The Blame Game: Taylor Swift Delivers Emotional Thank You; PA Condemns Over 300 Priests As Perpetrators Of Sexual Abuse
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It's a year ago that Taylor Swift won her sexual assault case against Colorado DJ David Mueller, who sued her for $3 million in damages after she claimed he placed his hand under her skirt and grabbed her butt hile posing for a photo. Swift filed a countersuit asking for a symbolic $1 in damages, which the jury awarded her in winning her case.
Swift addresed the issue during an emotional speech for her Tampa Reputation concert. Thanking her fans for their support while stressing the need for better justice for sexual assault victims, Taylor said: "I guess I just think about all the people that weren’t believed and people who haven’t been believed and the people who are afraid to speak up because they think they won’t be believed. And I just wanted to say that I’m sorry to anyone who ever wasn’t believed because I don’t know what turn my life would take if people didn’t believe me when I said that something had happened to me. And so I guess I just wanted to say that we have so, so, so much further to go, and I’m so grateful to you guys for being there for me during what was a really, really horrible part of my life." via ELLE US
The pop star's words ring so relevant this morning, with publication of "a searing report" about bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covering up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over 70 years. The report covered six of the state's eight Catholic dioceses, identifying more tha 1,000 victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests.
The instances of abuse are horrific, writes The New York Times. A priest raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out; another victim was tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest while another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and then arranging for her abortion.
The sexual abuse scandal has rocked the Catholic Church for more than 15 years, launched by explosive 2002 allegations in Boston. After paying billions of dollars in settlements and adding new prevention programs, the scandals continue, reaching deeply into the highest rants of the Church. The Pennsylvania report comes soon after the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, who is accused of sexually abusing young priests and seminarians, as well as minors.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office initiated the investigation, said in a news conference, “They protected their institution at all costs. As the grand jury found, the church showed a complete disdain for victims.”
Shapiro said that the cover-up by senior church officials “stretched in some cases all the way up to the Vatican.”
No one believes that Taylor Swift having some slick dude's hand up her butt is on an equivalent plane of offence with the abuse of children by Catholic priests and bishops. But the common characteristic of not believing victims is universal in the Vatican power structure. One of the core principles in the #MeToo movement is not only the event itself but the disdain for victims and tactics to destroy their credibility.
My own young woman experience with the Catholic Church was transformative. It's the source of my adamnt defense of women and the #MeToo movement and my loathing of sexual predators everywhere. After what I've experienced first hand and watched sadly from the sidelines in the unrelenting torrent of stories about power and sexual abuse, I have no belief in these worldwide morality men who present themselves as God's jury to shattered women and children. It's totally disgusting, frankly, and just the reality of another patriarchal institution being shattered before our eyes. Unfortunately, as the truth is revealed, the lives of victims cannot be restored -- although great progress can be made. When one is erroneously judged or -- worse yet -- assaulted by a man posing as God, the guilt is lasting and most often forevermore.
It's the Scarlet Letter that we all wear -- and let there be no doubt -- that the placement of the Scarlet Letter on victims of sexual assault is another form of patriarchal power. ~ Anne
Thinking about Tim Russert and Mother Teresa, reflecting then on the terrible tragedies of the Kennedy family, and now Ted’s brain cancer, I’m inspired over their commitment to Catholicism, and their conviction that their Catholic faith has never deserted them.
This has not been my relationship with the Church. My story is nothing compared to the horror stories of young altar boys, and yet, it affected me deeply. I have never escaped it until now … this moment, as I make it real.
Another Anne, Another Scarlet Letter
In my case, God judged me harshly, placing a Scarlet letter on my self, when I was a young woman. I went to God seeking solace, and instead he cut me loose from everything that mattered to me, forcing me into adulthood a month before my 16th birthday.
The irony of the moment is that my molester, my parents’ best friend, received his body of God. Together, we made two pacts the prior Saturday afternoon. Swearing on the Bible that we were telling the truth, Father Ben informed us that one of us was committing a mortal sin and going to Hell. Professing ours to be the true version of that dreadful night — when I truly believed I would die before morning — one of us made a pact with God; the other with the Devil.
I remember being so uncomfortable with the Priest, as I sensed I was not convincing him that my story was true. I had not asked for religious intervention in this matter. It was forced upon me. My attacker and Father Ben were drinking buddies.
I’ve never understood the concept of double trouble in the Catholic religion. If I’m going to Hell anyway, why worry about messing up again? Father Ben explained that to receive the sacraments in this fallen state, would result in another mortal sin.
It made no sense to me, but Father Ben took being God seriously, and especially his resolve not to see me in further trouble. After administering communion to my attacker, kneeling next to me in a cruel moment of fate, the Priest paused before the much younger me … head back, tongue stretched out, waiting uneasily … and then moved on.
For non-Catholic readers, I believe that there is now a sense that the Priest is an agent of God, but in those days HE WAS GOD.
Branded A Hussy …
The reality of life and human frailty crashed down on my head, because I believed Father Ben was indeed God. In those years, I was one of the most devout Catholic girls around, relying on my faith to help me deal with a formidable home life.
This over-sexed, spiritless, decadent man, who woke me with one hand in my vagina and the other on his penis (sorry dear readers) brought my entire belief system crashing down on my head. The nightmare only ended because his wife, my adored, nine-month pregnant surrogate mother, arrived home at midnight.
Running away the following morning, before he returned to get me for a day trip to Sioux Falls, I never saw her again, yet another terrible loss to me. There was no way to keep her and our relationship out of the mess.
Hearing hushed marital whispers down the hall, I waited all night, for my early execution. I knew that something terrible was going to happen. Our families were best friends.
… and a Diva With Raging Hormones
The Priest broached the fact that I was exploring my sexuality as a young women and, in truth, do have a gift for storytelling.
Expressing serious doubts that the event had actually happened, my parents suggested that I was a diva with an overactive imagination. Their final commentary was that if in fact it had happened, I was the cause. As we all know, I seek the limelight.
I must say now that my uncle Vernon, my beloved aunt Mavis and my grandmother Marie … all the adult Enkes except for my father and mother … stood rock-solid behind me. Without them, I have no idea what I would have become as a woman.
… With Delusions of Grandeur
However, I couldn’t convince the people closest to me. I was either lying … or I caused the event to happen, according to my parents.
Don’t ask me how a teenage girl with rollers in her hair, sleeping next to this horrible man’s six-year-old daughter, is offering herself up as sexual bait … but some people on Planet Earth are genuinely perverted in their own train of logic.