Attack of the Bishops: What happens when you advocate for sex crime victims in the Catholic Church in Geneva, Illinois

*****
By Kay Ebeling
One priest ranted in daily Mass sermons against “those who go to the media.” The monsignor visited choir practice and called them sons and daughters of Satan. Their sin? When they found out Father Mark Campobello who taught at their high school was an ephebophile with a predilection for eighth grade girls, they wanted to help the victims. Then the Rockford Diocese refused to cooperate with the local DA and a few church members spoke to the media. St. Peter’s parish responded by attacking the crime victims and anyone brave enough to be a victims’ advocate.

Campobello was released from prison in Illinois last week, after serving four years of an eight year sentence, and he now lives in Crystal Lake where he’s registered as a sex offender, but the damages his crimes caused at St. Peter’s parish are probably permanent.

“There’s people in the pews snapping pictures of us,” Frank Bochte said. A website obviously connected to the parish then prints the stalker photos. You can also listen to voice mail messages Bochte and his wife Kate left with St. Peter's parish priests with one click at the CTL-NYC website, so much for confidentiality. In the forum section at CTL, someone slyly identified a Campobello victim by stating her father’s job title. A “film crew” from CTL points cameras in advocates’ faces -- with press badges at the last SNAP meeting in New York last year. They claim to be making a documentary. . . .

Msgr. Joseph Jarmoluk who runs St. Peter’s says he has nothing to do with CTL. However, before entering the site you see a full screen dramatic profile of his face and the ongoing message “St. Peter’s is an affluent pioneering Midwestern Catholic parish, affected by the clergy abuse crisis.” His face and that message have been up there for more than a year.

“The people who started that website are connected to Jarmoluk,” said Jeff Anderson, longtime advocate and attorney in Minnesota. “They're trying to work their own agenda whatever it is. It hasn’t been clear.”

*****
In 2002 Catholic high school teacher Barbara Houston sat down and typed a six-page single spaced letter that came to be known as The Dear Ray Letter in both civil and criminal proceedings against pedophile priest Mark Campobello and the Rockford Diocese. In those pages you can read her anguish as one parish member, evolving from blind faith in her church to seeing these bishops as criminals who refuse to cooperate with law enforcement.

From The Dear Ray Letter:
“I have finally decided to specifically write out some very important events of the past years,” reads Mrs. Houston’s letter. “I think it is necessary for you to have more information in order to fully understand the nature of what you believe are attacks on the parish. I most definitely agree that we are under grave attack. However, I am no longer in complete compliance with our pastor. I know that in church history some others had similar experiences and they were not in a league with the devil. Sometimes God works through ordinary people who are just telling the truth.

“Father Joe knows everything that I have written. He has been clear in his approach to our family. No discussion is welcomed concerning this matter.”

It wasn’t his crimes that began the downfall of Father Mark Campobello, it was the lousy way he treated his victims. Another teacher, Alison Ward, told Barbara Houston about The Girl Who Later Became Jane Doe in court proceedings, and what Mark Campobello was doing to her.

From the Dear Ray letter:
“The girl was very upset that he had ‘dropped’ her and seemed to like another girl. She (Ward) had driven the then 15 year old girl to Aurora Central H. S where she was able to confront Father Mark. I was appalled and waited until the end of the day to inform our principal, Mrs. Deborah Bray.

*****
That was 1999. In 2004 Campobello was sentenced to eight years and now he’s served less than four. He’s maybe 43 years old, probably doesn't even need Viagra yet. . .

At the CTL site they paint Barbara Houston as a criminal school teacher because SHE didn't report Campobello fast enough.

“I was appalled,” she wrote, “and waited until the end of the day to inform our principal, Mrs. Deborah Bray."

From the Dear Ray Letter:
“The following Monday Mrs. Bray told me she had thought much about it and decided that it was not a valid report, because it was really ‘hearsay.’ I asked about the possibly of having hearsay investigated and she was not willing to make any report”

“Why I didn't just go to the Geneva police is a puzzle to me. I was a scared Catholic who didn't want to rock the boat.”

