Berlin To Compensate Victims of Paedophile Foster Scheme

Berlin To Compensate Victims of Paedophile Foster Scheme

The Times, Wednesday March 4, 2020 by Oliver Moody, Berlin

[ This is not a unique aberration. In the 1960s, 70s and indeed much later there were many "experiments" of this type by people so enamored of "liberation" and so devoured by hatred of "reactionaries" that they threw all caution to the winds. The liberal Establishment today are their lineal descendants and not very keen to expose the misdeeds of their own kind. I note without surprise that
 "Four years ago the Berlin Senate commissioned an inquiry into the scandal from experts at Göttingen University. Their final report has yet to be published."]

The social scientist Helmut Kentler argued that paedophilia could have “positive consequences”

Two victims of a bizarre social experiment in which Berlin’s city hall deliberately placed troubled children in the care of paedophiles are on the brink of winning compensation.

From 1969 to 2003 the authorities put at least nine boys in the hands of convicted sex offenders on the advice of a disgraced social scientist. The idea behind the Kentler experiment — named after Helmut Kentler, an academic who argued that paedophilia could have “positive consequences” — was that unruly and “feeble-minded” children would benefit from adult sexual attention. 

In the late 1960s Kentler persuaded West Berlin’s ruling Senate that the homeless boys would jump at the opportunity to be fostered by paedophiles and would be “head over heels in love” with their new father figures.

One of the boys, referred to in legal proceedings as Marco, had been taken into care after suffering physical abuse at the hands of his father. In 1989, aged six, he was placed with a convicted child abuser. A year later this foster father, Fritz H, began going into Marco’s room for a “cuddle”. Marco has claimed in an interview with Der Spiegel, a weekly news magazine, that for ten years he was repeatedly beaten and raped by Fritz H, until he reached the threshold of adulthood and fought back.

Another of Fritz H’s victims, given the cover name Sven, was abandoned by his parents at the age of seven and contracted hepatitis B on the streets of Berlin. In 1990 he was entrusted to the paedophile and suffered repeated sexual assaults.

Fritz H is alleged to have recorded the abuses on a video camera and kept the boys isolated from the outside world in his flat. From 1974 Fritz H, who has since died, fostered four other boys. One of them, who is referred to as Sascha, lived in the flat at the same time as Sven and Marco. Sascha was allegedly neglected and denied medical care, leading to his death in 2003 from pneumonia.

It is not known how many children were subjected to the Kentler experiment. Four years ago the Berlin Senate commissioned an inquiry into the scandal from experts at Göttingen University. Their final report has yet to be published. At the beginning of the experiment, Kentler, who died in 2008, was regarded as one of Germany’s foremost sexologists and often appeared as an expert witness in court cases. He boasted of having secured the acquittal of several alleged paedophiles.

In 1970 he urged the Bundestag to decriminalise sex between adults and children in West Germany, arguing that teenagers were “almost always more seriously damaged” by the prosecution of their abusers than by the abuse itself. Nine years later he published a book in which it was claimed that numerous scientific studies had produced no evidence of paedophilia’s negative effects.

Marco and Sven were so badly scarred by their ordeal that they have been unable to work. In 2016 they brought a formal complaint to the city authorities.The Senate has now agreed in principle to pay them compensation as part of an out-of-court settlement, according to Der Tagesspiegel, a daily newspaper, but there is a dispute over the extent of the damages.

One of the victims’ lawyers is said to have pressed for a lump sum of €100,000 and a monthly pension of €2,500, backdated to the end of the fostering arrangement in 2001. The city of Berlin has said that it is working on a “solution that would satisfy the interests of those affected”.


And this is a German report from 2016 when the Inquiry by the Berlin Senate commenced

Child Abuse Head of German 'Pedophilia Project' Believed Sex Was Beneficial for Street Kids

 16.12.2016  Sputnik Germany

The scandal surrounding the Berlin Senate's project, in which homeless teens were deliberately sent to pedophile men who were employed as their foster fathers and took care of them, is gaining more and more attention across Germany.

A study by the Institute for Democratic Research at the University of Göttingen is supposed to reveal further details about the scandal.In this regard, Sputnik Germany discussed the issue with the head member of the investigation team, Teresa Nentwig, who revealed shocking details about the project.

"Men who had been convicted of sexual contact with minors were appointed by the Berlin leadership as guardians. Children and young people, who lived on the street before that, had to "pay" for a warm bed, good food and clean clothes, engaging in sexual relationships with their caregivers," Nentwig said.

The initiator of this project was Helmut Kentler, psychologist and professor at the University of Hannover. His idea was that the sexual intercourse should have had a positive impact on the personal development of the neglected boys.

The project was aimed at the so-called "children of the Zoo station," involved in drug trafficking and prostitution. At that time, Nentwig said, the Berlin authorities were helpless and didn't know how they should behave toward these young people, and so were ready to carry out even such "experiments".

Such willingness can be "partly explained by the historical context," Nentvig stated.

"There are many things that must be considered as a complex issue. The 1960s were a time of sexual liberalization and educational breakthrough […]. There was also a striving for a full legalization of sexual relations between adolescents and adults, and Helmut Kentler was one of those who promoted this initiative in a special committee of the Bundestag," the expert said.

In 2013, the Senate started investigations into this experiment. However, according to Nentwig, a full-scale investigation proved to be impossible because not all relevant documents could be declassified.

"The fact is that access to them can be granted only after a certain period of time. There have been initiatives to reduce this period: some of the applications were approved, but others were rejected for reasons connected with the protection of personal information," the expert said.

Communication with the victims has also proven problematic. According to Nentwig, they do not want to describe their experiences and recall their terrible past.

