Sex Abuse Scandal at Lackland Air Force Base, Bishops Told Pedophiles Lie, Victims Must Be Heard

Why Won’t Congress Investigate the Sex Abuse Scandal at Lackland Air Force Base?  Soumya Karlamangla The Nation July 17, 2012

Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, has become the center of the nation’s biggest military sex abuse case in years. Over the past several months, a widespread sexual crime epidemic that began in 2009 has been uncovered at the camp, with twelve of 475 of the base’s instructors accused of either rape, sodomy and aggravated sexual assault, among other offenses, and thirty-one female trainees identified as victims.

Now dozens of lawmakers are calling for a Congressional hearing to investigate the incidents at Lackland. But there’s no sign that one will happen anytime soon…..

At a hearing last month, two female former trainees told a courtroom that they were pressured to have sex with two of their male instructors. The men called them over the intercom under false pretense and asked them to leave their dorm rooms, then led them to a supply closet where one of the men had sexual intercourse with one of the women, while the other woman performed oral sex on the other male instructor….

According to the Department of Defense, one in four women who join the military will be raped or sexually assaulted. And according to a report released last year by the department, 71 percent of women and 85 percent of men who experienced unwanted sexual contact chose not to report it. http://www.thenation.com/article/168918/why-wont-congress-investigate-sex-abuse-scandal-lackland-air-force-base

Call over the intercom led to Lackland sex tryst
By Sig Christenson Saturday, June 2, 2012
Two former Air Force trainees said Friday they were lured into a sexual tryst by a pair of trainers on their last night in San Antonio. Testifying at an evidentiary hearing, the women said Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio called over an intercom two days after they graduated from basic training last fall and asked them to leave the dorm and meet them. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Call-over-the-intercom-led-to-Lackland-sex-tryst-3602350.php

2010 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members Overview Report on Sexual Assault http://www.sapr.mil/media/pdf/research/DMDC_2010_WGRA_Overview_Report_of_Sexual_Assault.pdf

Bishops Told Pedophiles Lie, Victims Must Be Heard NICOLE WINFIELD   02/7/12

ROME — Priests who rape and molest children lie when confronted with an accusation but victims usually tell the truth, psychologists told Catholic bishops at a symposium Tuesday, advising them to listen first to the victims….

Survivors of clerical abuse have long said that once they summoned the courage to denounce their abusers to church leaders, Catholic bishops often dismissed their accusations and instead accepted the word of their priests, whom bishops consider their brothers and sons in the priesthood.

That pattern led to decades in which bishops shuffled pedophiles from parish to parish, protecting the church’s reputation at all costs, while victims were left to feel like they were to blame for the abuse.

Marie Collins, who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland, told the bishops that dynamic led to multiple hospitalizations later in life for anxiety and depression. She told her story of abuse and how the church’s response to it – refusing to believe her, telling her it was her fault and taking the priest’s word over hers – made the initial trauma even worse….

Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist who for a decade ran a U.S. treatment center for abusive priests, told the conference Tuesday that just like alcoholics or drug addicts, sexually abusive priests often lie when confronted with allegations. They manipulate, they con, they deny, he said.

“There are false allegations to be sure” and it’s critical to restore a priest’s good name when he has been cleared, Rossetti said in his prepared remarks. “But decades of experience tell us that the vast majority of allegations – over 95 percent – are founded.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/07/bishops-told-pedophiles-l_0_n_1259416.html

BishopAccountability.org Data on the Crisis The Human Toll

BishopAccountability.org  Data on the Crisis  The Human Toll

Thousands of Catholic clergy and religious have raped and sodomized tens of thousands of children—perhaps more than 100,000 children—since 1950. These crimes were committed in secret, and bishops nurtured that secrecy. Nearly 15,000 survivors have broken through the silence, and their accounts have created an in-depth picture of the crisis….

The U.S. bishops have reported receiving allegations of abuse by 6,115 priests in 1950-2011, or 5.6% of the 109,694 U.S. priests active since 1950….

Richard Sipe estimates that 9% of U.S. priests have offended, which extrapolates to 9,872 priests nationally….

