As Le Moyne Prepares for Dolan Speech, Leader of Abuse Survivors Group Says: Remember US
By Sean Kirst
Almost a year ago, Charlie Bailey's dentist said to him: You look a little gray. The worried dentist said Bailey should see a cardiologist. Bailey had already gone through all the standard tests, including a stress test and an echocardiogram. Everything about his heart seemed to be fine. Yet he took the dentist's advice, and Bailey's cardiologist had the same worried gut reaction. The doctor ordered an angiogram, which showed Bailey had been walking around with several blockages. "A widow-maker," Bailey said of the condition of his heart, and he had surgery last year that he's sure saved his life. He describes himself as a spiritual guy, although he no longer feels the need for any established church, and he maintains he was left here to serve a mission: Bailey, 64, will continue speaking out on the trauma he endured as a child, and that means expressing his disbelief at the choice of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, one of the nation's most influential Catholics, as Sunday's commencement speaker at Le Moyne College, a Jesuit school. "I don't understand it," Bailey said. "I'm so mad, just infuriated, that he was even considered."
Bailey, a Niagara Mohawk retiree who splits his time between Baldwinsville and North Carolina, is coordinator of the Central New York Chapter of SNAP, or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. As a little boy, he was sexually abused by a priest, although Bailey said it's important to confront the specific nature of the act: He was raped, repeatedly, by a grown man, and he was too frightened and ashamed to reveal the ordeal to those around him. He was among thousands of young American victims of a sexual abuse scandal that was hidden for decades within the Catholic Church. In 2001, eight months after the death of the priest who assaulted him, Bailey went public with his account. More than 30 men, he said, would later tell him they were victims of the same priest. Since then, he's tried to be a voice of conscience and education about survivors, in our community. "I'm still spiritual," Bailey said, "because it wasn't God who raped me." In 2003, Bailey received a letter from James Moynihan, then-bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse, acknowledging Bailey's suffering was "a result of the despicable activities of one of our priests, a number of years ago." Amid community debate over Le Moyne's choice, the Rev. David McCallum – a Jesuit priest who is special assistant to Le Moyne president Linda Le Mura – said he is particularly conscious of the pain felt by Bailey and other survivors. "The situation of these men and women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse ... they should be given tremendous care and support," McCallum said. But he said there is ambiguity within the accusations against Dolan, and that Le Moyne is not backing away from its decision to choose him as commencement speaker. "We've done our own homework, and we're comfortable that even if a little controversial, the cardinal has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing," McCallum said. It took many years for Bailey to come to terms with his own experience. "Sometimes," he said, "I still sit at my desk and weep." If physical abuse and manipulation represented the first wave of pain, he said, the second involved revelations of coverups and strategies for dealing with pedophiles within the church, which Bailey said is what most frustrates him about Dolan: The New York Times reported in 2013 that court documents revealed Dolan, as archbishop of Milwaukee, shifted $57 million into a cemetery trust fund to protect the money from a series of lawsuits by victims of abusive priests - an allegation, The Times wrote, that Dolan has called "malarkey." In 2012, The Times reported that Dolan, while in Milwaukee, offered what amounted to severance payments of up to $20,000 to help persuade men accused of abuse to leave the priesthood. A diocesan spokesman told The Times that decision was made at a difficult time, and the payments made it easier to rid the church of sexual offenders. Bailey hears that and asks again that we look directly at his own experience, and that of many other boys and girls: With those payments, he said, the church gave cash buyouts to men who'd raped or abused children, youths sentenced by that violence to lives of pain and guilt. Bailey does not expect, at this point, that Le Moyne will suddenly "disinvite" Dolan. But he wants the chance to publicly express dismay, on behalf of all survivors – including a Le Moyne student who contacted Bailey to say she was abused as a child, and that she is upset Dolan will be the speaker. McCallum the commencement, beyond all else, will be a celebration of student achievement. He expects Dolan, on Sunday, to offer a message that is "an affirmation and encouragement of our students as they face a challenging and sometimes uncertain future." But McCallum said administrators also "applaud the students who have done their homework and research, who have expressed their views and done it with a great deal of respect, as well as passion," young people who are upholding "the sense of social justice" that is integral to a Jesuit institution. He said the school has held a series of meetings with dissenting students, and it has been "an educational experience for everyone involved, including the administration .... We want to make sure we're affirming that the space of the university, particularly a Jesuit college, is a space where multiple voices deserve to be heard, and we don't lapse into easy or simplistic characterizations of each other's perspective." McCallum said Le Moyne has not ignored the scandal in the church: He recalled the school held a four-day symposium in 2011 on the roots of the abuse crisis in both the U.S. and Ireland. As for Dolan, McCallum said the invitation for Sunday's commencement was extended three years ago. At Le Moyne, McCallum said, there are lessons from all of this that will extend into the future: "Because the issue of sexual child abuse is so sensitive," he said, "we'd want to be really thoughtful about selecting someone who brings an air of controversy around them concerning this topic, this reality." In that statement, McCallum comes closest to common ground with Charlie Bailey, because Bailey's essential argument is this: When you speak of the child abuse scandal in the church, you go face-to-face with the rape of children and years of protection and denial involving their abusers - a horrific narrative that elevates it beyond the scale of any typical debate. There are many selfless and universally admirable figures within Catholic circles, Bailey said. If Le Moyne is seeking a speaker who personifies honor and courage, Bailey suggests the school should think about inviting the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest who waged an uphill battle to reveal the extent of abuse within the church. "I know (Dolan) is charismatic, and he has a smile that everybody loves," said Bailey, who said he is also aware - constantly - that somewhere a small child is being victimized by an adult, a child who feels there's nowhere to turn for help. Looking out for that child, said Bailey - especially after the close call with his own heart - is why he feels he was allowed to stick around. If Dolan was invited here because he has an enduring or important message, Bailey thinks of his fellow survivors and simply asks that we remember: So do they. skirst@syracuse.com
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