from CofA Blog 2009-10:
TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010
Santa Barbara Boys Choir, 'constant supply of attractive little boys' for Franciscan pedophile priest (pages scanned here)
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By Kay Ebeling
The Santa Barbara Boys Choir, "was clearly my choir, and the fulfillment of one of my fondest dreams," writes ex-priest Robert Van Handel in an attachment to his probation report called "Sexual Autobiography," from which we've scanned five pages here, for our readers to click-enlarge and read.
In his 9-point type single-spaced memoir, Van Handel (pictured above) admits, “Now I understand that [the choir] was also a constant supply of attractive little boys.”
It's likely Van Handel molested 150 eight- to twelve-year-olds as director of the Santa Barbara Boys Choir, according to a letter from his own therapist to the Court in 1994. (Read more in Santa Barbara Story Parts 9 and 10 coming soon.) On these pages about his time as a Franciscan in Santa Barbara running the boys' choir, the pedophile priest talks his way through years of serial felonies.
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Priest Takes Boys on a Drunken Camping Trip to Yosemite. Santa Barbara Story Part 8, wait until you see Parts 9 and 10
We continue to run direct quotes from two lawsuits filed Fall 2009 regarding priests at St. Anthony's Seminary, which closed in 1987.
Then someone handed me a piece of evidence from a 1990s lawsuit against those same Franciscans, this a "sexual diary" of Van Handel. After we post documents concerning a third lawsuit, from another adult victim of the Franciscans of St. Anthony's Seminary, we will have figured out what to do with the contents of the sexual diary. The document was apparently copied and passed around a bit during the early 1990s, I guess before Church attorneys realized they better scrounge everything up and find a way to con-vince a judge to keep everything sealed. I'm reading it now, a few pages at a time as it is hard to take. This is what I read this morning, from the period early 1980s when the predator priest was Rector of the high school for boys. Previous entries on this subject: Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2010
Homeless Shunned while Pedophiles Sheltered due to 'Concern for Well-Being of Choirboys' at Santa Barbara Mission
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By Ignacio Aceves
When I was attending the seminary, aside from the sexual abuse I had to endure while in the hands of my Franciscan pedophile, a student was picked to read from a book about St. Francis of Assisi. In the book were many readings about how this saint dedicated his life to reaching out to the poor and homeless. He would even touch lepers, putting the perceived dangers of doing such a thing aside. What a guy! Anyway, you'd think that was how it was amongst the Friars at the seminary, right? Wrong! Here are a few things I can recall happening when I was there living amongst the Franciscan Friars.
By Ignacio Aceves
When I was attending the seminary, aside from the sexual abuse I had to endure while in the hands of my Franciscan pedophile, a student was picked to read from a book about St. Francis of Assisi. In the book were many readings about how this saint dedicated his life to reaching out to the poor and homeless. He would even touch lepers, putting the perceived dangers of doing such a thing aside. What a guy! Anyway, you'd think that was how it was amongst the Friars at the seminary, right? Wrong! Here are a few things I can recall happening when I was there living amongst the Franciscan Friars.
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2010
MEMORIES: Housemate Was Pedophile Priest w/Maybe Hundreds of Victims, St. Anthony Seminary, Santa Barbara 1980s-1990s
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It’s impossible to read Iggy’s emails and then say the Catholic Church did not enable pedophiles: “One time he brought in this young boy. They walked through the living room ...
HERE IS the Original from Wednesday:
“One time he brought in this young boy. They walked through the living room and straight into his study, then closed the door.” Iggy hesitates. “I heard the kid through the door say ‘Father Robert.’ And the way his voice sounded. It was this exclamation…. But I thought, oh nothing could be wrong, he's with a priest. So I just let it go. But my memory kept it. ‘Father Robert! Father Robert!’ Sometimes things are right in front of us and we don't even see them.”
When I began researching the hundreds of child molestations that took place at St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara, I wrote to Ignacio Aceves, one of dozens of adult victims of priests at the Santa Barbara school run by Franciscans. Aceves' first emails were tentative, then he opened up and poured out memories of years he lived and worked at the seminary, sharing living space with Fr. Robert Van Handel.
The clever priest persuaded the Franciscans to let him run a boys' choirmaking him able to for 20 years take his pick of boys from the community in just the age range Van Handel craved. “Now I understand that it was also a constant supply of attractive little boys," the priest wrote soon after his 1994 arrest, in a "sexual autobiography."
