Correction: Salesian Mansion is not squatty and it IS to be sold along with a camp to pay 17 LA plaintiffs. Plus, the LA Times gets it wrong again

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By Kay Ebeling
Good morning, folks, it’s time for some corrections. Re the Salesian mansion, which YES will be sold to pay the LA settlements, the Provincial House in San Francisco only looks "squatty" from the front where the public sees it, a faithful reader tells me. The mansion is “huge” and from side views it stretches w-a-a-a-ay back and takes up an entire city block.

Another correction: The Itzaina letter in the May 22nd post, where the Vice Provincial takes Ray Boucher to task and claims all Salesian priests are innocent, was not written last month as reported here, but less than 48 hours before the May 14th settlement, which included an admission that Titian Miani DID rape four plaintiffs. Also, Itzaina is not just "a Vice Provincial," but THE Vice-Provincial, my source emailed me scolding.

The camp to be sold is likely Camp Salesian, in Middletown, California, north of Santa Rosa, my source, who says he has to stay anonymous as that's how things are with the Salesians, said.

The Salesians have two camps, Camp St. Francis for boys age 7 to 13 featured in a post here last week, and Camp Salesian. “No activities appear to be planned at Camp Salesian in Middletown this summer,” said my source, “whereas a full summer camp program staffed by Salesians is scheduled at Camp St. Francis for this summer.”

So Camp St. Francis, with Salesian brothers running it, will be stock full of vulnerable boys age 7 to 13 along beachfront property outside Santa Cruz again this summer.

From the Camp St. Francis website:

Camp St Francis provides a wholesome Catholic setting for boys ages 7 - 13 to experience a meaningful and enjoyable summer with their peers

Camp Address:
Camp St. Francis
2320 Sumner Ave.
Aptos, CA 95003

I think there should be protesters where the parents drop the kids off for camp this summer every weekend, or at the camp entrance address above.

To warn the parents they are practically feeding their children to preying pedophiles.

The Salesian Religious Order has more pedophiles per capita than any other religious order in the United States.

And you want to send your pre-pubescent boys to be practically imprisoned no way out at summer camp with these predators?

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God knows what goes on in those cabins.
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Here’s another idea. Just an idea:

TO GET THE BALL ROLLING toward Congressional hearings about sex crimes in the Catholic Church

Something to Do:
Send letters to:

Lisa Pinto
District Director
Office of Henry Waxman
8436 W. Third St. #600
LA CA 90048

She is in Henry Waxman’s office here in LA.

Henry Waxman chairs the Congressional Oversight Committee.

So write Lisa Pinto and US Rep Waxman a letter and explain the problem of sex crimes in the Catholic Church

Include Evidence with your Letter. Articles from the paper, documents, etc.

Tell them the 140,000 to 500,000 victims of pedohpile priests have yet to experience justice.

Settlements across the country the last 10 years did nothing but further hide the truth, as hierarchy in the church never had to testify.

We need Congressional hearings.

We need guys like Cardinal Roger Mahony to testify, and since the bishops avoided speaking in public under oath with settlements across the country, let the bishops sweat it out in front of national cameras and the teeth and claws of fresh Democrats in the US Congress next year.

We need Congressional Hearings on Sex Crimes in the Catholic Church. And other clergy.

This is a great time to approach Congress for hearings, with the recent FLDS raids in Utah and Texas.

We can start by sending a lot of letters to Lisa Pinto in Henry Waxman’s office at:

Lisa Pinto
District Director
Office of Henry Waxman
8436 W. Third St. #600
LA CA 90048

If you can, cc me your letters.

Please also mention City of Angels blog and A Matter of Truth in Boston, as we are all working together to get national level hearings, either in the Senate or the US Congress, sometime soon.

It starts with small steps.

If Lisa Pinto is inundated with letters, all of them from clergy abuse survivors wanting Congressional hearings, it might help get the ball rolling. Send copies of your letters to me as well, so I can relish in their wordsmithery. . .

It's late I need sleep...

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IF THE LA TIMES HAD BEEN THERE
They Would Have Gotten It Right
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No one was there from the LA Times the day of the Salesian settlement hearing last week. However, the Times ran a story the next day and it was obviously written by someone at a desk in an office who, after getting the assignment, spent 15 minutes on the Internet, made a few phone calls, then wrote the story. The reporter may not even have been in Los Angeles, from what I hear about corporate run newspapers today. He could have been in San Francisco, or Arizona, and it would not have made a difference in the story.

AND THE LA TIMES GOT IT WRONG

The Los Angeles Times Insulted the 17 Salesian Plaintiffs, all victims of pedophile priest crimes in Los Angeles, by getting the story wrong.

We Don’t have a newspaper in Los Angeles anymore.
We have blogs.

