When Dr. Bell died, he left a portion of his estate to the parish where much of the abuse took place.
It is suffering piled on suffering.
Despite all that Mr. White, so traumatized that he cannot set foot in a Christian Church, has never once lost faith in God, and has found some comfort and solace in the expression of faith in Judaism.
**************
The Diocese offers car fare as retribution
***********************
Attorney statement continued:
He has, for years, tried to obtain redress and justice from the Episcopal church, and has been almost always rebuffed, and when not rebuffed entirely, his suffering has been minimized and his pleas for some kind of restitution have been turned away or, most recently, been made light of through insulting diminimus offers of “car fare”.
In January of this year, Mr. White managed, with the help of others, to get a hearing in front of the Standing Committee for the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
There, they took what seemed to be the extraordinary step of acknowledging the harm that had been done to Mr. White, and published an apology, which if one looks for it hard enough can be found on the Diocesan web-site.
************
Published apology left out name of perpetrator
*********************
Attorney statement continued:
They did not provide the perpetrator’s name, and the Committee has not done any more to publicize the matter as it had indicated it would do, by publishing Mr. White’s story. Finally, in response to a request for some financial restitution, the Committee has fallen back on a statement that it is in a finically tough situation, and cannot afford to do anything for him beyond some nominal assistance with transportation.
This firm became involved on Mr. White’s behalf, late this spring to try to open a dialogue as to how his story might conclude. Mr. White is old and in poor health, and we wanted to, without instituting a lawsuit, see if we could bring to completion, Mr. White’s 60 year long quest for justice—which the Standing Committee had taken the first (seemingly) courageous step to bringing about.
We proposed the following to them:
1. The Resolution, posted January 25, is difficult to find. The story should appear on the main site with a link to the Resolution and Mr. White’s narrative. The Resolution, with its acknowledgement and apology needs to be made more public in order to be effective. The Resolution and the narrative should also appear on the All Saints Parish web-site (All Saints is the place where Dr. Bell was recor at the time of the abuse and where some of the abuse actually took place).
2. Naming the wrong is important, but just as important is naming the perpetrator and those who helped him. History and justice are in the details. Rev. Bell’s name appears nowhere in the Resolution. Neither do the names of those who helped him to maintain the cloud of secrecy, or who turned away from Mr. White’s pleas for help, appear. They should. Again, by publication of Mr. White’s narrative and supporting documentation, this can be corrected.
3. As noted above, Mr. White’s saga has a particular twist—the perpetrator inherited what should properly have been the victim’s inheritance. He then gave a portion of that ill gotten gain to the very institution that assisted him in his wrongdoing.
It is suffering piled on suffering.
Despite all that Mr. White, so traumatized that he cannot set foot in a Christian Church, has never once lost faith in God, and has found some comfort and solace in the expression of faith in Judaism.
**************
The Diocese offers car fare as retribution
***********************
He has, for years, tried to obtain redress and justice from the Episcopal church, and has been almost always rebuffed, and when not rebuffed entirely, his suffering has been minimized and his pleas for some kind of restitution have been turned away or, most recently, been made light of through insulting diminimus offers of “car fare”.
In January of this year, Mr. White managed, with the help of others, to get a hearing in front of the Standing Committee for the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
There, they took what seemed to be the extraordinary step of acknowledging the harm that had been done to Mr. White, and published an apology, which if one looks for it hard enough can be found on the Diocesan web-site.
************
Published apology left out name of perpetrator
*********************
Attorney statement continued:
They did not provide the perpetrator’s name, and the Committee has not done any more to publicize the matter as it had indicated it would do, by publishing Mr. White’s story. Finally, in response to a request for some financial restitution, the Committee has fallen back on a statement that it is in a finically tough situation, and cannot afford to do anything for him beyond some nominal assistance with transportation.
This firm became involved on Mr. White’s behalf, late this spring to try to open a dialogue as to how his story might conclude. Mr. White is old and in poor health, and we wanted to, without instituting a lawsuit, see if we could bring to completion, Mr. White’s 60 year long quest for justice—which the Standing Committee had taken the first (seemingly) courageous step to bringing about.
We proposed the following to them:
1. The Resolution, posted January 25, is difficult to find. The story should appear on the main site with a link to the Resolution and Mr. White’s narrative. The Resolution, with its acknowledgement and apology needs to be made more public in order to be effective. The Resolution and the narrative should also appear on the All Saints Parish web-site (All Saints is the place where Dr. Bell was recor at the time of the abuse and where some of the abuse actually took place).
2. Naming the wrong is important, but just as important is naming the perpetrator and those who helped him. History and justice are in the details. Rev. Bell’s name appears nowhere in the Resolution. Neither do the names of those who helped him to maintain the cloud of secrecy, or who turned away from Mr. White’s pleas for help, appear. They should. Again, by publication of Mr. White’s narrative and supporting documentation, this can be corrected.
3. As noted above, Mr. White’s saga has a particular twist—the perpetrator inherited what should properly have been the victim’s inheritance. He then gave a portion of that ill gotten gain to the very institution that assisted him in his wrongdoing.
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