Abuse Survivor Encourages Silent Victims to Come Forward and Get Help

Tag: usa
To Everyone Who is Concerned about Clergy Sexual Abuse,

I am a survivor of clergy abuse and was molested by Nicholas Katinas when I was a teenager. I am the person referred to as �DZ� in the legal documents and news that has come out in the Katinas clergy abuse case. I was molested by Katinas when I was a teenager at the Assumption Church in Olympia Fields, IL in the early 1970s. I now know that Katinas abused many other innocent minors. Some are still silent. Others have bravely come forward and joined the civil lawsuit against Katinas and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOAA) hierarchy, including the Holy Trinity Church of Dallas and the Metropolis of Denver.

I�m writing this letter to encourage everyone who is a survivor of clergy abuse to reach out and get help. For me, this meant starting therapy and seeing a counselor. For almost 30 years, I kept silent and blamed myself for the abuse. I felt incredible shame that affected important parts of my life � my relationship with my family and my wife.

It took many years of intense counseling for me to see that I was a victim. Clergy abuse is the biggest betrayal possible because of the priest�s association with the church and God. Katinas� role as a Greek Orthodox priest, whom I was taught to respect and obey, prevented me from seeing him as an abuser.

The second reason I�m writing this letter is to encourage you silent victims, who were molested by Katinas, to come forward. This is a critical time in the history of the GOAA for them to publicly acknowledge their past mistakes.

I did sign an agreement with the GOAA that releases the GOAA from all legal responsibility, with the exception of Katinas. The GOAA also paid for my past counseling costs and for an agreed upon amount of future counseling costs. I am grateful that the GOAA agreed to help with past and future counseling. However, I have been very disappointed with all other manners in which the GOAA has investigated my complaint. Their investigation took several months and they spent very little time reaching out to others. As it was, it took almost half a year, from when my complaint was made, before the GOAA confronted Katinas on the molestation charges. During those six months, no attempt was made to suspend Katinas, pending investigation. Why did the GOAA not act swiftly to protect the children in Dallas?

The GOAA privately suspended Katinas in May 2006, however it wasn�t until February, 2007, that they publicly announced the reason for the suspension to the Holy Trinity parish in Dallas. And it wasn�t until July, 2007, that the GOAA finally defrocked Katinas. The communication about the defrocking was delayed and inconsequential � a small notice on page 34 in the December, 2007, issue of the Orthodox Observer stating that Katinas was �Returned to status of layman�. The term �defrocked� was not even used.

I have asked the GOAA many times to visit the Assumption church in Olympia Fields, IL and speak with the parish about Katinas and make an appeal to find other victims. I know they are suffering in silence as I did. The GOAA still has not taken any action and their excuse is that there are not enough current parishioners who will remember Katinas because he left the church in the late 1970s. What about all the Assumption parishioners who are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s? They certainly DO remember Katinas!

How can the church fulfill its responsibility to reach out to other victims who are suffering if they will not follow their clergy sexual misconduct policy and reach out to these victims?

If the GOAA were following its own clergy sexual misconduct policy, I wouldn�t have to write this letter. If enough parishioners were speaking up and demanding that the GOAA follow their policy, I wouldn�t have to write this letter. However that�s not the reality. Unfortunately, filing a civil lawsuit is about the only remaining avenue available for victims to fight back. The irony is that the GOAA and many parishioners feel betrayed when victims hire a lawyer to represent them, but the betrayal started with Katinas and continues with the church hierarchy.

For more information, please contact victimsadvocate@orthodoxreform.org. All inquiries are kept strictly confidential.

Thank you for listening. I pray for you silent victims to find the strength and courage to help yourselves!

� DZ

Tag: assumption-church-in-olympia-fields
Tag: greek-orthodox-archdiocese
Tag: holy-trinity-church-of-dallas
Tag: metropolis-of-denver

Tag: nicholas-katinas

http://orthodoxreform.org/cases/fr-ni...-get-help/