On Sunday night around midnight, in the small town of Woodburn, Ore., a 12-year-old boy ran down a street screaming for help. A man dressed only in his underwear pursued him. The boy saw a group of people standing in a driveway and screamed, "Help me, a guy is chasing me." The bystanders drove the boy to his sister's home, where he explained, "Father Angel touched me in my privates."
This sounds like a scene out of a film, but this is not fiction. This is information taken from the Woodburn police department's probable cause statement.
On Monday, Rev. Angel Armando Perez was arrested. He faces allegations of first-degree sexual abuse, furnishing alcohol to a minor, using a child in display of sexually explicit conduct, and driving under the influence.
Like me, Father Perez was ordained in 2002, when the Catholic hierarchy's cover-up of sexual abuse was on the front page of nearly every U.S. publication. We received the same seminary "formation," which is the word used to describe the intellectual, psychological and spiritual overhaul that men undergo as they are "formed" into healthy, celibate and obedient priests.
When we were ordained 10 years ago, new priests were under a great deal of pressure. The people in the pews needed hope that our generation would change the duplicitous and corrupt clerical culture that had been unmasked. We had been "formed" to say all the right things.
A 2002 interview of Father Perez in The Oregonian reveals what he was saying at the time:
The sex scandals trouble him, but Perez says he is confident bishops are dealing with the problems. His new duties come first... "There are rules. There are so many rules," he said... "They taught us at the seminary -- we are not supposed to touch. I don't have any problems with that. I know my boundaries."
"I said to them, my faith is very strong," he recalls. "That even though we have these problems in the church right now, these sex scandals, I really believe the Holy Spirit sustains us. God is with us," he said, and stopped to look at his notes. Silence. In the pews, he heard one parishioner applaud. Then another, and another, until they all were clapping. For a moment, the anxiety that accompanies a new Catholic priest in 2002 went away.
I strutted into the nave toward the tabernacle and the clear windows that opened to the brick buildings of the university. My vestments swung about like they might lift me into the air. I pointed at the pew in which I'd once sat. "This is where it started. This is where an angry, lost kid listened to a homily about a deaf-mute and was opened to God. This is where I heard my calling to be a priest."
I marched up into the sanctuary and gazed at the upturned faces. They were the real Church, full of longing, willingness and trust. They deserved something more than what scandalous priests and bishops had shat upon them. My voice thundered through the speakers: "No matter what you're hearing in the press -- there's a lot of misinformation out there. Go to the source. Call seminary faculties. Talk to seminarians. The good men are still in the seminaries. And we are radically committed -- radically meaning we're gonna give our all to our vows, to our promises, and we are going to be the best priests that we can be. And live the mystery that we celebrate, which is the Lord's cross. We will turn over our weaknesses to the Lord so that he can make them into strengths."
The crowd leapt to their feet. My bones reverberated with an electric buzz that could only be the Holy Spirit. The foundation of St. Stephen's had never rumbled with such hope.
Over my shoulder, the priest, who had sexually assaulted me in the confessional during college and exploited me for two years after, clapped away. During the Mass, he'd said the homily. I hadn't wanted him anywhere near the celebration, but his absence would have raised questions. An unwritten tradition held that the pastor of the parish "honor" his priestly protégé by preaching at the special Mass. My Franciscan counselor had encouraged me to let my perpetrator preach, as an exercise in forgiveness and letting go.
In 2002, I chose silence, obedience and forgiveness. I played into the cycle of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. So did Father Angel Perez.
On Sunday night, after failing to chase down his 12-year-old victim, Father Perez drove, while drunk, to the victim's home. He told the boys' parents, "I am just one who serves in the church, and I have sinned; don't stop believing in the church." The police report goes on to state that Father Perez refused to leave his victim's home until "the mother forgave him and 'gave him her blessing.'"
