talked to her mother.
Naomi Perez warned her mother about what could be happening, and her mother reported Willand to authorities in Washington.
Willand pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse and rape in 2006. Perez’s mother declined to comment.
Back in Michigan, Nordgren didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome.
At school and church, kids called her a liar, a rebellious teen, a whore who seduced Willand. One of Nordgren’s friends, she said, brought her in to talk to another teacher about what had happened.
Nordgren said the teacher looked at her and asked, “‘Well, did you say no?’ I said I didn’t know what to do. And he said, ‘Then it wasn’t rape.’”
In its investigation, the Star-Telegram found example after example of men credibly accused — and even convicted — of wrongdoing who were allowed to continue in the independent fundamental Baptist ministry.
A man convicted of sexual battery in 1999 went on to serve as a youth volunteer in Georgia, where he abused three more girls. He pleaded guilty in 2016 to sexual battery.
A principal at a Christian school affiliated with Bob Jones University was moved out of state when sexual abuse allegations came to the pastor’s attention. The deacons, said one deacon’s wife at the time, convened a secret meeting and then spirited him away, on the advice of Bob Jones University officials.
“They’re enabling someone to go down the road and do it somewhere else,” said Stacey Shiflett, an independent fundamental Baptist pastor in Maryland who has witnessed alleged abusers getting away with their crimes, aided by church leadership.
“A lot of preachers, though they are in the leadership position, they do not have the guts to do the right thing. Either they’ve got political ties or they have friends of friends who have friends that have friends that don’t want to rock the boat. And me, I don’t care.”
‘WHO’S GOING TO DO IT?’
Justice would find Victor Monteiro, after all, and there would be nothing Bruce Goddard could do about it this time.
Rachel Peach, a friend of April Heck Avila, had also been groomed by Monteiro at Faith Baptist in California. In 2007, he had sex with her for the first time. She was 15.
But as the years passed, Peach had no desire to tell anyone Monteiro had raped her.
She had seen firsthand how the church handled sexual misconduct cases. She knew the flimsy reason offered for Monteiro’s departure in 2013 — that he was tired — was a lie.
Monteiro had also told Peach and two other girls he molested the story of Paul Fox and Kathy Durbin from decades earlier. The lesson was subtle but effective: If the girls told anyone about him, they would be ostracized like Kathy Dur-bin was all those years ago. And even if they did tell, church protocol dictated Monteiro wouldn’t face consequences.
Peach moved on with her life. She went to college and got married.
Then in 2018, she found out that Avila had filed a police report and was told it was too late to do anything.
Peach reached out to the detective on Avila’s case and told him her story. The detective, also a Christian, she said, took her seriously. Peach felt like God had arranged it so that detective would be on her case.
She also knew the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit in her case would be expiring soon. She couldn’t sleep or eat, consumed by the possibilities.
She was 25. Her birthday was in a week. The statute would be up the day she turned 26.
As they sat in a Mexican restaurant, Peach’s husband encouraged her to take action. “If you don’t do it,” he said, “who’s going to do it?”
Peach filed her lawsuit against the church on July 16, 2018 — two days before she turned 26. She alleged the church was negligent in hiring and supervising Monteiro.
Monteiro, now 45, was arrested 11 days later. He pleaded guilty last month to molesting Peach and another girl from the youth group, Lea Ramirez.
Ramirez has posted publicly on Facebook about the allegations but declined to comment further.
Peach’s belief in God has stayed strong. She’s asked often how he could let this go on for 15 years. But then, she started to believe that God had the right idea — and that he would have the last word.
“I almost feel like God knew that we had to wait until there was enough of us to build a solid case, to put away Victor and end Goddard covering this up,” she said.
“If April would’ve said something when she was in high school, I 100 percent believe Goddard would not have told anyone. Or he would have swept it under the rug and moved him somewhere else. And April would have had to live in silence.”
When I was in elementary school I had a Jewish classmate (I was way ahead of Vatican II in interfaith dialogue) whose parents celebrated Chanukah/Hanukkah as well as the secular side of Christmas with Christmas trees and secular Christmas (or is it Xmas?) decorations and most importantly exchanging Xmas gifts!
I was so jealous as he got both Chanukah and Hanukkah gifts and Xmas gifts! Yes! I was guilty of the deadly mortal sin of ENVY!
But I digress! How do you spell the Jewish and Christian holy days or is it holidays? O my! How do you spell that?
And if Jews can celebrate Xmas why can't Christians celebrate the Festival of Lights?
How Do You Spell Chanukah (Or Is It Hanukkah)?
Hanukkah has commenced. So has Chanukah, Hannukah, Hannukkah, and Channukah.
Confused? We don’t blame you. Why is this Jewish holiday, also known as the Festival of Lights, spelled in so many ways?
