Project Millstones
roadrunner
Registrant
An old thread here about clergy abuse in NJ and an initiative to set up a monument remembering the victims has been revived this weekend, and I wondered what the current state of affairs is. I surfed around a bit and found some interesting stories. They are pasted in as quotes below in chronological order.
If you read to the end you will see that this initiative is just part of a broader program advocated by Father Kenneth Lasch but (apparently) not supported by the Church itself. He is seeking support, and especially support from Catholics, for his work. There is a petition form, and you can see the online version at www.fatherlasch.com.
I have emailed Msgr. Lasch asking if he can send me a photo of the completed monument that now stands in Mendham, NJ, and I will post it if he replies. I understand he is retired, though, and it may not be possible for him to help us.
Is this something that members of MS should get active about? It seems to me that if we rage (rightfully) at abusive clargy, we should also support clargy who try to do the right thing.
What do you guys think? If there is to be any response, not in the name of MS but just as survivors, I think it would be a great opportunity for one of our Catholic brothers in the USA to speak for us. Anyone who is interested should discuss it with their T first, but I bet this would be a powerful healing experience for a man of faith.
Much love,
Larry
**********************************************
SNAP website, 16 December 2003:
Project Millstones
If you read to the end you will see that this initiative is just part of a broader program advocated by Father Kenneth Lasch but (apparently) not supported by the Church itself. He is seeking support, and especially support from Catholics, for his work. There is a petition form, and you can see the online version at www.fatherlasch.com.
I have emailed Msgr. Lasch asking if he can send me a photo of the completed monument that now stands in Mendham, NJ, and I will post it if he replies. I understand he is retired, though, and it may not be possible for him to help us.
Is this something that members of MS should get active about? It seems to me that if we rage (rightfully) at abusive clargy, we should also support clargy who try to do the right thing.
What do you guys think? If there is to be any response, not in the name of MS but just as survivors, I think it would be a great opportunity for one of our Catholic brothers in the USA to speak for us. Anyone who is interested should discuss it with their T first, but I bet this would be a powerful healing experience for a man of faith.
Much love,
Larry
**********************************************
SNAP website, 16 December 2003:
National Catholic Reporter, 13 Feb. 2004:The Millstone: A Monument to Victims of Priest Abuse
When a millstone-shaped monument is installed next spring on the grounds of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Joseph in Mendham, N.J., the pain it memorializes will not be that of death, but of the struggle to reclaim life.
The 400-pound basalt sculpture, commissioned by former parishioner Bill Crane, will stand as a monument to victims of child sexual abuse by priests. Crane is one of more than 20 people who say they were abused there and at another area church in the 1970s and early '80s by former priest James Hanley, who was forced to retire in 1988. Hanley was formally removed from the priesthood in March but was never criminally prosecuted because the New Jersey statute of limitations had run out.
The Millstone is the first and only monument in the nation in remembrance of clergy abuse, say officials of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
Crane and other survivors came up with the monument idea at the funeral of a childhood friend and fellow St. Joseph parishioner, James Thomas Kelly, 37, who committed suicide in October.
Crane, coordinator of the Oregon chapter of SNAP, went home to Clackamas, Ore., and got in touch with local sculptor Mark McLean, who developed the monument and a memorial garden with landscaper Toni Hartung.
The millstone idea is from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus says that if anyone causes a child to sin, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
Crane sees the words as a "message of admonishment" to church leaders and a "message of comfort to children in knowing how they're to be protected."
Both Monsignor Kenneth Lasch, St. Joseph pastor, and Bishop Frank Rodimer have expressed support for monument plans. "It would hopefully serve as a sign of their healing and survival, and a tribute to them for what they have endured," Lasch says.
But the wording on the plaque is still being finalized; Lasch is wary of having the message come across as too harsh.
"(Jesus) goes on in the same chapter to talk about forgiveness, healing and reconciliation," Lasch says. "So we want the message to be comprehensive, and for people in the parish to be able to look at that with great pride, so that it doesn't come as a chastisement of the people of St. Joseph, but as a due recognition of what they have been doing to contribute to the healing process."
He says the community has been open to the idea of the monument. Crane is collecting donations to help cover the $5,000 cost.
"Something needed to be done to commemorate survivors," says Crane, and the monument is "a physical touch-point" that can help "move in a direction of healing."