Approximately two-thirds of sitting U.S. bishops were alleged in 2002 to have kept accused priests in ministry or moved accused priests to new assignments….

Fewer than 2 percent of sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic church appear to be false.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/data.htm

Wikipedia founder tries to remove alleged kiddie porn, Vatican to court

Wikipedia founder tries to remove alleged kiddie porn, then gives up editorial privileges May 16, 2010  Paul Boutin [Update: Jimmy Wales tweeted me to say the change to his editorial status is ” A purely technical matter. I am not stepping down or pulling back from anything.”….Fox News reports that Jimmy Wales, cofounder of do-it-yourself encyclopedia Wikipedia  and a member of its board, has given up his administrative privileges on the site in response to a Wikipedia community backlash against his removal of thousands of images deemed pornographic by Fox last month….

In April, Fox reported that Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger, who left the project in 2002, had sent a letter to the FBI specifying his concerns that at least two categories of  the Wikimedia Commons  archive — one for pedophilia  and another for Japanese lolicon comics — contained dozens of images of child sexual abuse, in violation of Federal law.

Wikimedia Commons is used to host images and videos displayed on Wikipedia….Fox News claimed that Wikimedia officials did not respond to reporters’ requests for comment. That may have been a bad move. The brazenly conservative news agency went after the Wikimedia Foundation’s corporate sponsors, sending links to the controversial content to Microsoft, Google, Best Buy, the Ford Foundation, Yahoo, USA Networks and dozens of other companies and organizations.

Last week, a purge of thousands of Wikpedia images still left Fox with plenty of pictures to wave around. Now, Fox claims, it turns out that Wales had unilaterally begun deleting images and recruiting other editors to assist him, against the wishes of other editors who felt the content was acceptable. Wales, whose personal page on Wikipedia speaks of “Doing The Right Thing,” allegedly began the purge himself despite opposition from many editors. http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/16/wikipedia-founder-gives-up-control-of-site-over-fox-news-kiddie-porn-scandal/

Vatican to court: Priests are not our employees
Attorney outlines defense ahead of filing Monday in sex abuse case
By NICOLE WINFIELD May 16, 2010 VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Monday will make its most detailed defense yet against claims that it is liable for U.S. bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a 1962 Vatican document did not require them to keep quiet, The Associated Press has learned.

The Vatican will make the arguments in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds filed in Louisville, Kentucky, but it could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37182162/ns/world_news-europe/

Other articles on Wikipedia:

Wikipedia – Bomis and online pornography
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/04/congress-reacts-to-wikipedia-f.html

problems with wikipedia
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/problems-with-wikipedia/

Wikipedophilia, Wikipedia child abuse misinformation
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/

ritual abuse pages blacklisted by wikipedia
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/ritualabuse-us-blacklisted-by-wikipedia/

Vatican details U.S. sex abuse defense, Justice for Child Abuse Victims

Editorial – Justice for Child Abuse Victims May 14, 2010 The Catholic Church is working against the interests of child abuse victims in state legislatures around the country. In recent weeks, lobbying by the church has blocked measures in Wisconsin, Arizona and Connecticut intended to widen the legal window for victims to file lawsuits against hidden predators.

We urge the New York State Legislature to rise above intense lobbying by the New York State Catholic Conference and Orthodox Jewish officials and pass the overdue Child Victims Act. Like a similar measure enacted in 2003 by California, it would create a one-time, one-year suspension of the statute of limitations for bringing civil lawsuits over the sexual abuse of children. Once that window closes, people alleging abuse would have until age 28 to bring a claim. Current law sets the limit at 23 in most circumstances.

The measure recognizes that it typically takes many years before victims are ready to come forward. The measure also recognizes the Catholic Church’s history of intimidating victims and burying abuses in church files, creating a shroud of secrecy that extended in many cases until victims were in their 30s or older, well beyond existing time limits for prosecutions or civil lawsuits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/opinion/16sun2.html

Vatican details U.S. sex abuse defense By NICOLE WINFIELD, AP May 16, 2010 VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican on Monday will make its most detailed argument yet for why it is not liable for bishops who allowed priests to molest children in the U.S., in a motion that could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See in American courts, The Associated Press has learned.

