Wednesday, December 27, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
23
Clergy abuse victims haunted by sex harassment news
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
PORTLAND (AP) —
When stories of sexual mis-
conduct by powerful men
began to fill the news this fall,
Manny Vega immediately
flashed back to his childhood.
He saw strong similari-
ties between the recent alle-
gations against producers
and politicians and his own
abuse as a child by his parish
priest.
“The parallels are in
the power dynamics,” said
Vega, a former police officer
and decorated Marine who
lives in Oxnard, California.
“Whether you’re the leader
of a church or the leader of a
film studio, you’re going to
be someone people look up to
and someone people go to for
guidance. It puts the victim at
a horrible disadvantage.”
While there are key differ-
ences, the sexual harassment
detailed in today’s headlines
shares the same well-worn
themes that made it so hard
for Vega and hundreds of
other clergy abuse victims
to come forward more than
a decade ago: fear of retribu-
tion and disbelief, impossible
power dynamics and confi-
dential settlements that bury
complaints.
Powerful Hollywood pro-
ducer Harvey Weinstein is
under investigation for sexual
assault in four cities, and has
been accused of everything
from unwanted come-ons to
groping by dozens of women,
including A-list actresses. He
has apologized for his behav-
ior with women but denied
having nonconsensual sex.
He has not been charged with
a crime.
In the fallout, dozens of
other high-profile men —
actors, producers, politicians,
journalists, chefs and TV
hosts — have been publicly
accused of misconduct, and
dozens have resigned, been
fired or suspended, or experi-
enced political or professional
losses due to the allegations.
And like Weinstein, the
clergy abuse scandal featured
a larger-than-life character
who resigned in disgrace:
Boston’s Cardinal Bernard
Law. Law, whose failure
to stop child molesters in
the priesthood triggered the
worst crisis in American
Catholicism, died earlier this
week at age 86.
The revelations have
reopened wounds for clergy
abuse victims who tried to
raise the national conscious-
ness about the dangers of
complicity by exposing their
trauma to the nation.
The Catholic church has
paid out more than $3 bil-
lion to settle clergy abuse
cases since 1950, including a
record-breaking $660 million
settlement in Los Angeles
a decade ago. Archdioceses
in Boston, Los Angeles and
elsewhere also were forced to
publicize confidential docu-
ments that showed cover-ups
to protect molesting priests.
Now, those courtroom vic-
tories — and the secret docu-
ments they unveiled — seem
like horrible foreshadowing
to some.
“I shouldn’t be sur-
prised after all that I’ve been
through, but it is shocking,”
said Ryan DiMaria, a clergy
abuse victim who won a $5.2
million settlement in 2001
and went on to become an
attorney for others molested
by priests. “I think it’s the
tip of the iceberg in terms
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of finding out who knew
about it and who was cover-
ing it up. That’s the next big
revelation.”
Six of Weinstein’s female
accusers filed a federal law-
suit in New York earlier this
month alleging he used a
legion of assistants, casting
agents, security firms, gossip
writers and others to access
a steady stream of unwilling
sexual partners and silence
their complaints.
There are differences in
the scandals. Most of the
clergy victims were adults
when they came forward but
were children when the abuse
happened. And the weight of
faith made it that much more
intimidating for the accusers
to come forward; some were
cast aside by their families
and called liars by fellow
parishioners.
“I can’t tell you how many
times a client reported telling
their parents about the abuse,
and even their parents would
strike back and say, ‘You’re
lying,’” said attorney Tim
Hale, who has represented
alleged victims of both clergy
abuse and abuse within the
Boy Scouts.
Today, there seems to
be less resistance to accept-
ing these stories, possibly
because the clergy abuse
scandal increased public
awareness that abuse can
hide anywhere and an abuser
can be anyone, said Richard
Sipe, a former Benedictine
monk who has written several
books on clergy abuse and is
an expert in the field.
Clergy abuse victims who
for decades have felt they
were alone are now see-
ing actresses like Gwyneth
Paltrow and Salma Hayek
come forward with similar
stories, and that is upsetting
but also healing, he said.
Many have approached
him in recent days to talk
about how the daily headlines
on sexual misconduct relate
to their childhood experi-
ences, he added.
“It does have an unsettling
element, and it’s raw, and it’s
deep — but it is also consol-
ing that they’re not the only
ones and that they’re not at
fault,” Sipe said. “The truth
really is freeing.”
Those who have lived the
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clergy abuse scandal, how-
ever, know this moment of
public consciousness could
vanish as quickly as it came.
“It won’t be news after a
while. It’ll be, ‘Oh, another
person’s complaining, and
now another person’s com-
plaining.’ But what’s sig-
nificant now is that there are
names people know — and
that captivates and inter-
ests people,” said Anthony
Demarco, a Pasadena,
California, lawyer who spe-
cializes in clergy abuse
cases.
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