A collection of astounding facts and quotes
(in no specific order), all relating to my own story of losing my husband to suicide and discovery that he had been abused by a priest while attending Archbishop Stepinac High School :
The statistics astound. 300,000 children abused by Catholic priests. October 6, 2021:
‘Moment of shame’: Pope Francis expresses sadness over French clergy sex abuse report
What does Pope Francis really know about shame? Has he ever been abused? Does he carry that with him? Why hasn’t he done anything to put a stop to this?
From the Washington Post: ““The church failed to see, it failed to hear, and failed to pick up on the weak signals,” he said. “It failed to take the rigorous measures that were needed.”
I wish this was “news.” It’s been going on for far too long. This abuse killed my husband, the father of our four children.
How an Élite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
New documents show that the M.I.T. Media Lab was aware of Epstein’s status as a convicted sex offender, and that Epstein directed contributions to the lab far exceeding the amounts M.I.T. has publicly admitted.
By Ronan Farrow, in The New Yorker, September 6, 2019
The M.I.T. Media Lab, which has been embroiled in a scandal over accepting donations from the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, had a deeper fund-raising relationship with Epstein than it has previously acknowledged, and it attempted to conceal the extent of its contacts with him.
Why does this matter? They knew. And they let it happen, took money even. And I’m instantly thrown back to one of the most powerful scenes from Spotlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_URZOh6FB0k
The Archdiocese of New York also knew (as did many family members, but that’s another story for another time) that my late husband, Peter, had been abused repeatedly by a priest who was the Dean of Discipline at Archbishop Stepinac High School throughout the seventies. They had Peter’s name “in the drawer” as Camille Biros, lawyer along with Kenneth Feinberg for Cardinal Dolan’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program calls it. They knew. They never acknowledged it. Peter died. M.I.T. knew. They let it continue. They looked the other way and allowed Jeffrey Epstein continue on. M.I.T. let this sex-ring offender ruin young women’s lives.
Cardinal Dolan Ousted Priest for Sex Abuse Claim, But Accuser’s Lawyer Says Children Still at Risk
By Michael O’Keefe from The Daily News, September 26, 2016
Timothy Cardinal Dolan has removed a Rockland County priest accused of sexual abuse — but children may still be at risk, said a lawyer for the clergyman’s alleged victim.
Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian said the Archdiocese of New York told him in August that Monsignor John J. O’Keefe — most recently the pastor of St. Margaret of Antioch in Pearl River — had been permanently removed from his duties following an investigation into allegations he had sexually abused his client in the 1980s.
But the archdiocese has not shared its findings with the public, which Garabedian argued puts kids at risk. The archdiocese continues to provide O’Keefe with a place to live, although it would not comment on where the disgraced priest has been living.
“Children must immediately be made safe from predators like Monsignor O’Keefe,” Garabedian said. “The archdiocese failed miserably in its supervision of O’Keefe, and now it is playing more children in potential jeopardy.”
“The secrecy of the Archdiocese of New York surrounding the sexual abuse of an innocent child by Monsignor John J. O’Keefe is another example of why statute of limitations laws must be changed to help sexual abuse victims heal and to protect innocent children,” Garabedian said.
Defrocking a priest is a process that could take years.
“Delaying O’Keefe’s permanent removal places more children in jeopardy,” said Garabedian, who was played by Stanley Tucci in the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight.”
Garabedian said O’Keefe, 71, abused his client twice when O’Keefe was a teacher and guidance counselor and the client was a student at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx.
Why does this matter? Imagine the field day this O’Keefe had as President of Archbishop Stepinac High School, the all-boys Catholic school in White Plains where he lived on the premises. This, the school my late husband attended where he was raped by the prior principal, Donald Malone. Surely with O’Keefe’s now-known prior history of abusing a boy in the role of teacher and guidance counselor, he was busy at Stepinac, victims we’ll never hear about because they’ve been silenced by a settlement with Dolan’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.
Here’s some cruel irony: The letter of condolence I received from the President’s Office of Archbishop Stepinac High School following my husband’s suicide was signed by this notorious pedophile, John J. O’Keefe. My late husband was abused by the previous principal, Donald T. Malone while attending this all-boys Catholic high school.
