" IN GOD'S NAME"
For Immediate Release Contacts:
November 9, 2002 David Roscow, 703-276-2772, ext. 21
Scott Treibitz, 703-276-2772, ext. 11
New Report
Catholic Church Guilty of Global Human Trafficking of Sexual Predators and Victims
Group Calls on
Vatican to Turn over All Diocesan "Historical Secret Archives" to Law Enforcement
Calls For US Congressional Hearings
International Humanitarian Campaign Against the Exploitation of Children
Press Conference, 1:30 pm, Tuesday, November 12
National Press Club, Holman Room — (14th and F Street NW, 13th floor)
Washington, DC – The Catholic Church is guilty of a historic, systemic cover-up of human trafficking of sexual predators and victims as defined by the United Nations according to a report by the International Humanitarian Campaign Against the Exploitation of Children (IHCAEC). The report, In the Name of God, documents clear evidence of global patterns of behavior and tactics by church officials that has resulted in "global human trafficking" of sexual predators and their victims under the guise of protecting the Priesthood, the image of the Catholic Church, and avoiding legal and financial liability for their actions.
"Even in these very dark days of the Roman Catholic Church's worse sexual scandal, the Church hierarchy and the Vatican continue to co-conspire to cover-up heinous sexual crimes by members of the clergy including sexual rituals, orgies, and ritual abuse sex rings." said author of the report and former CNN Political Director Christine Dolan, CEO/founder of IHCAEC. "In this cover-up, the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy use their usual tools-Denial, Deflection, Secrecy, Stonewalling, and Blaming victims, their families and supporters, and media who attempt to report the true nature of this sexual torture."
"It is time for Law Enforcement agencies worldwide to do what the Roman Catholic church Hierarchy, who clearly consider themselves 'A Royal Priesthood' and above the civil laws that govern laity, to do what the Vatican and their Bishops continue to lack the moral leadership and moral courage to do. Positions of power in the church can no longer be protection from CRIMINAL ACCOUNTABILITY! Their acts of commission and omission are as criminal as the predators' sadistic torture and savagery of children!" says Dolan.
For more information about IHCAEC visit www.helpsavekids.org.
Press Conference Participants:
o Christine Dolan, Author of In the Name of God. CEO/Founder, International Humanitarian Campaign Against the Exploitation of Children
o Hon. Richard Seziberra, Rwandan Ambassador to the U.S.
o Father Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., J.C.D.,
o Pat Roddy, Former ABC News Executive Producer
o Father John Bambrick, Priest Survivor of Clergy Sexual Abuse
o Homayra Sellier, Pres., Innocence in Danger–Geneva, Switzerland, Child pornography internet expert
o Linda McDonald, R.N. and Jeanne Sarson, R.N., Ritual abuse-torture experts, Nova Scotia, Canada
o Michael Skinner, American non-Catholic survivor
o Ben Johnston, American- DynCorp trafficking whistle-blower
My ongoing efforts to make the public aware of the seriousness of childhood sexual abuse and it's long- term consequences through my music, my advocacy work, and my website, has led me to interact with many others, not only on a regional basis, but an international one as well. This networking led others to make Christine Dolan of the International Humanitarian Campaign Against The Exploitation Of Children contact me and ask me to participate in the above mentioned Press Conference. I was extremely honored to do so. Here is the prepared speech I gave at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. I also spoke for 10 minutes following this prepared text and was given a standing ovation. I was truly humbled and honored to be able to help convey words for those who have been abused. Slowly but surely we will end this abuse.
WHY?- Michael Skinner
Why am I speaking today at a conference addressing the concerns of the Catholic Church hierarchy and their complicity in the sexual abuse of children and adolescents? My own experience and the nightmare I endured of having suffered through many years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the hands of my parents and their perverted friends gives me the right to speak here. For it goes back to the question of WHY, and how could so many members of society ignore and allow the torture I lived through to continue. The abuse I suffered did not take place in a vacuum, people were aware of something not right going on at my home. The police came to my home countless times, school officials knew something wasn't right, the local minister, the family doctor, nurses, teachers, & neighbors, they all knew something was wrong. Apathy and indifference allowed for my extreme sexual, physical, & emotional abuse to continue. The very same apathy and indifference displayed by the Cardinal Laws, the Bishop McCormacks, and countless others who ignored and then swept under the rug, the sufferings of those entrusted in their care. This apathy and indifference then leads to an even greater crime of complicity in allowing the sexual abuse and perversion of young people to flourish and continue. I have asked the question, WHY was this allowed to happen to me for most of my young life. I still ask the same question when I see and hear of the despicable exploits, the sexual perversions, the crimes that were practiced upon so many young people by members of the Catholic Church ministry. For the leaders of this Church and others who allowed this to continue goes beyond appalling and shameful. Their inaction, their complicity in these crimes is in of itself a crime, a crime to humanity, a crime to God's children. For this sexual abuse survivor, I would welcome back seeing these entrusted leaders ridden out of town, tarred and feathered to a rail. The shame and embarrassment these officials would suffer would pale in comparison to what victims of sexual abuse have suffered with, endured and now must contend with on a daily basis for the rest of their lives.
We must get past the war of words spun by the Cardinal Laws and their respective legal counsel in deflecting the heat off of them and onto the victims. Instead we must get down to what the "inappropriate touching" of young people is all about. The coerced and forced penetration of an adult's penis into the mouth, the anus, the vagina of a young child or teenager is rape. To allow for these rapists [male & female] to carry on with great impunity for all these years is also a crime, these supposed leaders of the Catholic Church allowed for these rapes to continue and at the expense of so many victims. Being forced to endure such rape is a lasting legacy that does not ever leave you. To also be forced to commit fellatio, a "blow job", and cunnilingus to an adult and made to sodomize the adult perpertrator also never leaves you. The gag reflex, the shame, the horror is something that stays with you for a lifetime. Those memories, those thoughts, those feelings are burned into your psyche, your soul, your whole being and with it comes a lifetime of pain and shame. A shame you should not feel, for it was done to you. But the ignoring of your cries of help, for help, by the Cardinal Laws of this world make you internalize a shame that is not yours, but theirs. So instead of asking why am I speaking here today, I need to ask why are these leaders still in power? It has nothing to do with the care and concerns of their parish. It has to do with their own selfish gain. When society starts to hold people who helped in the complicity of the sexual abuse of children accountable, then and only then will it start to help and protect children from this despicable crime of rape inflicted upon those who cannot defend themselves.