I have to say there is something to be said for Christmas traditions and the traditional Christmas Crèche. Last year's Vatican's Crèche was simply horrid. This year's although built of sand is much better. Certainly it is a work of art, but it won't last. It reminds me of the Gospel reading about houses built on sand which also reminds me of the three little pigs. But I digress.
These ideological crèches remind me of modern Christmas music sung in Church that no one has ever heard, even on the radio. Christmas demands traditional carols and crèches. You can quote me on that!
Nonetheless this sandy one is really, really nice. But as I said, it won't last!
Pope Francis has proffered us an opinion of His Holiness, that God would never lead us into temptation thus any translation of the Our Father should be stated in a way that does not promote the opinion that God would lead us into temptation.
So, is the Pope's belief on all of this simply a matter of His Holiness own opinion which we can beg to differ? Isn't God, God, who can do whatever He wants and in fact cast us into hell if He wants to do so, where the devil can do to our souls and eventually our bodies whatever the devil wants to do?
I'm beginning to think that this opinion of the pope might be heretical. Am I wrong? Is changing the "Our Father" a step into dogmatizing a mere opinion that could be heretical?
What is odd is that the Italian Missal has yet to implement what Pope Benedict ordered for the consecration of the Precious Blood. The Italian version still reads “and for all” instead of “for many.”
Yet Pope Francis likes this silly retranslation of the Our Father approved by one vote of the Italian bishops.
This is from Sandro Magister:
Francis, Absolute Monarch. Behind the Scenes of the New Italian “Our Father”
The ban imposed on the bishops of the United States on November 12 against voting on two very strict measures they wanted against sexual abuse committed by members of the hierarchy is not the only blatant recent case of interference by Pope Francis in the decisions of an episcopal conference.
During those same days, in fact, Francis also imposed his will on the Italian bishops gathered in plenary assembly, ordering them to replace the petition “and lead us not into temptation” in the “Our Father” at Mass, because in his judgment it is “not a good” translation of the text of the Gospel.
The assembly was held behind closed doors, and at the end of the work only the result of the discussion was released, with the passing of the new formula: “and do not abandon us to temptation.”
But how did we get here? This is how Settimo Cielo reconstructed the genesis of the decision.
When the question was put to discussion in the hall, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 14, a few bishops spoke out in defense of the traditional version, asking that it be kept alive and if anything explained better to the faithful, instead of being changed.
But from the moderator’s bench these voices were quickly hushed. The bishops were told that the “non ci indurre” would have to be replaced no matter what, and that the only thing they were allowed to discuss and vote on was the selection of the new translation.
This because “it had been so decided.” And the thoughts of everybody in the hall went to Pope Francis.
As the new formulation, the presidency of the episcopal conference proposed the one already contained in the Italian version of the Bible approved by the Holy See in 2008 and subsequently placed in the national liturgical lectionary: “e non abbandonarci alla tentazione.”
It was, however, allowed to propose alternative new formulations and submit them to a vote, as long as each of them had the support of at least 30 bishops.
The archbishop of Chieti and Vasto, Bruno Forte, notoriously close to the pope, gathered the necessary signatures and proposed as an alternative this other translation: “and keep us from falling into temptation.”
In support of this proposal Forte affirmed that this was the version preferred by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a great specialist in the Bible, as well as being close to the liturgical versions of the “Our Father” in other Romance languages, approved by the episcopal conferences of Spain: “Y no nos dejes caer en la tentación” and France: “Et ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation.”
But against Forte came Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, archbishop of Florence, who as a biblicist and then as secretary general of the CEI had been an active promoter of the translation of the “Our Father” that went into the new official version of the Bible and the lectionary for the Mass.
Betori objected that Forte’s reference to Martini was inappropriate, because in reality even this illustrious cardinal preferred “non abbandonarci,” on a par with another erudite deceased cardinal, Giacomo Biffi, he too now cited as a witness.
To which Forte counterreplied by asserting that he had discussed the matter with Pope Francis, who had said he was okay with “fa che non cadiamo in tentazione.”
Commotion in the hall, a quick reaction from Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, and a brief back-and-forth between the two.
Then came the vote, which revealed an assembly split precisely in half: with 94 votes in favor of the proposal of the presidency and 94 in favor of Forte’s proposal.
According to the rules an amendment needs a majority of the votes to be approved, otherwise, even in the case of a tie, it does not pass.
So in the end “non abbandonarci alla tentazione” prevailed, but just barely, by a single vote.
For the record, when the new version of the “Our Father” was approved for the lectionary in 2002, Betori, who at the time was secretary general of the CEI, said: “The possible adaptation of this translation for liturgical rite and individual prayer will be made at the time of the translation of the third edition of the ‘Missale Romanum.’ But the decision that is being made now predetermines to a certain extent the future decision, since it is difficult to imagine the coexistence of two formulations.”
Today the new formula enacted back then is no longer “possible” but has become reality.
