BishopAccountability.org

Man recalls 'naked antics' in 1950s with adult at church

By Dave Sutor
Tribune-Democrat
May 17, 2016

http://www.tribdem.com/news/man-recalls-naked-antics-in-s-with-adult-at-church/article_6d8a8274-1be0-11e6-88ce-0f0dd2c2b1cf.html

Attorney General Kathleen Kane's office announced Tuesday, March 1, 2016, during a press conference at the Blair County Convention Center in Altoona that a grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by priests or religious leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
Photo by Todd Berkey

Editor’s note: This story deals with subjects of a sexual nature and details may be disturbing to some readers.

Dave Casker, in his own words, was an early sexual bloomer.

So, when a man who was involved in activities at Our Mother of Sorrows parish made advancements toward him, Casker, then about 11 years old, thought it was interesting. They allegedly would engage in sexual activities – although never oral or anal – at the man’s house, the school office, in the church basement and at other locations for a few years in the 1950s.

“Most of our encounters were, I think, him just liked having a little guy naked with him,” Casker said during a recent interview at The Tribune-Democrat, responding to reports of widespread child sexual abuse across the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

“It was just kind of playing on the bed or playing on whatever was a comfortable surface,” Casker said. “It was naked antics in a sense rather than actual sex.”

His reactions to the sexual acts – then and now – might seem atypical. He said the man was not a member of the clergy.

“I never felt traumatized,” Casker said. “I never felt a need for counseling or anything like that. I wouldn’t have known who to go to anyway if I did. I didn’t feel I needed it. I just went on.”

Casker talked about what happened between him and the man during the sacrament of Penance.

Soon, outside the confessional, a priest asked him about the incidents. Almost immediately after Casker told him what happened, the man accused of performing the sexual acts was no longer seen at OMOS. Casker said he did not emotionally feel anything in particular about the person being gone.

While Casker said he enjoyed being with the man, he understands that, legally, “you couldn’t make that kind of intelligent consent at that age.”

Casker decided to discuss his case after the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General released a report last month in which a grand jury accused the Altoona–Johnstown diocese of perpetrating a decades-long coverup of child abuse by priests and other religious leaders. He is the first alleged abuse victim who has been willing to publicly tell his story to The Tribune-Democrat since the state attorney general’s investigation began.

“The pedophiles are bad enough, exploiting a kid’s sexuality and the budding confusion and enjoyment and all that stuff combined, guilt and whatever,” said Casker, who said he came out as gay when serving in the Navy during the 1960s.

“So that’s bad enough. The adults – this is my catchphrase – the adults who protected the brand rather than anything else are, in my mind, even more responsible,” he said. “Not that they necessarily participated, but that they facilitated it. You know there’s a problem and you just shuffle it around and there’s no effort to prevent it from reoccurring.”

Casker, who spent time in a seminary before distancing himself from the Catholic religion, puts much of the blame on the church for, in his opinion, allowing the abuse to go unpunished.

“I think all that deference within the church and the almost royal court kind of procedures and titles and this and that leads to a certain degree of arrogance, or at least it can, the assumption that we’re going to get away with it,” Casker said. “I think it’s partly human nature when you have power and little or no accountability – a lot of us misuse that. It happens often enough, not just in the church.

“I think that’s what happened in the church. I think (Pope) Francis is making headway along those lines.”

When asked what positive developments could come from the scandal, Casker referenced his own case, saying, “My first thought goes to understanding that kids aren’t all alike and they’re not reacting all the same way. Kids are complicated. So, if anything comes out of it, it’s maybe for adults in the position of counseling or whatever to be aware of the fact that there are kids who are like I was back then.”

As for people who were abused by priests or other adults, who feel traumatized by the encounters, Casker thinks they “deserve all the concern we can muster.”

Contact: dsutor@tribdem.com




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