SNAP website, 26 April 2004:Clergy Abuse Monument Inscription Stirs Debate
No one knows whether James Kellys suicide last October in front of a New Jersey Transit train in Morristown, N.J., stemmed from the childhood sexual abuse by a Mendham, N.J., priest or from other personal problems.
Still, while gathered after his funeral on the grounds of St. Josephs Roman Catholic Church in Mendham -- where the abuse occurred more than two decades ago -- people who were abused by the same priest discussed naming their support group chapter after Kelly, a 37-year-old telecommunications salesman from Morristown who had recently been laid off.
We were just kind of having an open table discussion, recalled Bill Crane, who, like Kelly, was sexually abused by the former Fr. James Hanley. And it dawned on me that something really needs to take place that is tangible, to bring to light the seriousness of what we endured as children, so it wont be forgotten.
Crane suggested erecting a small monument, and received approval from the group and the churchs pastor, Fr. Kenneth Lasch. When dedicated in April outside the churchs Pax Christi Center, the 400-pound basalt monument -- shaped like a millstone -- will evoke a biblical saying that is meaningful to Christians who were sexually abused as children.
In the passage, from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus addresses those who would harm children, saying, It would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.
The monument apparently would be the only marker in the nation dedicated to victims of the clergy sex abuse crisis located at a church. Lasch said it could help victims feel the church will not forget what happened to them there.
Im very interested in the notion of having a tribute, said Lasch, who has been praised by Hanleys victims for an attitude they say is an antidote to negative experiences with many other clergy. The millstone is symbolic of the burden they have carried because of sexual abuse. It also stands as a warning to anyone who would hurt children.
The monument -- sculpted by Mark McLean, a Portland, Ore., artist engaged by Crane -- measures about 2 feet by 2 feet and seems more like a marker than a monument, Lasch said. Individual donations will cover the approximately $5,000 cost of the project. A local landscaper has offered to prepare church grounds for the monument free of charge, Lasch said.
For all the good feelings that talk of the monument has inspired among victims and their supporters at St. Josephs, a low-key debate has arisen over the inscription for the accompanying plaque.
Among the issues: Might the inclusion of Jesus words about drowning offenders be too harsh? And, would it be wise to install a monument that permanently brings attention to such an unpleasant subject?
As a parish, we dont want to be known just as the place where sexual abuse took place by one priest, Lasch said.
Lasch wrote, on the parishs Internet site, We want to affirm [victims] thirst for justice but we also want to affirm our desire for reconciliation and will continue to discuss the details of this tribute to assure that the message is a positive expression of healing and hope.
Crane said Jesus words about the millstone belonged on the inscription, and that people should view them metaphorically, not literally.
I dont think its Christ communicating it as a commandment to be taken in a wooden, literal sense that we go around with millstones and sink people, Crane said. Id like to communicate that its a divine illustration. Its something we can connect visually in our own mind-set and relate to. Its very sobering.
Buddy Cotton, president of New Jerseys chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests who also was a childhood victim of Hanley, favors including the passage.
Those are the words Jesus used to describe his reaction to those that would harm children, he said. I dont think the millstone is a condemnation for mistakes people made. Its a recognition that a crime took place here, a crime of a huge scale, a crime against a generation of children.
A compromise might include an inscription that uses the quotation but almost immediately follows it with a different, positive biblical passage about Jesus and children, Lasch said.
In many ways, the 1,700-family parish in wealthy Mendham is the New Jersey epicenter of the national Catholic church scandal. Kelly and Crane were among about 15 people there to accuse Hanley of molesting or sexually assaulting them as children, and have faulted Bishop Frank Rodimer for not removing Hanley from ministry or alerting authorities earlier than he did.
Hanley served in five North Jersey churches from 1962, the year he was ordained, until 1986. Former parishioners from all but one of those churches have come forward to say he abused them.
Rodimer has publicly supported the notion of a monument at St. Josephs.
Mark Serrano, another Hanley victim who is a national board member for SNAP, said he does not care whether the biblical passage accompanies the millstone, but that even if it does, the monument would help, not harm, the churchs reputation.
Because there are so many from the parish whove been so supportive [to sex abuse victims], the parish doesnt always have to be remembered for a decade of sexual crimes against children, he said. It can be remembered for historical opportunities for healing for victims and their families.
