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	Clergy Abuse Victims Seek Treatment Center of Their Own Associated Press, carried in Belleville News-Democrat October 24, 2006 http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/15837692.htm Columbia, Mo. - Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse are asking Catholic Church officials in Jefferson City and Palm Beach, Fla., to help pay for a residential treatment center for abuse victims modeled in part after similar sites for troubled priests. Known as Come to the Stable/The Stephen Spalding Foundation, the proposed center would be named after a former student at the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, which closed in 2002 amid accusations of rampant sexual abuse by a former instructor. The accused priest, Anthony J. O'Connell, worked at the seminary from 1964 to 1983. He later spent 10 years as bishop in Knoxville, Tenn., and four years leading the Palm Beach diocese. He resigned after admitting improper contact with a former student and later settled a pair of lawsuits. He has since retired to a Trappist monastery in South Carolina. "They have multimillion dollar facilities where priests can go," said Michael Wegs, a former O'Connell victim and St. Thomas Aquinas graduate leading the fundraising effort. "All we're asking for is some place where (victims) can go." Wegs was one of the two former seminary students to win monetary judgments against O'Connell and the Jefferson City diocese. A third abused settled out of court. Wegs, who has donated some of his $25,000 settlement to the foundation, hopes to raise $4 million by 2010, enough to purchase five pastoral acres at a location to be determined. Those in need of treatment could stay for a few days or up to six months. A similar center near Louisville, Ky., known as The Farm, has received financial support from various dioceses, Wegs noted. In his letters to the bishops now in charge of the two dioceses in Missouri and Florida, Wegs also refers to Mark Foley, the Florida congressman who recently resigned after he was confronted with sexually explicit instant computer messages he sent to former pages. Foley subsequently linked his behavior to childhood abuse reportedly inflicted by his own Roman Catholic priest. Wegs, who now lives in Minneapolis, said the Foley case isn't directly related to his effort but highlights the need for such a center. "There are a lot of people who just need to learn to live again," Wegs said. A spokesman for the Missouri diocese said Tuesday that its bishop, the Rev. John Gaydos, had not yet received the letter from Wegs and could not comment. An official with the Palm Beach Diocese acknowledged receiving the appeal but said church leaders had yet to fully consider the request. "We really haven't had time to study the whole thing," said Lorraine Sabatella, chancellor of the Palm Beach Diocese. Wegs said that the Spalding treatment center, while non-denominational, would serve as a place where abuse victims could "capture some of the spirituality they lost." Susan Vance, a former Catholic school teacher in Knoxville now active in sex abuse prevention programs, said a residential treatment center would let abuse survivors know they're not alone. "There has to be a haven where people who've been hurt can go to heal," she said. "The general population doesn't understand the ramifications of sexual abuse - especially sexual abuse by a trusted religious leader. Their whole relationship with God is thrown into chaos."
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