BishopAccountability.org
	Author 'Appalled' by Findings on Priest Abuse By Francis X. Fay Jr. The Hour February 7, 2009 http://www.thehour.com/story/464668 Hour Senior Staff Writer The Voice of the Faithful in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport heard both secular and clerical viewpoints on the sexual abuse problem in the church during a meeting this week in the First Congregational Church on the Green. Carmine Galasso, an award-winning photo journalist formerly with the Bergen County (N.J.) News and the Rev. Robert Hoatson, a former Christian Brother and more recently a parish priest in the Newark, N.J., archdiocese, offered accounts of their experiences in relation to the problem, which surfaced in Boston during the early part of the decade. Galasso, a 55-year-old Manhat-tanite, schooled entirely in the parochial system without any awareness of the problem, came to it through his work on the book "Crosses: Portraits of Clergy Abuse" published by Trolley Press of London, England. Hoatson, a 57-year-old priest, who, while on administrative leave, is guiding the national program "Road to Recovery" for victims of clergy sexual abuse, spoke of his experiences as an abused young boy in the parochial school system and later as an abused novitiate studying to be an Irish Christian Brother. "I was appalled when I first heard about it back in 2002," Galasso said "I had gone K-12 through the system unmolested and hadn't heard any rumors from my peers. But I was at a point in my career where I could devote some time to a book about the scandal. So, after gradually gaining the confidence of enough victims, I put their taped interviews with my photos of them which became the book." Galasso catches a moment with one female victim of priestly sexual abuse in which she admits that it wasn't until she had reached the age of 50 that she suddenly remembered the abusive incidents of her childhood. "That's how it is with most of the people I interviewed," the author said. "Children somehow repress the memory of these experiences until something triggers the mind to bring them to the surface." Galasso, whose subject matter focuses on people coping with pro-blems, is contemplating a book on the post-traumatic stress syndrome affecting U.S. service veterans. Hoatson, who helped Galasso find subjects for the book, said that his religious experience had led him to the conclusion that the mandated celibacy policy of the church is the root cause of the problem. His experience has led him to dissuade parents from supporting the interest of their children in religious lives. "Wherever I studied or served, sex was in the air," he said. "The older the cleric, the greater is his or her potential to become abusive," he added. It can also take the form of imbibing alcohol or brow beating associates and parishioners. And far from being stopped by the efforts of American bishops to eradicate sexual abuse, it continues. "I get two or three calls for help every week," he said Since being placed on administrative leave because of his teaming with the Rev. Kenneth Lasch in the formation of Road to Recovery, Hoatson, a New Jerseyite, devotes himself totally to helping survivors of clerical sexual abuse. (Lasch was the recipient of the Priest of Integrity Award last fall at the VOTF national conference in Providence, R.I.)
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