Abuse victim speaks publicly

[Ian David]

Black Collar Crime
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

YVETTE CABRERA
Register columnist
[e-mail]

Looking back on his life, there are certain things that Richard L.Gomez would have done differently.

Had he spoken up as a young boy about the abuse he alleges he suffered at the hands of a Placentia Catholic priest, maybe he could have sought help. Maybe his life would have turned out differently in so many ways.

The "what ifs" haunt him today and it's one reason why he's speaking out publicly for the first time about the sexual abuse he says he endured as a young altar boy at the hands of a Saint Joseph Church priest, the late Father Eleuterio Ramos.

Gomez is one of 508 people who will receive part of the $660 million settlement with the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese that was reached last week as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit. He was also part of the group of plaintiffs who won a $100 million sexual-abuse settlement from the Diocese of Orange in 2004, and was personally awarded $1.6 million.

"There are kids out there, a lot of kids out there who still go through this," Gomez, 44, tells me as we sit in his Tustin home. "Hopefully they can understand that it's not their fault and speak now before they go through what I've been through."

More:
http://www.ocregister.com/column/gomez-abuse-ramos-1783711-says-life

[wicket]

1. Bless him

[porphyrian]

2. If money can't buy your way to heaven, what makes this an acceptable response from the church?

Who would Jesus pay off after molesting untold numbers of children then covering it up?

[theredpen]

3. The Plaintiffs asked for money

...and they got it. This settlement isn't going to make the problem go away, really, but hopefully it will bring some relief and closure to the victims. Maybe some of them can afford therapy, or repair some of the material damage that has accompanied the psychological and spiritual damage. Also, it is hoped that the pain that the Church is suffering as a result of this screwup will prompt a more responsible course of action in the future.

[porphyrian]

4. Is that how you justify it?

Regardless of whether or not the plaintiffs asked for money, they shouldn't have had to go to court to be recognized in the first place. Money does nothing to bring relief and closure to a sexually abused person, though forcing the church to admit its guilt may help some. And, given its reaction to all of the past cases against pedophile priests, the only "pain" the church feels is the setback in its accumulation of wealth and its only action will be to better hide its atrocities from public exposure in the future.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[porphyrian]

6. You don't know who I am, and shouldn't make so many assumptions.

It's far more reprehensible for child victims of sexual molestation to have to take a guilty church to court than for individuals in a property dispute. You can't downplay that evil shit.

Sorry, that wasn't anti-Catholic bigotry, that was truth, something you may not be familiar with. And, if you don't like what I have to say, you might want to take your ass and go, because I've been here a while.

We aren't talking about teachers, we're talking about child molesting priests and the church that repeatedly covers up this unforgivable sin. Justify it however you need to, but don't expect me to agree to your insanity.

[theredpen]

8. I do know who you are

You're a bigot.

Free Republic is full of bigots who are "just telling the truth." Go. Join them. You're peeps await.

[porphyrian]

10. So you're willfully ignorant and horribly mistaken.

What are you, twelve years old? Middle school taunting makes your stance no less indefensible.

[theredpen]

12. B'bye

You get to be in my ignore file. Have a nice life, you bitter crank.

[porphyrian]

14. Ha! Enjoy your life of denial and apologizing for child-raping! - n/t

[dsc]

7. I would like the citation of some statistic to back that up

other than prosecuted cases since unlike bishops principles actually report the abuse. I actually doubt even prosecuted cases would back you up.

[theredpen]

9. You're right... the cases are different

other than prosecuted cases since unlike bishops principles actually report the abuse.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

The point I was trying to make is that the Catholic Church is not some kind of haven for pedophiles. It's is a huge organization with over a billion people in it. This abuse scandal has its roots in the Boston and Chicago Diocese. Many of the priests who abused children elsewhere were quietly transferred from those locations after some hushed-up incidents. Despite the lurid headlines, this scandal is not representative of the Catholic Church as a whole, or even on the balance.

I'll see if I can come up with a citation for the factoid.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. And PSYCHOLOGISTS told the bishops to make

a financial settlement with the kid's family and send the accused priest for treatment. PSYCHOLOGISTS said it would be more harmful to the kids to have to go to court, better to remove the priest from their parish and reassign him after his treatment. PSYCHOLOGISTS assured the bishops that pedophiles and ephebophiles could be cured.

PSYCHOLOGISTS bear a lot of the responsibility, if not most, for the abuses that occurred after priests were "cured" and reassigned.

[theredpen]

13. Thank you for pointing that out

Also widely ignored is cultural context. Most of these abuses happened in the 60's and early 70's when attitudes concerning rape and molestation were much more backward. There has been a lot of progress, even in psychology, and much (but not all) of the "blame the victim" mentality that existed back then has been abandoned.

Also, it's important to realize how conformist American society was in that time, despite the much-highlighted social upheavals. In that atmosphere, people were more concerned about the negative effects of scandal and stigma than they were about the negative effects of the trauma itself.

It's been a long road -- and we're not "there" yet -- and there are a lot of bodies strewn along it. I just hope that this whole mess with the RCC has shoved us farther towards being sensible as a society about handling child sexual abuse.