Newsday, 26 April 2004Millstone Marks the Suffering of Priestly Abuse
Monument dedicated in Mendham is for the children sexually assaulted by Catholic clergy
The priest's study in the rectory is small, the furniture appearing to be positioned similarly to how it was in the 1970s and 1980s when the Rev. James Hanley sexually abused children there.
More than a dozen adults remember that room at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Joseph's in Mendham for those horrific scenes from their childhoods, where they say Hanley would give them alcohol and pornography and molest them.
Yesterday, about 120 people -- including about a dozen of Hanley's victims -- stood in the rain about 150 feet from that second- floor room to dedicate a memorial to sex-abuse victims at the church and elsewhere.
The 400-pound basalt memorial is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, coming two years and three months since the clergy sex abuse scandal in Boston began receiving national attention.
It is shaped like a millstone, with words from the Gospel according to Matthew in which Jesus says that whoever harms children would be better off "to have a millstone hung around his neck and (be) thrown into the depth of the sea."
"It's such a powerful message of how children should be treated," said Bill Crane, 38, a Hanley victim who now lives in Oregon. "We needed something physical. We need something that is a touchpost.
"The words on the millstone are a divine illustration. There's nothing better to put how children should be regarded."
Crane developed the idea for the monument after the October funeral of James Kelly, a 37-year-old Hanley victim who committed suicide by letting a NJ Transit train run him over in Morristown. It remains unclear if Kelly's suicide stemmed from the abuse or other personal problems.
Kelly's family attended yesterday's ceremony and was presented with a painting of James Kelly by Johnny Vega, a Wallington resident who said he was abused at a Paterson church and who next month is starting a victims group for Latino adults sexually abused by priests.
The millstone sculpture, which seems more like a marker than a monument, measures about 2 feet by 2 feet and was made by Mark McLean, a Portland, Ore., artist engaged by Crane. Individual donations covered the $8,000 to $10,000 of the project.
Yesterday, Crane was one of several sex-abuse victims -- of Hanley or other priests -- who flew in for the monument's dedication.
"It's very important that I be here," said Steve Rabi of Albuquerque, N.M., who said he was abused by two priests in Passaic as a child and who spent $1,300 including airfare, rental car and a hotel to be in Mendham yesterday.
"I feel attuned to everyone here," he said. "To me, this millstone represents a milestone in bringing abuse to the forefront. This is a healing monument, because the scripture is so apropos."
"It's very soothing. It feels like we're in the presence of the spirit of God," said Paul Steidler, 41, of Virginia, who said that although Hanley did not touch him, the former priest gave him alcohol and pornography when he was a child at St. Joseph's and probably would have molested him had they not gotten in an argument.
Several victims praised the church's current leadership for permitting the monument on parish grounds -- right near the Pax Christi Center -- especially since it reminds the church of its darkest chapter.
"The millstone monument ... will remain forever as an acknowledgment of the burden you and your families have carried, some for as many for 40 years," said Msgr. Kenneth Lasch, the longtime pastor of St. Joseph's. "It will also remain as a symbol of the burden which was imposed on our church by wolves in sheep's clothing.
"But it will also remain a symbol of hope that healing is still possible with the help and support of many hands and hearts who reach out as did Jesus."
Asked why he thought other parishes had not had similar monuments, the Rev. John Bambrick of St. Thomas More in Manalapan, who said he was abused by a priest as a child, said: "It reminds people of a horrific thing. I think most people would prefer to forget or not be told about it."
In many ways, St. Joseph's was New Jersey's epicenter for the clergy sex abuse scandal, which has rocked the church since 2001 with reports that bishops protected abusive priests, often by transferring them to churches where they abused again.
Many victims yesterday have faulted Paterson Bishop Frank Rodimer for not removing Hanley from ministry or alerting authorities earlier than he did.
Hanley served in five North Jersey churches from 1962, the year he was ordained, until 1986. Former parishioners from all but one of those churches have come forward to say he abused them.
Diocese officials have said they learned of Hanley's misdeeds when a parishioner and his parents made allegations against him in 1985. The diocese forced Hanley to retire in 1988, but it was not until last year, after mounting pressure from victims, that he was removed from the priesthood. He now lives in a Paterson retirement home.
No criminal charges were ever filed against him because the statute of limitations had expired. Rodimer has acknowledged that he underestimated the seriousness of the allegations until it was too late to prosecute and has said Hanley has admitted the abuse.
