Author, a Former Victim at Mater Dei, Is Raring to Take on Pope Francis over Catholic Church Sexual Abuse

By Theresa Walker
Orange County Register
September 15, 2015

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/casteix-683000-abuse-year.html

Joelle Casteix, the Orange County woman who was abused by a choir director in the 1990s at Mater Dei High when she was 15, years later got a settlement from the OC diocese and became an outspoken advocate for other victims as the pedophile priest scandals unfolded.

On the day that longtime Subway spokesman Jared Fogle admitted to having had sex with minors and possessing child pornography, Joelle Casteix’s phone started ringing before 5 a.m.

Media outlets seeking the perspective of a survivor of child sexual abuse knew to contact the 44-year-old mom in Newport Beach, known for her advocacy and incisive – sometimes blunt – commentary.

So as her husband and 9-year-old son slept, Casteix swung into action, talking to reporters over the next six hours.

That was last month. September is even busier for Casteix (pronounced cass-tix). She’s got a new book to promote. And Pope Francis will visit the United States, meaning she’ll be busy speaking out about the church and sexual abuse.

Casteix was victimized by a former choir director at Mater Dei High when she was a student at the Santa Ana school in the late 1980s.

She emerged in 2003 as one of the Catholic Church’s most outspoken critics during the height of the civil lawsuits filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange by victims of predators in the priesthood and the laity.

In 2005, Casteix won a $1.6 million settlement after documents released by court order confirmed her account of molestation over a two-year period and how school administrators had knowledge of abuse but did nothing to stop it.

Ever since, she has stood up for victims – wherever and whenever she believes it’s needed.

On the day of the Fogle story, MSNBC was among those who interviewed Casteix, speaking with her via Skype for a mid-morning show. Her husband, Mike Winter, and their son, Nicholas, blended into a routine they see a few times a year.

“When Nicholas came downstairs, he saw a very normal sight – Mom with make-up and a nice shirt on … but wearing pajama bottoms.”

PROTESTING THE POPE

Casteix – a photogenic brunette who likes to ski, enjoys a good glass of wine, and is training for a half-marathon – is heading to New York next week for the visit of Pope Francis. She’ll be joined by other critics of church action on clergy abuse.

She and other advocates say the Vatican continues to fall short of complete transparency and true zero tolerance in addressing the Catholic Church’s decades-long coverup of pedophile clergy abuse that left thousands of children victimized.

Casteix says her goal is to counter what she calls “the Francis effect.”

The charismatic pope has wowed Catholics and non-Catholics alike with his outreach to the homeless, the imprisoned, the poor. He also met last year with six victims of clergy abuse.

“Any time you talk to anyone about the cover-up scandal, they say, ‘Well, Francis is changing things,’” Casteix says. “Not really.”

She and others from such groups as Bishop Accountability and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests plan protests and media outreach intended to keep pressure on the pope.

One action Casteix and other critics would like to see from Pope Francis is a direct order to release the names of priests – numbering thousands in the U.S. alone – who have been credibly accused of abuse, along with publicly revealing the manner in which church officials handled those accusations.

The church has cited confidentiality in keeping those documents sealed.

Says Casteix: “What’s the No. 1 thing that Francis can do if he’s really adamant about protecting kids against sexual abuse? He opens up the files.”

‘WORTHY ADVERSARY’

Casteix fights child sexual abuse mostly as a volunteer or sponsored by advocacy groups. Her work doesn’t end in front of a microphone.

She leads workshops and speaking engagements for audiences large and small. She’s worked with mothers groups in Orange County, in remote villages in Alaska and in the jungles of Guam.

In May, she did a TEDx talk in Pasadena on responsibility and empowerment.

Last week, she presented a workshop on cultural sensitivity at a conference held in Orange County by the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Behind the scenes, Casteix is available by phone at any time to abuse victims and their families. She posts information and resources, along with strongly worded calls to action, on her website and blog, theworthyadversary.com.

