Back in January, Catholic League President and frequent Fox News contributor Bill Donohue called victims of priest abuse and their advocates and supporters a “pitiful bunch of malcontents” and “professional victims.”
Now Donahue is calling for victims to be ‘fought one-by-one’ so the church can save money.
He claims that Catholic bishops are reaching the conclusion that “they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough.” “We don’t need altar boys,” he told the New York Times.
This appalling attitude of "victim blame" is one of the more despicable games that the church plays. And typical of ignorance of the facts. The reason why there is an "epidemic" of people coming forward to tell their stories of sexual abuse by clergy is because they now can!
It is not that many years ago when it was unthinkable for abuse victims to talk about what happened to them, they were far too afraid, ashamed, embarrassed, and often threatened into silence.I suspect there will be many more thousands of abuse survivors who will now feel brave enough to speak, not because they have false memories, or because they are "jumping on a bandwagon" but because other brave survivors have paved the way! It has been our secrets that kept us sick.
I find it offensive to be refferred to as a pathetic malcontent! I am vehemently opposed to "professional victims"and I don't see any in my organisation, we are very much about empowerment! I was abused by a catholic priest from the age of ten until 13 when he raped me in my own home.My Mother who caught him in the act, did nothing and told me to "pray for him" that it must be part of "god's plan". It ruined a lot of my life,I was an alcoholic, addict, serious self harmer, and had an eating disorder. But I am NOT a victim! I have managed to become a respected professional in the field of substance misuse, have taught over 8 thousand health care workers, and have received an award for my contrution to the treatment of addiction. I have managed to transform that shit into manure, to grow something more beautiful.
Some of our members are 70 deaf and speech impaired Italian survivors , all of whom were systematically abused by the priests and nuns in their institution One man by sixteen priests! another man was forced to perform oral sex on a nun for punishment -he was eight years old. They are not victims! They are brave and dignified survivors of the worst betrayal of body and trust. We know that our strength comes from our connections with each other, and with honourable ,decent, like minded people who know that these were appalling criminal acts. We have an annual "celebration of survival day" and last year we danced in front of the vatican and set off hundreds of Chinese lanterns to show them that we are surviving DESPITE them, certainly not because of them! We know that if we wait around for the church to do the right thing, we will be dead and gone before that happens! So we will support and empower each other! The comments above are from people who clearly do not understand the nature of clergy abuse, and I am very pleased for them that they don't.But do not be fooled by the churche's obsequious apologies, staged sorrow, and promises about "psychological testing" or safeguarding. They sound great on paper but the reality is VERY very different.
If you really want to see survivors bravery come to Verona on June 30th! dance with us and show the World that you support decency and justice. Sue Cox Survivors Voice Europe
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