Heath Haussamen / NMPolitics.net
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe.
Warning: This column plainly discusses sexual assault and related issues.
COMMENTARY: I remember a Christian Brother who taught at my high school taking us outside to show off a mountain he identified as “Tetilla Peak.” He described, to a group of underage teens in the 1990s, how much he loved tetas — in English, breasts, or more crudely but accurately, tits.
He often told us how much he loved women’s bodies. If he wasn’t a Christian Brother he would have 10 wives and 10 children with each wife, he said.
I had many creepy experiences at St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe. Another was the reverence with which basketball coaches spoke about the legendary coach Brother Abdon, with no mention of the rape allegations.
Heath Haussamen
More than two decades later, I’m processing all we’ve learned in 2018 from a grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania, our attorney general’s probe in New Mexico, and investigative journalism about how the Roman Catholic Church has systematically enabled and intentionally covered up the sexual assault of countless children and adults worldwide by its clergy, then shielded its assets from victims to protect its land and money.
This is the same material domination and psychological trauma Catholic colonizers have been inflicting since 1598 on the people of what we today call New Mexico.
Some examples:
• In Albuquerque, Father Sabine Griego allegedly vaginally, orally and anally raped a girl repeatedly starting at age 7. The victim says Griego smacked her when she choked during oral sex. He slammed her face into a table and broke her nose during one assault, then continued the rape, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone, so she told her mom she was injured during physical education class.
• Father James Poole impregnated a 16-year-old Native American girl in Alaska, “then forced her to get an abortion and blame her father for raping her. Her father went to prison,” Reveal News reported.
• Father John Feit murdered a female parishioner in Texas in the 1960s. Instead of going to prison, he was sent to Jemez Springs, N.M., where he allegedly oversaw the reassignment of pedophile priests to churches throughout the Santa Fe diocese without telling unsuspecting congregations, the Journal reported.
• In Pennsylvania, the church had what the grand jury called a “playbook for concealing the truth.”
Today, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe is declaring bankruptcy after transferring assets to separate entities. Protecting its money from victims is something the Catholic Church has done elsewhere, including in the Las Cruces diocese. Former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez has courageously called that out, writing in the Journal that it’s “a way of avoiding responsibility” and “part of a continuing cover-up.”
Sounding like a corporate lawyer, Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester responded by telling the Journal the diocese is “being fully accountable to the survivors” and ensuring victims’ claims can be settled “fairly and equitably.”
Jesus had no patience for such religious hypocrisy. Chasing the money-changers out of the temple was the only time we saw him lose his temper.
A religious organization with 1.2 billion members that claims to be the light of the world has destroyed countless people and families. Now it’s trying to avoid the full consequences of its sins — and Santa Fe’s archbishop is lying about it.
Wester should be ashamed of himself — and, based on his proclaimed beliefs, fearful for his eternal soul. This so-called religious leader and his peers should be prostrate on the ground begging for forgiveness. They aren’t — and that’s all I need to know about them and their church.
Heath Haussamen is NMPolitics.net’s editor and publisher. Agree with his opinion? Disagree? NMPolitics.net welcomes your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary here.