However, the expert believes that it is necessary to continue the investigation and, in particular, examine the case of the Odenwald School, a boarding school where the Berlin Senate sent underage boys, many of whom are assumed to have later become subject to sexual abuse.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and I

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

Background

According to the Wikipedia article on the former Cardinal Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick was ordained in 1958, he became an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1977, then became bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey in 1981. From 1986 to 2000, he was Archbishop of Newark. He became a cardinal in February 2001 and served as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2006........... McCarrick has been accused of engaging in sexual conduct with adult male seminarians over the course of decades. This sexual conduct was alleged to be an open secret in some ecclesial circles.Though multiple reports about McCarrick's alleged conduct with adult seminarians  were made to American bishops and the Vatican between 1993 and 2016, allegations of sexual abuse against male minors were not publicly known until 2018. [My emphasis] In June 2018, the Vatican removed McCarrick from public ministry because of credible sexual abuse allegations. In July 2018, the New York Times published a story detailing a pattern of sexual abuse of male seminarians and minors. The emergence of these reports and the lack of action from the church hierarchy infuriated Catholics and sparked demands for action against church leaders believed to be responsible.

McCarrick submitted his resignation from the College of Cardinals in July 2018, and his resignation was accepted by Pope Francis. After a church investigation and trial, he was found guilty of sexual crimes against adults and minors and abuse of power. McCarrick was dismissed from the clergy in February 2019.  He is the most senior church official in modern times to be defrocked and is believed to be the first cardinal ever defrocked for sexual abuse. [End of Wikipedia quote]

One result of the atmosphere of hysteria surrounding allegations of child abuse, is that it makes it difficult to evaluate genuine complaints. Also in the United States, ages of consent to sexual activity have always made at the State level. Since 2018 the legal age of consent varies between 16 and 18 depending on the jurisdiction but has been much lower (I think it was 13 in the State of Texas as recently as the early 2000s). My reading of the McCarrick case is that he sexually harassed male seminarians - who would have been adults or very close - and that the "minor" claims were made as a result of the explosion of media publicity in 2018. According to Catholic League President Bill Donohue  "In the case of Cardinal McCarrick, the alleged abuse took place a half century ago (in the 1970s), and the alleged victim was a teenager, thus ruling out pedophilia."

 I originally suspected that the entire scandal might be a fake - similar to the false allegations against all four Irish Archbishops or the lunatic "Operation Midland" in the UK that targeted top Tory leaders.

Article in America Magazine - and Discussion 

Part of the publicity was an article in America Magazine on 25 July 2018 by Michael J O'Loughlin  Albany priest describes culture of harassment under McCarrick that described the experiences of Desmond Rossi when he was a seminarian in Newark in 1986.  Apparently McCarrick, then newly appointed Archbishop of Newark routinely invited a number of seminarians to a house on the shore with limited sleeping accommodations, resulting in one of them sharing a bed with the bishop. According to Fr. Rossi, he and a friend later realized that the archbishop would cancel weekend gatherings "if there were not enough men going that they would exceed the number of available beds, thus necessitating one guest to share a bed with the archbishop". Apart from harassment by the Archbishop      Fr Rossi narrated an episode where following a night of drinking, he and two other student priests returned to the rectory. There, he said, one of the men threw him onto the bed and began kissing him while the other tried performing oral sex on him. He said he did not report the assault out of a “strange sense of loyalty,” fearful that it would derail his friends’ careers. "Part of the problem was, I think, [Archbishop McCarrick] kind of gave license to others by his own behavior,” Father Rossi said. “When you have that kind of corrupted morality at the top, it gives permission to others."

Desmond Rossi was aged about 25 at that time and subsequently transferred before ordination from the Archdiocese of Newark to the diocese of Albany in New York State where is is currently a  priest in active ministry. According to the America article, Father Rossi returned to active priestly ministry in the Diocese of Albany in 2017 following a roughly 15-year leave, which he said was due to developing “major depression and P.T.S.D. related to the abuse I experienced in Newark.” He said the sexual abuse crisis in the church, which was coming to light in 2002, triggered his depression. 

Father Rossi says he wants a “total inquiry” to discover “who knew what” about Archbishop McCarrick and to discover why steps were not taken to protect seminarians from harassment. “I hope that this gets cleaned up,” Father Rossi said. “I hope we’re starting now to be honest.” Given the current atmosphere of hysteria, this scenario resembles a Jew who has a (possibly justified) grievance against the Chief Rabbi but chooses to voice it during an anti-Semitic pogrom!

Extract from (52) Comments on Article

arthur mccaffrey
my advice to Mr Rossi is to sue for as much $$ as he can get from RCC for PTSD, then leave the priesthood and find another vocation of service to his fellow man that does not involve being part of a criminal organization.

Seems like Rossi is very confused and conflicted and I hope he finds a good therapist to guide him. Rossi is absolutely correct that McCarrick was GROOMING him for further sexual exploitation--this is a classic behavior pattern among all pedophiles, and McCarrick was a pro-----the same charm that he used to bed his victims is the same charm he used to rise thru the RCC hierarchy. McCarrick should be in jail and on the Sexual Offender list just like all the other guys who are predators.

Fred Keyes
As wicked and deserving of severe punishment as the Cardinal's behavior and those of others like him was, it's still exceptional. The Church will survive it.

Suing it seems to me is OK to cover costs as Fr. Rossi did, but I can't see suing for money that comes ultimately from good people's pockets.

Joan McKniff
Over a period of decades this behavior was not reported by a priest who said Mass, heard Confessions of Sins by lay people, who went to confession and received Communion, who pledged his life to service to God and others, put or let others be put at risk for abuse. That delay needs more of an explanation than he felt a sense of loyalty and the Bishop was charming! Come on!

