When boy told of sexual abuse, his parents asked the priest who raped him to counsel him

[NeoGreen]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/when-boy-told-of-sexual-abuse-his-parents-asked-the-priest-who-raped-him-to-counsel-him/ar-BBMUPgB

When boy told of sexual abuse, his parents asked the priest who raped him to counsel him

Eventually, he just couldn’t take it anymore. The abuse, the rape, it became too much to deal with all his own, John Delaney said.

“Processing sexual abuse at any age is crippling,” his voice rising as he recalled the abuse that became all too common for him. “But when you’re a kid like I was, and when your abuser is a priest…it’s a whole ‘nother level of f---ed up.”

Father James Brzyski started to abuse Delaney when he was 10 living in Philadelphia. Delaney said Brzyski probably abused him more than 100 times.

And there were different stages of his abuse, Delaney recalled.

(snip)

So, he kept quiet, and the stages of his abuse progressed.

"There was fondling, oral sex, and then anal rape," Delaney said.

"I woke up in his bed with my underwear and pants around my knees," Delaney took a deep breath, his voice staggering before he continued. "I was bleeding. I was sore. I was gone."

He was also 11 years old at the time, weighing only about 80 pounds.

'Nobody will believe you'

He hit his breaking point when he was about 13 years old.

An argument after detention led to him telling his parents what Brzyski was doing to him, and had been doing to him for years.

His parents didn’t believe him though.

“You don’t lie about a priest like that,” Delaney father's said as he slapped his son across the face.

(snip)

They asked his abuser to counsel him — “their son was troubled,” giving Brzyski even more access to him.

So Delaney went to counseling.

With the man who had been raping him.

He threatened the priest, saying he would tell more people, but was confronted with an unbearable truth: Nobody believed him.

“The priest said to me,” Delaney recalled, “ ‘Go ahead and tell. Nobody will believe you. Your mother and father already know about this and that’s why they sent you to me.’ ”

[Pachamama]

1. This. Makes me furious.

[rurallib]

2. "His parents didn't believe him though. "

“You don’t lie about a priest like that,”

Well, that is exactly what happened in my house also. The exact same words.
My parents immediately left to protect the priest and call me a liar.

I was fortunate. As the priest was beginning the rape process he turned his back for a second and I was able to escape. Then for almost a year I was able to make myself very scarce during his constant visits to my house and my classroom. Circumstances were in my favor.

The rift between me and my parents lasted until their deaths.

[trotsky]

15. Church members are indoctrinated to believe that priests are "men of god."

That they are always to be trusted, never questioned.

Thus we see a specific religious belief in a specific religion that helped make the abuse possible. People who COULD have done something were instead silenced because of religious teaching.

I'm sorry about what you had to endure, rurallib. And sorry it affected your relationship with your parents.

[rurallib]

17. Thank you

The priest was the guy who married them. My father had an aunt who was a nun. I understood their reaction in a way. What I didn't understand was that they would not even listen to me.

Like a lot of families we looked pretty calm on the outside but were pretty dysfunctional behind the closed doors.

[rustysgurl]

3. My brother ...

... experienced much the same. However, when he 'showed his affection' to a neighbor boy as our priest did to him, my brother is the one who was sent to the reformatory. He didn't understand why what he did was wrong while the priest doing it was ok. My father beat him for 'lying' about our priest (who has since been defrocked and died ... may his soul burn in hell forever). My brother never got the help he needed, and as a result lost custody of his only son when his then wife accused him of fondling their toddler. My brother denied doing anything, and I really don't know what the truth is (as I obviously wasn't there). The fact that this priest messed my brother up to the point that it affected this rest of his life in one way or another makes me absolutely livid. I was raised Catholic, attended regularly, and was even married in the Church. But I have turned my back on them for this and for all the other innocents savaged by a culture of silence and coverup.

[SWBTATTReg]

11. I am so sorry to hear about your story...my heart goes out to you...

Where does it say that one should listen to the priest vs. the child? I would think, as parents I would be very concerned and appalled. Something happened...one doesn't go off into the deep end w/o cause, and I think you hit it on the nail. It's sad when one's own parents do not believe their own child.

Perhaps one day, your brother will find peace...bless you and yours...

[Runningdawg]

4. You know it truly surprises me

That more preist/preachers don't die from lead poisoning.

[Cartoonist]

5. What a disturbing thread

Faith is stronger than truth.

You don’t lie about a priest like that.

Whenever I hear a theist tell me their faith is their all, I wonder what they have against the truth.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. I fucking hate the autocratic system that we were raised to obey.

This would never happen in a world where we are prepared to see powerful people abuse their power. There has to be quicker remedies.

[Cousin Dupree]

7. Betrayed by your parents. The worst.

[Iggo]

8. To Delaney's dad: A grown man raped your baby and you did nothing. Go die.

To the International Catholic Church Child Rape Enabling & Coverup Conspiracy: Fuck you, too.

[Iggo]

10. The priest is a child-rapist and it doesn't matter what he looks like.

The Catholic Church condones it by enabling it and covering it up.

[Mariana]

12. The priest looks like a gangbanger? Really?

Father James Brzyski:

[Major Nikon]

13. "it's a whole 'nother level of f---ed up."

You know you are listening to an apologist when they try to convince you this isn't so.

[trotsky]

16. Yeah but abuse has happened in secular schools too...

so we shouldn't talk about the abuse that happened in the Catholic church.

[MineralMan]

14. The confidence people have in their Priests is why this whole

business has grown to such proportions. Every parent knows that their children sometimes tell lies. Usually, they can tell when that happens and make it a teaching opportunity. But, for people who are religious, the trust they put in their priest or pastor often overrides their sense of truth and lying.

Many children have been disbelieved when they tell of being abused by someone who is trusted. Often the perpetrator of the abuse takes advantage of such trust to avoid being caught.

For me, that compounds the horror of such crimes.