Archdiocese of Philadelphia's ‘Mass for healing' a contentious event for victims of abuse

By Patti Mengers
Times Herald
March 22, 2014

http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20140322/archdiocese-of-philadelphias-mass-for-healing-a-contentious-event-for-victims-of-abuse

Victim advocate and clerical sex abuse survivor John Salveson inside his office complex in Radnor.

Officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia say it is another step in the healing process for Roman Catholics who were abused by priests when they were children. Advocates for survivors of abuse say it is just adds insult to injury.

Touted by the archdiocese as “the Mass for healing for victims of clergy sex abuse,” the service will be conducted by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput at the Cathedral Basilica of SS Peter and Paul in Philadelphia Saturday evening.

“All are welcome to attend as we continue to pray for the survivors of clergy sexual abuse, for the healing of the Church and for all who have been affected by clergy sexual abuse,” said the press release issued by the archdiocese 10 days before the Mass.

That would translate to dozens of victims of more than 60 priests since the 1940s in the five-county area that comprises the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, according to two Philadelphia Grand Jury reports issued in 2005 and 2011. “Holding the Mass is just one way in which the archdiocese reaches out to victims in an effort to assist them on the path to healing,” said Kenneth A. Gavin, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The last place most people who have been abused by priests want to be is in a Roman Catholic Church maintains Tammy Lerner, Vice President of the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, an advocacy organization started in 2006 by foundation president John Salveson of Radnor, himself a survivor of clerical sex abuse.

“It just shows a complete lack of understanding of the trauma (the Catholic Church) has caused individual victims,” noted Lerner.

Gavin said the archdiocese’s Office for Child and Youth Protection “had received requests from multiple victims for a Mass of this type to be celebrated by the archbishop.”

“As the office oversees the Victim Assistance Program in addition to ongoing efforts aimed at preventing child abuse through education and training, it was logical for it to spearhead this effort. Through it, outreach was made to all the victims with whom it has had contact and who expressed a willingness to receive ongoing information,” said Gavin.

Last week Lerner said she had heard from several clerical sex abuse victims who had received letters from the archdiocese about the March 22 Mass and they “are refusing to go and are outraged.”

“It just seems to me it is more about public relations for the Church than healing for victims. If it were about healing for victims, they would not ask victims to enter a church setting where the abuse occurred,” said Lerner who added that some of those victims were also recently informed that their psychological therapy would no longer be covered by the archdiocese.

Gavin said last week to accommodate victims who might not wish to physically attend the Mass, it was going to be live-streamed on the archdiocesan website with care “to not have cameras focus on any individuals in the congregation.”

“We cannot imagine the enduring pain which victims and their loved ones suffer. We take our role in assisting them on their path to healing seriously. Praying with and for victims is only part of the process but it is an important one,” said Gavin.

Lerner has lobbied state legislators to remove the civil statute of limitations so that victims of child sex abuse can file lawsuits against abusers who have escaped prosecution because of the previous criminal statute of limitations that was expanded to age 50 in 2006. She maintains it is the only way they can expose their predators who are still at large. Representatives for the Roman Catholic Church lobbied against expansion of the criminal statute and are now doing so against the civil one, she noted.

“If it were more about helping victims, they would publicly identify abusers they know about, but they are not that transparent,” said Lerner.

None of the priests accused of abuse in the first grand jury investigation were prosecuted because their superiors had failed to turn them over to civil authorities before the old Pennsylvania statute of limitations for child sexual abuse had expired. In 2002, after the molestation conviction of a Boston priest triggered accusations of clerical sexual abuse nationwide, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ordered that church hierarchy turn all reported abuse cases over to civil authorities.

Three priests and a male lay teacher named in the second grand jury investigation were able to be prosecuted because of the expanded criminal statute. Former parochial school teacher Bernard Shero, the Rev. James Engelhardt and Edward Avery, a defrocked priest and former Haverford resident, are now serving jail sentences for abuse of the same altar boy at a northeast Philadelphia parish between 1998 and 2000. The Rev. James J. Brennan, who taught at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Marple from 1991 to 1996, is awaiting a June 16 re-trial for allegedly attempting to rape a 14-year-old boy in his apartment in 1996.

As a result of the second grand jury investigation, archdiocesan officials suspended more than 20 priests alleged to have behaved inappropriately with minors, turned their cases over to law enforcement officials, then had them reviewed by an archdiocesan panel of law enforcement and child abuse experts. Some have been restored to public ministry by Chaput while others have been permanently removed because of credible allegations of abuse. They may be defrocked by the Vatican. On March 12 a mistrial was declared in the case of one suspended priest, the Rev. Andrew McCormick, who is accused of abusing a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 at a parish in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia.

Another priest named in both grand jury reports, the Rev. Msgr. William Lynn, a former parochial vicar of St. Katharine of Siena Church in Radnor, was convicted in 2012 of child endangerment. A Philadelphia jury determined Lynn was aware of Avery’s abusive history, when, as secretary for clergy under former Philadelphia archbishop, the now-late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Lynn allowed Avery to have continued access to children by assigning him to parishes. The state Superior Court overturned Lynn’s conviction last December saying the child endangerment law under which he was tried did not apply to him. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is appealing the reversal to the state Supreme Court. Lynn is now under house arrest on 10 percent of $250,000 bail, furnished by the archdiocese.

Salveson contends that archdiocesan officials’ willingness to pay the bail of someone whose actions put children at risk contradicts their claims of concern for sexual abuse victims. He said the idea of a Mass for sexual abuse victims staged by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia strikes him as “cynical, self-congratulatory and insincere.”

“You have got to look at the totality of their behavior. In Harrisburg they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying to fight legislation that would extend the statute of limitations to make kids safer,” said the 58-year-old Radnor resident.