J Jones
Joan ---- Your response has a name: "blaming the victim".

Fr Rossi explains the delay. 1) The power dynamics in the Church. 2) mental illness which resulted from the abuse irself AND the trap created by the power dynamics and abuses in the church; 3) 15 years NOT in ministry

Rory Connor
"Blaming the victim" does not explain why people doubt certain allegations of sex abuse directed against Catholic bishops. I have a separate comment regarding the situation in Ireland where (among other things) four Archbishops were subjected to false accusations. There are only four Archdioceses in Ireland and after the THIRD was accused, I used to joke that the Archbishop of Tuam was obviously next on our anti-clerics hit list! OBVIOUSLY I was correct!

Rory Connor
I have a blog essay entitled "Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland". All four of our Archbishops were the subject of false abuse-related claims and the other four "ordinary" bishops were VERY prominent. No obscure Irish bishops were accused! Is this American case for real?
http://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/07/seven-falsely-accused-bishops-and.html


Of the eight prelates accused, most were conservative but I would classify two as "liberal". However none of the false allegations came from Irish conservatives. The first one in 1994 involved The Guardian newspaper in the UK claiming that an unnamed Irish bishop was a member of a paedophile ring. They thought they could avoid a libel suit by not naming him but they gave enough details to expose themselves to a class libel suit from the Conference of Bishops and had to apologise.

J Jones
Rory, I did not read Joan's response as an indicator that she doubts this priest's allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. I think she is criticizing this victim for not having responded to the abuse the way she thinks (and understandably wishes) he had responded.

She seems to misunderstand both the context and meaning of the priest's observation that McCarrick was charming. He was describing McCarrick's personal characteristics which increased the success of his grooming and sexual hassassment of seminarians and young priest's.

She overlooked the power dynamics McCarrick exploited and many of which the priest identifies in this article. The combined force of McCarrick's charming social skills AND his power AND his cagey manipulations would give any thinking person pause as to whether anyone would choose to listen to an underling's profoundly serious allegations about that charming, powerful leader.

Criticizing a victim for not meeting others' expectations about how a victim should behave is, indeed, the very essence of blaming the victim.

Rory Connor
OK. We begin with different attitudes and experiences. I have some experience of these kind of allegations in Ireland and UK and have got very cynical. In the UK, CLASS hatred is a bigger issue than (our Irish) anti-Clericalism. See Wikipedia article on "Operation Midland" where victims of lunatic claims included - and I quote - "the former home secretary Leon Brittan, the former prime minister Edward Heath, the former chief of defence staff Lord Bramall, the former director of the Secret Intelligence Service Maurice Oldfield, and Michael Hanley, the former Director-General of MI5".

The only victim who never achieved Ministerial rank (or similar) was a Tory MP who had to resign 20 years before as result of a GENUINE sex scandal; thus he was a "celebrity" of sorts and became a target! ALL targets of "Operation Midland" in the UK were well-known conservative members of the Establishment. There are too many parallels with Ireland and the USA I believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Midland

J Jones
Rory, of course there will be false allegations and lives are damaged by them.

That is why credible investigations are essential before everybody and dogs named Joe start attacking. McCarrick has victims who have already been paid off by the RCC. This priest's allegations are factually similar. This priest went public from the altar, risking losing everything.

There is no acceptable or credible justification for attacking this priest, for blaming him for McCarrick's abuse of others (as joan did) or for blaming or maligning him or attacking his masculinity or his courage (as the male commenter below did) or for having been impacted negatively by McCarrick's harassment.

That is all classic victim-blaming and it is well understood as part of the pressure that silences existing and future victims of this and other perpetrators. And perpetrators KNOW this and they COUNT on this


Victoria Bako
God bless you, Fr. Rossi. I know this isn't easy for you, but I hope more will come out and talk about their abuse so this madness comes to an end and justice is done. These abusers are very, very charming. Never underestimate the charm of a predator. They have to win you over to get close enough to hurt you.

Frank Gibbons
48 seminarians from Tegucigalpa’s major seminary have written a letter protesting the large scale existence of homosexual behavior within the seminary. The letter is unsigned because of fear of reprisals. Many are considering leaving the seminary. True to form, Cardinal Maradiaga accused these young men of being "gossipers".

The news of the seminarians’ protest came after months of allegations involving homosexual abuse and financial misconduct by Bishop Pineda.

Since last December, Cardinal Maradiaga has been accused of allowing Bishop Pineda to continue to serve in his post, and even placing him in charge of the archdiocese during the cardinal’s absence to receive medical treatments for prostate cancer in Houston, despite a body of allegations against Bishop Pineda of homosexual relationships — including with seminarians." National Catholic Register 7/25/18.

Cardinal Maradiagra is one of Pope Francis' closest advisors.

The corruption is ubiquitous. But the hedge is down. I have never criticized Pope Francis but he needs to enter a period deep reflection and reconsider some of the appointments he's made and the advisors whom he surrounds himself with.


justinreany@gmail.com
I have asked repeatedly: Where is the courage of young men today?!?! The moment that this homosexual pervert touched any of these young men, he should have had a broken jaw! That's how you deal with these pervs in the clergy! Beat the living sense out them and expose it. I can tell you if any cleric did this to me when I qas in discernment or my sons he would have to flee in hiding because of what I would do to him. Two things have perpetuated this crisis: (1) evil men covering for each other in the hierarchy; (2) lack of testicular fortitude amongst men. Period.

J Jones
Justin --- your response has a name: "blaming the victim" . It is one of the reasons victims remain silent. If they disclose their abuse, someone (you and Joan, above, in this case) will be dissatisfied with some aspect of the disclosure and will attack them for THAT.

