VOTF-Atlanta: Articles & Essays

Articles & Essays

There are 30 Items in 3 page(s) and you are on page number 1

Vengeance or Accountability? - Sunday, April 22, 2007
The April 20, 2007, Volume CXXXIV, Number 8, issue of Commonweal magazine contains an attack directed at the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The writer is Mark A Sargent, dean of the Villanova University School of Law. Sargent's attack is deftly refuted by SNAP whose response is in provided in paragraphs preceded by four dashes (----) and presented in bold font. It's clear that Mr. Sargent is carrying water for the bishops and confuses vengeance with accountability and with the desire to protect kids from sexual predators. (read more)

Doyle's Reflections - Part 4 - Monday, January 22, 2007
Bishops and others constantly refer to the victims’ anger as if it were some sort of moral fault or worse, a symptom of emotional or mental illness. Anyone who is astounded or critical of the victims’ collective and individual anger has a massive moral blind spot. This anger is kept alive not so much by memories of the actual abuse but by the confusing, contradictory and often re-victimizing response of the Catholic clerical authority structure. (read more)

Part 3 - Doyle's reflections on clergy abuse - Thursday, January 04, 2007
2. The problem is much greater in the public schools. Archbishop Chaput of Denver has been the prominent mouthpiece for this particular myth. His assertions are based on highly subjective and clearly questionable data. In fact, the most credible research points to a conclusion that is quite different from Chaput’s (4.4 % of mental health professionals have abused and 88% were adult females [Pope, 1992]; 3.8 % of students report sexual contact with school pros [Shakeshaft] ). (read more)

Reflections on clergy abuse: where we are today - Friday, December 29, 2006
Widespread clergy abuse has been a painful part of the institutional Church since its earliest years. The major difference in the present era is the widespread public awareness of it in spite of all hierarchical attempts to keep it buried in deep secrecy. With this awareness has come a fundamental shift: the clergy and hierarchy are not in control of the outcome of the abuse problem. The lay people, the survivors and victims and the secular society are in control. (read more)

CRIMEN SOLLICITATIONIS - Saturday, November 04, 2006

Based on questions asked by a number of people about the infamous 1962 document from the Vatican on solicitation and sex abuse, I have re-revised my original commentary, first completed in 2003. The latest one is dated today. Please eliminate all previous versions and use that which is attached.

Thanks. Tom Doyle

(read more)

Priests Stealing From the Sunday Collections - Thursday, June 16, 2005
In recent years and especially during the past few years, much has been said and written about the highly immoral and destructive activities of an alarming number of Catholic priests who used their positions of respect and authority to lure young children and adolescents into perverted sexual liaisons. In spite of all that has been said and written, however, the question of how those clergymen financed their often lavish lifestyles has never been addressed. This article dares to address that question and, insofar as it relates to the American Catholic Church, reveals a surprisingly clear and shocking connection between the hierarchy’s laissez-faire attitude toward revenue protection and the ability of predator-priests to fund their deviant activities. (read more)

Unrepentent criminal gets sainthood? - Tuesday, May 17, 2005
5-17-05 When I was 7 years old I was anally raped in the men's bathroom of the Capitol Theater in Winnipeg, Manitoba by a Catholic priest. I was lured into this situation with the promise money. This is the first time I am exposing this story publicly for reasons that are obvious but I simply cannot stand by while the leaders of the Catholic Church who led a criminal conspiracy to cover up and hide what amounts to be the world's largest child sex ring that creaped around the entire Catholic parish complex worldwide from being exposed. (read more)

Communicating with Bishops - Thursday, April 14, 2005
True communication in today's Church must take into account the sad fact that VOTF, SNAP and other affiliated groups are regularly slandered and discriminated against simply because they are acting like Catholic adults. Sad too is the fact that priests and deacons who have been openly supportive of VOTF and SNAP have been unjustly penalized by uncaring and unthinking bishops....Clericalism is in control if we fail to see the most ignored, disenfranchised and marginalized person or group in the Church as equal in importance to the men who sit in the highest positions of power. (read more)

AJC quotes VOTF-Atlanta's John Dearie - Saturday, December 18, 2004
12-18-04 Voice of the Faithful-Atlanta, a victms' assistance group, delivered a mixed reaction to the audit's results. John Dearie, the group's Atlanta chairman, said the audit relied solely on information provided by the archdiocese. Dearie also said that, other than a few newspaper ads just prior to the audit, victims haven't seen or heard of any outreach to survivors as required by the charter. (read more)

NY Times quotes VOTF-Atlanta's Dearie - Saturday, December 18, 2004
12-10-04 The change in leadership was welcomed by John Dearie, chairman of the Atlanta affiliate of Voice of the Faithful, which has worked during the scandal for a say by laity in church matters. "Our hope is that Bishop Gregory will be more receptive than the outgoing archbishop" to such input, Mr. Dearie said. (read more)

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