The Times wrote:

Father Titian Miani, now 81, had been accused of preying on youths when they assigned him to St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, where he allegedly molested four children

Had the Times bothered to send a reporter to the courtroom that day, they would have known that the Salesians admitted in open court, in front of the jury and the judge and the two reporters who were there, me and a woman from The Daily Journal--

That Titian Miani DID molest the four plaintiffs and that Edward Anthony Rodrigue IS guilty of raping other plaintiffs.

It’s not alleged anymore after they admit their guilt in court.

The LA Times still referred to the crimes of Titian Miani

As "alleged molestation."

That's what happens when you do beat reporting by last minute phone calls after the fact, instead of getting down and dirty and going document diving like we do here almost weekly at City of Angels Network.

An Epidemic of Pedophiles thriving in Southern California Catholic Churches for more than 50 years

And the LA Times is absent and then inaccurate for one of the critical hearings on the issue.

We Do Not have a newspaper in this city anymore.

Just blogs like mine.

(I work in TV. That's why I repeat myself so much.)

Here is the beginning of the LA Times story:

Salesians settle final L.A. Archdiocese priest abuse case for $19.5 million

By Richard Winton,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 15, 2008

The Salesian Society agreed Wednesday to pay $19.5 million to 17 childhood molestation victims, ending the last unresolved case involving the Los Angeles Archdiocese's sexual abuse crisis.

The settlement came after jurors were seated to hear allegations that the Salesians knew Father Titian Miani, now 81, had been accused of preying on youths when they assigned him to St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, where he allegedly molested four children

AAARGGGGGHHHH

I know, all newspapers always say allege until someone is locked up in prison.

They are more worried about getting sued than delivering the news.
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My head is in Chicago already.
I'm going to my perp church to look for clues.
Just Like Nancy Drew pictured at left holding The Clock. As I work here in LA the mind drifts and I'm in Chicago on the Metra, riding from the city out to the western suburbs.

I’ll get off at Bartlett and go straight to my perp church St. Peter Damian, and see what I can find out about Fr. Thomas Barry Horne, did he leave behind more crime victims than me and my sister. . . .

I’ve been looking at Bartlett from Google maps. The Chicago Metra stops downtown Bartlett in exactly the same place as the old train station in the town in the 1950s.

I know exactly how to get from the train station to the church, it’s only a few blocks. I’ll wear walking shoes.

I'm also taking my laptop and camera and the entire story will be here at City of Angels Blog, day to day. . .blow by blow...

I know Father Horne took kid porn pictures of me and my sister.

I know he was a baccanalian type who was doing my mother in order to get to her daughters. Or maybe he just liked doing it with all of us, I don't know, maybe I'll find out. . .

I hope I will find more victims of Thomas Barry Horne, predator priest.

Or some other thing that will help me prove my case, like Nancy Drew.

My head is in Chicago already.

Even the SNAP conference sounds exciting and I don't usually like conferences, as I can't sit still. So I'm going to be squirming and twitching at SNAP in July this year, the first year I've been able to go to a SNAP conference.

The trip to Chicago is happening thanks to hits on my PayPal button.

And I still don't have quite enough, need to raise about $450 dollars more.

Every five dollars helps. Please click my PayPal and help me get to Chicago and stay long enough to do the research I need to write this story and live it at the same time here on the blog.

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Life goes on.
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Meanwhile, still working on one of the most bizarre reality TV shows in history, called America’s Greatest Dog.

Like so many reality shows, people come and live in a house with a group of strangers with video cameras going all the time.

Except these people are there with their dogs. Now they're fighting over who’s got the best training techniques, and you're abusing your dog, and oh boy.

Wish I could retire and just work on the blog. Maybe next year.

Onward . . . More to Come. . .

By refusing to hear Child Sex Abuse Act and almost passing puppy protection act, PA legistors reveal priorities gone to the dogs

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By Mike Ference
(Reporting from PA for City of Angels Network)
State Rep. Lisa Bennington, D-Allegheny County, held a press conference May 12 in Harrisburg, PA, to discuss House Bill 1137, legislation known as the Child Victim’s Act of Pennsylvania, which addresses the statute of limitations and identification of sex abusers.

If the bill passes, it would raise the age at which an accuser could file a civil suit from 30 to 50, bringing the civil statute of limitations in line with the criminal statute. The bill would also suspend the civil statute of limitations for two years in child sex abuse cases, so that people over the age limit or whose SOL has expired could file a suit. The bill allows actions against child sex abusers and their enablers in both public and private institutions. (Rep. Bennington is shown in photo above.)

A 2005 Philadelphia Grand Jury Report uncovered 63 priests in the Philadelphia archdiocese who had abused hundreds of children over several decades. In some cases, archdiocese leaders intentionally concealed the abuse to protect the church.

Bennington stresses her bill does not target the Catholic Church. Rather, “it pertains to all religious institutions, public schools, youth groups and any organization where child sex abuse has occurred. This bill would give all Pennsylvania victims their fundamental right to hold those accountable that afflicted or allowed the abuse to occur.”

