Breakfast with the Archbishop of Boston

The Survivor's Voice
October 16, 2013

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=5ce81285-a226-4b5f-94cf-01bf854700d6&c=7eea60b0-df85-11e2-865b-d4ae52806b34&ch=7eed46e0-df85-11e2-865b-d4ae52806b34

Tomorrow, November 17- 2013,will be a notable day in the state of Massachusetts when half of our state legislators have agreed to sit down at a private invitation-only breakfast with the Archbishop of Boston, the leader of an institution which has affected so many lives.

Notable on many levels:

Notable that these same public officials who can positively impact this generation and future generations of children by passing bills to eliminate the criminal and civil Statues of Limitation for sex crimes against children, are privately meeting with the leader of a religious institution, a private religious institution, that has lobbied against these bills and other similar bills for over a decade.

Notable that these officials are meeting with the leader of an institution which the highest law authority in our state, The Attorney General, stated in a grand jury report, that the sexual abuse of children in this state, by officials of this institution "was so massive and so prolonged that it bordered on the unbelievable." This grand jury report also stated that this institution produced "the greatest tragedy to befall children in this commonwealth in terms of sexual abuse."

Most notable, indeed, is the fact that these meetings are taking place behind closed doors, out of the public eye, in similar manner to that of countless closed door meetings held by the officials of the same institution that abused their position and power in order to cast protection over, and shield thousands of sexual predators instead of our children.

It is with sincere hope that the elected officials who attend this private breakfast will not suffer from the short term memory loss that the leaders of this institution seems to have surrounding the stories which thousands of victims have courageously shared over this past decade helping to end the silence of childhood sexual abuse.

It is also with sincere hope that our elected officials will show the same courage that these survivors have shown by taking this opportunity to use direct dialogue regarding the protection of our children today, as well as using direct dialogue regarding repairing the damage to the lives of children that this institution has inflicted and ignored for decades.

If consideration is given to none of the above, then every state official in attendance of this breakfast event may consider themselves a victim, used for a feel-good publicity stunt that will equate to having breakfast with the former head of an institution called Enron.

Legislative silence or inaction can only be translated as a whispered exemption.