You and Joan just contributed to another victim's decision to remain silent.

Florence Sundberg
July 27th: Sorry but this Priest seems like an immature adolescent. He says others threw him down and molested him... I have brothers and male cousins and friends - none of them would ever have allowed another male to seduce them or engage in any kind of sexual behavior with them. This Priest did not report those who allegedly molested him because he did not want to harm their 'careers' - what hogwash!!! He needs to man up and admit that he is part of the problem. How did McCarrick get adult males to allow him to engage in sexual activity with them? I don't care how much power or influence McCarrick had ... again, no male in my family or among my friends and colleagues would have permitted this for any reason...

J Jones
Florence -- Perpetrators like Cardinal McCarrick are 100% aware that people (even women!) will attack, malign, humiliate, verbally abuse, shun, reject and otherwise participate in destroying the lives of victims (especially men!) if they dare to tell anyone.

Perpetrators COUNT on people like you behaving exactly as you have here.

You just made YOURSELF part of McCarrick's harassment of innocent men who just wanted to serve God and YOU.

And I would put money on it that you just silenced another victim, either one harassed and abused in the past or someone just being victimized as I write.

THIS IS HOW ABUSE OF POWER WORKS. Other people volunteer, as you have here, to ensure the silence of victims by publicly attacking and humiliating any victim who comes forward.

People who speak as you have here today are part of the problem. The priest is a victim of McCarrick and, now you, Florence

And I would money on it that this innocent, dedicated priest will forgive you. Cardinal McCarrick created the opportunity for you to behave in such an ugly way.

And, no, I do not know this priest. The depth of his faith, the sincerity of his vocation, the test of his strength and courage as a man and the depth of his love of the people of God (even those who would act in the ugly way you have here) --- his love of God and his determination to respond to God's call that he serve God and all God's creation --- all of that is made manifest in his return to seminary, his return to the priesthood, his return to ministry.

Next time I am on the east coast, I will seek out this priest and the opportunity to participate in Eucharist with him. THIS priest, this brave man, has been tested and he survived, faith intact. God bless him.

Dolores Pap8 
You are so right! My friend's brother was molested by the local parish priest in a neighboring town- he was too was scared to tell his parents because he felt that nobody would believe him..That priest was finally sued by 21(!!) of his other victims, but sadly, one of the men was so emotionally damaged that he killed himself.

Thank you for speaking out for these innocent victims..


Rory Connor
Reply to Florence Sundberg. Florence: That is the first thing that occurred to me when I read the article [Immaturity] but the point is so unfashionable nowadays that I kind of forgot about it and concentrated on a different - although not unrelated - issue. I also find the following comment surprising:
“I hope that this gets cleaned up,” Father Rossi said. “I hope we’re starting now to be honest.”

What does he expect except a CONTINUATION of an unrelenting media assault on the Catholic Church, that has been underway for the best part of two decades now? Nothing is "starting"!!

J Jones
Rory, I am not aware of any context in which it is unfashionable to refer to immaturity as immaturity.

Rory, please help me understand you.

Are you saying that this priest is responsible for public awareness of former Cardinal McCarrick's abusive and harassing behavior? Are you further suggesting that that makes this priest culpable for the negative press about former Cardinal McCarrick's abusive and haraassing behavior? Are you further blaming this priest for the harm to the RCC caused by the former Cardinal's abusive and harassing behavior?

Rory Connor
You are not aware of any context in which it is unfashionable to refer to immaturity as immaturity? What about when someone suggests that an (alleged) victim of sexual assault should not have drunk herself into a stupor in the company of a man she barely knew - or alternatively that she should not have agreed to go home with a man she first met in a night-club a couple of hours before? A well known Irish radio broadcaster very nearly lost his job for saying something like that. One feminist critic informed him that "Victim-blaming is all too familiar to women in Ireland. George is giving the message that men can do what they want and it is the drunken woman who is to blame. Women have the right to be drunk. They have the right to say no. They have the right to walk down the street naked if they wish..." This lady was advocating behaviour that is both criminal and stupid. A woman who walks down the street drunk and naked would be lucky to be arrested before she is assaulted! However I may have been the only one to say that - certainly no-one in the mainstream media did so. It is becoming dangerous for men to give pragmatic advise to women that they should avoid dangerous situations because the man can be accused of "victim-blaming" and may even be fired!
http://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/09/fiona-doyle-and-george-hook.html

As to your related question - the then 25 year old priest should have behaved like an adult at the time. Since he did not, he should not now be making his allegations in the middle of a hysterical media attack on the Catholic Church. A Jew may have a valid complaint about his Rabbi but he should not air it in the middle of an anti-Semitic pogrom because what then occurs will NOT be "healing"!

Fr. Des Rossi
Rory, this is Fr Des Rossi. There are many feelings and many concerns out there in response to the behavior of Archbishop McCarrick. I was a 25 year old kid when this all happened to me. I have come forward as part of the healing process, to assist our Church going forward to learn the lessons here and "right the ship." I want to remind others that I spoke with the journalist who published the article for a few hours, so it's important to remember that not everything I said was included in the article. I want to Thank Michael O'Loughlin for a job well done. Peace!

Rory Connor
Father Rossi. Sorry for delay in replying. I was a 16 year adolescent - and immature for my age - when I had my first summer job and my first time away from home. I was working in a hotel and actually didn't make a great success of it. However when a drunken hotel guest made a sexual suggestion when I had brought him and his luggage to a room, I handled it quite well. I was extremely startled but recognised I was in no danger and politely said no. I informed my immediate boss because I thought I should, but he just raised his eyes to the skies and did nothing as far as I know. I didn't expect anything different as the most junior member of staff had less status than a paying guest. I have never blamed it or ANY other single episode for damaging me. I did make a couple of serious mistakes in my life which cannot now be repaired (I am 68) but I don't agonise over them and especially I don't blame others - even though these errors were not entirely my own doing. (Also other people suffered because of what I did!).