At my Mass of Thanksgiving, I provided my perpetrator that same blessing. Eighteen months later, I rescinded that forgiveness and told the truth about what had happened to me. Reflecting on the events surrounding Father Angel Perez's arrest, I fear that other frightened and "well-formed" victims of sexual abuse may have granted him that same "blessing."
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Posted by admin on Oct 10, 2012 in All, Dan Ward
Father Dan Ward, OSB from Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota (USA) is under investigation following claims of sexual and other misconduct. The investigation was commissioned with the knowledge of Abbot John Klassen (Saint John’s Abbey and Bishop John Kinney (Diocese of Saint Cloud).
For years, Father Dan Ward has been one of the American-Cassinese Congregation’s top legal strategist. He does the same for religious around the world (including Saint Vincent’s Archabbey) in his role as executive director at the RCRI [ More ].
At least five men and one woman allege misconduct by Father Dan Ward.
Just days after the Father Dan Ward investigation began in October, Father Ward was scheduled to speak at a Canon Law Society of America (CLSA) conference in Chicago, Illinois.
See webmaster’s letter to the CLSA… here. http://www.behindthepinecurtain.com/wordpress/letter-to-clsa-regarding-dan-ward-investigation/
By the way, here's an article that puts the sex abuse scandals in its proper context: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/07/mean-men.html
Mind you not the Catholic Parishioners, but the Church and its hierarchy. As a former Catholic my heart goes out because I know the struggle many face. How do I reconcile the rich tradition I grew up with the harsh reality of the Church's actions. If not for the ingrained belief and dependence on the Eucharist, I think this church would be crippled today. For me it took realizing that these men of hate who proclaim themselves something their not hold no special powers or relation with God, to be able to pull away. When I reflect on the fact that I received communion for most of my child who from a serial pedophile rapist who was knowingly left in place to wound more children, I know that the church holds no power over me or anyone else. I had to laugh the other day. My mom showed me an article about a former priest starting a reformed Catholic Church. His former parish warned parishioners that anyone who went would be sinning by not going to church on Sunday and for taking a false Eucharist. I smiled and laughed to myself. I though Oh ya those would be really big since according to who, certainly not Christ or God. No these are their little human rules to capture and hold their poor helpless victims.
The words of your bible have little creditability to me, trying to make me follows "rules" from it is onerous, how dare you?
Please reference a single reference to Jesus, Christ or Christian in ANY Founding Document that set the principles of this country. It's not a Christian Country, never way, and now you're trying to legislate your hollow morality on us.
If you weren't trying to make others follow your rules there would be less push-back to force you to stop setting yourselves as THE religion. Learn to share and M.Y.O.B.
See how that works?
But if that isn't enough, they have the unhealthiest attitude about human nature and human beings. They claim Jesus said we're all bad, sinful, thought poorly of by God. Yuk! [They also claim God in Heaven needed a pound of flesh to "save" us, so Jesus HAD TO die, when in fact His death was a political thing -- jealousy among the Leaders of the time.]
It can't be said enough: "Learn to share," and "M.Y.O.B."
A former catholic now agnostic
I don't know what words I could say that might offer you solace, though I sure am struggling to find them. I want you to know that my heart and mind is touched deeply by this issue, that I have struggled to bring the voice of victims forward all my life; that sometimes I have succeeded and others times not. That sometimes I have know the best way to do that, and other times not, but I do keep struggling forward because it is an issue close to my heart, particularly children.
This issue deeply angers me, and I struggle with that as well, it angers me because there is no acknowledgement within ANY religion that they have spread these seeds of hate within their religion; they have thus far to date REFUSED to take this responsibility.
As to all the critical atheists? Where were YOU. I don't want to hear your arguments against religion, it's happening in your precious atheist public educational system even as I speak!!
You may not intend it, but you come across as really small-minded, like you feel you can speak for everyone on earth, just because you've been involved in "many first masses."
Please, can you expand your vision a little? ;-) There's a whole other world out there that you seem unaware of.