“September 20, 2002: I called Father Joe and asked if Mrs. Bray had ever told him about the Father Mark situation and he said he had never heard anything. I told him the story.

“He was angry that I was insisting the thing should be reported. He informed me that I was at risk of creating media problems and that others would attack our church. We were in a building campaign and this would hurt everything.

“I would not relent. Father did not understand that Fr. Mark should be stopped because I was afraid that he would re-offend. I wanted him reported and investigated.

“I had bothered Fr.Joe and he told me that he would report it to the Diocese.”

*****
Pedophile priest Mark Campobello’s career, so far, reflects the international crisis in the way the church handles sexual criminals in their midst while ignoring the victims. Ordained in 1991 Campobello transferred from parish to parish at least seven times before they finally put him in prison and took away his collar in 2004.

Here is a timeline we put together at City of Angels Blog of Mark Campobello’s career:

1991 ordained and went to Holy Family Parish in Rockford as Associate pastor until 1994
1994 sent to Geneva as Associate pastor at St. Peter.
1995 sent to Rockford as associate pastor Cathedral of St. Peter
1996 sent to Holy Angels in Aurora
1997 sent to Aurora Catholic high school as assistant principal and spiritual director
Also helped out at Aurora Catholic High school and at St. Peter’s in Geneva
2000 sent to St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal lake
2001 sent to St. James in Belvidere
December 2002 arrested

According to Jeff Anderson, Campobello spent an undetermined amount of time at St. Luke Institute in Baltimore, one of many recovery centers in the US where the church used to send its deviant priests to be cured. (Now that we all know there is no cure for pedophilia, the church sends its deviant priests to Canada and Mexico.)

“He was also in Mooseheart in Aurora,” Kate Bochte said.

Mooseheart is a group home for foster children and adolescents.

From the Dear Ray letter:
“June 2000, a friend of mine told me Fr. Mark was relieved of his position during the school year because of many things. The students had been complaining that he was seen ‘chasing’ and flirting with a female 15-year-old student. Her own daughter claimed she’d seen them ‘holding hands’ several times. It must have been valid as all parents received letters about his departure. She had heard he left Holy Angels as a resident and was living at Mooseheart, where he was caught with the girl and then was sent away by the Diocese”

*****
Kate Bochte remembers: “Campobello was here before we moved to Geneva in 2000. He left, then he came back,” Kate Bochte said. “I remember him being pulled out of the high school in mid I think 2000. Then he was arrested in 2002.”

Again, the way the church reacted made the situation worse.

From The Dear Ray Letter:
“When Attorney General Gleason asked the Diocese for Fr. Mark’s files, they claimed that it was a first amendment violation. . . . I was really offended when Fr. Joe proclaimed from the altar that he was helping ALL of us by this ‘Contempt of Court’ situation.”

“I spoke to Father one time since then when I happened to be at St. Peter’s for Mass on November 23, 2003. I heard him reflect on his personal feelings about a letter to the editor written by a fellow parishioner. “I had read the letter and been in agreement (with its) feelings of anger. That did not mean that we left our church. We are lifelong committed, practicing, somewhat conservative Catholics.”

“I left the church during father’s reflection and was really upset. I did not think it was fair or appropriate to be speaking against a person who had the courage to write a letter expressing his reasonable, honest opinions. He also is a practicing Catholic. Father said the man was bearing false witness.”
*****

From the pulpit Monsignor Jarmoluk claimed Frank Bochte was bearing false witness by writing a letter to the editor about the church’s mishandling of Campobello’s case.

The letter was published in suburban Chicago’s Daily Herald on November 16, 2003, titled: “Legal Situation spurs concern at church.” In the letter Bochte questions “the Diocese of Rockford’s ongoing refusal to comply with Kane County judge Timothy Sheldon’s order to turn over documents.”