There is no "healing process" going on in the Catholic Church at the moment certainly not in Ireland and not in America either I'm sure. Nothing is "starting" either - just relentless thuggish abuse from journalists whose anti-clerical hatred is the "liberal" equivalent of the anti-Semitic variety. (In Ireland this LITERALLY includes Blood Libels that are directed against Catholics instead of Jews - one of them coming from a politician who later became Minister for Justice! ). Your narrative just feeds into this and I cannot understand how it is supposed to "right the ship".
Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland

Carlos Orozco
Gay culture in the Seminaries. Not a new phenomenon. I remember a papal commission during the pontificate of Benedict XVI reporting of such an infestation. What steps have been taken to erradicate it? One Marcial Maciel is one too many.

J Jones
Carlis, your use of the word "infestation" to describe the presence of human beings in an institution is both repugnant and it reveals your bigotry.

Carlos Orozco
J, Please don't try to bend my comment: human beings are not an infestation. I stand by the term to designate the presence of a destructive CULTURE that directly contradicts 2,000 years of Church teachings. I am not willing to close my eyes and ears to the consequences of relativizing the toxic effects of such culture.

J Jones
Thanks for the clarification. I still would encourage you not to use the word in this context.

Fr. Des Rossi
First of all, I want to thank the hundreds of people who have reached out to me on email, phone, cards, letters and on the street. Your support not only strengthens me but it also strengthens us all. Please be charitable with one another. Listen to one another. Try to heal one another. Don't let the the divisive spirit of the evil one win. Christ calls us to bear up with one another. As for ones who are angry, I am angry also. As for the ones who weep, I have wept, too. As for the ones who feel ashamed, believe me, I have been there. I was in exile in the wilderness for many years wondering where my God was and felt abandoned. But today, I realize he was strengthening me for the future that would unfold. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us and your Church. Assist us in doing good and avoiding evil, so that your kingdom may be made manifest among us all. Love & Peace, Fr. Des Rossi

J Jones
Fr Des Rossi, you are indeed a minister to and for the people of God. I am profoundly grateful for your courage and willingness to be healed and to heal. I will take your message to prayer and be mindful of your example. I wish iived in Albany so I could be part of your parish and participate in the mystery of the Christian experience with you and grow in my own journey. You are the real deal. Welcome home, brother Des Rossi. You are needed.

Jean Davis
Father Rossi you are so admirable and I am praying for you.

Jean Davis
Father Rossi’s narrative is deeply disturbing and tragic. How brave he is! This evil in the church must end.

J Jones
Many want to deny that abuse of power is the fundamental dynamic here.

I do not think power makes otherwise healthy people sexually attack other people.

Power does, however, provide the opportunity for sexual predators to groom, abuse, harass and then threaten their victims with harm should they disclose all of the above; power then provides the sexual predator with the protection of others who are invested in the predator's retention of that power and who will deny that it is possible the abuse could have happened and/or join the predator in destroying the victim's credibility, courage and, if necessary, the victim's entire life. The "power" of power is so real and, yes, POWERFUL that perpetrators need not even overtly threaten many victims because "the power of the powerful" to control the narrative and the outcomes is so obvious that victims understand the threat without having to hear the words. ........

For instance, sexual abuse is "about sex" only some of the time. Sexual abuse and harassment is often about violence (with sexual assault often being an incredibly violent act), domination, the perpetrator's pathological pride that he/she has that power, humiliation, retaliation, control, punishment, retribution, manipulation, a threat to achieve another end, psychological torture, or to relieve pathological stress/anxiety/etc. within a predator who is psychologically damaged and had no other coping tools, etc.

Those motives are NOT "about sex".

Abuse of power is not a hypothesis. It is well known dynamic in just about every sphere of human endeavor and in just about every field of scholarship. It is addressed in law and policy at every level of government all over the world.

Richard Webster, The Idea of Evil and Operation Midland

Carl Beech - sentenced to 18 Years for False Allegations of Child Abuse and Homicide

There is a lot in common between the hysterical allegations at the core of the London Metropolitan Police's "Operation Midland" (2014/16) and the similar hysteria on the island of Jersey in 2008. Both included prolonged investigation into the alleged murders of children decades before and in neither case was the identity of the supposed child victims ever established. The Jersey case (involving the former residential institution of Haut de la Garenne), must have been the first in British history where the police launched a homicide investigation in the absence of both a body and the identity of an alleged victim! 

However the Jersey case was not the first such in the British Isles. Beginning about 1996 there were a series of media charges - and resulting Garda investigations - that Irish children had been murdered by the Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy or Passionist priests. Many of the allegations related to periods when no child dies of ANY cause - so I coined the phrases "Murder of the Undead" and "Victimless Murders". By 2008 many of these homicide claims had been shown to be nonsense and that aspect of our child abuse witch-hunt seemed to be fading away. In fact I wrote an article in 2006 that (wrongly) assumed the whole lunacy was at an end. An updated version - that includes the original 2006 text - is here: Blood Libel In Ireland - directed against Catholics Not Jews!

