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Title: Letter to Pope Francis -- It is not a miracle that 575 of us in Milwaukee came forward
Source: Found on Facebook
URL Source: [None]
Published: Sep 25, 2015
Author: Peter J. Isely
Post Date: 2015-09-25 10:51:14 by GrandIsland
Keywords: None
Views: 12830
Comments: 52

September 23, 2015

Pope Francis

Apostolic Palace

00120 Vatican City

Dear Pope Francis,

I am one of 575 victims of childhood rape, sexual assault or abuse by clergy who have worked in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee who have filed cases seeking restitution from the church in US Federal Bankruptcy Court. I am writing to you on our behalf and on behalf of our families.

Every rape or sexual assault of a child is a double act of theft: first it steals the body and then it steals the voice.

Seeking justice as adults through our courts for the crimes that were committed against us as children is an effort by us to restore both body and voice. That is why we were cheered when, early in your pontificate, you directly and explicitly affirmed the rightness and importance for victims to seek justice and restitution through the civil justice system.

We filed our cases for restitution over four and a half years ago in US Bankruptcy Court because the new Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki publicly assured us that by doing so he would use the bankruptcy court to bring just “compensation, healing and resolution” to victims.

The chief architect of the bankruptcy, however, was Listecki’s predecessor, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who repeatedly and directly spoke of his remorse for the crimes committed by Milwaukee clergy against children.

Imagine our sense of betrayal, then, when we learned that Archbishop Dolan before leaving for his new post as Archbishop of New York had acted directly to contravene the spirit of the very principle of civil justice for victims that your words celebrate and affirm.

In a letter obtained in federal court, Dolan wrote to Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of Congregation of the Clergy, for permission to transfer nearly $60 million dollars of assets into a new “Cemetery Perpetual Care Trust.” The archdiocese, of course, already had money set aside for the care of cemeteries. Why was Dolan seeking permission to make a new trust? Because the Wisconsin Supreme Court had just issued a unanimous ruling against the Milwaukee Archdiocese stating that there was sufficient evidence of its fraudulent concealment and transfer of clergy child sex offenders that the archdiocese could be brought to civil court by victims seeking restitution. Dolan, in the letter, clearly stated his intent in creating a new and unneeded trust.“By transferring these assets to the Trust, they [the monies]will be protected by any legal claim and liability.”

Additionally, the newly created cemetery trust was intended for only eight cemeteries, most of which also have a mausoleum in or near or near the City of Milwaukee. All the many remaining Catholic cemeteries in the archdiocese do not benefit from this trust. $60 million dollars is hardly required to serve the needs of only eight cemeteries.

Dolan’s transfer of tens of millions of dollars to prevent victims from just compensation is an act of civil and, in all likelihood, criminal fraud under US law.

Court documents also show that Dolan, after public denials to the contrary, devised and executed a secret policy of paying clerics who had abused children (a $20,000 dollar “signing bonus” added to their pension and other benefits) to leave the priesthood without the archdiocese notifying the unsuspecting communities in which they settled.

The new church you are urging us to build together requires you to hold Cardinal Dolan accountable for the planning, direction and, to a very significant degree, the current outcome of the bankruptcy, which has resulted in:

--The lowest settlements of any church bankruptcy in the United States by a factor of ten, with individual amounts to victims that do not even begin to address the severe and lasting harm done to them or provide anywhere near the resources required to begin a true recovery, with some clergy rape victims receiving as little as $2,000 dollars.

--Only 26 percent of the total bankruptcy settlement money will be allocated to help victims. 74 percent of the costs will pay lawyers’ fees, including $19.5 million to church and bankruptcy lawyers, $4 million in legal expenses to defend Dolan’s trust, and $7 million to victim attorneys; in other words, over twice as much money will be pocketed by church and other lawyers then will be given to help survivors.

--Most alarmingly, direct victim reports filed into court detail that at least 100 newly alleged clergy child sex offenders from the archdiocese have not been properly investigated or prosecuted, leaving countless children at risk in our church and community.

You have said that “the courage” victims show “by speaking up, by telling the truth” has been “in the service of love” to “shed light on a terrible darkness in the life of the Church.”

The church believes that God so ordered the universe that he placed at the center of creation the human heart and at the center of the human heart, the faculty of free consent. Love does not exist or enter the embodied soul without free consent. That is why the sexual violence by a priest against a child is a demonic parody of both creation and love, of the very miracle of creation through love.

It is an endless mystery that the shame the priest sex offender should logically and naturally feel within his own soul while violating the body of the child is rarely if ever felt by him. Instead, the shame of this crime, this awful and crushing weight, is poured into the body of the victim – our bodies. This is why it is we, not the offender, who feels the weight of this criminal shame, and why it is so difficult for most of us to come forward and bring our violation to speech.

Is it not a miracle that 575 of us in Milwaukee come forward, three generations of survivors, and together as brothers and sisters speak the unspeakable? Every time a survivor speaks, as you so rightly acknowledged, no matter how difficult to hear or unwanted the effect, it is an act of love for the church.

