BishopAccountability.org
	Comments from Tom Doyle, Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, and Oso Pious Voice from the Desert January 18, 2010 http://reform-network.net/?p=2541 Often the comments on a blog are better than the blog postings. Here are three recent comments posted here that caught my eye. * * * Here is Tom Doyle’s comment on a recent post by clergy abuse survivor Joey Piscitelli. Joey was in turn commenting on Tom’s reflections on the John Jay College causes and context study. Well said Joey! …I just finished reading Karen Armstrong’s book, “A Case for God.” She has confirmed with a steady stream of historical facts what so many of us have at first thought true from the excerpts of history available to us. Looking at the vast panoply of Catholicism from its inception to the present I see many things but one of the most pathetic is the stark contrast between the amount of good for others accomplished by individual Christians, inspired by the spirit of Jesus….and the vast amount of hurt, destruction and hatred perpetrated by functionaries of the institutional Church. How easy it is to condemn Christianity and Catholicism as a complete farce in the face of such harsh reality. Just looking back at the reaction of the institutional drones to the revelations that tens of thousands of children…like Joey Piscitelli….have been viciously molested….confirms the belief/opinion that these men (and women too) have been wedded to a system that gave them power without the need to embrace the spirit of charity that is at the core of Christ’s message. He firmly predicted that it would be better for a man to be thrown into a lake with a 300 lb stone tied to him than to harm a little one. He didn’t tell those who harmed little ones to keep harming them! I was at Joey’s trial. I experienced to a far lesser degree than Joey the reprehensible behavior of the same attorneys who attacked Joey because he had the courage to expose the criminal behavior of the Salesian Order. Joey got the full force of their venom, which in a very real way was their undoing. I recall looking at the jury while their lead lawyer was sarcastically trying to cut me down…and with no success I might add….and I could see what appeared to be disgust at this performance on many of their faces. In the end the jury believed Joey. In the end I wonder if the Church’s bombastic and abrasive lawyer was not in fact, one of Joey’s best allies? Joey’s experience with an institutional Church that tried to viciously destroy his credibility has been the experience of countless others. When challenged on this the gutless bishops respond by claiming that “it’s the lawyers doing their job. We can’t control them.” Even a half-wit knows that the lawyers work for the bishops…or the religious superiors in Joey’s case….and when they work for them they speak for them. Every time a pope or bishop or religious superior issues a pious statement about how much they care about children and how sorry they are for their victims, Joey or someone like him needs to stand up and tell his story and bury the institutional hypocrisy with the harsh reality of truth. * * * Here is Sister Maureen Paul Turlish’s comment on the Voice from the Desert post on a letter from Dominican Sister Sally Butler to Dominican priests harboring Dominican priest abuser Aaron Cote. Sent this in after reading Sister Sally Butler’s letter. Sister Maureen Carleton P. Jones OP St. Vincent Ferrer Church 869 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10065 Dear Carleton P. Jones OP, A friend has made has made me aware of a letter written to you recently by Sister Sally Butler OP, regarding known sexual predator Aaron Cote. I have pasted a copy of that letter below. I know Sister Sally and the ministry she has been involved in since 1993 and I respect her greatly for it. I have been involved in supporting and advocating for victims of childhood sexual abuse especially by clergy members of our own church since 2002 and I have lobbied and testified in support of legislative reform before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in Delaware leading to the removal of all criminal and civil statutes of limitation in our state in 2007. Like Sister Sally I find your behavior in harboring an individual like Aaron Cote, a known serial sexual predator, highly offensive. Like other sexual predators with his history he is a clear and present danger and it would be in the interests of all that he be confined in a facility that has the security of a St. Luke’s in Silver Spring, Maryland or a Southdown Institute in Toronto, Canada. The CEO of Southdown Institute said to me in conversation at a symposium a few years back that the majority of individuals there for sexual abuse problems should never leave the confines of a place like Southdown or St. Luke’s. I agree that the “majority of Dominicans are good people, hard-working and generous,” but I cannot think of any rationale that would justify your taking this kind of a risk. Your attitude is all too reminiscent of the clerical attitude of the bishops who have brought the institutional Church in the United States to this incredible low point in her history. Sincerely, Sister Maureen Paul Turlish Victims’ Advocate New Castle, Delaware maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
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