Accordingly when the Jersey scandal broke on 23 February 2008 I wrote an online comment to an article in the Times (UK) on 26 February and also emailed Richard Webster with whom I had corresponded regarding his 2005 book "The Secret of Bryn Estyn: The Making of a Modern Witch-Hunt". He agreed with me that the Jersey allegations (featuring the former juvenile detention centre, Haut de la Garenne) were a reprise of the Irish ones and equally nonsensical. For the next 6 months he was very active in debunking the Jersey hysteria using his blog and also his journalist connections (that I sadly lack). The whole lunacy collapsed in late 2008 and the following are two comments that I made to Richard's article dated 16 November 2008 "Something evil had happened . . . I had to go on' - Jersey in the Sunday papers"

I'm pleased to see that I quoted my first comment to The Times article - made just 3 days after the scandal broke - as it's no longer available otherwise. 

Richard Webster died of a heart attack in June 2011 aged just 60. If he were alive today, I believe he would be surprised and distressed that the kind of child abuse hysteria he helped to demolish in 2008, is still very much with us. OR perhaps the demise of "Operation Midland" and the jailing of Carl Beech has at least discredited the homicidal aspects of the Witch-Hunt?

I have an article on my old website (not blog) "In Memory of Richard Webster"


Rory Connor
20 August 2019


These are my two reactions to Richard Websters article dated 16 November 2008

Kilbarry1   21 November 2008 
It was obvious from the beginning that these allegations were based on hysteria. In a comment on a TimesOnLine article dated 26 FEBRUARY ("Beast of Jersey Paedophile...") I wrote the following:

In Ireland between 1999 and 2004 we had a large number of allegations that children had been killed in industrial schools run by the Christian Brothers. These included accusations in a major Sunday Newspaper of mass killing ("a Holocaust") at Letterfrack in Co. Galway. Not a single claim has proved to be correct. This is not surprising as several relate to periods when no child died of ANY cause. (I call these "Murder of the Undead" allegations). **

One body was exhumed and proved to be a death from natural causes but the resulting publicity resulted in dozens of child abuse claims within a couple of weeks against the institution.

The child killing allegations were not made by isolated nutcases but by major newspapers and by leading members of child abuse organisations. They have now ceased but the people responsible have not been called to account.

What is happening in Jersey looks like a repeat of our Irish witch-hunt.

Rory Connor, Dublin, Ireland

Richard feels that the response of the British media to the latest revelations is inadequate. In Ireland the media simply buried the scandal since they were almost 100% responsible for it. At least your UK journalists can cast the blame on Lenny Harper (who is from Derry by the way) and so they are prepared to give LIMITED coverage to the collapse of this witch-hunt. We should be so lucky in my country!

Rory Connor, Dublin 

** I also coined the phrase "Victimless Murders"!



Kilbarry1    21 November 2008 
Further to comment above, while I support (nearly) everything Richard has said and done to combat this witch-hunt, I am a bit uneasy about his treatment of the concept of "Evil". I don't believe that the underlying cause was an unhealthy obsession with evil. In Ireland the cause was definitely anti-clericalism - and specifically hatred of the Catholic Church. The hysteria has now spread to encompass the whole of our society but it started as a hate-filled attack on the Church - with journalists being the main offenders.

I suspect that in Jersey, the cause was Hatred of Authority. One prominent Jersey politician seems to be consumed with loathing of his colleagues. Also Jersey is a small island with a number of rich people who seem to dominate the economy and politics. Nobody is starving but I suspect there are lots of relatively unsuccessful people who are prepared to use any means whatsoever to bring down the local elite.

Many journalists also loathe authority and tradition and are very destructive types. It's not that they are obsessed with evil but that they are prepared to (literally) demonise any person or institution they don't like. When Lenny Harper made a foolish and premature announcement last February about finding "part of a child's skull", these journalists descended on Jersey like a pack of wolves, determined to discover a vile conspiracy of child abusers among the elite. Their behaviour made it very difficult for Mr. Harper to backtrack and he pressed on regardless of the mounting evidence that his original decision was wrong. In my opinion THAT would explain a great deal of what happened in Jersey - and it ties in with our experience in Ireland!

Rory Connor

UPDATE: 22 August 2019

Eight years after the death of Richard Webster, I wonder why I partially disagreed with his article "Something Evil had Happened" - and specifically his use of the concept of "Evil". I corresponded with him on and off for  a few years and I supplied him with the Irish section of his book "The Secret of Bryn Estyn" - about 5 pages out of 600. He published that section online under the title "States of Fear, the Redress Board and Ireland's Folly". I see that in my second comment above I wrote "It's not that [journalists] are obsessed with evil but that they are prepared to (literally) demonise any person or institution they don't like. Is it the case that I was actually agreeing with him while using slightly different language?

Actually we had a theological dis-agreement concerning the role of Christianity and specifically Original Sin!  I wrote about this in a previous article "Satanic Ritual Abuse in Ireland (and the Shortage thereof) vs "Normal" False Allegations". 

"The late cultural historian Richard Webster suggested to me that the reason Ireland had practically no Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) cases was the influence of the Catholic Church and its strong opposition to Freudian ideas. The Church opposed Freudianism because of the implications for Catholic doctrines regarding sin, free will and personal responsibility. Richard Webster was an atheist (NOT of the Dawkins persuasion) but he was also a major critic of Freud and and believed that SRA was a logical development of his ideas.

"Based on what Richard Webster suggested, I developed my own theory that false allegations of child murder in Ireland are our equivalent of SRA - except that in OUR case Freudian delusions are replaced by open lying. (I am thinking in particular of the cases where no child died of ANY cause during the period in question). However I don't know enough about Freud and he didn't know enough about Ireland to prove anything of the sort. It could be a useful subject for a law graduate looking for a doctoral thesis!"