In a motion to dismiss a lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, the Holy See is expected to argue that a key Vatican document calling for secrecy in church trials for sex abuse cases was not, as victims’ lawyers say, proof of a Vatican-orchestrated cover up. The Vatican’s U.S. attorney, Jeffrey Lena, said Sunday there was no evidence the document was even known to the archdiocese in question – much less used. http://www.kboi2.com/news/national/93891519.html

bishops fight sex abuse bill, implicated in coverup, complaints ‘unpunished’

Connecticut bishops fight sex abuse bill Jamie Guzzardo, CNN April 11, 2010 Hartford, Connecticut (CNN) — A bill in Connecticut’s legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.

Under current Connecticut law, sexual abuse victims have 30 years past their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit. The proposed change to the law would rescind that statute of limitations.

The proposed change to the law would put “all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk,” says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut’s three Roman Catholic bishops.

The letter is posted on the Web site of the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, the public policy and advocacy office of Connecticut’s Catholic bishops. It asks parishioners to contact their legislators in opposition of the bill.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/11/connecticut.abuse.bill/index.html

Ex-St. Catharines bishop implicated in coverup By GRANT LAFLECHE, QMI AGENCY 4/12/10 As local Catholics puzzle Friday over the sudden resignation of their bishop, his predecessor was implicated in the coverup of sexual abuse by a priest in Pembroke. Former St. Catharines bishop John O’Mara was named by former Pembroke bishop Joseph Windle in a 1993 letter to the Vatican’s ambassador in Ottawa. O’Mara was named as part of a group of Ontario bishops who backed Windle’s recommendation that the abuse of minors by a Pembroke priest be kept silent. The priest in question, Father Bernard Prince, had been shipped off to Rome and became a friend of then Pope John Paul II.

In his letter, Windle was deeply concerned that if the Vatican graced the priest with any attention or honours, it would expose the abuse and create a scandal….Prince was convicted in 2008 of sexually molesting 13 boys between 1964 and 1984, and was formally defrocked by Pope Benedict XVI last year. He was sent to Rome and became a Vatican official in 1991 after church officials in Canada first heard from a victim of his crimes. In his letter, which became public Friday as part of a civil case against the Pembroke Diocese and Prince, Windle supported the move even in light of the seriousness of the allegations. “I would not object to him being given another chance since it would remove him from the Canadian scene,” Windle wrote. By 1993, further allegations against Prince surfaced. Windle explained in his letter there were four or five known victims and at least one of them was asking pointed questions about how the church was handling the situation. Still, Windle believed the Church could keep the situation secret because the victims were unlikely to go to the police or the press.  http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2529871

Paedophilia complaints ‘unpunished’ April 13, 2010 BELGIAN bishops have failed to punish any clergy over 300 complaints of paedophilia brought to their attention in the 1990s, claims a priest who helped many victims. ”We brought forward between 1992 and 1998 more than 300 complaints from victims of abuse committed by priests, but only 15 ended up with admissions” of guilt, Father Rick Deville told the Flemish dailies De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad yesterday.

”A priest accused would most often be moved, but was never punished,” he complained. Founder of the group Human Rights in the Church, which defends victims of abuse, the 65-year-old Father Deville deplored the lack of support from the Belgian Catholic hierarchy. ”Very few bishops helped us,” he said. In most cases the victims were told that their actions were ”unfortunately banned”. In some cases the victims themselves were accused of defamation, he said. AFP
http://www.theage.com.au/world/paedophilia-complaints-unpunished-20100412-s4e9.html

Vatican Clarifies Its Policy on Reporting Abuse VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican on Monday responded to allegations it long concealed clerical sex abuse by making it clear for the first time that bishops and clerics worldwide should report such crimes to police if they are required to by law.
The policy, spelled out in a guide for laymen and posted on the Vatican’s Web site, matches the policy worked out by U.S. bishops after an explosion of sex abuse cases in 2002.