More people have complained about Hanley than about any other priest in the state. Nineteen of them, including Crane, sued the diocese in January, charging misconduct.
Rodimer has publicly supported the notion of a monument at St. Joseph's. He did not attend yesterday's ceremony.
Some of Hanley's victims actually returned to the exact scene of the crime this weekend, visiting the study where the abuse occurred.
"It seemed so small," said Mark Serrano, 40, who also visited the study last year, for the first time since he was a child. "It's amazing to stand as an adult and reclaim a sense of control over the situation."
Most victims of Hanley gathered yesterday, however, stayed outside the rectory.
"I would go over there if they burned it down," Crane said. "I'd be there for that."
Msgr. Kenneth E. Lasch, website, 8 May 2005Monument for Sex Abuse Victims Dedicated at Mendham Church
MENDHAM, N.J. -- A Roman Catholic church where several men say they were molested by the same priest many years ago now houses a monument to child sex abuse victims.
About 200 parishioners and others gathered Sunday at St. Joseph's Church to see the 400-pound monument, which was carved out of black basalt stone and shaped like a millstone. It came about last year when friends and family gathered for the funeral of James Kelly, 37, of Morristown.
Kelly, who committed suicide in October by stepping in front of a train, was one of more than 20 people who said they were sexually abused by James T. Hanley, who served at the Mendham church more than 20 years ago. Church officials have said Hanley admitted abusing children there and he eventually was defrocked, but he was never criminally charged because the statute of limitations had expired in the cases.
Kelly's brother, Tom, 36, was among those who spoke at the ceremony. The Morristown man _ who for the first time publicly acknowledged that he also was one of Hanley's victims _ said it was uncomfortable to be back at the church, but decided he had to be there for his late brother.
"(Seeing the monument) was like turning a new page," Kelly told the Daily Record of Parsippany after the ceremony.
Bill Crane, a former classmate of James Kelly who now lives in Clackamas, Ore., commissioned the monument. It was funded by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests support group and erected just outside the Morris County church, which is part of the Diocese of Paterson.
Crane said he chose a millstone design because a Bible passage says it would be better for a person to have a millstone placed around their neck and be cast into the sea than to harm a child. The passage was included in the monument.
Msgr. Kenneth E. Lasch, the pastor at St. Joseph's and an outspoken advocate for sexual abuse victims, has said he allowed the monument to be erected at the church because it would help the victims heal.
Project Millstones
It was 2,000 years ago, but Jesus words have never rung truer than they do today. As quoted in the New Testament, Matthew 18:5-6, he said that Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. The same chapter of Matthews Gospel speaks of Christian ways to confront sinners and the necessity of forgiveness in living the Gospel of Jesus. All sinfulness creates millstones around the necks of us all.
Project Millstones seeks to remove those millstones for the sake of healing within our Church by balancing these contrasting statements of judgment and mercy in the midst of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. According to Exodus 34, 5-9, God forgives wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless.
For years, many of us Catholics have remained silent or concealed these serious problems to protect the Church institution and its clergy. We realize now more than ever the sinfulness of such actions. These failures weigh like heavy millstones around the necks of all of us who participated in permitting this problem to develop.
Bishop Wilton Gregory, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in responding to the release of the two reports on the clergy sexual abuse scandal, stated that this issue is now history and that, if bishops were complicit in the problem, they can be dealt with within the Conference through fraternal correction.
We respectfully but strongly disagree with Bishop Gregorys views. Our hierarchical leadership has reluctantly begun to face this problem, but it will only be dealt with completely and effectively when the bishops themselves acknowledge their own role in the scandal. This failure to respond has laid a very heavy millstone around the necks of our Episcopal leaders a burden which needs to be lifted if they are ever to lead the church effectively and credibly.
Robert Bennett, in presenting the John Jay Survey and the National Review Board Report, has placed the primary responsibility on our bishops themselves for creating the climate and culture in which cover-ups, stonewalling, brutal legal tactics, gag orders, silencing of victims and secretive transfer of perpetrators developed as the actual policy. In most instances sexual abuse of the young by the clergy is symptomatic of a serious sexual disorder. This behavior is also criminal in nature according to both the canon and civil law.
