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| ChrisOLeary.com > Sins of the Fathers |
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You hypocrite, - Matthew 7:5 My name is Chris O'Leary and I'm an acknowledged survivor of the Catholic sex abuse crisis. 
From 1977-1981, I was sexually abused — and, ultimately, raped — by a Catholic priest named Fr. LeRoy Valentine. Abuse that was known about — because it was WITNESSED, at least in part — by My Friend the Cardinal. And not the baseball kind. Abuse that continued at my Jesuit high school, St. Louis University High (SLUH). And then, in the weeks following the release of the original SPOTLIGHT articles, things got REALLY bad. Sins of the FathersSins of the Fathers is my record of what happened to me during the depths of the Catholic sex abuse crisis. The most recently updated parts of Sins of the Fathers include.
The abuse I experienced as a child was just the precursor to what I call the Abuse of the Abused...
All of this culminated at the 2018 Mass of Reparation for the sex abuse crisis, at which I was ignored by ALL the priests in attendence, exactly as this picture shows. 
As for the many Catholics who will only take the Catholic Church at its word? who refuse to listen to survivors? They aren't helping. They are ENABLING. Just like in the bad old days. My StoryI tell my story via a series of essays entitled The Sins of the Fathers... My most recently updated essays are... I've also started a podcast that discusses what happened... 
I've summarized my story in a number of pieces...
I give an overview of the role played by some of the big names in the Catholic Church involved with my story in the following pieces... For UTTM updates, or to contact me, I tweet @IvanDOesnot You can also e-mail me at ivandoesnot at gmail dotcom or 314 four94 13two4. Just text me first, please. I'll be Damned...The buck stops here. I'll be damned if allow what happened to me — both as a child and a survivor — to happen to anyone else. While many would have you believe my story is old news — that the problem was solved twenty years ago and I just need to move on — my experience says otherwise; the scandal is alive and well, at least in terms of the Abuse of the Abused, the reality of VOS ESTIS, and in other ways. While the events portrayed in the movie SPOTLIGHT would seem to mark the beginning of the end of the Catholic sex abuse crisis, they are really just the end of the beginning. In my case, SPOTLIGHT marks only the start — or, really, the resumption — of the story. I recently came across evidence — the proverbial Smoking Gun — that makes it clear that we were knowingly sacrificed by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. I'm working on telling all the sordid, and largely untold, details of my story in an ebook... ...a podcast... ...and series of videos... The ProblemThe problem is that, despite what's been said, and what you've heard, my resolve to end the sex abuse crisis isn't shared by the Catholic Church. Not completely. While it IS doing a lot of good work to protect children, and to make sure what happened to us doesn't happen again, the Catholic Church couldn't care less about survivors. Still. Despite the Pope's motu propio VOS ESTIS... That is evidenced by the complete disregard for survivors demonstrated — and not even hidden — by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. And the Pope's indifference to it. And us. Combine that with the proof I've discovered that the Archdiocese of St. Louis had KNOWLEDGE of the existence of abusers, because they were being MANAGED. ...and the on-going efforts to protect the hierarchy at all costs, including covering up the crimes of, at best, omission of people like my friend the cardinal, one must question the — actual — resolve of the Catholic Church to protecting children. Much less helping survivors. Or holding the hierarchy accountable. What HappenedWhen I was a child, I was sexually exploited, abused, and assaulted — raped — by a priest named Fr. LeRoy Valentine at the Church of the Immacolata in Richmond Heights, MO, a suburb of St. Louis, from 1977 until 1981. Abuse was witnessed, at least in part, by my friend the cardinal. And not the baseball kind. Then, when I went to the Archdiocese of St. Louis for help in early March 2002, that's when things got REALLY bad. Most recently, I hoped to receive the support and assistance of the — devout Catholic — Attorney General of Missouri, Eric Schmitt but, instead of being welcomed at the press conference announcing the results of the investigation of ArchStL, I was terrorized and traumatized by the MO AG's office. I was thrown out of the building by the police for having the gall of wanting to quietly attend the press conference. What's worse, KMOV got the whole thing on tape and won't air/web the footage, making St. Louis and ArchStL worse than SPOTLIGHT. In case you've heard troubling things about me, understand I've been the subject of a... I assume that is why so many people have stopped talking to me. As for whether you should believe me, I met with Archbishop Carlson of ArchStL on March 26, 2019... ...something that only happens if your (arch)diocese believes you WERE abused. Finally, in case you're wondering and/or hoping, the Pope's recent mandate VOS ESTIS LUX MUNDI has had NO effect... ...on how the Archdiocese of St. Louis helps survivors. They still do... OVERVIEWIf you're looking for a place to start trying to understand my story, I'd suggest you start here... ReadI'm in the process of writing a book that discusses my experiences... My more important pieces include...
WatchIn advance of, and during, the Vatican sex abuse summit, I recorded a number of... ListenI have recorded some of my testimony in podcast form...
Press & InterviewsMy story was first told by Aisha Sultan on April 20, 2018 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch... My most recent interview was an in-person interview with a fellow survivor... In June, I was invited on the Dave Glover Show in St. Louis to tell my story... I was interviewed in some depth, by Religion Digital... Other stories that mention my story or me include...
if you'd like to talk to me about my experiences, my contact information is listed at the bottom of this page. GoFundMeI used the small settlement I received from ArchStL to finance a surprisingly successful social media campaign that helped forced ArchStL to open up to outside reviewers. However, I'm now having financial problems due to C-PTSD and the Cancer I was fighting at the same time I was fighting ArchStL to help me. For updates on this project, follow me on Twitter @IvanDOesnot AMDG Chris O'Leary ivandoesnot (at) gmail.com |
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