Bochte works for a federal agency as a public affairs spokesman, but he wasn’t afraid to write that the diocese was “paying their attorneys to stonewall the Kane County State’s Attorney.”

Bochte had the audacity to question, “the purported message that the Catholic Church preaches regarding themes of social justice, fairness, and the pursuit of truth.”

“Sadly, I find that in this situation and other sexual abuse allegations, that the Catholic church appears to live by a double standard. They seem more concerned with protecting the ‘reputation’ of the accused rather than providing a sense of compassion to the victim.”

The Bochte’s don’t spend much time at St. Peter’s anymore.

“What started the latest flurry of news stories,” Frank Bochte said, “was when Campobello was released. There were reporters who wanted to talk to Fr. Joe, but at St. Peter’s instead they say no comment. And same with the the Diocese of Rockford. Bishop Doran won’t comment.

“Basic Media 101 tells you that saying ‘no comment’ is the worst thing,” Bochte said. “It gives the impression you're hiding something.”

Instead of Answering Media Questions, This Parish Starts a Website Where It Can Slander Victims’ Advocates

CTL (Supposedly short for Christ The Lord) slanders the Bochtes and other victims’ advocates daily at its website.

Frank Bochte said: “Nobody knows who they are. They just exist in blogosphere land. None of the names are legitimate names.”

However, he said someone did trick someone from CTL into returning a phone call and then used reverse trace technology to identify the caller. So they now know the name of one person connected to CTL:

JAMES GRICE

“We know he’s a con man lot of white collar fraud,” Bochte said. Just Google his name and pay those people who pop up whatever on the internet to get the information.

Grice is probably the voice of "The Rock" in webcasts at the CTL site. "Rocky" does a poor imitation of Rush Limbaugh spouting favorable arguments for pervert priests.

Bochte said Grice has several convictions, one for a $45 million dollar con.

“I think he was operating out of the St. Louis area,” Bochte said. "He’d get investors for companies that didn't exist. He has several convictions.”

Now convicted con man James Grice is apparently on the Roman Catholic Church payroll running the CTL website.

“We actually went to New York to the SNAP meeting last year and we went to their street address,” Bochte said. “It’s a rundown Mail Boxes Etcetera type place. The way they describe it on the CTL website, you’d think it it’s a high rise suite in Manhattan.”

A Circus Atmosphere in the Courts

Jeff Anderson said sometimes the atmosphere at court during proceedings for hish clients', the two teenage girl victims, was a circus, because of Jarmoluk and Campobello supporters.

“Jarmoluk and a cadre of his supporters would stand outside the courthouse wearing yellow ribbons,” Anderson said.

Mary Lu O'Halloran, another advocate who gets slandered daily at CTL, describes the Jarmoluk-Campobello Courthouse Weirdo Groupies:

“We wrote letters to the parish with court dates, encouraging people to show up and be supportive of these girls and their family.

“All of a sudden these people started showing up and they would stare us down, snicker at us, make remarks in the hall. We learned to ignore them.

“The last day, the settlement day in Geneva in May 2007, they showed up. When you come in the door at the courthouse, they tell you no cameras. But the CTL people must have snuck in cameras.

“They followed us around the courthouse and took our pictures. I went to get a guard and they ran and hid in a courtroom.

“Finally they got caught and we all had to go down in the elevator together. The guards had to take their cameras out and erase the pictures.”

I asked her to describe these people, imaging them as huffing hausfraus in polyester pants suits who carry on secret fantasies about handsome priests while nibbling on potato chips watching soap operas in bed, but Mary Lu described them as the ordinary women in their late forties to sixties.

She knew the CTL harrassers from her Respect Life group at St. Peter’s.

CTL harassed victims’ advocates during Campobello court proceedings.