The bishops complicity is related to a systemic evil in the Churchs style and structure of governance. One treats a disease and contains its disastrous effects. One expunges systemic evil.
A small percentage of priests who have been involved in sexual abuse have had to leave active ministry. But a large majority of our bishops, who were clearly complicit in these behaviors by transferring and covering for abusive priests, still remain in office. They publicly apologize and profess their sorrow, but they exempt themselves from any sanctions and have no fear of the zero tolerance policy which they decreed for priests. Why? Is there a double standard? Is not criminal behavior the same whether committed by a bishop or a priest?
We affirm what Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit has stated: Zero tolerance has been the cruel response rendered to priests by the bishops, while bishops escape such penalties even though it was they who constantly hid the grave problems by secretly moving guilty priests from one place to another. I have found that nothing causes greater anger on the part of lay people and greater loss of credibility in episcopal leadership than this double standard. We can only hope that Voice of the Faithful and other lay groups will have the stamina to persist in their efforts to hold the bishops accountable and to bring structural reform to the church.
Project Millstones states with compassionate conviction: Unless and until the bishops who at least after 1985 have been seriously negligent and complicit leave office, the respect and trust rightly due the body of bishops will be sadly in short and severely strained supply.
MILLSTONES PROPOSALS
First, Project Millstones calls upon the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to expand the charge to its National Review Board to investigate claims against bishops who were complicit in the abuse scandal, at least after 1985 when it became clear that priest predators should not be in active ministry. The Board would then make recommendations for removal or resignation based upon the facts in each bishops case.
While we are troubled with the notion of zero tolerance, we accept it reluctantly as an appropriate response to abusive priests in the wake of life long damage to the souls of thousands of innocent victims of sexual abuse. Yet we insist that accused clerics be accorded the due process that is their right in Canon and Civil law and that allegations be investigated by an objective, professional and non-church affiliated entity. Only then will Zero Tolerance have credibility and be a reflection of justice for victims.
With Bishop Gumbleton, we are dismayed by the readiness of our bishops to impose this penalty on abusive priests while at the same time exempting themselves from any sanction beyond a public apology which conforms more to empty institutional rhetoric than to heartfelt compassion. Fraternal correction
surely should include the courageous expectation that bishops complicit in a cover-up would humbly resign from their position of leadership.
Second, Project Millstones calls upon all persons to report to the National Review Board any incidents of episcopal complicity in the sexual abuse scandal with which they may be acquainted;
Third, Project Millstones calls upon all victims of clergy/religious sexual abuse who have not yet shared their abuse with anyone privately or publicly to come forward to the appropriate ecclesiastical and civil authorities. These persons wear a particularly heavy millstone around their necks, since they suffer needlessly in silence.
Fourth, Project Millstones seeks a further clarification by the Conference of Bishops and the National Review Board on the exact meaning of sexual abuse;
Fifth, Project Millstones calls for a deep dialogue to be engaged among the leadership and all of the members of the Church in the United States regarding the best way to share leadership in our Church. We stand in solidarity with VOTF in calling for a change in the structures of governance in the Church we have long served and deeply love.
Finally, none of this can be done outside the context of profound and shared prayer and to this we pledge ourselves as we launch Project Millstones.
In the writings of St. John of the Cross we learn that The Dark Night is where God approaches making space and purifyingmaking space for the gift of the forgiving and liberating God Self in human history. Our prayer is for Light in this dark night for our Church in the United States.
PROJECT MILLSTONES COORDINATING COMMITEE
Rev. Patrick W. Collins, Ph.D.
Diocese of Peoria
Box 221, Douglas MI 49406
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, OP, JCD
310 Carswell Lane, Goldsboro NC 27534
Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.
Archdiocese of Newark
315 Prospect St., Midland Park, NJ 07432.
*Rev. Kenneth Lasch, JCD
Pastor Emeritus, St. Joseph RC Church, Mendham NJ
41 Elm St Apt 2-E
Morristown NJ 07960
Website: www.fatherlasch.com
Email: [email protected]
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*If you are willing and able to add your signature to over500 others who had signed, please do so in the space provided below and return it to me. I will transmit your signature to Father Patrick Collins who is the facilitator of this initiative.
Name: __
Address: __
Parish and Diocese ___
(I'm the one who gave it to you ... 
), I have received the following from Father Lasch. A passage of importance I have put into bold:
)