On Friday, June 22, 2012, the verdicts were announced in two important child molestation trials that had been going on simultaneously in Pennsylvania:
Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant football coach of Penn State University, was convicted of 45 of the 48 child molestation charges against him. And, Monsignor William J. Lynn was found guilty of essentially contributing to a cover-up of sexual predators among Catholic priests in the archdiocese of Philadelphia. The priests had been molesting children for years. Lynn was the first high-ranking church official to be prosecuted for failing to protect children.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported on both of these cases extensively. You can read more about them here:
Complete coverage: Scandal at Penn State
Complete coverage: Clergy abuse case
In both of these cases, sordid details of men using their positions of prestige and power to seduce and manipulate children were aired in public. The eight young men who testified in the Jerry Sandusky trial were incredibly brave, and prosecutors in the church trial were able to introduce into evidence decades worth of rape and molestation charges. For victims everywhere, many of whom probably thought they would never be believed or see any modicum of justice, the verdicts are great victories.
But here is the real change brought about by these trials: Big, powerful institutions are now on notice. They can no longer sacrifice the innocents in order to preserve their reputations and protect their treasuries. Whether it is the Holy Roman Catholic Church or Penn State Football, the hierarchies will be held responsible for the crimes of their representatives.
According to the Inquirer, since priest abuse allegations first started surfacing in the mid-1980s, more than 3,000 civil lawsuits have been filed, and the Catholic Church has paid out more than $3 billion in settlements. Dioceses have closed parishes and sold property to cover the costs. The Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, filed for bankruptcy.
Read Sex-abuse crisis is a watershed in the Roman Catholic Church’s history in America, on Philly.com.
Penn State University, with two officials already indicted for perjury related to the Sandusky case, anticipates more criminal proceedings and an onslaught of civil suits. The university has already embarked on damage control. As soon as Sandusky was declared guilty, the university announced a program to offer cash settlements to the victims.
Read: Bob Ford: In Sandusky case, Penn State tries to get ahead of civil actions, on Philly.com.
(By the way, more Sandusky victims, besides the 10 listed in the trial, have come forward. Read: Jerry Sandusky trial did not include all of his alleged victims, on ABCNews.go.com.)
So, for all of us at Lovefraud, all of us who have been manipulated, molested and abused, these verdicts are worth celebrating. Evil was exposed. Evildoers are going to prison. Enablers of evil are paying the price for averting their eyes, shutting their mouths and failing to act.
All of us who are fighting the good fight should feel encouraged. Perhaps the time is coming when we can go up against the rich and powerful—and win.
I love to see justice served! I followed the Sandusky trial and my heart bled for those boys, many of them now men. I only hope Mrs. Sandusky and everyone else at Penn State who knew and covered it all up for years will also see the justice they deserve. Mrs. Sandusky, what a coward and lousy excuse for a woman! Thanks for posting Donna!
Donna, thank you for posting this article of affirmation.
Perhaps, Sanspathsky’s conviction will bolster the courage of other victims to move forward and file charges.
I’ll post this, finally, with regard to the shame-core and how victims often feel re-victimized. I want to warn that other readers might experience some serious triggering, because it’s pretty brutal.
When I was 13, I was gang-raped by 3 neighborhood boys. One of them was my “boyfiend,” at the time. I was provided copious amounts of alcohol under the guise of having some fun with the boyfiend. Once I was drunk enough, they all took their turns for the next several hours. I “broke up” with the boyfiend right after that.
Weeks later, I was playing in the woods where I lived – many of us had constructed a “fort” where we would go smoke cigarettes, and act like idiot kids. I was alone, and I heard twigs snapping behind me, and it was the former boyfiend, the other two, and a couple of younger boys that had not been involved in the gang-rape, but had apparently been informed by the others.
Before I could run, the former boyfiend lunged at me and placed me into a “Full Nelson” (he was a member of the high school wrestling team) while another boy covered my nose and mouth with a rag that had been soaked in ether that he had stolen from the High School Lab. They all attempted to sexually assault me, again, and I fought back with a terror and fury that I’ve never experienced, since. I managed to rake one boy across the face, and another boy got a heel-kick in his balls. STILL, they tried to complete their mission, and finally ran off after it was apparent that the ether was evaporating faster than it was knocking me out.
I told nobody about this – EVER – because I believed, at that time, that I had brought the incident upon myself. Somehow, I “deserved” that experience. And, this is the continued feeding of the shame-core. I had to see these neighborhood kids, every day, and they all acted as if nothing had ever happened. One of the kids was the son of an Administrator of the regional School Board. Another of these kids was the son of a local politician. There would have been NO way that any of these boys would have faced any consequences for their actions, and I knew it – and, so did they.
Today, I know that I didn’t “deserve” what was done to me, and I knew better decades ago. I just didn’t that there was a TERM to describe how a person is groomed into being a victim – or, an abuser. And, as an adolescent, I would never have been able to connect the proverbial dots and alter my Life’s course.
