{"id":727,"date":"2009-03-09T23:28:19","date_gmt":"2009-03-09T23:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/switchingtime.wordpress.com\/?p=727"},"modified":"2009-03-09T23:28:19","modified_gmt":"2009-03-09T23:28:19","slug":"karen-answers-justine-lauren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/?p=727","title":{"rendered":"Karen answers Justine Lauren"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Comment by\u00a0<\/a>Justine Lauren<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on March 1, 2009\u00a0<\/a>5:25 pm<\/a><\/span><\/cite><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Dear Karen,<\/div>\n
I am shocked by your story. Never read anything quite so horrific. I am questioning something I find hard to believe. Don\u2019t take offense, please. I would like to know more about the priest who witnessed your being abused. Did he participate in the act or was he a bystander? What Catholic Church priest would allow such things to happen? How does a group of men find each other have a morbid common idea of abusing children in a church basement? Where was this church? Did you report the priest\u2019s action to the Archbishop or Pope? What was their response? Who do you blame? Did Richard Baer defend you claim?<\/div>\n
Justine Lauren<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Dear Justine Lauren,<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
I know my story is shocking and hard to believe. I don’t take offense with the questions asked here because it’s my hope to share the truth in a way that is less threatening and easier to understand.\u00a0 My story is true, although multiplicity and why children are sexually abused is incomprehensible.<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My parish priest did not\u00a0sexually abuse me physically himself, but preferred to watch.\u00a0 The hurt I felt from the priest was the same hurt I felt from those who actually physically perpetrated the act. The worst part of the abuse was the emotional trauma caused by trusting people only to have them let me down and hurt me.\u00a0 Definitely not Christian. I won’t share the Catholic priest’s name; he’s now deceased.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
You ask how\u00a0a group of men like this find each\u00a0other?\u00a0 I have no idea. My father sought them out.\u00a0 Maybe he started\u00a0a conversation or stated a perverted thought out loud, and others joined in.\u00a0 Besides, a small group of less than six, with the priest involved, made it easy to gather in the privacy of the church basement.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
My abusers\u00a0came from my father’s acquaintances, from his work, in\u00a0 addition to a few church members that he grew up with. My father had a way of controlling those who worked under him by using threats and manipulation.\u00a0 The priest acted inappropriately, he should have contacted the authorities, but he chose to participate in my father’s sick ways.\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
I’ve never reported the priest’s actions, nor shared the location of the church.\u00a0 As a child, I was threatened into secrecy.\u00a0 I believed my siblings and I would have been killed if I told.\u00a0 The church itself is not to blame. It’s a fine church and the priest who was a part of my abuse is long gone.\u00a0 By the time I shared my experiences with Dr. Baer, in the safety of\u00a0therapy, it was too late, my abusers were already dead. Therefore, no need for Dr. Baer to help with any claim.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Thank you for asking these brave questions.\u00a0 It’s important to me that we all learn from each other. And how else can we understand if we don’t ask the hard questions?<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Karen\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comment by\u00a0Justine Lauren\u00a0on March 1, 2009\u00a05:25 pm Dear Karen, I am shocked by your story. Never read anything quite so horrific. I am questioning something I find hard to believe. Don\u2019t take offense, please. I would like to know more about the priest who witnessed your being abused. Did he participate in the act or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}