They represent themselves as documentary filmmakers, even have “CTL Investigative reporter” badges. CTL radio personality “Rocky,” probably James Grice, tells listeners at the CTL site, how to download a badge and then paste it to a button, and presto, instant press credentials.

Mary Lou said:
“We were having coffee on June 6th 2006 (6.6.06, hmm) and someone came in and said you have to get to the courthouse right now, they're doing a documentary on Campobello.

“I said that can’t be right, we would have known. But this person wouldn't leave us alone and said you have to go now. So we drove to the courthouse and here were these camera men and no one would answer any of our questions, but they kept pointing the camera at us to make us answer theirs.

“Then they took it out of context and put it at CTL.

“They identified themselves as CTL from New York doing a documentary. A guy who said his name was Roberto Serinni told me he was an investigative reporter.

“We were excited because one of our friends was trying to get someone to do a documentary, we never thought in million years this was a scam.

Those videos now run at CTL though no one ever got a release form signed by Mary Lou.

“There's another abuse going on in the church,” Mary Lou said.

“The abuse of anybody who stands up and says, you know what, you're not following the Dallas charter.

“We did everything, we went to Washington. Wrote to the national review board, contacted my brother-in-law in California who's a deacon.

“We did everything only to find out that nobody was going to protect us.”

Mary Lou still goes to Mass and Communion daily at St. Peter’s.

*****
After Kate Bochte and her husband had been slandered over and over from the pulpit at St. Peter’s and at the CTL Website site, Kate contacted Cardinal Francis George in Chicago. “I assumed he had some authority over his archdiocese,” she said.

“So I wrote to Cardinal George and he called me one afternoon,” Kate Bochte said.

ME: What Cardinal George called you?

“Yeah it’s really unusual for him to call,” Mary Lou agreed.

Both these women identify themselves right off the bat as "stay at home moms." You can hear the smile in their voices and they are both quick to laugh. A picture of Kate Bochte in a news story shows she’s got the blue-eyed reddish haired angel face of so many Catholics with Irish roots.

Yet to hear the people at the CTL website describe Kate Bochte and Mary Lu O'Halloran you’d expect them both to be shrill-voiced hard-swearing radical feminist lesbian barflies.

Kate Bochte continued:
“Cardinal George and I talked for quite a while about one, the bishop isn’t following the charter, he hasn’t addressed the parish, he’s done nothing for the victims.

“Number two we've got this priest Jarmoluk threatening to sue us, hiring attorneys, putting out reports about us with lies.

“Cardinal George says, well as far as the charter, that's not good if it’s not being handled, and George says, at least they're better than Rockford. He goes, what I can do is as a friend, as a fellow, as a brother bishop, I could just mention something to Bishop Doran if you want me to to.

“George says, as far as that pastor, I can’t tell him what to do with his priests, but if you want I could mention it to him as a friend.

“I go you're the cardinal and archbishop and he’s just the bishop I thought you’d have authority. He goes, no, it’s the Pope. Every bishop answers to the Pope and only the Pope

“That's when I realized if change is ever going to come it’s going to come from the laity,” Kate Bochte said, “the people in the pews, not from anybody in the church hierarchy.”

*****
Kate Bochte started a website of her own:
wearecatholics dot com
that today is like a localized version of the Abuse Tracker blog by Kathy Shaw.

“I started just saving articles and other things we’d get,” said Kate Bochte. “The pastor’s attorney put out this document, the second appellate court ruled against the diocese, all these documents.

“I just figured about a year ago to start a website. Now, I don't know anything about websites or computers, so I got a book and I got a software and I still don’t know half of what I'm doing. I was trying to get factual information and stuff about healing for individuals and the whole community.

“I just took whatever I had and uploaded it, newspaper articles, documents and stuff like that, and that took a while. But now what I do daily is every time there’s a newspaper article relating to the topic, I put it up there. Now it’s just kind of maintenance.

“This is what happens when the allegations are not properly addressed, it doesn't go away, it doesn't get better. We probably have 300 articles and letters to the editor from just this one year.

