Despite SPOTLIGHT, the press and politicians continue to work with the Catholic Church, and (arch)dioceses — like the Archdiocese of St. Louis — to cover up what happened.

One such politician is then Missouri Attorney General and now Senator Josh Hawley.

When I asked — BEGGED — his team to talk to me, they couldn't be bothered to do so.

Senator Josh Hawley and the Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is trying to cultivate a reputation as a law and order, social conservative.

So its weird that, when given the chance to help survivors of the Catholic sex abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, then Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley refused to hear the testimony of survivors.

Survivors like me.

Frustration and Worse

I'm a survivor and contacted his office and his team multiple times — through both his office's web site and by calling in, directly — letting them know that I had crucial information.

But they couldn't be bothered to interview to me.

What's worse, in the face of questions by the press, they lied to me.

I contacted Senator Hawley's office, and the team handling the investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, twice.

September 2018

My first contact with Senator Josh Hawley's team handling the investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Louis came in September 2018.

I had read a — I suspect erroneous — report that Hawley's team had completed its investigation and obtained the name of the head of the team through my mom's church.

I gave her a call, introduced myself, and expressed concern about what I had read. She assured me that the report was wrong and that they had just wrapped up the initial phase — counting the boxes, basically — of their investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

I then told her about my story and experiences at a high level and told her I had in my possession a document that would demonstrate how the Archdiocese of St. Louis hid records.

November 2018

My second contact with Senator Josh Hawley's team handling the investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Louis came in November of 2018 or so.

I had grown increasingly frustrated with Hawley's team's lack of interest in talking to me, and contacted Nassim Benchaabane, a reporter with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and told him as much.

I'm not sure what happened, but he must have started digging around and, I assume called the MO AG's office and asked about the status of the investigation.

Regardless, LITERALLY the second I got off the phone with Nassim Benchaabane, after telling him who I was and about my frustrations with MO AG Josh Hawley's investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, my phone rang and on the end of the line was someone from the MO AG's team.

They asked me to be patient.

And made it clear that they wanted to talk to me.

But, crucially, that promise was a lie.

What's the Big Deal?

Why was it so important that Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's team talk to me?

Because I could tell them — metaphorically speaking — where the bodies were buried.

As whistleblower Siobhan O'Connor interview with 60 Minutes revealed, (arch)dioceses employ various tricks to hide records.

And, thanks to a source, I knew of the location of a document that tied Cardinal Timothy Dolan to the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

And to my abuser.

However, this document — and presumably others — wasn't located where it was supposed to be.

It's wasn't in a logical location.

Instead, it was hidden in the file of another abuser.

But — Thank God — I happened to find out which file that was.

Attorney General Schmitt

As incompetent and horrible as Senator Josh Hawley's investigation was, now Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Louis was worse.