Sounds reasonable and seems like a good thing. Similar legislation has passed in California and Delaware in recent years. In California, about 1,000 victims came forward and 300 predators were identified. Yet, there’s one PA lawmaker who strongly opposes the legislation and doesn’t even intend to give the bill a hearing.

State Rep. Thomas R.Caltagirone D., (Berks County), the House Judiciary Committee chairman, says the proposed bill is driven by victims’ desire to win large legal payouts. Caltagirone goes on to say the bill is all about money, not about justice. (Photo of Caltagirone at right lifted freely from Philadelphia Inquirer website, so sue me --ke)

Ironically, Caltagirone was quick to vote with fellow legislators for a 50 percent increase in their pensions in 2001 and the infamous middle of the night pay raise in 2005. The state rep along with other lawmakers chose to take the self-induced pay grab immediately in unvouchered expenses. Many PA residents felt this made the elected officials look like money-hungry crooks, as it was eventually declared unconstitutional.

As expected, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference deplores the bill, choosing to continue to protect perverted priests, rather than seek justice. Likewise, the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania is also against the bill.

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While Caltagirone has officially declared HB1137 dead, his puppy-protection bill seems to be racing for the finish line.
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Could the PA state Rep. Caltagirone be more concerned about protecting puppies than innocent children abused as sex toys by grown men and women? His recently unveiled, HB 2532 which would forbid dog owners from performing surgery on their pups went before the Judiciary Committee on May 14 and could be voted on as early as June 10.

As someone who has been investigating clergy abuse in Pennsylvania for almost 20 years, this writer can’t help but think that something is amiss.

On the eastern side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office issued a scathing report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia recently, for the high level of sexual abuse among Catholic priests and the cover ups and the reassigning of credibly accused Catholic priests by Cardinals Bevilacqua and Krol and their aides. It should be noted that Bevilacqua first served as Bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese before his transfer to Philadelphia. Insiders claim Bevilacqua left his successor, Donald Wuerl, quite a mess.

For example, while Bevilacqua was still assigned to the Pittsburgh Diocese he agreed to place Fr. John P. Connor, an admitted child molester first within the Pittsburgh Diocese and later, after Bevilacqua took over in Philadelphia Fr. Connor was assigned there.

According to testimony in the Philadelphia Grand Jury the arrangement was based on a “tradition of bishops helping bishops.” Sadly, Fr. Connor went on to abuse others and Bevilacqua was found to be a liar according to the grand jury report.

One has to wonder why the Pittsburgh Diocese voluntarily settled with 32 alleged survivors of clergy abuse. $1.25 million for crimes the Pittsburgh Diocese will never have to admit ever occurred. The settlement would not tarnish the stellar reputation of Archbishop Donald Wuerl who never had to pay a dime to any clergy abuse victims during his tenure as bishop in the Pittsburgh Diocese.

Oddly enough, an underling – so to speak – Auxiliary Bishop Bradley reconciled the situation, only weeks before Bishop David Zubik was to be installed as the new leader of the diocese. So it seems everything fell into place.

So 32 survivors received a few bucks and the diocese is off the hook for any future civil or maybe even criminal suits based on the settlement. Wuerl continues to do in Washington D.C. whatever it is that Archbishops do and Zubik was allowed to get a fresh start in the Pittsburgh Diocese without the interference of those civil suits that were resting in limbo for several years.

The settling of the civil suits certainly allowed for an impressive and dignified installation of Bishop Zubik, no hecklers or demonstrators from any groups with compassion for children sexually abused by Catholic priests.

And, although I have no proof, nor any way to calculate, I would be willing to bet the farm that more money was spent on Zubik’s festivities than was awarded to 32 survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests from the Pittsburgh Diocese. No big deal, the worst is over.

Unless of course, somewhere down the road – maybe a year, a few months, a couple of weeks, or perhaps in the next few days – information turns up that the cases of sexual abuse actually occurred and that cover ups were the norm in the Pittsburgh Diocese just like cover ups and shifting priests from parish to parish was the norm in the archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Anyone with a little common sense would be concerned that a man of the cloth might be tempted to hide crimes of clergy sexual abuse of young children only on the eastern side of the commonwealth of PA and not the western side as well.

That’s a lot of ifs ands or buts – only time will tell if Pennsylvania is indeed a pro-pedophile state. For now it’s three cheers for Rep Bennington and HB 1137 as for Rep. Caltagirone – one politician who obviously cares more about dogs than children – maybe it’s time for the law maker to rollover and play dead.

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Mike Ference is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and investigative reporter who has been probing clergy abuse in Pennsylvania for almost 20 years.

Mike Ference may be reached at 412-233-5491 or email him at Ference@icubed.com.