Victims in Milwaukee can still receive justice with your intervention and help. The money fraudulently transferred by Dolan which should have been used to compensate victims can still be put to that very purpose. Your time here in New York City will give you an opportunity to continue your pledge to hold Cardinal Dolan and other bishops accountable for the ongoing crisis of clerical sexual abuse and honor 575 acts of love and truth.

Sincerely,

Peter J. Isely

SNAP Midwest Director

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)


Poster Comment:

Bob... should I post that religion has made 575 more enemies? Or is your logic flawed?

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 28.

#5. To: GrandIsland (#0)

The RCC marches on to the beat of the music written by Satan.

Don  posted on  2015-09-25   13:00:34 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Don (#5)

Then Satan gained 575 more enemies. I can agree with that.

GrandIsland  posted on  2015-09-25   13:03:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: GrandIsland (#6)

Do you think they are speaking against the RCC, therefore they are Satanists?

Don  posted on  2015-09-25   13:05:17 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Don (#7)

You aren't even on the same planet as me when it comes to this article and the reason I posted it. I don't have the time or patience to bring you up to speed.

GrandIsland  posted on  2015-09-25   13:11:52 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: GrandIsland, Don (#8)

You aren't even on the same planet as me when it comes to this article and the reason I posted it. I don't have the time or patience to bring you up to speed.

You're going to have to find the time AND patience, or else it's going to appear as though you're avoiding an admission you've fallen into a patch of philosophical/ideological quicksand and can't extricate yourself.

You're going to have to clarify yourself -- both to Don and Bob....as well as the rest of us.

Liberator  posted on  2015-09-25   13:56:43 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: Liberator (#10) (Edited)

I'm on my way out the door to go to a farmers market with the wife. I'll post later. The long and short of it is this.... Bob likes to blame all of LE for the deeds of each corrupt act by staring, "and the police make 3 more enemies" instead of putting blame on the individual corrupt officers. So in return, as it relates to this article, is all religion to blame for what some priests have done? Did "religion" make 575 more enemies?

I think not... but in bobs quest to hate LE in general, he's unable to think rationally.

GrandIsland  posted on  2015-09-25   16:37:05 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#20. To: GrandIsland, Bob Celeste (#16)

The long and short of it is this.... Bob likes to blame all of LE for the deeds of each corrupt act by staring, "and the police make 3 more enemies" instead of putting blame on the individual corrupt officers.

I can only speak for myself -- don't like to broadbrush and mix LE business with God's business. It's unfair to everyone.

So in return, as it relates to this article, is all religion to blame for what some priests have done? Did "religion" make 575 more enemies?

Frankly, for some, LE *is* a "religion" too, that makes your statement all the more confusing.

Liberator  posted on  2015-09-25   19:59:06 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#23. To: Liberator (#20)

I think my point is quite clear and rational. Bobby hates LE, so he blames the profession for what the bad apples do. Just like an atheist might blame religion for what a few bad priest apples have done.

Lib, enough with your spin... and speak towards the points I made. LE isn't a religion. Religion isn't LE... and even if it was, what's that got to do with Bobby or reality? Nobody asked you to broad brush... the point is that Bobby does... and danced the top of the fence to avoid what Bobby does by saying you don't like doing it.

Speak straight up, leave out the yella... and if you can't do that because Bobby is your religious bud, then why get in the conversation?

If you've noticed... Bobby is still playing stupid. Still asking what the question is. Bobby makes 3 more enemies. lol

GrandIsland  posted on  2015-09-25   21:26:11 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#25. To: GrandIsland (#23) (Edited)

LE isn't a religion.

When you can retire as a government employee at the age 50 years of age, simply walking school kids across the street for twenty years while accumulating bonus points for a phootball game or two or while eating free doughnuts and slurping' koffee on duty dripin' your silly little badge of authority and the beer stained shirt you are given by the government and GOD only knows where else, it is religious phanaticism at its best.

buckeroo  posted on  2015-09-25   21:43:34 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#26. To: buckeroo (#25)

When you can retire as a government employee at the age 50 years of age, simply walking school kids across the street for twenty years while accumulating bonus points for a phootball game or two or while eating free doughnuts and slurping' koffee on duty dripin' your silly little badge of authority and the beer stained shirt you are given by the government and GOD only knows where else, it is religious phanaticism at its best.

The only part of your bullshit that was even remotely true, was "retiring at age 50". It was 49. The rest of it is untrue bullshit... and LE isn't a "religion".

GrandIsland  posted on  2015-09-25   21:56:18 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#28. To: GrandIsland (#26)

A twenty year career sitting around & walkin' little kids across the street isn't an accurate statement? OK, how about standin' around the water cooler to get your next job from a dispatcher because your colleague needs a replacement chair & umbrella because it was "hot" one day? OOPPSS! How about the tyme you went for dounuts & koffee @ the local doughnut shop operated by illegal aliens and you gave them a pass?

buckeroo  posted on  2015-09-25   22:04:46 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 28.

#29. To: buckeroo (#28)

I think like Bobby, you've sat on too many apricot kernels.

Seek help. lol

GrandIsland  posted on  2015-09-25 22:16:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


End Trace Mode for Comment # 28.

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