Today's (May 2, 2016) JoeMyGod included a full-page ad in the Albany, NY Times-Union newspaper
warning legislators that “professional
victims’ activists” would be in town to sway legislators to "a bill that
would lift the statute of limitations on charging the perpetrators of sexual
abuse against minors." Apparently, as far as Bill Donohue, president
of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the church does not see
this as a good thing, perhaps because it gives the victims rights. I am
not about to copy the ad. If you're curious to see the Roman Catholic
Church's stand on why the statute of limitations on children's ability to
report sex abuse, see www.joemygod.com for this date. I find it too
offensive and infuriating to re-publish here. However, this is what I
posted on JMG:
The LGBT
Center's DVD library received "Spotlight" last week and I watched
it... twice...over the weekend. I've also read "Betrayal," the book
upon which the movie is based. The book had me yelling out loud (Hubs is used
to that). The movie, necessarily shorter, is more focused on the immediate
goings on, but it's no less infuriating. There is a scene in the movie in which
the Stanley Tucci character says, "It takes a village to raise a child. It
takes a village to destroy one, too." As the Billy Crudup character says,
the statute of limitations runs out quickly; the victims don't say anything
because they're kids, and it's not the sort of thing a boy would admit to,
especially in a working class neighborhood. Another character asks at the end
of his silent victim speech, "How do you say 'no' to God?"
There is
much I don't understand about humans, about powerful organizations who cannot
admit to wrongdoing. Worse, I don't understand how an organization that
professes love, compassion and understanding prefers to blame the victims of
employees' abuses of the power given to them, and then continue to blame the
victims by trying to deflect blame to others...I get it, they need to save
their ass. Nixon said, "I am not a crook." Except he was.
I
understand vested interest, too, but that doesn't mean that changing the law in
favor of the victims is picking on the poor catholics. It means that ANY victim
of child abuse would have the gift of time to understand what happened to
her/him, to understand that it was wrong, that s/he has been suffering because
of hiding it, but s/he would be older, understand, and could accuse. The
catholic church is perhaps the largest organization facing child abuse
accusations, but so what? It's not just about the catholics. It's ANY child
abuse. Donahue gives the impression that it's just another catholic bashing,
poor baby. He writes to try to justify something, "...less than 1% of
priests nationwide have had a credible accusation made against him. Who can
beat that record?" He sounds as if having a child molester in the holy
organization is OK, he's defending the priests. Why in his god's name are the
victims unimportant? If it's only one victim, that's one too many. The church
was responsible for it; the church needs to own it. The priests broke both
civil and moral law, yet Donahue and the rest want to continue to cover up.
"How do you say 'no' to
God?" By helping the victims as much as we can.
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