Preventing Child Abuse in the Church

From: dwestmodesto@hotmail.com
To: bishop@stocktondiocese.org; webmaster@olfmodesto.com
Subject: Failures of Safe Environment curriculum for CCD
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:18:55 -0700

Dear Bishop Blaire,

My name is David West. I have taught 7^th grade CCD at Our Lady of Fatima parish in Modesto for the last 3 years. I am also a full time teacher. I started my teaching career at St. Mary’s High School in Stockton, and have been teaching public school for the last 19 years. My first college degree is from Franciscan University. I am well versed in Catholic theology and tradition.

I have been frustrated by the diocese Safe Environment curriculum to help prevent abuse of children in our diocese since I started teaching CCD. This curriculum is all about warnings of bad strangers and self esteem building. It is good to teach kids basic safety about dangerous situations. It is great to build good self esteem. Evidence does shows that having a high sense of self esteem helps children avoid becoming victims. Unfortunately, the curriculum never even mentions the types of abuse that were responsible for starting the Safe Environment program in the first place. Any one who studies childhood sexual abuse knows that the majority of child sex abuse isn’t by bad strangers, it is by people that the child knows, loves, and/or respects. The diocese did not start the safe environment program because of bad strangers, or low self esteem. It started the program because of public revelations of abuse of children of our parishes by their clergy. The Stockton diocese has had more than it’s share of clergy abuse cases. Abuse by clergy has happened in many of our parishes, and it has happened far too many times in our diocese.

Abuse is cultivated by people trusted by our children, and the abuse is usually not by force, but by the slow breaking down children’s boundaries by pedophiles grooming behaviors. The child is abused first psychologically, and then eventually physically. The child is left feeling responsible for the abuse because it wasn’t forced; it came about through progressions of mental manipulations which leave the child feeling guilty and responsible for their own abuse.

Our Safe Environment unit was added to the curriculum specifically because of the clergy abuse scandal, yet the curriculum never even mentions the possibility of abuse by clergy, teachers, family members, coaches or other people that the children know, love, respect and trust. Our safe environment curriculum misses the mark by a mile.

The diocesan website has a box saying “Protect our Children, What is being done?”

Protecting Our Children, What We’re Doing
“The Church in the United States is experiencing a crisis without precedent in our times. The sexual abuse of children and young people by some priests and bishops, and the ways in which we bishops addressed these crimes and sins, have caused enormous pain, anger, and confusion. Innocent victims and their families have suffered terribly. . . . From the depths of our hearts, we bishops express great sorrow and profound regret for what the Catholic people are enduring.” (Preamble, U.S.C.C.B. Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People)

The Diocese of Stockton has had a policy to address issues of sexual abuse of minors since 1987. This policy has undergone periodic revision, most recently in 2003.

To ensure that our children and young people are able to grow “in age and grace and wisdom” in Christ, the Diocese has hired a Training Coordinator to oversee the Safe Environment program in our parishes, schools, and other institutions. For information on the various training components and protocols established to protect our children and young people, contact the Training Coordinator.

Last Update July 5, 2005”

This statement was added to our website back in July 2005. It has not been updated since, and it has not been put into real practice. Our Safe Environment curriculum only makes it look like we are doing what is needed, but it never has addressed the actual problems. If we are interested in doing more than saving face, and more than looking like we are working to resolve these problems we need real leadership and change.

This year we had an unfortunate opportunity to make the diocesan Safe Environment program real. When a priest came forward admitting to having abused children in the past in our parishes the abuse was covered in every newspaper, radio station and television station. Protestors were standing in front of Lady of Fatima as we went to mass. The only mention of the abuse by one of our priests was made in the form of a note in the church bulletin. That month was the month for the “Bishop’s Appeal”. The main focus of mass for 4 weeks was collecting money for the appeal. Homilies were sacrificed. Speakers were brought in to talk about the appeal. High pressure sales tactics were employed at mass week after week asking people to write checks on the spot. For a fund raising project to be considered more important that these abuse admissions showed complete disregard for the parishioners’ dealing with the violation of trust that this abuse had brought upon our parish, as well as disregard for the victims known, and unknown of that abuse. When we should have been reaching out to our parishioners to find other victims and to rebuild and restore trust, we were instead, reaching into their pockets. I confronted Father Khoi after mass the day that your letter was put into the bulletin rather than being dealt with in a proper and professional manner. I told him that by not dealing directly with this issue, from the pulpit, the church was guilty of an act of cowardice. He stated that he believed that your letter was sufficient, and our conversation ended. I strongly disagree. Your letter was completely insufficient. Our parishioners had to learn about the abuse in their own church by watching the coverage on the news. This was a time that we needed leadership, and the dioceses failed to provide the leadership that was necessary. I left mass that day, and went over to teach my 7^th graders CCD class. I dealt with the abuse with them in an honest and open manner. I had to tell them why we have a Safe Environment program and the issues that occurred that were responsible for its creation. I had to tell them about real abuse coming from people they know; people that slowly invade their boundaries and make them uncomfortable; people that may be their teachers, coaches, family members, or even their priests. I think that I did a good job dealing with this, but it is terrible that only the students in classes where the teachers ignored the approved diocesan curriculum had an explanation from THEIR Church about what had happened. It is terrible that only those students were told what to watch for. It is terrible that only those students were told how to prevent the abuse. It is terrible that only those students were told how to make the abuse end by reporting it. Our diocese missed a valuable and critical opportunity.

Now that the clergy abuse scandal has spread worldwide in scope, our parish and diocese needs to directly address problems from the past, and put into place real protections to insure that they do not continue, or reoccur in the future. It is much too late to worry about saving face. It is too late to worry about how much money we will loose. The only moral choice is to directly deal with the issues. The leadership of the church needs to speak directly, from the pulpit, to our parishioners. We need to directly and honestly speak with the media. We need to train our youth about the real concerns of sexual abuse and exploitation, not fables about bad strangers.

There is no more time for cowardice. It is time for the Church to lead in dealing with this growing problem. Those not willing to lead need to make room for those who are willing to rise to the task.

I hope and pray that you take my letter with the seriousness that this issue deserves.

Sincerely,

David E. West

Member of Our Lady of Fatima parish, Modesto, CA

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?o=1000&article_id=12233