Needless to say, I’ve come to terms with what happened, long ago. The boys-turned-men have all grown up and gone their separate ways. Each one of them is a predator, either by nature, or by proxy, and they will each reap the bitter harvests that I’m sure they’ve sown.
Hopefully, this article will compel some of us to reclaim our damaged inner-children. I know that I’m peeling back the layers of my own shame-core, and it’s nasty work, that. But, somewhere underneath all of these putrid layers is a bright, vibrant me. And, I am anxious to meet that person.
Thanks, again, Donna.
Oh Truthspeak. I didn’t want to be the first to post about this because I know someone else will have something more eloquent to say, but I am so sorry.
Karma, it’s “okay,” now. I can look at this event and recognize it for what it was. I’ve put that in its proper place. But, it’s out in the open, now – and, I chose to share this because it speaks to the continued feeding of the shame-core and HOW feeding that shame-core remains a daily task into adulthood.
Today, I know how that happened, and why I never spoke about it, until now. I never even told friends because I believed that the response would have been, “Well, didn’t you PUT yourself in that position?” Yeah…..so, there it is.
Nothing to say about it other than as an academic reference. 😀
Thanks for the support and big hugs to you
Truthspeak, I am so sorry for what happened to you. It’s heartbreaking.
Truthspeak,
I am so sorry for your experience. This is exactly the type of experience that makes us vulnerable to sociopaths later in life. Because we have so much pain, embarrassment, and, as you described, shame, about an assault like this, even though it is not our fault, those negative emotions and energies draw to us people who are totally negative energies – the sociopaths.
That’s why it’s so important to find these dark places within us, shine the light of compassion on them, and let them go. When we do that, we can heal, and move on to the lives that we were truly meant to live.
Yes, it’s messy. But when we drain the pool of pain and disillusionment within us, we can refill it with clean, sparkling hope, love and joy.
G1S and Donna, thank you for your words of support.
It’s very important that readers clearly understand my purpose for my disclosure – it’s strictly for academia so that I can learn from it, and others may learn, as well.
Donna, yes……..you are 100% spot-on about “draining the pool.” If that stuff sits in there, long enough, it will NEVER scrub off the sides, so the purging of experiences not only allows me to fill myself back up with my Self (true soul), but it can serve as a learning and healing tool for others, especially when we’re talking about shame-core.
For me, I believe my personal shame-core was the open, engraved invitation for any and all spaths to take a shot at me, and learning that this condition was recognized was The Most Important Discovery About Myself, to date, bar none.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement. Now, let’s get down to draining those swampy pools!
Truth,
“Sanspathsky’s” ROTFLMAO Snark, snort bray!!! GREAT!!!!!!!
Yea, the things that happened TO us caused us to feel SHAME that should not have belonged to us, but have belonged to the perps, not the victims.
I can sure relate to that. It has been a long hard road, but I am finally giving up that shame that does not belong to me.
OxD, I can come up with some good ones, on occasion. I’m glad that you could snark, snort, and bray! (guffaw)
Donna – time for a LoveFraud Convention with speakers, lectures, and press coverage. Heck, if you arrange one in Atlantic City, I’ll gladly provide feedback while sitting in front of a slot machine screaming, “C’MON SEVENS!!!”
Hi al. I’ve been reading but not posting. I just had to chime in here.
Truth-I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Also, I’m glad that you finally had the courage to tell it. It is the “false” shame that opens us up to the N’s and P’s. Keep talking, expose the darkness to the light.
I had a very confusing episode with my father(step) when I was twelve but he stopped himself. To this day the memory is so spooky and confusing. Truthspeaks I can’t imagine what your memories must do.
I also had 3 guys start to, I guess, rape me when I was 22. The one who really liked me stopped the whole thing when his friend started to undo my pants. That memory still makes me shake, I was so close to having been left with a horrible memory.
The shame thing, I was set up by my mom to feel shame for EVERYTHING. I didn’t have a clue as to what she has taught me until about 5 years ago. I always thought she was the best mom ever. Now I can hear her passive criticism of me and how her tone is used to induce guilt and shame. She use to ALWAYS say “shame on you”. She loves to make that shock sound when she found out I did the least smallest thing wrong. I told her a few years ago about wearing my fuzzy pajamas to school when she said I couldn’t and she reacted like I had killed someone, that’s not an exaggeration. Thank God I hadn’t told her yet that I’d go to parties when I was suppose to be at ball games. Looking back I was an angel compared to a lot of kids.
Funny thing is, she taught me shame so good that when I pulled myself together and wouldn’t allow myself to be heaped with guilt and shame by my he yelled at me, “I don’t see the shame anymore.” Imagine that, for 23 years he tried to make me feel ashamed, succeeded and watched me squirm in my shame.