“It hasn’t gone away.

“If the church had responded properly this wouldn't have happened, if they had just been open and transparent from the beginning."

*****
From the Dear Ray Letter:
“I had a meeting with Father Simon last July (2003) and he and I talked about the use of the media to inform for the common good. I talked to him about my reluctance to use the media because it was a feeling of betrayal. He asked me who was betraying whom? However, after the reflection at Mass Nov. 23, I waited in the sacristy for Father and told him that I was very opposed to what he had done. He told me to take it up with the diocese.

“I told him that I was upset that he would not make the report. His response was, “Well, you didn't either.’”

*****
These CTL People Are Scary
At the CTL website they describe meeting in “prayer group” before going out to stalk the Bochtes and other activists, who they call “the Group of 14.”

There are pictures of Barbara Houston and Frank and Kate Bochte and Mary Lou O’Halloran all over the CTL-NYC website.

The two girls identified so far as victims of Mark Campobello got settlements of $1,150,000 and $1,050,000 in May 2007.

“We took Campobello’s deposition in prison,” Jeff Anderson said, “plus interviews of our clients. It was evident that he had relationships with other girls that were suspicious, but none of them ever came forward.”

Could other victims be intimidated by things like CTL and Monsignor Jarmoluk’s responses? I know when I heard about these creeps in Geneva as well as the polyester pant-suited suburbanites who came out in support of McCormack in Chicago two years ago, I was scared out of pursuing anything on my own case in Illinois. . .for a time.

“I’ve hand delivered things downtown to the Chancery in Chicago,” said Mary Lou O’Halloran, “but nobody’s doing anything.

The "Group of 14"?

"It's 14 people some of us knew each other before some of us didn't," Mary Lou said. "I was at the Mass when Father spoke about the letter Frank Bochte wrote. When we walked out of church, I was so angry at him.

"That caused us to do research and I met Frank and Kate, they told us their story how Frank got involved in this.

"All us just came together just out of concern."

Now they're good friends. They occasionally have each other over for dinner and they have a party around Christmas time. Who knows, they could be the plant of a new church in Geneva, Illinois.

From the Dear Ray Letter:
“I have a letter from the Bishop that denies any knowledge of ACC and it has a negative tone. If all people had told only the truth from the beginning of all these events, then none of these terribly sad things would have occurred.

“I am a committed Catholic who believes that truth is the answer. I can quote Scripture with the best of them, but Jesus says, ‘I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life.’ He has been with me every step of the way.”
*****
*****
HERE IS A TRANSCRIPT OF FRANK BOCHTE’S PHONE CALL TO FATHER SIMON:
For some reason CTL thinks linking a this personal phone message for anyone to hear somehow makes Jarmoluk and St. Peter’s look good:

Hello Father Simon, my name is Frank Bochte, I think you know my wife Kate from being on the Respect Life committee. I was at the Mass this morning at 7 o'clock and first of all I want to congratulate you on your appointment o er at St. Patricks I know this is your last day but I just want to make one brief statement and I hope you take this in, in the best of terms. You know, myself and then many otehrs think our, let’s say we're disappointed in you over the past few weeks and the past few months is an understatement.
I myself had faith that you were going to be a beacon of truth and a beacon of light to lead Father Joe through these difficult times and at least demand that the truth be told and that people, you know, are held accountable.

Something came over you the past few months, I don't know what it was, but Father Joe has obviously gotten to you the way he’s gotten to others. And I think that your statement today that some of these press reports are unwarranted was a really pathetic comment. There’s nothing unwarranted about exposing sexual abuse among clergy or among anyone else, for that matter.

And you know the truth as well as I know the truth, thanks to Barb Houston the truth is coming out and I just with that you were, that you would have been more of a man, stand up and be a man, and that Father Joe be held accountable before he destroys this parish any further.

