By Brett Kelman
Pacific Daily News
March 23, 2010
http://www.guampdn.com/article/20100324/NEWS01/3240331/1002
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| 'Shameful little secret': Joelle Casteix, director of the southwest region of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, holds a photo of herself at age 15, when she was sexually abused by her teacher. Casteix showed the photo during an interview at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa in Tumon, yesterday. (Jacqueline Hernandez/Pacific Daily News/jhernande7) |
Childhood sexual abuse left Joelle Casteix on a path to suicide, but a public bond with other victims ended her "shameful little secret" and let her blossom through the most enriching time of her life.
Casteix was sexually abused by a Catholic school choir teacher as a teenager, but she didn't take her abuser to a court until 2003.
She left that California court with a settlement, a signed confession and a connection with other abuse victims who had been haunted since they were children.
Dragging her secret out of the dark saved her life, Casteix said yesterday.
"Until I came out publicly, all it was was a shameful secret that I carried, and something people whispered about," Casteix said yesterday. "But once I spoke out and I owned my story -- and I used the court system to out him and I got the truth -- and I started helping other people, then it became the source of my strength."
Casteix is now a regional director for the Support Network of Those Abused by Priests, which has connected with more than 20,000 victims. She will hold confidential support groups for sexual abuse victims on Guam today and tomorrow.
Nothing discussed in the meetings will leave the room and media are not invited to the event, Casteix said.
These support meetings will offer local victims the opportunity to meet others with similar stories and help each other heal from the deep wounds that grow as years pass. Learning they are not alone is big step for every abuse survivor, Casteix said.
"Every single survivor of clergy sexual abuse thinks they are the only one, and that is simply not true," she said. "They feel lonely, isolated, ashamed. They are afraid to tell their parents and they are afraid to tell other priests about it. This helps get rid of that isolation."
Casteix came to Guam because victims of alleged sexual abuse by local clergy reached out to her and SNAP. Last October, Vice Speaker Benjamin Cruz also said the Archdiocese of Agana had not dealt with allegedly abusive priests.
In a February press release, Archbishop Anthony Apuron stated the Catholic Church doesn't tolerate any kind of sexual abuse and has an effective safety plan in place to protect all children who serve in the church.
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