I was checking the dashboard for Off My Knees this evening as a way of getting my mind off of something that has been distracting me all day. I noticed an increase in the number of hits I was getting off of one post in particular, Parting Company with SNAP. Granted the total number of hits is less than 10 over the last week or so, it just struck me as odd. I decided to pull the string and see where the new hits were coming from.
It seems that a blog named “TheMediaReport.com” is using a post I did on my issues with SNAP to support the author, a guy named David Pierre, who is using his site to hawk his books and to raise some money on PayPal. He does this by zealously defending the Catholic Church from Media Bias and the unfair people of the liberal left who are targeting the Catholic Church over the sex abuse crisis.
Mr. Pierre did a hit piece on SNAP and used one of my posts to support his position. While I am still not impressed with the National Leadership of SNAP, I have no tolerance for those in the Catholic Flock who are so focused on the “unfairness” of media coverage of the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church that they miss the basic problem that there is a SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Mr. Pierre is targeting his attack on the National Director of SNAP, but he fails to come forward with any tangible suggestions on how to deal with the cover-up of sexual crimes against children and vulnerable adults by members of the Catholic Church or laity. For that matter he does not come forward with any suggestions on gathering an ecumenical coalition to fight this pandemic across the various religions or other civic institutions who are not dealing with the crisis. I am not naive enough to say it is a Catholic-only problem, but I will say that the Catholic Church has been a miserable failure at protecting the most vulnerable of believers from predators wearing roman collars. A problem Mr. Pierre fails to address in his “media report”.
Mr. Pierre would be a lot more credible if he was calling for an independent investigation into all credible accusations of sexual abuse by trained, independent investigators. This should not be a threat to the Catholic Church. But the church traditionally stone walls and intimidates and blames the victim. They cry that they are unfairly accused or treated without respect in the media. They tell the faithful that the victims are only seeking money as they pass the collection plate to make sure that the princes of the church live a life of opulence in their palaces. Yes the Catholic Church is the victim here! (adjust your sarcasm settings…)
Mr. Pierre, you should not be using me to make your point, because you really don’t have one as long as your head remains in the sand. Good luck with your money-making enterprise! Funny, it seems to be a very Catholic thing to ask for money after an attempt at character assassination. If you want someone to review your book, drop me a note, I will be happy to read it. That is, if you don’t mind a “self-professed clergy abuse victim” reading your work.
Eye on the ball, people, eye on the ball!
Off My Knees - A Blog by Michael Baumann 
As another person who defends the church, I think that none of us wants to ‘bury our head in the sand” with respect to sex abuse. I think that billions of dollars in settlements , bankruptcies, untold damage to the church and a rigid enforcement programs in place for 10 years now that costs tens of millions of dollars to administer is at least a bit of a sign sign that every wants a church free of sex abuse to the extent humanly possible.
And I doubt that Mr Pierre is living off the riches from his website so I don’t think that your charge is very fair,
You are very tolerant of your church and of sex abuse. Note that
– not one single victim was found because the Catholic church went out to find them.
– the Catholic church has never surrendered a pedophile priest voluntarily
– every single victim that got a settlement got one because they went into the church and fought them with lawyers until the church was forced to pay them money
You think that is enough, because you follow bishops and you don’t follwo Jesus or God.
Brian, I understand that none of us wants to “bury our head in the sand”. Sadly that is what the apologists for the bishops are doing. Your argument that “billions of dollars in settlements, bankruptcies , untold damage to the church …” holds no water because you are not holding your bishops/cardinals/pope accountable for the coverup that has been perpetuated for centuries.
Don’t cry church poverty as long as the “princes of the church” live in oppulent excess and the vast treasure troves of the church still exist. Like many Catholics, you seem to still miss the point that there are hundreds of thousands of victims, mostly drawn from the most devote parishioners, who are amazed at the cruelty, threats and mean spirited actions of the church hierarchy. From my point of view, until the Church has to pay an unbearable price for the crimes it has condoned and the criminals it has protected, people like you will not get a grasp on the extent of the damage that has been done.
I also doubt Mr. Pierre is living off his riches from his website, it is not a very compelling read.
I think you might be overstating his intentions. At this point there are lawyers involved, which is even more problematic than psychologists. Think of the victim who went to a psychologist because he had probably been abused, and wound up accusing Cardinal Bernardin based on the effects of his “therapy”. When the victim eventually confronted the fact that Cardinal Bernardin hadn’t been anywhere near him and his “memories” were implanted by his therapist, he found himself helpless. Where does he go now? I don’t know if he ever recovered from his “therapy” experience, but his “therapist” was never required to explain why he manipulated his client into the situation.
Now we have lawyers looking to make a living out of this tragedy. Lawyers don’t always allow the truth to stop them from making a living – there is another potential for abuse. It needs to be guarded against. He has one anecdote to support this warning – the attack on a priest (Richard Martini) who was never charged with any abuse.
It is another form of abuse that needs to be guarded against.
You point out an individual case. In isolation you are masking a larger problem. In my case, the priest who raped me, raped many more. The diocese will admit to 4 cases where there is credible evidence he committed a crime and yet I have many more people who came forward to say they had been abused by this monster. The Diocese has refused to go back to parishes to which he was assigned to seek out more survivors. They actually have told parishioners at his last posting that he was removed because of his drinking. So, the bottom line here is that they lied!