Gordon McKenzie asked me to clarify what Richard meant and I replied:

"I find the theory behind his thesis difficult to understand. I think he is saying that modern society thought it had dispensed with the concepts of Sin, Evil and the Devil but that Freud was a kind of secular Messiah who brought them back in secular form. One of my difficulties with Webster's THEORY is that he emphasizes that Freud re-established the Christian doctrine of Original Sin. However that doctrine states that evil is a basic - although not dominant - element in human nature and that therefore we are all sinful. I would have thought that this doctrine works AGAINST the modern tendency to see child sex abusers as sub-human vermin. Evil is within us and we are not going to eradicate it by transferring our guilt and demonizing any section of humanity no matter how nasty their behaviour."

I have since read more (although not enough) of what Richard wrote on this subject and he had a different take on "Original Sin":

"The dream according to which human irrationality is finally defeated and replaced by the reign of reason has always been at the heart of Christian apocalyptic fantasies. It was Christianity which fostered the view that human irrationality and human viciousness, though part of our ‘fallen’ nature, were not part of our essential spiritual and rational identity. In the eternity of God’s kingdom which was to be established at the end of history, they would be banished for ever. It is religion, in other words, which has encouraged us to believe in an unrealistic version of human nature according to which all human unreason (traditionally personified as ‘the Beast’, the ‘Whore of Babylon’, or ‘Satan’) can be bound for a thousand years (the ‘millennium’) or somehow permanently excised from human nature. ‘Rationalism’ is, in this sense, the greatest of all the irrational delusions which has been promoted by our religious tradition.

"The muddle we have managed to get ourselves into by our failure to recognise this does not only have intellectual consequences, it is also potentially (and, indeed, actually) dangerous...."

Richard believed that the hysteria surrounding allegations of Satanic Abuse, child sexual abuse and rape  stem from this "secularised Christian" view of human nature whereby human irrationality will be finally defeated and excised from our nature. It's a theory that would be very difficult to prove but we do need to discuss what is the basis of these world-wide witch-hunts.  

The reason why I didn't fully agree with Richard's 2008 article "Something Evil Had Happened.." is probably that I was aware of the implications for Christianity of his theory. I have no difficulty in accepting his view that our current witch-hunts are related to those of early modern Europe (16th and 17th centuries). BUT I see the later as an aberration not as something intrinsic to Christianity! 
   

Forgiveness of Clerical Child Abusers? Response by former victim Santiago Cruz

Sister Camille D'Arienzo

[ Sister Camille D'Arienzo is a Sister of Mercy in the United States (Mid-Atlantic Community). I am quite hostile to the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland, due to their habit of apologising to those who make false accusations of child abuse and paying them large sums of money in an attempt to "heal their pain"! I have written about that HERE. However Sister Camille wrote a very interesting article in (the Jesuit) America Magazine in August 2008 entitled "Mercy Toward Our Fathers: Difficult as it may be, forgiving priests guilty of abuse could be the key to healing". It attracted an even more remarkable response from Santiago Cruz, a man who had himself been the victim such abuse. ]

The following is a comment by Santiago Cruz – once a victim of sexual assault – following an article in ‘AMERICA’ August 18-25, 2008 on the subject of Forgiveness of Clerical Child Abusers

I was a victim of sexual assault. I use the word “was” because I remained a victim until I forgave my abuser and moved on with my life, a process that concluded some years ago. Having said that, I want to comment on “Mercy Toward Our Fathers” by Sister Camille D’Arienzo, and on some of what has been posted here in the aftermath of this excellent article.

As a Catholic and sexual abuse “survivor,” I watched with much concern as the priesthood scandal unfolded in 2002.1 was riveted to the story of one of the victims, a middle -aged man who angrily revealed in front of TV cameras the harm done to him some thirty years ago. I listened as this man blamed everything that had ever gone wrong in his life on the priest who took advantage of him. I listened as his lawyer held press conferences describing why his scores of clients each deserved enhanced settlements from the Church (minus a 40 percent contingency fee, of course). Six years went by, and I recently listened again as the same man addressed a meeting of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) saying the very same things he said six years ago. The only addition – a six-figure settlement and a personal meeting with the Holy Father notwithstanding – was a claim that the Church has not done enough to ease his suffering or to respond to the crisis.

I listened as someone in these pages equated such suffering with the horrors of the Holocaust. I have listened enough. I will not hear another word from these so-called survivors and groups like VOTF that seem intent upon enabling them to never move on. I have heard enough.

It was the comparison with the Holocaust that has driven me over the edge. I have never before heard such narcissistic, self-serving, irresponsible rhetoric, and I will not hear any more of it. It offends every part of me, but it especially offends that part of me that worked so hard to recover from sexual victimization. Enough is enough. The sexual abuse of minors has been an epidemic in our society, and we have found a convenient scapegoat in the small percentage of priests who offended and in a Church that failed to act in 1975 as it would in 2005. There will not be true justice for victims until we move beyond the false notion that the Church and priesthood have been a special locus of sexual abuse, a myth that has benefited no one but personal injury lawyers and THEIR enablers in SNAP and VOTF.  [SNAP = "Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests"]

There will not be justice for victims until every institution in our culture embraces the transparency that has been embraced by the Catholic Church. Where is the public release of documents about accused clergy from other denominations? Why are public schools shielded from civil liability for abuse? Most alarming of all is the rhetoric about the so-called “cycle of abuse.” Why did Congressman Foley get to shift blame for his own misconduct on the priest he claimed abused him? The so-called cycle of victim-hood is such a convenient phenomenon. If it is true, then who is keeping an eye on the hundreds of middle-aged men who have received windfall financial settlements claiming abuse by priests in their childhoods?

