Father Flanagan's BOYS' TOWN (from "I wonder what farm...")

[Oz girl]

That i can not answer definitively because i do not work for the church or the vatican! I dont know that in western countries (at least the more secular ones like the UK and australia) the church is all powerful anymore. At least in this part of the world joe public has been fairly sympathetic toward most complainants.
Moreover the church is not the only thing with a powerful publicity machine. This industry has one too. But this does not mean its victims have been silent. You can read the program publicity, you can read what those who have been through programs have to say and make up your own mind. What always came across as telling to me is that those who claim xyz program saved them often dont deny some of the wierder or more horrid experiences. The just figure it was what had to be done. I have not heard from either group at boystown
 
What I do know of catholic education is only from my own experiences of it. This may not echo somebody elses. My relatives have kids at catholic schools which have a boarding wing though their own kids are day students and as an agnostic or a cathnostic I cant say i agree with everything that the school teaches. I don't know if i would choose this for my own kids. But I do know that the precedure for reporting abuse is extremely thorough and transparent and the diocese we live in has made it mandatory for all catholic schools to have the same systems in place. The schools sex education program while flawed in many ways also talks about good and bad touching and what to do about it from a very early age.
 I dont kid myself that this is because of the benevolence of the church. But there is no longer any conspiracy of silence that I can see. My own experiences (i graduated highschool in the 90s) were not of abuse either physical or emotional. I can remember in grade 3 the nun used to kiss each girl on the forehead as we left for the day but there was not anything sinister in it and most secular teachers in those days were a whole lot more tactile than they are today. I also remember once being smacked across the back of the leg by the same nun for climbing on a wall that was of of bounds because it was earmarked for demolition. The next year corporal punishment was banned in all schools. I appreciate that the population of boystown is more vulnerable that your average kid at a catholic day school or even a boarder but there are checks and balances in place and i have not yet heard any students accuse them of brinwashing techniques or communication interference or the rest of the insanity associated with this industry

[Che Gookin]

http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse

The Poper's own brother says he ignored allegations of abuse.

[Froderik]

Sorry to interrupt this thread, but.....

Father Flanagan's BOYS' TOWN

:rofl:   :rofl:  :rofl:  :eek:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :roflmao:  :sue:  :roflmao:  :roflmao:  :rofl:  :rofl:  ::puke::

[Oz girl]

http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse

The Poper's own brother says he ignored allegations of abuse.

At boystown??

[Ursus]

http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse

The Poper's own brother says he ignored allegations of abuse.

At boystown??

Ya know, I think this is a problem endemic to the Catholic ministry across the board, which includes what goes on in places like Boys' Town. And part of that problem lies in not only the abuses themselves, but in how they handle them. Or don't handle them, depending upon how you choose to describe it.

Consequently, I do not see these five sexual abuse cases I brought up previously as an anomaly, save perhaps that they managed to see the light of day at all. Moreover, I find it no coincidence that these cases all cropped up around the same time. I think these young men took solace and strength from the fact that others saw fit to sue, whether or not they had communication with one another.

My guess is that there are more cases, some of which may well never reach the public's awareness.

[Froderik]

Ignorantia juris non excusat.

[Ursus]

Ignorantia juris non excusat.

Oh, I am sure that ignorance of the law has very little to do with it. After all, the Catholic Church considers itself above the law. It answers to a higher calling, one that ensures forgiveness, as well as a cushy stay at a pedophile-friendly mental health resort these days. I guess that's supposed to signify that the Church is keeping up with the times and becoming more "progressive," eh?

[Ursus]

In fact, shortly before these five sexual abuse cases hit the airwaves, the Omaha Archdiocese broached the issue publicly:

-------------- • -------------- • --------------

KETV7abc OMAHA
Omaha Archbishop Discusses Sex Abuse Controversy
Curtiss Announced Abuse Review Board

POSTED: 11:50 am CST January 3, 2003
UPDATED: 9:25 am CST January 4, 2003

OMAHA, Neb. -- The archbishop of Nebraska's largest Roman Catholic diocese for the first time openly accepted questions on the controversy of sexual abuse in the church Friday.

Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss announced 11 members of an abuse allegation review board. Such review boards were made mandatory during a national conference of bishops in June.

The mandated came in a year when at least 300 of the 46,000 American priests have been removed because of allegations of molestation.

Curtiss said Catholic church leaders have learned there are, "sick people out there that you have to deal with."

In Nebraska, three Roman Catholic priests accused of such abuse were placed on administrative dismissal last summer. That decision by Curtiss baned Anthony Petrusic, Thomas Sellentin and John Starostka from publicly offering Mass.

Another priest, the Reverend Robert Allgaier, was sentenced to 2 years of probation and fined $300 for viewing child pornography over the Internet.

Review board members include a psychiatrist, police officer, physicians, psychologist, priest, counselor, attorney, social worker and the parent of a victim. They are: Dr. Kimberly Allen, Dr. Amanda Cervantes, Alan Harms, Dr. Michael Kelley, Gene Klein, Father Owen Korte, Dr. Stephen Lazoritz, Claire L'Archevesque, Craig McGarry, Steve Miller and Iva Mueller.


Copyright 2007 by KETV.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.

[Oz girl]

I dont disagree with your criticisms of the catholic Churches handling of abuse in general but I also dont believe in the guilty till proven innocent idea. 5 boys say 1 or 2 individuals molested them. I am willing to concede that these individuals possibly did molest more kids that havent come forward and that the church handled it the way it handled all other abuse cases. Badly. This is because the history is pretty consistent here
But I dont beleive (based on the fact that nobody has made this accusation) that boystown is an inherently abusive orgainzation in the way that most places in this industry are. I would go as far as agreeing that troubled or mentally ill children are best helped at home. This is why most western countries have done away with the orphanage model and most mainstream boarding schools encourage as much contact with home as possible. But to claim something is inherently abusive is a very big accusation. It happens to be true in the case of anywhere that runs like a prison which most troubled teen institutions do, but i dont see any evidence that boystown runs this way.
Dont get me wrong, if any boystown alum come out and described a school like cedu or straight or any other of these bizarre places with monitored mail and abusive therapy etc, i will change my view, but I think claiming that somewhere is "probably systemically abusive" plays into the hands of the Lon Woodberries of the world who try to write survivors and those who support them off as making unfounded accusations. I hope that I am right here, because boystown internationally provides a number of excellent family services, but if any boystown alum describe a school like the others in the system then it is all the proof i need to stand corrected.

[Ursus]

The problem with your approach, Oz girl, is that you're not really looking at systemic conditions which enable abuse. Rather, you ask for "proof" of actual occurrences and yet when I give you proof of said allegations, you say these are still not enough. Which says to me that ... until it gets to the point where the abuse is truly over the top, you may not even recognize that it is happening.

At what point does it cross the line where it is no longer just "isolated aberrant instances," but becomes "bona fide abuse" for you? At the risk of sounding crass, is there a set number per unit of time?

Ya see, it's not just the number of abuse cases that actually see the light of day, since those may well be artificially depressed. And it's not just the physically dangerous acts like unwarranted and dangerous restraints that go on. And it's not just the craziness of some forms of "therapy," like students being forced or manipulated into doing lap dances for staff like at MBA.

The abuse also has a lot to do with certain conditions of disrespect for another person's autonomy, and the belief that the ends justify the means. And this is certainly furthered by a certain self-righteous mindset that the program "knows best" as to what the kid really needs. When these last conditions are in place in any given program, you have set the stage for potential abuse. When actual abuses do occur in such a program, chances are, there's plenty more.

[Ursus]

Shortly after Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss announced the creation of an abuse allegation review board, the following news hit:

-------------- • -------------- • --------------

WOWT.com
Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Abuse
Father Peter vows to get answers

A lawsuit has been filed accusing a former Boys Town priest and a counselor of sexual abuse. Father Val Peter, the head of Father Flanagan's Boys Home, is vowing to get at the truth in a case that dates back to 1978.

Posted: 4:49 PM Jan 31, 2003
Updated: 9:05 PM Jan 31, 2003

A lawsuit has been filed accusing a former Boys Town priest and a counselor of sexual abuse. Father Val Peter, the head of Father Flanagan's Boys Home, is vowing to get at the truth in a case that dates back to 1978.