Think of the victim that was abused, molested or raped and now is not able to function or has been told by the church that they as guilty as the priest they “seduced”.
The bottom line remains that the Catholic Church has it’s head in the sand. When are you people going to acknowledge that the sexual crime crisis is not resolved? When are you going to hold your hierarchy accountable.
Sure blame it on the lawyers! That is a classic deflection. How about blame this on the roman collars who committed crimes and those that covered those crimes up? Really, that is the best you have?
Dave Pierre and themediareport is much worse than that.
He is trying to sell two books, but he also endorses the website of a convicted pedophile (http://www.thesestonewalls.com) named Gordon Macrae.
See ads for Pierre’s books on the right side of the pedophile priest’s web page
Macrae was convicted of the crime in 1994, when he also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three other boys, according to By Katherine McQuaid
Union Leader (top Manchester, NH newspaper) March 4, 2003.
Pierre is a professional pedophile protector for the Catholic church, who will make money from a congregation desperately looking for any reason to think that their priests didn’t really rape at least 10,000 children in the US (as reported in their own, voluntary, John Jay report of 2004.
I think you should delete this post Mr. Baumann. Neil Allen is actually a troll whose real name is Patrick O’Malley.
I was unaware that I had trolls reading this blog. Noted! I don’t think I will discriminate against trolls by deleting this comment.
Talked to a new survivor yesterday. New in the sense that she is just now starting to deal with the rapes she experienced starting at age 6. She called the victims coordinator at the diocese and even he told her the church is still lying and covering up abuse. Their own f’en coordinator!
WHEN WILL THE CATHOLICS DEMAND THEIR LEADERS TELL THE TRUTH? THE WHOLE TRUTH?
I don’t think they ever will. We have to keep pushing for more DA’s to investigate, more charges to be filed against those who obstruced justice, and an end to statute of limitations laws for childhood sexual assault.
I feel bad to ask this, but could you consider the possibility that there are accusations made that are false?
Fr Gordon McCrae never admitted to abusing boys in 1994. That’s the whole point of his blog. If he’d pleaded guilty, he’d have been out in a few years, instead of doing a lifetime inside, on the strength of what seem to be fabrications.
I can’t imagine the horror you went through, and yes, I am fuming and humiliated and I’d try to kill a paedo if I caught him at it; but if you’re asking me to join a mob baying for the blood of an innocent on the strength of someone who says ‘I should have got an Oscar for my performance [in court]’, I won’t.
You feel bad asking? Somehow I doubt that. Perhaps you feel bad because you have not considered the possibility that there are accusations made that are true?
“Father McCrae never admitted to abusing boys in 1994.” Does that making him innocent? His lack of allocution does not acquit him. Perhaps he is too arrogant to accept that he was found guilty in a court of law. Is he blaming an inadequate counsel for his plight? Was the evidence fabricated? Was his defense so hapless that they could not punch holes in a fabrication? Or was the court correct in its verdict and he (and you) simply will not accept that?
You are right, you cannot imagine the horror I endured or the torment I still put up with from defenders of Catholic Church who are more interested in attacking survivors of sexual crimes committed by religious and lay members of the church than they are in protecting children and vulnerable adults from harm. What exactly are you fuming about? Why would you be willing to take vigilante justice into your own hands and kill someone you catch in a criminal act? Who are you to judge? Do you lack faith in the justice system? Or is it very Catholic to revert to violence?
Where, precisely, have I asked you to join a mob baying for the blood of an innocent? That seems to be the domain of the Catholic League. I have never tried to put together a “mob”. I have never supported violence against anyone in lieu of justice. I have never demanded anything but a full accounting. I expect a full accounting would acquit those who may have been falsely accused. I have asked for the truth. The truth is something that the Catholic Church, as an institution, seems to be unable to grasp upon.
Keep your righteous indignation to yourself. I believe that the Catholic Church has protected pedophiles. In my specific case, I know that they moved him around and he committed crimes in several parishes against several children. They moved him in the middle of the night for medical reasons or whispered rumors of alcoholism. They moved him away from the jurisdiction that would have investigated him. They enabled him to commit rape. They perpetuated a fraud by lying to the congregations. They endangered the children of the most faithful and did so with a reckless disregard.
I believe that there are some people who would fabricate stories and make false accusations. I don’t doubt that there are some out there who would try to gain, financially, from making false accusations. That is human nature, an ugly side of it at least.
If there is credible evidence that he was wrongly accused, it should be zealously pursued. No innocent person should be incarcerated for a crime that they did not commit. I hear the prisons are full of “innocent” people!
I believe what you have is an opinion. It does not seem to be well thought out or supported.
Michael, while I am sorry you endured what you did, I’m glad to count a strong defender as “one of us” and always feel better after reading your words.
James, you’re lying, as Catholics always do when they are defending their practice of child rape.
Fr Macrae PLEADED GUILTY to 3 cases of child rape, so he did admit to abusing boys.
Michael, this abuse largely started in the sixties, not centuries ago. More Conservative bishops have been fighting it and the cover up and they are attacked by the media and sometimes framed like Vigano, Burke, Pell, Wilson and so on.
And you have no proof for your casual statement.