Catholic Priest Sex Abuse Scandal Drives Spring Valley Author

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
Journal News
September 4, 2018

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2018/09/04/spring-valley-author-catholic-priest-abuse/1150081002/

Pafumi's office is at the rear of his house on an unassuming residential street, in a darkened room cluttered with books, legal documents and two computer monitors that provide much of the light.

From here, the Wall Street analyst who turned author lives out his new calling.

Pafumi, 68, is taking on the Roman Catholic Church, having spent five years compiling an extensive international public database of sex abuse by priests and clergy, and publishing his latest book on the scandal that has rocked the Vatican for years.

“What you’re looking at is the collapse of the Catholic Church in real time," he said. "The church is now crumbling. The church is now trying to recapture its place in the world despite the fact that the world is turning against it.”

Pafumi's work is particularly relevant in the wake of several recent developments surrounding the decades-old abuse of children by Catholic clergy.

Earlier this month, an extenstive Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed decades of abuse by more than 300 priests who prayed on 1,000 children in parishes and Catholic schools in that state — among them priests who also served in New York.

More recently, a report released by a former Vatican ambassador to the United States charged that Pope Francis knew about sexual abuse by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, removed a suspension placed on him by Pope Benedict, and made the known abuser one of his most trusted advisers.

Pope Francis “knew from at least June 23, 2013, that McCarrick was a serial predator, [but] he covered for him to the bitter end,” wrote Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, nuncio to Washington from 2011-2016. The archbishop has demanded the pontiff resign.

For Pafumi, it's all part of a lingering outrage that remains an open wound.

'Global phenomenon'

His ultimate goal is to gain passage of the Child Victims Act, a long-stalled bill in Albany that would lift the statute of limitations on sex crimes against children — a move that would allow those abused by priests decades ago to file civil claims for damages.

"The church should say to any victim, ‘If you’ve been molested we’re here to help you,' " he said. "The church instead spends money to prevent restitution. It’s like millions for defense but not a penny for tribute."

Author Glen R. Pafumi, who wrote three books on the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandals, photographed in his Spring Valley home on Thursday, August 30, 2018. (Photo: John Meore/The Journal News)

The fruit of Pafumi's labor is "Inhumanity in the Name of Jesus," his latest book, a two-volume set that details the history and extent of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

But much of his time is spent updating VictimsSpeakDB.org, a public database with information drawn from the Survivor Accounts of Catholic Clergy Abuse, Denial, Accountability and Silence, or SACCADAS, database that he created using the quantitative analysis skills he mastered on Wall Street.

Pafumi's database focuses on the numbers, unlike other clergy abuse resources, such as Bishop-Accountability.org, an extensive repository of abuse cases replete with a listing of clergy members and their histories of abuse allegations.

To date, the database lists 14,000 victims from throughout the world.

"This is a worldwide, global phenomenon," he said. “I’ve been doing this now for about five years. I have, to the best of my knowledge, the only international database. I have victims in 51 countries on five continents."

Ryan Report

Pafumi became drawn into the clergy abuse scandal while researching his first book, "Is Our Vision of God Obsolete?" The book delved into mankind's concept of God and religion. During his research he came upon the Ryan Report.

Published in 2009, the Ryan Report was the final document released by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Sanctioned by the Irish government, the commission probed the abuse of children in that country dating to 1936.

Many of the findings dealt with the torture, molestation and abuse of children in a system of residential schools and facilities operated by the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The Archdiocese of New York has now paid more than $40 million to 189 victims of priest abuse through the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. (Photo: File photo)

“What disturbed me as a very religious Catholic during the first quarter century of my life is how could people who go to a seminary or a convent, how could these people do these horrible, horrible things?" he said.

The report prompted him to delve deeper into the church abuse scandal. He sought out the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. Founded in 1989, SNAP is a nonprofit organization and the oldest support group for victims of clergy abuse.

His newfound interest led him to the Philippines, where allegations of rampant abuse by Catholic priests and clergy had increasingly become an open secret.

“What I discovered in the Philippines, much as what’s happened in Mexico, for centuries priests and monks have been going over, they’re missionaries, and molesting women and children, having babies and all that sort of stuff," Pafumi said. "And they’re protected by the government, in the case of the Philippines. There has never been a single priest convicted of a crime, a sex crime, in the Philippines.”

Pafumi then turned his focus to his home state — and the rest of the world.

On a mission

His SACCADAS database allows users to compile data by state or province. According to numbers compiled so far on the database, New York has 490 known victims of abuse by Catholic priests of clergy dating to 1944. The victims were as young as 2 years old.

The most recent case of abuse was in 2014.

Officials at the Archdiocese of New York have compensated victims of abuse in recent years, particularly through the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program begun by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in 2016.

Author Glen R. Pafumi, who wrote three books on the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandals, photographed in his Spring Valley home on Thursday, August 30, 2018. (Photo: John Meore/The Journal News)

The program allowed victims of abuse by Catholic clergy to come forward to seek compensation. If confirmed, the victims were offered financial compensation but were required to sign a waiver vowing that they would not seek further legal claims against the church if the effort to lift the statute of limitations is successful.

The Archdiocese of New York said earlier this month that 267 victims have thus far received a total of $55,725,000 in compensation, with other cases still being reviewed.

But critics of the church and advocates for the victims — Pafumi among them — see the compensation program as ploy to pay thousands of dollars for what could be millions in damages if the Child Victims Ace ever does make it into law.

He put the blame squarely on Dolan.

“I don’t think that Dolan got a message form Jesus Christ," Pafumi said. "I don’t think this is a man that found God."

“What he did was, he said let’s get as many people as possible to sign on to this fund," he added. " We can give them less money but they have to sign a waiver that they won’t sue the church. So, these 268 victims won’t benefit from a million dollar-plus settlement that might be coming if this legislation is every enacted in New York. It’s a disgrace.”