So again I just want to say I’m very disappointed in your lack of respect toward the victims, your lack of respect for people such as myself and my wife, who have been trying to get the truth out. Now that the truth is finally out, you seem to still remain in your hole, and refuse to acknowledge reality. I think that's pathetic and I pray for you. I hope you sleep well at night knowing that you're turning away from a problem that could have been addressed. You could have been a man and you could have stood up and said the right thing that needs to be said.

Father Joe through his own egotistical ways is destroying this parish and you're going to stand by and let it happen, that's pathetic. And I pray fort the people at St. Pat’s that someday you're able to face reality and face the truth and deal with this issue the way it needs to be dealt with. So again good luck to you, I’ll pray for you, but again I feel badly and I’m ashamed that you didn't stand up and do what needs to be done here at St. Peter’s. Goodbye.

And by the way if you want to call me back, I know you won’t because nobody at the parish ever calls me back, but my number is --

(And then CTL proceeds to narrow cast his personal phone number on the website.)

*****
Here are some the messages from the Forum Section of the CTL Website, which again, apparently has the approval of the Rockford Diocese and Monsignor Joseph Jarmoluk. (Just Google CTL-NYC and you will get there.)

THESE ARE ALL COPIED AND PASTED:

07/06/07 at 06:57 PM #75
________________________________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by FOFJ
Hey Rocky and CTL! It's great to be able to catch up when I can't catch Rocky at the appointed time. Great show.

Not only was Mary Lu and her cohort Diane at Mass this morning but Barb Houston made an appearance. I gotta tell you Barb, it takes nerve for you to walk into Mass at St. Peter knowing what we all know about you and think about you and your self-promoted failures. And there you stand with Mary Lu and Diane, desperately hoping that people aren't thinking what they really are thinking of the three of you. If I didn't think you three were a cadre of intrinsically evil people, I'd feel sorry for you.

Rocky and CTL - keep up the great work!!

ANOTHER POST
Holy Toledo! Barb Houston had the rocks to show up at mass today??!!! I knew that Mary Lu had rocks bigger than most men but it looks as if her friend Barb out did her this time! Gadzooks! The absolute gall of these women. Shameless!!!!

A "Senior Member" called "Lou aka Agent 24/7" has this signature under each post he writes:

"Every single day, Every word you say, Every game you play,
I'll be watching you,
Every move you make, Every vow you break, Every smile you fake, Every claim you stake
I'll be watching you"

Lou aka Agent 24/7
------
Mary Lou said: "I have three or four huge files full of their posts."
======

*****
Here are some more.
Remember CTL-NYC website apparently has the nod of approval of the Rockford Diocese in Illinois.
*****

07/08/07 at 08:31 PM
#82
________________________________________
Mary Lou you have been a "bone of contention" with the parishioners of St. Peter for four long years. You are beyond being a bone of contention with us. You are a malevolent presence. You and that half wit sidekick of yours, Diane Anderson, have the audacity to show up for daily mass just to MOCK Father Joe and the parishioners of St. Peter. We are sick of looking at you and we're sick of you coming to OUR parish. It's not YOUR parish Mary Lou. YOU are not welcome. We've done our home work, we've gotten the facts and we know what YOUR agenda is. It has never, ever been about the children. It's been all about taking down Father Joe. But I guess the tables were turned on you weren't they Mary Lou? You are the one going down. You, your filthy unchristian friends, the Bochtes, Blacks, Diane
Marylou
Mary Lou, you DO know that what we heard tonight, the rest of the world WILL hear and see. You can no longer spin this and you can no longer hide out in the Adoration Chapel. You did this to yourself Mary Looooon. You and the rest of your ilk will be out there for everyone to SEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! "Now go run, tell that" to your rag newspapers
POSTED BY Elite or Roger rogue, hard to tell which

****
Oh heck here’s some more

A person called “another friend” posted the next one. Does anyone else notice that all the posts sound like the same person, although they are signed as being by different authors?
*****

Just when I think I've heard it all, I hear Mary Lou in her own words.

