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.
Louise
http://www.goddirect.org/mindemtn/writings/january/toxshame.htm
I’m not sure if this has been posted before or not, but wow…
just-us
Beckgirl-thanks for posting that. It helps me a lot when people point out to me misconception about Jesus, God and perfection. While I am no means a perfectionist, I am by nature a people pleaser. The people pleaser in me causes me to want to emulate Jesus as best I can. Your pointing out the misconceptions that you have allows me ease up a bit.
Thank you…hugs.
Louise
http://www.goddirect.org/mindemtn/writings/march/leakrage.htm
WOW!!!! This has REALLY helped me. I always thought “rage” meant actually being physically violent or yelling, etc. This really opened my eyes and you can’t even begin to imagine how many of these ways spath exhibited…blows my mind!!
Oh, and me, too…now that I have so much anger about what happened to me, I also exhibit some of these behaviors!
G1S
That’s a great list, Louise. Very thorough.
So glad that somebody finally put the list together.
Ox Drover
When “false prophets” turn the scriptures around and use tiny bits to try to control others, like “turn the other cheek” does not mean be a door mat…it makes me furious. By the time I was 5-6-7 years old I was terrified of “god”—at least the god my egg donor preached. And that if you weren’t perfect you were doomed to hell forever.
I finally realized that my egg donor is not the only person who can read the Bible and that I don’t need her to interpret it for me.
A while back I had one of the land agents for a natural gas pipe line that was being put across my back 40 acres and he came with a change he wanted me to sign….”this says…” he said, “sign here’ I said “NO, I want to read it” but he kept on yapping and saying “it just says X, Y and Z” and I kept o n insisting that I READ it before I signed it.
Well, what it was was a blanket release of liability no matter what they did on the entire farm, not just the right of way for the pipe line.
I said “if you drove a bull dozer across my house it would release you from liability.”
He said “well, we wouldn’t DO THAT”
At which point I said, “well let’s get a paper that says that then” What was scary too was that egg donor had already signed it.
I no longer let anyone interpret anything for me….I read it for myself and decide what it says. That doesn’t mean I won’t discuss it with someone, but I won’t let them dictate to me what anything says. I think the Bible should be read by each of us and interpreted, discussed, but not dictated by anyone else.
NO one has a private pipe line to God…and that includes my egg donor.
Louise
G1S:
I am glad to have finally found this, too…extremely helpful.
just-us
Oxy-Yeah, turn the other check, lol. I sure learned that one well. I’d turn the other check, then I’d turn the other check (the one that had just been “slapped”, then I’d turn the other check (the one that been slapped the second time) and on and on and on.
Glad I smartened up some and gained enough wisdom to teach my kids that you don’t just stand there and repeatedly let someone abuse you.
honestkindgiver
To comment on just us 5 ……consider myself the bad guy and began to feel sorry for HER and start apologizing.
Once when my monster in law could see that my spouse and I weren’t getting along, she flat out said, “Have you tried feeling sorry for him?”
I was so pissed. Sorry for him?? He brow beats, insults, rages, blames, lies, and I should feel sorry for HIM? Nonsense!!. I didn’t even feel sorry for myself, but rather just knew that their way of thinking was seriously messed up, dysfunctional, and incomprehensible.
These monsters know how to turn it around and look like they are put upon, oppressed or taken advantage of. Sick!
honestkindgiver
Oxy,
I love it…. Passive aggressive is still aggressive.
It’s all in how we respond and these days weird responses make me think NC much faster than I ever did before.
Yeah, I must be growing some balls… er, boundary lines.
skylar
honestkindgiver,
lol. In hindsight, I wish you had said, “you’re right monster-in-law, you raised him, I do feel sorry for him.”
ah well, that’s how it always is, we think of the comeback much later.
🙂