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(City of Angels Lady, AKA Kay, will return next week.)

An attack on Ray Boucher, a squatty SF mansion may be sold to pay a settlement, and should the Salesians still be running a summer camp for boys 7-13?

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By Kay Ebeling
When the Salesians finally admitted the guilt of one of their pedophile priests, Titian Miani, last week, the buzz around the courtroom was, “They're going to sell the mansion in San Francisco.” But as of yet there’s no settlement in writing, no one really knows how the Salesians will come up with $20 million dollars to pay 17 victims from LA. The Salesians, one religious order among hundreds in California, own about a hundred million dollars in real estate in the state, according to reliable sources.

The “Salesian Mansion” in San Francisco, the architectural squatty-body pictured above, is 15,000 square feet, with 38 rooms and 12 bathrooms on Franklin Street near Geary, which is a nebulous part of The City between the newly gentrified north Tenderloin and aging wealth of Pacific Heights, prime real estate, ready to be developed. They can get $30 million for that property alone, easy cash, considering they got the mansion free, a gift from the bishop of San Francisco 20 years ago.

Meanwhile last week the Pope who last month assured the world the church he leads would finally do something for the victims of its pedophile priest epidemic stood in his window looking out of St. Peter’s Square and said, “Faith is love and so creates poetry and music. Faith is joy and so creates beauty,” and so forth, in other words, he’s forgotten about us.

May 1, another pedophile from Salesian High School in Richmond CA was arrested and the principal posted a letter to parents on the school website saying: “Dear Families and Friends...There are times when adult behaviors by admired and respected guides break a sacred trust… This must be a moment to guide and carefully sort out factual from fictionalized perspectives…All of us have made mistakes….When painful events, surrounded by “whispers in the shadows” – rumors, speculation or gossip – are broadcast on Myspace (sic), discussed in parking lots, confidentiality and privacy can be easily breached.”

“He doesn't want people talking about sex abuse,” said Joey Piscitelli over the phone from the Bay Area where he is Northern California director of SNAP. “I’ve gotten several calls. The reason I went to the police several months ago was I got so many calls from kids that there’s a teacher hitting on girls at Salesian High. I went to the police and said why aren’t you doing something about this.”
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‘Students were discussing Rickey Bonds sexual aggression and the Salesian faculty were unbelievably ignorant’
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Joey sent out a statement Thursday with more information about the arrest of Anatomy and Biology teacher Rickey Bonds at Joey’s alma mater, Salesian High in Richmond, saying:

“The reason this new allegation was investigated by the Police, is that dozens, if not hundreds of Salesian students had been discussing the current sex abuse allegations for months on end, openly, and notoriously, while Salesian faculty were unbelievably ignorant to the landslide of activity surrounding them.”

In 2006 Joey won a case against the Salesians which now sits in appellate purgatory in San Francisco.

“They say they're doing everything possible,” Joey said. “They just had a Salesian teacher arrested at the same high school where I was molested.

“The Salesians say this all happened a long time ago, and we're doing everything possible. The guy was just arrested last week. So what have they done?”

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The Salesians Are Deeply Sorry. Their Lawyers Cry At Settlement Hearings.
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If they really want to make amends, shown at left in a Google satellite map, the Salesians own a prime piece of beachfront real estate near Santa Cruz, now known as Camp St. Francis, a recreational trap for boys age 7 to 13.

Come on, parents, you're not really going to send your young boys to a camp run by the Salesians, are you?

As it says at the Don Bosco West website under news, although the date says 2004, "The Salesians of Don Bosco are deeply sorry. We are sorry also for any of our failures to adequately respond to allegations."

Those 15 acres of secluded beach front property, with camp type cabin structures already in place, in

APTOS, CALIF.

Could easily be the:

Future Recovery Center for Victims of Sex Crimes in the Catholic Church

The Salesian Camp St. Francis outside Santa Cruz would be perfect as the first of many recovery centers the church could start setting up right now

To start really making amends for the five hundred thousand or so crime victims the Catholic Church left behind after

THE PEDOPHILE EPIDEMIC

An epidemic of pedophilia ran rampant through the Roman Catholic Church and ALL of its religious societies for more than 50 years in the US.
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The Salesians hold the record for the highest number of pedophiles in one religious order.
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So the Salesians should set a precedent and relinquish the land at Camp St. Francis to be used as a recovery center for the church’s crime victims.

They really need to get rid of the creepy picture they use to advertise the camp shown at right supposedly a rendition of Don Bosco and a young boy he kept around, Dominic Savio.

Unless a parent wants to surrender their sons to the pedophiles out of some sick confusion of sex and spirituality, I can’t see any reason to send kids to Camp St. Francis run by the Salesians the religious order with more pedophiles than any other religious order in America.

In fact someone should start a campaign to stop parents from sending their kids to Camp St. Francis.