Mary Lou, I take extreme exception to on particular quote of yours - about Father Joe being "a friend, a former friend." You were NEVER his friend Mary Lou. Don't you ever try to portray yourself as such. You were NEVER, NEVER his friend.

A friend doesn't betray. A friends doesn't try to destroy. You were NEVER his friend Mary Lou, you were his ENEMY awaiting your chance to betray. You are no better than a scorpion.

Read your bible Mary Lou:

Here’s more:

06/22/07 at 09:54 PM
#35
_______________________________________
Mary Lu - Just wanted you to know that your more and more desperate behavior at Mass and around St. Peter is not going without notice. You do know, don't you, that the St. Peter grapevine is very well established. You come in to Mass with which ever over the top behavior you choose that day and make yourself noticed in the narthex for what Mary Lu? for what? I don't even have to be at Mass on any given day and by noon I've heard of your latest. Apparently you don't have eyes in the back of your head or you'd see the global eye rolling as you turn away.

Originally Posted by FOFJ
Mary Lu - Just wanted you to know that your more and more desperate behavior at Mass and around St. Peter is not going without notice. You do know, don't you, that the St. Peter grapevine is very well established. You come in to Mass with which ever over the top behavior you choose that day and make yourself noticed in the narthex for what Mary Lu? for what? I don't even have to be at Mass on any given day and by noon I've heard of your latest. Apparently you don't have eyes in the back of your head or you'd see the global eye rolling as you turn away.

Parishioners of St. Peter

The snickering about your "pr" article in the local rag went around the parish like a wave.

You see Mary Lu, everyone and I mean everyone is on to you. They may respond to you with Christian kindness (not that you deserve it but really, who wants to be the next person attempted to be arrested when you cry wolf?) They may try make a wide curve around you to avoid you unless you or Desperate Diane grab them against their will but believe me, they are trying to avoid you.

Have you seen the DVDs that went out Mary Lu? Priceless! I thought you and Kate looked bad on my little computer screen, on the big screen t.v. you're downright scary. I simply cannot, cannot wait to see your mugs on the silver screen.

Oh and Mary Lu, we all know crocodile tears when we see them. You don't fool us for a second.

Mary Lu, lest you think I'm being too hard on you, there is the possibility of redemption, even for you. Here's my suggestion: call up your friends at the Comical before they go out of business and purchase a full-page (I'm sure you'll get a discount, them being such fans of you) and write a public letter to Father Joe admitting your dirty dealings with Donald Bondick, SNAP and VOTF and apologize for your behavior, beg him for his forgiveness and plead that he intercede on your behalf with his parishioners asking us to forgive you.

Got it Mary Lu? It's as simple as that, because really, no amount of fake articles in any local rag will garner you as much good will as you admitting the truth would. And then maybe you will find a little relief after all those (fake) tears and all that (wasted) time in OUR Adoration Chapel.

=====
What on God's green earth have you been up to now, MaryLou? Tears at mass? Are these tears of repentance? Tears of sorrow for the dirty, dirty, stinky, stinky things you've done? It's very unlikely that you are sorry for any of the harm, the malicious damage, the lies, the underhanded things you've done. But, miracles do happen.

I have seen the dvd. I have watched it on my big screen tv. It seems larger than life when watching it on tv. You can't quite grasp the power of it on the tiny computer screen. It really does need to be watched on a tv or a big movie theater screen.