Casteix has tapped her experience and skills to shape her role as a “worthy adversary.” Along the way, she’s evolved from victim to survivor to advocate.

Articulate and sharp-witted, Casteix had previous stints as a school teacher, a journalist at a weekly newspaper and a public relations specialist.

All that was before the litigation with the Catholic Church. It was during those court fights a dozen years ago that Casteix volunteered to work as the western regional director of SNAP, a role she still holds.

Prudent care of her settlement, along with her husband’s job with an automaker, gives her the latitude to do expansive outreach.

“She’s helped hundreds of victims break the silence, go to police and seek justice,” says David Clohessy, the Missouri-based executive director of SNAP.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that from coast to coast, she’s had an impact.”

PAYING A PRICE

Getting to where Casteix is today didn’t come without a personal toll.

In her teens, she suffered a sexually transmitted disease and an aborted pregnancy as a result of encounters with choir director Thomas Hodgman that started when she was 15.

She confided in a few friends, but not until her senior year of high school.

She was 19 and in college when she finally told her parents what had happened at Mater Dei.

They blamed her.

Public revelations ostracized her from family and friends.

Hodgman was never criminally prosecuted but left Mater Dei in 1989, the year after Casteix graduated. He ended up teaching in the Midwest.

In her early 30s, Casteix found a way to work through her feelings of guilt and shame. But her mother died in 1997 without them reconciling.

Casteix says she truly forgave her mother only this past year.

“I needed to make peace with her.”

Casteix had already re-established a bond with her father after years of emotional distance.

John Casteix is a loyal alumnus of Mater Dei, with family ties in Santa Ana dating to the 1920s. He sent Joelle and her sister, five years older, to his alma mater.

When his daughter first revealed the abuse, John Casteix says, “I could not and did not want to believe her.”

His anguish over what happened to Joelle still lingers. His second wife helped him see that his daughter was the victim, not the perpetrator.

When Joelle Casteix decided in 2002 to sue the Orange County diocese, her father offered his support. And he continues to cheer her work today, remembering how, even as a youngster, she recognized wrongs and tried to make them right.

“It seems like a logical follow-up that she would carry on that belief,” John Casteix says. “Although taking on the Catholic Church abuse scandal was not on anyone’s mind 25 years ago.”

WORK AHEAD

Casteix’s new book is called “The Well-Armored Child: A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Sexual Abuse.” It was released this week by River Grove Books for online sales.

The advice offered by Casteix is aimed at helping protect people from toddlers through working-age adults.

“I wanted it to be something that grows with you and your child.”

“The Well-Armored Child,” priced at $12.99, aims to be accessible and is written with plenty of pop culture references, including Harry Potter, the Enron scandal and Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher.”

“It’s not painful story after painful story. It’s not theory after theory,” says Clohessy, the SNAP leader.

“It’s just specific things you can do to protect your child.”

Biannet Vargas, a newly hired advocate with Santa Barbara County’s Victim Witness Assistance Program, bought a copy after hearing Casteix at the victims of crime conference.

“It’s not just another person talking,” she says. “Her story is human.”

In October, Casteix will be in Hawaii to appear on morning talk shows and discuss a law enacted by that state in June 2014 that opened a two-year window for adult survivors of child sex abuse to pursue civil lawsuits.

And in November, she expects her phone to be ringing again as media covers the theatrical release of “Spotlight,” the movie about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of child molestation by Catholic clergy in Massachusetts.

Like those journalists, she simply refuses to give up.

In 2005, when the settlements were reached with the Orange County diocese, two friends, also victims involved in the lawsuits, encouraged Casteix to move on from the sex abuse scandal and do something else with her life.

“They said, ‘Joelle, you need to get a job. This isn’t good for you. You can’t just be tilting at windmills.’ I understand where they were coming from, but I decided no.

“There’s so much else to be done.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7793 or twalker@ocregister.com