The Vatican owns $35 billion in assets yet they can't seem to solve child poverty. When it comes to their priests' sexual exploitation of children, however, they happen to be pretty damn proficient at using their vast holdings to pay off victims of their irreverent deeds.
The Catholic Church recently paid $213 million to 4,445 children sexually abused by pedophile priests in Australia, but (and this is not hyperbole) this is far from a one-off...
[Los Angeles, July 14, 2007: $660 million. 508 victims received an average of $780,000 each. Perpetrators included 221 priests, brothers, lay teachers and other diocesan church employees.]
[San Diego, Sept. 7, 2007: $198.1 million. 144 victims received an average of $825,000 each. Perpetrators included 48 priests and one lay coordinator of altar boys.]
[Oregon Province of the Jesuits, March 25, 2011: $166.1 million. 500 victims received an average of $199,000 each. Perpetrators were not identified.]
[Orange, CA, Dec. 2, 2004. $100 million. 91 victims received an average of $659,000 each. Perpetrators included 31 priests, 10 lay people, two nuns and one brother.]
[Boston, Sept. 9, 2003. $84.25 million. 552 victims received an average of $92,000 each. Perpetrators included 140 priests and two others.]
[Covington, KY. Jan. 9, 2009. $79.082 million. 243 victims received an average of $254,000 each. Perpetrators included 35 priests.]
[Wilmington, DE. Feb. 2, 2011. $77.425 million. 150 victims received an average of $310,000 each. Perpetrators were not identified.]
[Portland, Ore. April 17, 2007. $71.45 million. 169 victims received an average of $342,000 each. Unclear, although diocesan bankruptcy filings list 11 priests as perpetrators.]
[Los Angeles, Dec. 1, 2006. $60 million. 45 victims received an average of $800,000 each. Perpetrators included seven priests.]
[Oakland, CA. Aug. 5, 2005. $56 million. 56 victims received an average of $600,000 each. Unclear, although court records name two priests.]
The Roman Catholic Church is synonymous with child sexual abuse. I owe nobody an apology for saying this because it is the truth. Cases of child sexual abuse and subsequent cover-ups committed during the 20th and 21st centuries by Catholic priests, nuns, and members of the Roman Catholic Order have led to numerous allegations, investigations, trials, and convictions. And with billions continually being paid by the church to settle damning claims around the world- I just knew I had to shame each and every one of these pedophile priests and their perfervid crime enablers in the only way I know how to do it—speaking truth to power through the art of unhindered storytelling. After all, fiction uniquely teaches us about our own stories and seeks to inform, unlike any other medium due to the fact that fiction is often closer to the truth than what surrounds us on a daily basis.
The story I’ve written may be a hard-hitting and uncomfortably probing tale, but it’s minuscule in comparison to the real horrors experienced by those that have suffered at the hands of these men and women of God- boys and girls, some as young as 3 years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14.
The Confessional (a short story with a peerless message) is an execrable horror parable that will take the reader on a surreal journey into the warped psychosis of a pedophile priest and into the spiritual battle a child, nonetheless, is left to confront alone.
Pragmatic author A.K. Kuykendall has a passion for writing conspiracy, espionage, horror, and suspense literature that blend the concepts of fact and fiction. For more information on his projects, visit https://www.thewriterofbooks.com/list-of-works/ or, to email the author directly for Q&A on this post, write to info@thewriterofbooks.com.
This is incredible! I just received this in a link on Google.
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