The following was written by
@Ray Mouton, the author of
"In God's House". I post it here because I really, really want the world to stand up in outrage and force these crimes out into the open and under a global
Spotlight. In hopes of an Easter miracle ....
"For all who were baptized and reared in the Catholic faith, Good Friday brings to mind the sorrowful mysteries: The Agony In The Garden, The Scourging At the Pillar, The Crowning With Thorns, The Carrying Of The Cross, and The Crucifixion.
Many males like me served as altar boys for those long services held on Friday afternoon of Easter Week.
Some altar boys like me were blessed by good fortune. At the church and school were I attended mass and class, Our Lady of Fatima in Lafayette, Louisiana, there were at least two sick pedophile priests.
One, Fr. Stanley Begneaud, a notorious sex abuser whose sexual proclivities were well known to the bishop and all priests in the diocese was not a seducer who groomed boys, but rather a brutal man who sexually assaulted boys he took to sporting events, movies, or just for a ride in his car ostensibly to get ice cream. My good fortune was that Fr. Begneaud strongly disliked me for some reason and made his dislike of me very clear. I was spared being attacked by him, but I now know of peers who were his victims, most of whom did not talk about this until recently when they reached out to me.
Another, the infamous Fr. Lane Fotenot who used puppet shows to endear himself to very young children served at Our Lady of Fatima when I was a lawyer. Fotenot was shipped away by Bishop Gerard Frey to a state in the Northwest where he predictably abused more children and he became a fugitive when an arrest warrant was issued for him.
A great shame, a huge stain still exists on the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, for the most recent bishop, Michael Charles Jarrel, admitted in a statement he wrote that this diocese paid out over $ 24 million for claims against 15 priests that were deemed credible, yet Jarrell retired after repeatedly refusing to reveal the names of over a dozen of these men who escaped all consequences for their crimes. The bishop's actions violated the Vatican approved Church Charter For Child Protection Bishop Jarrell voted on in Dallas in June 2002, and the bishop's actions violated every moral and ethical standard known to man.
Other dioceses across the U. S. are now revealing the names of sex abusing priests against whom there were credible complaints made by posting their names on diocesan websites, but not the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana.
Some of these men may be living in communities where no one is aware of their criminal backgrounds as they were never made to face criminal consequences and identify themselves as sex offenders. Some may be working with children.
The very identity of one of these men, even if he is deceased, might explain to parents what happened to their son or daughter who was close to the priest as a child and developed serious problems that may have even led to suicide as has been the case in hundreds of lives of victims. The Catholic Diocese of Lafayette through four bishops over 30 years has decided to live with the stain of this shame.
All who were raised in the Catholic faith will recall that Jesus Christ from whom the Roman Catholic Church claims its moral authority, reportedly said of those who were killing him physically, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
Some survivors of clergy child sex abuse may forgive those who are responsible for killing them spiritually, taking God's greatest gift, innocence, that only resides in children and ripping it from their hearts, but if any survivors forgive these men they cannot "forgive them for they know not what they do."
Religious Superiors, Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals and those in the Vatican know exactly what they have done and are continuing to do, and they know exactly why they are doing it - to avoid scandal to their church, and because they place the image of the church and the reputation of its priests and bishops above the welfare of the children.
I was fortunate that Fr. Stanley Begnaud did not like me (perhaps because he knew I did not like him as he gave me the creeps, as we said back then), and I was lucky a second time that I was an adult before the diocesan bishop put another known sex abusing priest in my church parish.
Over a million children around the world who have been sexually abused by thousands of priests whose crimes have been covered up by hundreds of bishops were not as fortunate as I was.
So, on this day when the Sorrowful Mysteries come to mind, my heart is filled with sorrow for those children who were sexually abused by priests, the families of the victims who suffer terribly, and for all the Catholics around the world who now know that they and their family members have received sacraments from the hands of criminals and from the hands of men who harbored criminals, and for every Catholic on earth who has come to understand that their church, the institution and men who comprise the institution, is far different from what they always believed it was.
The Bible states at Luke 17:2 that it is better for one to have a millstone tied to him and be tossed into the sea than to harm the souls of the little ones.
The Vatican through its spokesman admits 5% of 414,000 Catholic priest abuse children, that there are over 20,000 sex abusing priests. Clinical data reflects that often a pedophile will have as many as 200 victims by the time the perpetrator is age forty. The simple multiplication of 200 victims X 20,000 priests gives one a rough idea of how many victims there may be in the world - as many as four million. Discounting that number by half, one finds two million victims. Discounting it by 75%, one finds one million victims. All experts in the field believe there are in excess of a million victims of clergy child sex abuse in the world in the modern era. This is only estimating in the modern era.
Vatican documents reveal that clergy child sex abuse has been both systemic and endemic in the church since the early part of the fourth century, 306 AD to be exact, the year when an edict issued in the Council of Elvira, Spain (known Granada today where there was a clergy sex abuse scandal exposed last year).
In every century since the fourth century there exists a plethora of Vatican documents reflecting the existence of an extensive clergy child sex abuse problem in the church.
So, on this day as we reflect upon the suffering of Christ and how he died and why he died, and embrace the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, let our hearts embrace the sorrow and suffering of millions of children who have suffered at the hands of men who know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it.
It is the obligation of anyone who considers themselves to be Christian that they embrace the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ's life, and everyone knows exactly what Jesus Christ would want them to do in the battle between the goodness that resides in the little children Christ entrusted to us and the evil that rests in this church that claims its moral authority from Christ.
Ray Mouton, author of "In God's House"
