By Zandy Dudiak
The Patch
September 11, 2011
http://dormont-brookline.patch.com/articles/activist-launches-protests-against-abuse-at-st-pauls-cathedral-on-sunday
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Shortly after Mike Ference's son, Adam, was shot on a school bus bound for Serra Catholic High School in 1989, a law enforcement official in his hometown of Clairton told him the investigation had been deliberately botched.
Now, 22 years later, Ference plans to spend this Sunday passing out flyers at 11 a.m. at St. Paul's Cathedral in Oakland, the center of worship for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, in an effort to bring attention to what he feels was at the root of the shooting and suicide—sexual abuse. As he continues his protests, he will be targeting local institutions and individuals associated with the abuse of children and young adults.
According to Associated Press reports from the days after the incident, the classmate, the son of a former policeman, turned the gun on himself and committed suicide after shooting Ference's 16-year-old son in the head while en route to the McKeesport school.
"It was absolutely a miracle that he survived with only minor issues," Ference said.
The investigation hinted at an interest in satanism by the shooter, according to a Dec. 7, 1989 article in the Post-Gazette, and, according to Ference, also sexual abuse by a member of the clergy. He charges that investigators did not pursue the case because it involved the church.
According to Ference, William Scully, then public safety director in Clairton, gave him notes on the case that included the possibility that the shooter had been sexually abused by a local Catholic priest.
"He instructed me to investigate the case on my own if I wanted to get to the bottom of this," Ference says.
In the years since, Ference has done just that—conducting interviews with those who had ties to the case, following up on allegations against priests and others.
Ference’s initial investigation has inspired a lifetime of activism against child sexual abuse and cover-ups. He has written extensively on the sex abuse scandal within the Catholic church, and has consistently insisted that such abuse can’t happen without a lot of other community stakeholders “looking the other way.”
Ference has also found that "people don't have a place to go with these problems."
Ference believes that Oakland, Shadyside and the surrounding areas have been prominent spots for Pittsburgh Catholic clergy to abuse children and teenagers. He's also targeting hospitals and other institutions that he charges have covered up such incidents.
“For two decades I have called on certain institutions and individuals to come forward and take responsibility for their roles—active or passive—in child sex abuse,” said Ference, who has also written articles on the subject.
“This is the last call—if they don’t do the right thing in the next couple weeks, then I will ‘out’ them at a series of protests where I will publicize incriminating details from my 22-year investigation of such cases. Abusers who have harmed children and individuals who knowingly covered up the crimes will be named—I want everyone in our community to know who the bad guys are.”
For more information on the Sept. 11 protest or other upcoming events, call Mike Ference at 412-233-5491, or email mike@ferencemarketing.com
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