Did you grow up Catholic? Know anyone who did? Search for the names of abusive clergy here:
From Bishop Accountability http://bishop-accountability.org/ :
| Msgr. John J. O’Keefe – Assignment History Summary of Case: John “Jack” J. O’Keefe was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York in 1972. He went on to assist in three Bronx parishes and, in 1977, he joined the faculty of Cardinal Hayes High School. In the early 1990s, after over 25 years years as a teacher and guidance counselor, O’Keefe left Hayes to assume the role of president of Archbishop Stepinac High in White Plains. In 1995 he was elevated to Monsignor status. O’Keefe moved on from Stepinac High in 2004 to pastor St. Margaret’s parish in Pearl River.In December 2015 O’Keefe was removed from St. Margaret’s and suspended from active ministry after he was accused in a lawsuit of having sexually abused a Hayes High School student in the early 1980s. The abuse was said to have occurred on two occasions – in a Virginia hotel during a school trip to Washington D.C., and during a weekend leadership training program at the Irish Christian Brothers’ retreat house in Esopus, New York. District Attorneys in Virginia and New York deemed the allegations ‘credible.’ O’Keefe denied them. He was reportedly living in a supervised setting for evaluation and risk assessment after his suspension. In September 2016 O’Keefe was permanently removed from ministry; two other male accusers had come forward by then with credible allegations. |
Diocese Of Burlington Releases Names Of Priests Accused of Abusing Children
By Liam Elder-Connors & Anna Van Dine, from VPR News, August 22, 2019
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington on Thursday released the names of 40 priests accused of sexually abusing children in Vermont since 1950. Thirteen of the priests named are still living, though none are in ministry according to Bishop Christopher Coyne.
“Until now, the scope of all this has been our family secret,” Coyne said during a press conference Thursday morning. “Family secrets can be toxic. Harmful past experiences — unspoken, unaddressed and known only by a few — fester like neglected wounds.”
Why does this matter? Because they waited. Because they knew. Because they knew, they hid it, and they let it continued to happen. Shouldn’t that incur some kind of punishment in itself? The Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests, known as SNAP, called the report “a belated step towards transparency and healing.” Compared to many Roman Catholic Diocese around the globe, Burlington was a hold out. It’s a small state, too, as everyone knows, and look at this initial number: 40. Imagine the widespread damage to victims throughout beyond this diocese and across the state. As VTDigger reports, “What is particularly painful is knowing how lives were changed irreparably by what happened to the victims when they were young,” the committee wrote. “For some there might have been the opportunity for healing, but for many there may have been a series of life choices intended to cover scars that only resulted in more pain and disappointment. Lives have been lost because of the abuse that occurred.” And each day any Catholic diocese waits, the more children will be abused.
Interesting side note: John Mahoney, spokesperson for the committee members appointed by the bishop to pore over thousands of documents, has shared the gritty details of his own abuse by a Father Edward Foster in the late ’60s. John is my brother-in-law’s brother. When asked, “Did you ever tell your parents?” He said, “no.”
According to the Burlington CBS affiliate, WCAX, “He didn’t tell them that he was repeatedly abused by a priest starting in eighth grade. Mahoney kept the secret– until now.”
“I’ve been wanting this for a long time,” he said. “There may be some small consolation that the world knows this person’s name.”
This, one reason I want to Tell my late husband’s story. For him. Because he didn’t survive the abuse.
From the New York Times Daily Briefing, August 13, 2019
| Perspective: In an interview with a Times business columnist last year, Mr. Epstein said that sex with teenage girls should be acceptable, and that he had dirt on powerful people. |
| Related: Mr. Epstein’s death has prompted an explosion of unfounded conspiracy theories. On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio joined those who have questioned the official explanation. “It’s just too convenient,” he said. |
| The Daily: Today’s episode is about the future of the criminal case involving Mr. Epstein. |
August 10, 2019:
Multi-millionnaire and notorious pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, died by alleged suicide in jail.
According to The New York Times article, “Jeffrey Epstein Dead in Suicide at Jail, Spurring Inquiries,” Mr. Epstein, the financier accused of sex trafficking, was not under suicide watch at the Manhattan jail at the time of his death. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-suicide.html
Why does this matter? “The reckoning of accountability begun by the voices of brave and truthful victims should not end with Jeffrey Epstein’s cowardly and shameful suicide.” That was Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, speaking about the news that broke this morning: Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender who was awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking, reportedly hanged himself in his jail cell.
Later in the article, Megan Garber writes: Justice can also take the form of investigation: Journalists, following the lead of the Miami Herald’s standard-bearer, Julie K. Brown, can keep pursuing the story—solving, potentially, some of the many mysteries that still obscure the sharp truths of the Epstein case. They can convert questions into answers.
Read Megan Garber‘s full article from The Atlantic here: Culture ‘Epstein Is Gone, but Justice Must Still Be Served’ here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/08/what-jeffrey-epsteins-death-means-justice/595909/
August 22, 2017:
“First of all, on behalf of the Archdiocese, please permit me to express my deep regret and sorrow that your husband was abused by one of our priests. The sexual abuse of children and the ways in which these crimes and sins were addressed in the past have caused enormous pain, anger, and confusion. It has also led to awful tragedies like the death of your husband. No mere apology can rectify the harm that was done, but I hope that you will accept it in the spirit of profound sorrow in which it is offered.”
Why does this matter? The husband referenced here was mine. Peter died by suicide in the Huntington Gorge on June 14, 1994, at the age of 32, when our four young children were 4, 3, 22 months, and 2 months old. This left me riddled with questions and, for decades searching for clues in the midst of raising four children and trying to survive.
This shocking missive came via email from by Edward Mechmann, Esq., Director of Safe Environment for the Archdiocese of New York.
To read more, visit the My Stories tab. For an article about Cardinal Dolan’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, visit Must Read.