Unlike the American norms, however, the Vatican guide contains no call for ”zero tolerance” for priests who rape and molest children, and victims immediately criticized it as insufficient.
The Vatican insists it has long been the Catholic Church’s policy for bishops, like all Christians, to obey civil reporting laws. But such an explicit policy had never been spelled out — until Monday. ”Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed,” said the newly posted guideline.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/12/world/AP-EU-Church-Abuse.html

former pope knew of abuse, Bishops Reinstate Accused Priests, ‘ritual beatings’

also: Papal ally accused of ‘ritual beatings’

1963 letter shows former pope knew of abuse By GILLIAN FLACCUS (AP) – 4/1/10 LOS ANGELES — A newly released letter to then-Pope Paul VI indicates the Vatican was aware of clergy abuse in the U.S. nearly five decades ago. In the 1963 letter released Wednesday, the head of a Roman Catholic order that oversaw treatment of pedophile priests tells the pope he recommends removing pedophile priests from active ministry. The letter is a summary of the Rev. Gerald M.C. Fitzgerald’s thoughts on problem priests that appears to have been requested by the pope after Fitzgerald’s 1963 visit to the Vatican. Fitzgerald headed the New Mexico-based Servants of the Holy Paraclete. The letter was released in Los Angeles by attorneys for California clergy abuse victims who obtained the document during litigation. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h9O9pDzoOP4MhFpu2FhO326s_y8wD9EPRTI02

U.S. Bishops Quietly Reinstate Accused Priests by Barbara Bradley Hagerty March 31, 2010 While the Roman Catholic sexual abuse scandal unfolds in Europe, the Catholic Church in the U.S. is under renewed scrutiny. In the wake of its own scandal almost a decade ago, the U.S. church says it has reformed its policies for handling sexual abuse allegations and will remove from ministry every priest who is credibly accused of abuse. But some of those priests are now being quietly reinstated….

Juan Rocha was 12 years old when he says he was molested by his parish priest, the Rev. Eric Swearingen. He eventually brought his complaints to the bishop of Fresno, Calif., John Steinbock. When Steinbock said he didn’t find the allegations credible, Rocha sued the priest and the diocese in civil court. In 2006, the jury found 9 to 3 that Swearingen had abused Rocha. But it could not decide whether the diocese knew about it. Rather than go through a new trial, the two sides settled. At the time, Steinbock said he thought the jury got it wrong, and that while the Catholic Church should protect children, “doing this cannot be done in such a manner as to punish innocent priests.”….Today, Swearingen serves as priest at Holy Spirit parish in Fresno, where he also oversees the youth ministry. Swearingen did not return phone calls, and Steinbock declined requests for an interview….Swearingen’s case is not an isolated one, says

Anne Barrett Doyle, who works with the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org. She says that recently, bishops have started quietly returning to ministry priests who previously have been accused of abuse. Doyle and others have identified about a dozen clergy who have been accused, arrested or sued for abuse and returned to ministry. She says the process for investigating priests is secret, and often the diocese says nothing about the charges against a priest when it returns him to ministry. In 2003, a criminal-trial jury convicted the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest in Newark, N.J., of molesting a teenage boy. Later, an appellate court overturned the verdict because of the judge’s instruction. Rather than undergo a new trial, the prosecutors and the Archdiocese of New Jersey agreed to keep Fugee away from children. When officials at a local hospital where Fugee was serving as a volunteer chaplain — saying Mass and ministering to families — learned of the criminal trial in his past, they were horrified.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125420225

Papal ally accused of ‘ritual beatings’ German bishop accused of hitting child with carpet beater at church-run home By Tony Paterson in Berlin 1 April 2010 The child abuse scandal rocking the Catholic Church widened yesterday as a leading German bishop personally appointed by Pope Benedict was accused of ritually beating and punching children at a church-run home during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Five former residents of the St Josef’s home in Bavaria submitted written statements to Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper claiming the Bishop of Augsburg, Walter Mixa, a controversial conservative churchman appointed by the Pope in 2005, used to hit and degrade them during punishment sessions at the home….Bishop Mixa is renowned for being a member of the hardline conservative group of German Catholic Church leaders, to which the Pope belonged before his appointment to the Vatican.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/papal-ally-accused-of-ritual-beatings-1932764.html