And it could not have been otherwise, seeing how Pope Francis imposed on the general assembly of the CEI the replacement of the traditional version, even blocking any bishop from coming to its defense.
Meanwhile, as of December 5, in his Wednesday general audiences the pope has begun a cycle of catecheses precisely on the “Our Father.’ It will be interesting to listen to him when he gets to the petition he wanted to have retranslated.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, progressive Catholicism symbolized by the most read progressive Catholic newspaper, The National Catholic Reporter, has contributed the most to the homosexual scandal, especially against teenagers, that is destroying the Catholic Church.
In a breathtaking article printed on December 7th, the author castigates Pope Francis, once the darling of the homosexual clerical cabal in the Church, like Jesuit James Martin, by calling His Holiness’ thinking muddled and homophobic.
In today’s world being labeled homophobic is a highly charged manipulative tactic, similar to the 1970’s progressive cabal calling someone so pre-Vatican II. Name calling in order to manipulate, shame and then change is a hallmark of modern liberalism be it religious or political. Pope Francis does it with the vague accusations of being doctors of the law, rigid, neo pelagians and neo Gnostics among other insults the pope has used against faithful Catholics.
Here is an excerpt from the NCR article. Below it is the title to the article which you can press for the full eye opening article:
A number of progressive Catholics have rushed to Francis' defense. Some argue that he is only opposed to priests and religious who break their vows of celibacy. Others insist that he did not include heterosexuals in his condemnation of celibacy-breakers because the interviewer's question was specifically about gay priests and gay and lesbian religious.
But to apologize for Francis in these ways is to deny what he has said previously about homosexuality and about admitting gay men to the priesthood.
That document quoted a 2005 instruction signed by Pope Benedict XVI that said, "The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture.' "
This statement clarifies Francis' obtuse words in his recent interview. It states clearly that even if a priest is not breaking his vow of celibacy, if his "homosexual tendencies" are "deep-seated," he loses his chance to be a priest.
In May 2018, Francis also weighed in on the issue during a closed session with the Italian Episcopal Conference. As La Stampa reported, Francis expressed his concern about admitting seminarians with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies, telling the clergymen, "If you have even the slightest doubt, it is better not to let them in."
I usually do not like anything Michael Winters writes for the National Chismatic Reporter (NCR), but his observations about the Episcopal Funeral Rites for President George H. W. Bush are my sentiments exactly.
I don’t like critiquing non Catholic funeral liturgies because our own have so much to criticize especially when these become a celebration of life or a canonization, as was the case for President Bush, rather than a prayer for the faithful departed, a true Requiem.
I also applaud the ultra liberal, heterodox Winters in his dislike of an amalgamation of Christian and non Christian ministers each with their own part in a politically correct state funeral.
I watched some of the funeral rites from Texas at the magnificent and more Catholic looking than many actual Catholic churches, St. Martin's. The music was spectacular and well executed, but it was in the Protestant style, as it should be, over the top triumphalism. The soaring notes truly brought about an emotional response as was the case for President W at the end of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Here is an excerpt from Winter’s critique but you can press the title for the full article. What do you think?
A presidential funeral at a high church sanctuary like St. Paul's, like the requiem Mass for President Kennedy at St. Matthew's Cathedral in 1963, would strike most Americans as profoundly strange. The Episcopal liturgy we witnessed on Wednesday was decidedly low church and not very liturgical at all and, just so, it could accommodate the civil religious themes more easily.
One of the characteristics that most struck me was how non-communal the service was. It is not only that there was no Communion service. The Our Father, a prayer that all could recite together, was instead sung by a soloist and the choir. The beautiful hymn "The King of Love My Shepherd Is," a setting of the 23rd Psalm sung to the Gaelic hymn tune St. Columba, was performed as an anthem by the choir and not sung by the congregation. One of the most universally familiar hymns, especially at funerals, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," a setting of Psalm 90 sung to the tune St. Anne, was likewise sung by the choir only.
The body of the former president was brought down the nave of the cathedral at the start of the service in silence, with only the tolling of the bell, until one of the clergy recited verses of Scripture. Apart from the prayers of the faithful and the Apostles' Creed, and an opening and recessional hymn, the service had the feel of a testimonial, not a communal liturgy, with multiple eulogies and musical numbers, performed before a passive congregation. The individualism of American culture has taken some of the civis out of civil religion, some of the communion out of the Christian communion.
I was grateful, however, that the service did not become a hodgepodge of interdenominational representatives divvying up the tasks, an effort at inclusiveness that has the effect of turning the liturgy into a kind of Model United Nations at prayer: All of the parts reserved for the clergy were led by the clergy of the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Dr. Russell Levenson, the rector at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, preached a very excellent sermon. He included references to the readings, intertwined with personal remembrances of the man they had gathered to bury. Most importantly, he proclaimed the essential Christian belief in the salvific passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
