Dear Cardinal George: Please take my call

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By Kay Ebeling

I have new hope with Cardinal Francis George stepping in as President of the American bishops, either new hope or I’m totally spun by the Roman Catholic Church PR machine. We'll see.

What gave me this hope was a show of spontaneity by George as reported by John Allen in National Catholic Reporter November 20th: The John Jay Report had just excused pedophilia in the church as no worse than in other places, plus free love in the sixties is the real culprit. Allen wrote, “Just as the session was drawing to a close, George, unprompted, signaled that he wanted to add something.” George said:

"The question is whether or not the church herself, particularly priests and bishops, should be held to a moral standard higher than the general populace. Is religion an independent variable? Or is it simply reduced to a cultural reality? If that's the case, secularists shouldn't be disturbed about religion, because it has nothing original to say anyway, and it's not going to impose itself on anybody's behavior.”

Cardinal George can show he has something original to say by taking my call next week.

You see, a few weeks back my landlord, Whiplash West tried to scare my daughter and me into moving so he could cash in on LA’s fired up rental market. I was in a frenzy until I got hold of LA legal aid. For the first time in my life, I think, I experienced the RUSH of getting help from an attorney. Endorphins all over me -- I wanted more.

So I jumped on the phone next day and tried for the seventeenth time at least to get a legal case going in Chicago for the abuse my sister and I went through there at the hands of a dilettante priest Father Thomas B. Horney c.1950-55.

But I ran up against the Statute of Repose. Didn't get that endorphin rush for my case after all. Still there’s hope in Cardinal George: More after this.

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The Statute Of Repose
It sounds like it would be good, but. . .

In spite of my renewed legal pursuits, we face not only the statute of limitations but also

The statute of repose

With the SOL there’s always wiggle room, a way to add a year or a month or two, up to a certain point.

Then it’s, lady, look in the mirror, see how old these allegations are. THAT'S ENOUGH already.

Our perp, Father Horney, died in the 1980s -- he got us going in the late forties early fifties when we were preschoolers, and neither my sister nor I stopped until around 1993. Today she and I are both dotty old ladies with wavering memories -- plus I don't know if I want a church attorney barking at me --

in my face

Wanting to know details of my sex life from 1955 on,

etcetera. . . .

HOWEVER,

As several attorneys in Chicago told me last couple weeks

I can still contact the Chicago Archdiocese Office of Victims Assistance. See I need therapy.

I used to say writing the blog was therapy
Now I may need therapy because of writing the blog.

I can’t stop writing the blog though, because I’m not really writing it. It’s a motor generating inside me and I can’t stop it. This stuff will keep me awake all night unless I write it and post it.

It’s a kind of weird karma -- Penance on Earth.

So

Another quote from Cardinal Francis George in the National Catholic Reporter story: “The media not only report, they also select, and in that sense they create a reality.”

(Me: Huh? Did Francis Cardinal George spend time with Tim Leary in the sixties?)

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Yes The Media Do Create Reality --
Especially in the Wide Open World of the Web and Blogs.

Especially New Media like Blogs
Anything goes here. I mean:

The Cardinal was born in Chicago to Francis J. and Julia R. McCarthy George,

Charles McCarthy my uncle was born in Chicago

My dad was born in Chicago -- his name was George. . .

Three degrees of separation . . . and apply some wicca philosophy to it.

I did spend time with Timothy Leary in the sixties.

OPEN QUESTION TO CARDINAL FRANCIS GEORGE

Can the Archdiocese of Chicago help? Can we tell you our stories and how they lead us to have the needs we have today that the archdioceses can provide --

And set up recovery centers around the country for survivors?

Can the Chicago Archdiocese set an example for the rest of the country, now that the Chicago bishop is president of the American bishops,

In the name and my sister and me,

Show that the Catholic Church can be “Held to a moral standard higher than the general populace”?

Can we approach the archdiocese with our story and get results, even if our cases don’t fall within “general populace” law?

The Chicago Archdiocese victims assistance ministry office at 312 -- 751-5205 has a new director, Matt Honeycutt.

I’m going to call next week to see if they are interested in helping me and my sister or better yet all the thousands of survivors who can’t file lawsuits, all over the country, who still need help.

We'll see.

The Archbishop of Chicago was made president of the American bishops in November 2007 and he seems to be able to think on his feet.

The first week of December seems like a good time to call.

So, Here’s my idea in advance, Cardinal George.
Therapy for the crime victims at least as good as the church provided for the criminals

The American Catholic Church can create regional recovery centers with all the therapies and treatments given to perpetrator priests -- recovery centers of the same caliber as the Paracletes in New Mexico, but for the priest rape victims.

Therapy for the victims, not the criminals.

God knows we need it worse than the perpetrator priests do. . . .

Cardinal George, I need six months in a spa . . . so do a lot of my fellow “survivors”

Stay tuned to see what happens when I call.

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AS TO SNIDELY WHIPLASH WEST: I dedicate the following to my Beverly Hills slumlord:

KILL MY LANDLORD

By Tyrone Greene
As performed by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live c. 1981

Dark and lonely on a summer's night
Kill my landlord
Kill my landlord
Watchdog barking
Do he bite?
Kill my landlord
Kill my landlord
Slip in his window
Break his neck
Then his house
I start to wreck
Got no reason
What the heck
Kill my Landlord
Kill my landlord
C-I-L-L
my l a n d l o r d


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Just Kidding
I don't plan to blow up any churches either. . . .

On a more spiritual note:

This is the post I was looking for when I wrote the story about Mike Shoemaker in Arizona last February.

For the past 20 years or so I always wondered why Jesus Christ made a special point of calling a child over to him, placing the child on his knee and saying, "If anyone hurts one of these, it would be better that a millstone be tied around their neck and they be tossed into the sea".

I realized about a year ago or so that it was prophetic. He saw this coming.

Then, literally as I was typing this post, I realized something else; it was also intended to comfort us. To let us know that He most definitely sees what is going on, that He is not happy about it at all, and that He will be dealing with these perpetrators. Severely.

I don't know about you all, but this just gave me some peace.

Thanks God.

I'm actually kind of frightened for these guys now. Oh well, God knows best.

-- Mike Shoemaker (Spring 2006)

More to come. . .

*****$$$???!!!
I hope you enjoy reading this blog. Please come back often and visit my advertisers. I also pass the Internet hat. You can support this blog by putting cash on my PayPal account. Just click the button in the top left corner. I report all income to the IRS. Thank you.
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