As long as we allow VOTF, SNAP and others with an agenda to keep us bound up in the cycle of blame and vilification and loathing, there can be no healing for the victims, for the Church, for anyone. It is time for some of the so-called victim advocates in this picture to recognize that they are doing far more harm than good. I applaud Sister D’Arienzo for having the courage to write so openly against a seeming tidal wave of angry, unproductive rhetoric. Arguing for anything less than forgiveness and healing is to perpetrate and perpetuate abuse. It is time to turn off the TV cameras, send the lawyers packing, stop vilifying the new class of lepers we have created among the accused in our Church, and act like the Catholic Christians most of us strive to be. 
             
Santiago Cruz 
Santiago Cruz writes from Los Angeles

There was a follow-up Comment in  America Magazine in November 2008 by Ryan A. MacDonald

Re: Mercy toward our Fathers (Sr. Camille D'Arienzo, America 8/18) 

After reading Sr. Camille's wonderful article, I followed the comments here with some agreement, but much concern for the tone of most. How interesting that the view of Santiago Cruz seemed to be the final word. Well, I want to echo the thoughts of Mr. Cruz. He wrote what I believe many Catholics have thought and felt for some time, but have been hesitant to write for fear of being demonized by SNAP, VOTF and other "advocates."

 I agree with Mr. Cruz that real advocacy would lead victims to survive their victim-hood, not to wallow in it, profit from it, engage in smear campaigns because of it. I do not blame the victims of clergy sexual abuse for being hurt and angry, but no one should be more alarmed, insulted, and dispirited by false claims than real victims of sexual abuse. I believe that many of those who have used the current climate to demand financial settlements with no offer of proof are victims of nothing more than their own greed and lack of morally guiding principles. 

Santiago Cruz is right. Why is the victim of a priest so much more harmed than the victim of a teacher or coach, or minister? Yet teachers and school systems - which have been proven to have exponentially greater incidences of abuse - are exempt from litigation and vicarious responsibility. Why are SNAP and VOTF okay with that? The fact that they seem to have nothing to say about it is evidence that they are merely using The Scandal for some other agenda that has nothing to do with protecting children.

 I recently read that SNAP called a press conference from the office of a contingency lawyer to announce a lawsuit against the Jesuits because of the alleged behavior of a now elderly priest over 40 years ago. No one can prove or disprove such a claim, but the smear campaign and bullying into a lucrative settlement are already well underway.

 It is time for SNAP and VOTF to fold up and go away. They have done far more harm than good to real victims of abuse like Santiago Cruz. I thank him for opening my eyes to this. The only way VOTF can survive and serve our Church is to publicly denounce SNAP, its tactics, and its open promotion of contingency lawyers' goal to bankrupt Catholic institutions and then move on to some other trough. 

The abuse scandal is over. What we are seeing now is the abuse of the abuse scandal, and some rather shameless profiteering by what has become a gang of thugs masked as advocates. It's time for the Church's leaders to be shepherds again, and not sheep to be fleeced. It is time for them to stop throwing their priests to the litigious wolves. Greed ranks right up there with lust among the Seven Deadly Sins.

 Ryan A. MacDonald 

by Ryan A. MacDonald on November 22, 2008 at 10:31 PM 

Tom Humphries and Judge Karen O'Connor: Too Light a Sentence?

Tom Humphries

Judge Karen O'Connor

The funny thing about outbreaks of hysteria is how quickly they come to an end.  It's not really a positive factor however - more like a breathing space so that the media can prepare itself to launch the next one. It now looks like David Walsh is NOT going to lose his job with the Sunday Times for giving a character reference to the court. It may not be a CRIMINAL offence for his employer to fire him.

Can an Employer Fire a Person who Gives a Character Reference for a Convicted Sex Offender?

HOWEVER I suspect that an employer who did so in such circumstances, could be sued and the employee might well be awarded exemplary and punitive damages.

The OTHER issue that seems to have run out of steam is the denunciation of the judge for giving what was described as too light a sentence. There were several articles by journalists suggesting that the Director of Public Prosecutions Claire Loftus was likely to appeal the sentence and demand a tougher one.  However even at the height of the hysteria Shane Phelan wrote in the Irish Independent that "opinion is divided in legal circles as to whether such an appeal would lead to a different outcome". 

TRANSLATION: There isn't a hope in hell that an appeal by the DPP would result in an increased sentence. However if the media were still denouncing Judge Karen O'Connor, my guess is that the DPP would go ahead anyway just to appease the mob!

Barrister Tom O'Malley, who is senior law lecturer at NUI Galway had a detailed article in the Irish Independent on 28 October entitled "Why the Judge in the Humphries Case Got It Right"

The key parts of Tom O'Malley's article are here:

...The maximum sentence for the defilement offences to which Tom Humphries pleaded guilty was five years imprisonment. The judge clearly ranked these offences high in the scale of gravity because she set the headline sentence at four years for each (an element of her decision that has been largely ignored in media comment). Having given due credit for mitigating factors, notably the guilty plea, his medical condition and remorse, she arrived at a final sentence of two and a half years. ......

The statement made by Judge O'Connor when sentencing Mr. Humphries shows that she approached the case with great care. She took account of the aggravating as well as the mitigating factors (as reflected in the fact that she adopted a headline sentence close to the maximum for the defilement offences) and noted that he had not entered a guilty plea until a relatively late stage. She dealt in detail with the impact on the victim and in saying that one might have some sympathy for the offender's present situation, she stressed that this was not to be interpreted  as condoning in any way his criminal conduct.....

I predict that the sentence will stand. At this stage the DPP will probably not even try to appeal it, because the media and the mob have moved on to other things!


Tom O'Malley is a Senior Lecturer in Law in NUI Galway, a member of the Irish Law Reform Commission and a practising barrister specialising in judicial review