"He could easily have abused 150 boys,” wrote a psychologist in Van Handel's Probation Report.
(See if you can still say the Catholic Church did not enable pedophiles after reading emails from Ignacio Aceves that resulted in this first person story.):
It’s impossible to read Iggy’s emails and then say the Catholic Church did not enable pedophiles: “One time he brought in this young boy. They walked through the living room ...
HERE IS the Original from Wednesday:
“One time he brought in this young boy. They walked through the living room and straight into his study, then closed the door.” Iggy hesitates. “I heard the kid through the door say ‘Father Robert.’ And the way his voice sounded. It was this exclamation…. But I thought, oh nothing could be wrong, he's with a priest. So I just let it go. But my memory kept it. ‘Father Robert! Father Robert!’ Sometimes things are right in front of us and we don't even see them.”
When I began researching the hundreds of child molestations that took place at St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara, I wrote to Ignacio Aceves, one of dozens of adult victims of priests at the Santa Barbara school run by Franciscans. Aceves' first emails were tentative, then he opened up and poured out memories of years he lived and worked at the seminary, sharing living space with Fr. Robert Van Handel.
The clever priest persuaded the Franciscans to let him run a boys' choirmaking him able to for 20 years take his pick of boys from the community in just the age range Van Handel craved. “Now I understand that it was also a constant supply of attractive little boys," the priest wrote soon after his 1994 arrest, in a "sexual autobiography.""He could easily have abused 150 boys,” wrote a psychologist in Van Handel's Probation Report.
(See if you can still say the Catholic Church did not enable pedophiles after reading emails from Ignacio Aceves that resulted in this first person story.):
ALSO
• When 24 Pedophile Priests from One Town Rape 60 Children, It Is a Public Nuisance. Sol Breakthrough Suit Filed against Franciscans in Santa Barbara, By Kay Ebeling, City of Angels, September 22, 2008
• Franciscans Are a Public Nuisance for Letting Children Be Raped over Decades, Says Santa Barbara Lawsuit, Which Could Work in Other States As Well, By Kay Ebeling, City of Angels, December 13, 2008
• Opposition to Fransciscan Request to Lump Ongoing Public Nuisance Case in Santa Barbara with Clergy Cases in LA, City of Angels, September 24, 2008
• The Franciscan Grabbed the Freshman by the Testicles and Instructed the Boy to Cough As If It Were a Hernia Exam. Just Another Day of Seminary Life, City of Angels, December 1, 2009
• Storm the Vatican April 2010. Also, Money for Therapy Comes from Plaintiffs Not Church, and Santa Barbara Story Part 3, By Kay Ebeling, City of Angels, December 1, 2009
• Predator Franciscan Describes Years He Ran Santa Barbara Boys Choir, "a Constant Supply of Attractive Little Boys", By Kay Ebeling City of Angels, January 26, 2010
• Pedophile Mind: As Sentencing Approaches, Priest Pours out Sexual History Hoping for Probation, Gets Notoriety Instead, By Kay Ebeling, City of Angels, January 29, 2010
• Priest Abused a Boy a Month in Santa Barbara Boys Choir. with 150 Victims, He Serves Time for One. Now Living in Santa Cruz, By Kay Ebeling, City of Angels, February 5, 2010
ALSO from Ignacio
(Story in progress, above articles are background on topic previously published at CofA Blog)
Also:
• Judge Orders Records of Priests Accused of Molestation Released, By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2009
• Ernesto C. v. Franciscan Friars of California, Inc.; Old Mission Santa Barbara, Oct. 5, 2009
• Craig Clover, an individual, Plaintiffs, v. Franciscan Friars of California, Inc., Nov. 3, 2009
-keAlso:
• Judge Orders Records of Priests Accused of Molestation Released, By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2009
• Ernesto C. v. Franciscan Friars of California, Inc.; Old Mission Santa Barbara, Oct. 5, 2009
• Craig Clover, an individual, Plaintiffs, v. Franciscan Friars of California, Inc., Nov. 3, 2009
More background
Robert Van Handel: A disturbing look into the mind of a ...
www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Robert-Van-Handel-A-disturbing-loo...
Daily Mail
Priest abuse: Father Robert Van Handel - Documents - Los ...
documents.latimes.com/la-me-priest-abuse-robert-van...
Los Angeles Times
27 pages undo a life's haunting - Los Angeles Times
articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/16/local/la-me-priest-abuse-20130116