The allegations come from a man by the name of James Duffy. He now lives in Arizona.. but grew up in Nebraska and was a resident of Boys Town in the late 1970's.

The Reverend Val Peter says the allegations came out of the blue.

At a news conference late Friday afternoon, Father Peter said, "These things, if they happened, I want those people thrown in jail and the key thrown away. If they did not happen I will not allow Father Flanagan's dream to be tainted."

In the lawsuit, James Duffy claims that he was repeatedly abused on separate occasions by the Reverend James Kelly and family counselor Michael Wolf between 1978 and 1979.

Duffy's attorney claims the memories of the alleged abuse were repressed and just resurfaced over the past year.

Father Peter says he does not know the priest and counselor who are accused of the abuse because they were gone before he came to Boys Town.

He does know of James Duffy. Duffy is the son of one of Father Peter's first cousins.

While Father Peter does not know Duffy well, he says he was very troubled while he was at Boys Town.

Father Peter says, "Our records show, this would be an example, that he left four days before graduation, breathing threats to people, bragging about marijuana use, flipping the bird to folks. That doesn't prove it didn't happen. But it makes me wonder, did it?"

It's not yet clear where Father Kelly and Michael Wolf now live. In fact, the two are not even named in the lawsuit, in part, because Duffy's attorney has not been able to locate them.

The lawsuit names Father Flanagan's Boys Home and the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha, asking for unspecified of damages.

Father Peter says he doesn't think this lawsuit is based on any personal motive and Duffy's attorney has also stated that the family relationship has nothing to do with the lawsuit.


Gray Television, Inc. - Copyright © 2002-2010

[Ursus]

Lundington Daily News
Former Boys Town resident alleges abuse
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 1, 2003

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A man who lived at Boys Town, the home for wayward youths that was made famous by a 1938 Spencer Tracy movie, has filed a lawsuit alleging a priest and a counselor molested him in the 1970s.

James Duffy said in the lawsuit filed Thursday that he was repeatedly abused beginning in 1978 but repressed memories about it until a year ago.

Duffy, who lives in Arizona, is seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit names Father Flanagan's Boys Home, the parent company of what is now a nation-wide chain of homes for troubled youth, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha.

Neither the counselor, Michael Wolf, nor the priest, the Rev. James E. Kelly, was named as a defendant. They could not immediately be reached for comment. Neither is listed in the Girls and Boy's Town current employee directory.

The Rev. Val Peter, executive director of the parent company, was traveling Friday and not available for comment, a spokeswoman said.

The Omaha Archdiocese did not immediately return a call.


# # #

[Che Gookin]

Seems like that line between isolated and endemic got blurred months ago.

[Oz girl]

I get your point and I think that in this industry it can sometimes be a dangerously fine line. Particularly when religion gets thrown into the mix. Any regular boarding school in some ways makes students more vulnerable to abuse than it's day school equivalent in that the students are far from home and in a somewhat institutionalized environment. I appreciate that this concern is greater when the student population is a vulnerable or at risk group.
But by your logic just about any mainstream catholic school day or boarding that ever had a bad parish priest who was quietly "moved on" is inherently abusive. This is where I would disagree. This and the fact that boys town takes only students that agree, in a real sense, that is give informed consent to go. In answer to your question this is where I would draw the line. No by a "unit numbers" approach.
If kids came forward saying that they signed on expecting one sort of institution but the day to day operations were completely different or reported that any other quack therapies were used I would change my mind. Another thing that is making me want more concrete evidence is the fact that boys town as an organization runs all sorts of welfare services for young people globally. Ive not heard any complaints in recent years about their operations.
While i accept that the repressed memory guy was not the only complainant against this  priest, are you not at all sceptical about this as a technique being used in a court? After all it is a pretty crackpot theory. Most respectable doctors and therapists who have worked with traumatized people claim it is a load of rubbish and many of its practitoners also have engaged their patients in other coercive therapies like "holding therapy" that are as mad as most of those used in the industry.

[kirstin]

Not like this website will do anything to Father Flanagan's Boys Town.  They have an impeccable reputation.