Gavin maintains that “the best way to protect children from the scourge of abuse is to create an atmosphere of prevention”. He said the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection has trained more than 30,000 employees, clergy members and volunteers in mandatory reporting and between 6,000 and 9,000 individuals in safe environment programs. Background checks and child abuse clearances are required for all clergy members, employees and volunteers.

“The archdiocese goes above and beyond what is required by state law to create the safest possible environment for children and young people entrusted to its care,” said Gavin.

Lerner said not only lobbyists for the Catholic Church and the insurance industry, but state legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, have resisted the expansion or elimination of the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse survivors.

“Most still do not make the connection of the civil statute of limitations and civil window with the protection of children. They’re viewing it more as a vehicle for adults to find justice which is true, but in the large scheme of things it is a child protective measure because it is a way to identify child rapists who would otherwise go unexposed,” said Lerner.

The latest legislation, House Bill 2067, was proposed by state Rep. Mark Rozzi (D—126th Dist.), himself a survivor of Catholic clergy abuse. It is an amendment to Title 42 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to suspend the civil statute of limitations for past child sexual abuse victims who have not yet attained the age of 50 and eliminate the civil and criminal statute of limitations involving child sexual abuse.

In a memorandum to House members, Rozzi noted that his proposal would remove the sovereign immunity defense for public officials and institutions. On March 10 it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee where, Lerner noted, forerunners proposed by other legislators such as state representatives Michael P. McGeehan and Louise Williams Bishop, both Democrats from Philadelphia and former state Rep. Dennis O’Brien, a Republican from Philadelphia, have stalled.

Lerner said the most common refrains she hears from opponents of amending the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse victims are “memories fade” and “evidence grows stale”. She said it is unfair to arbitrarily apply these blanket statements to alleged abuse victims.

“These legislators need to understand the dynamics of childhood trauma. Memories are magnified and, seared into your memory, are minute details that stay with your forever,” said the 44-year-old lobbyist who, herself is a victim of childhood incest. “The courts will filter out the cases where memories are faded and evidence fades.”

Salveson, who earned an undergraduate degree in 1977 and a graduate degree in 1978 from the University of Notre Dame, detailed the seven years of abuse he endured starting as an adolescent at the hands of a Long Island parish priest, in articles published in the university magazine in 2003 and 2013.

In 2003 he wrote about how the priest, who was young and hip, ingratiated himself to Salveson’s family before taking Salveson on a weekend trip to Virginia where the priest first sexually assaulted him. Salveson was 13. The next day the priest told him that what “we” did was okay. The abuse continued on subsequent trips and in the priest’s rectory bedroom, where they drank a lot of alcohol which Salveson said “helped me cope”.

“While he had considerable control over my body, (the priest) had complete control over my mind. He told me it was all right to do this with him and God approved. If I balked, he told me it meant that I was unloving, ungrateful and cold. He often told me I was a ‘bad person’ if I did not do exactly what he wanted. I believed him. He was a priest,” wrote Salveson.

When Salveson moved to Indiana to attend Notre Dame, his abuser visited him there then eventually moved there himself to earn a graduate degree in psychological counseling. Salveson said when he would resist the priest’s sexual advances, the priest would either scream or cry. Salveson finally broke free of his abuser’s grasp at age 20.

In 1980, Salveson summoned up the courage to write to the bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island about the abuse he endured from the parish priest, but got no response. Salveson said when he sent a second registered letter, the bishop met with him and promised to “take care of it”.

In 1989, when Salveson realized his abuser was still serving at a Long Island parish, Salveson, his father and his two brothers stood on the steps of the church and distributed an open letter to parishioners telling them of his abuse by their priest and that the bishop had been aware of it for nine years.

The priest was finally removed from parish work, but he then started a counseling practice. Salveson’s abuser died of cancer in 2002, just as the clerical abuse scandal broke nationwide. In March 2003 Salveson was among 30 survivors of clergy abuse at a meeting with the New Jersey attorney general and the executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection. The five bishops who led New Jersey’s dioceses were invited, but none showed-up, a sign to Salveson as to how little had changed in the Roman Catholic Church despite the eruption of the abuse scandal.

“People think it’s a moral issue. The Church doesn’t see it as a moral issue, they see it as a risk management issue. If they saw it as a moral issue they would have behaved much differently in the last 40 years,” said Salveson last week.

He noted that the expansion of the criminal statute in Pennsylvania allowing child sexual abuse victims to file criminal complaints against alleged abusers until age 50 is progress, as is increased awareness of child sexual abuse in the Church and in other institutions.

“I think people have figured out if there is a problem with the Catholic Church the place to go is law enforcement, not the Catholic Church,” said Salveson. “I think the Catholic Church probably does a better job reporting cases to law enforcement themselves. It’s hard to know because they are not transparent.”

Despite the damage done by his abuser, Salveson, with the help of family, friends and therapy, has managed to lead a productive life. He is the co-founder of an executive search company, has been married to his wife, Susan, for 32 years, is the father of three and the grandfather of two. In his 2013 Notre Dame article, Salveson admits he is often on the verge of burn-out with the uphill legislative battles and people who express outrage but do nothing.

He also reveals the mantra credited to Mahatma Gandhi that has helped him survive his abuse, carry on with his life and advocate for other victims: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Salveson concedes that some clerical sexual abuse victims may find a healing Mass to be positive and good. However, it is not for him. He noted in his 2013 Notre Dame article that his healing process will not be complete until Church leaders fully admit what they have done, apologize, fix “the wreckage they caused” and make changes to ensure children are never again victimized by priests.

“When all of that happens,” wrote Salveson, “I’ll start considering forgiveness.”