Oh and Mary Lu, we all know crocodile tears when we see them. You don't fool us for a second.\\\\

*****
More of what you can be subjected to if you advocate for victims of sex crimes by Catholic priests in a mid-sized city in Illinois:
*****

Originally Posted by FrankK
I remember the day SNAP protested at St. Peter's, to think that Kate Bochte and Mary Lu O'Halloran brought those people onto our parish grounds still makes my blood boil. Those two gals have done more to harm a parish than anyone else could. Rocky said today "great coreographic effort" it took and who orchestrated it - we all know. I;ve been saying it for a long time, the day Kate Bochte and Mary Lu O"Halloran brought SNAP and Voice of the Faithful into our parish was a day to live in infamy, as I heard today it is the tar paper that will stick to whoever touches it. I;ve had enough. Those two gals have gotten away with hiding their associations with antiRoman Catholic groups for far too long. I;d like to see if someone remembers a picture in a Chicago paper, either the Suntimes or the Tribune if I recall of Mary Lu sitting at the Cathedral in some sort of protest with members of Votf. Does anyone have that picture? I kick myself for not keeping it, who could know then what we know now? That after all these years those two are still protesting. If they are so out of line with Catholic doctrine that they would protest with antiRoman Catholic groups why do they claim to be Catholic? I'd like to know if Ctl has access to that picture, if you do you should put it front and center. No one cares about Mark, he done his time, why do we at St. Peter's and Fr. Joe still have to do time? Kate and Mary Lu should stop pretending to be what they are not and they are not faithful Catholics. Sorry for the long message, I have read for a long time and had my fill and thanks for listening.

=====
Hi FrankK!
When I saw that you had finally posted, I figured it was time for me to do so. I have been on other boards but have avoided this board, I figured I would end up on Kate's site, but really, who cares? I remember the photo you write about, it was in the Chicago Tribune. Like yourself I didn't save it, who knew? But I remember reading something about Mary Lu and VOTF on this site, I did a search and found:

"Friends, strangers come to help heal
By Leslie Hague Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted 11/8/2004
After Sue Black, a parishioner at St. Peter's Catholic Church, helped set up a P.O. box for people to write to two victims of sexual abuse in the area, the two young women were overwhelmed by the response.
Cards. Teddy bears. Buttons. Angels. And about 100 letters.
"People say, 'I don't know what to say,' " Black said. "Well, one of the letters just said, 'I have no words.' How profound is that?"
Some of the people who wrote those letters gathered Sunday night at Peck Farm Park in Geneva for a prayer service and candlelight vigil for those two women and all victims of abuse.

The community members who spoke talked about the two victims of Mark Campobello, a former associate pastor at St. Peter's in Geneva and former vice principal at Aurora Central Catholic, who pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in May, but stressed their prayers were for all abuse victims.
"It's just a big gift of love, because God is love," said Charles Todd, a parishioner at St. Peter's.
Some of the organizers were from St. Peter's, but others were not.

Those who spoke said they wanted to provide an atmosphere of healing and prayer.

"You can't just move on," said Barb Houston, one of the event's organizers. "What heals is prayer. There's always good to be found, and this is a really good place to start - in prayer."

Several members of the Catholic lay group Voice of the
Faithful, which has pushed for changes in the church's sexual abuse policies, helped plan the event and spoke as well.

"For all those who were abused by clergy, we embrace you," Voice of the Faithful member Ann Field said. "We pray that as the people of God we can in some real way be agents of your healing."

Toward the end of the vigil, one of the organizers, Mary Lu O'Halloran, read a statement from the young women thanking people for their support.

"We were and are overwhelmed and humbled by your response to us through your letters," she read. "They are helping us in our healing process. Thank you very much."

Black, who knows the two women, said that years ago they had felt "really alone."

"I don't think they feel alone anymore," she said."
Sorry I don't have the photo of Mary Lu at St. Peter's Cathedral with her VOTF friends. But here we have it that Mary Lu is active in VOTF.

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To "nwchgoburbs" - the dissidents are all involved with VOTF and SNAP. What "OutsideLookingIn" said is true, Mary Lu herself was at last year's SNAP convention. Keep reading the CTL site, you will be shocked and sickened by what Mary Lu O'Halloran, Kate Bocthe, Frank Bochte and their co-horts have done to our parish.

Peace,
AliceP

Onward. . .