The document I referred to yesterday is posted. It’s an email from Brother Raymond Ducharme fic to “Bejamin” (pseudonym) , the man who was sodomised by Brother Lawrence Lambert back in 1965. Brother Duchamre was – is he still? – Vice Provincial of the Brother of Christian Instruction in Japan. Here is the email:
23 December 2013: Brother Raymond Ducharme email explaining bumps in life balls of both victim and Brother Lawrence, and that there is a “potential abuser” in everyone.”
The email was sent two days before Christmas 2013, and just shy of a month before the 21 January 2014 meeting in a Tokyo synagogue between Benjamin, his molester, Brother Lambert, and the author of the email, Brother Ducharme.
I have started preparing a commentary, but, time to get a late supper together! However, do please read and reflect on the words for now. There are several things in that email which truly warrant comment, but for now I will tell you that when I first read it I was completely taken aback by the following:
I compare life to a thread enrolling on itself with the experiences that we make. That thread becomes a ball of thread (the ball of one’s life). In your life story (your life ball) there is a bump built up by the actions of Br. Lawrence. There is a bump also in Br. Lawrence’s ball. Through our meeting, we would like to remove the bump as much as we can.
Benjamin has a bump in his ball. And, oh yes, not to be outdone, Brother Lawrence has a bump in his ball too.
I swear to goodness I have never in my life read anything quite so silly and trite – particularly when it comes to a situation such as this: a Roman Catholic Brother and teacher sodomising an 11-year-old Jewish boy in a school run by a Roman Catholic religious order of brothers. Such foolish prattle becomes downright appalling when we recall the words of Father John Mary Robert de la Mennais, the founder of the Brothers of Christian Instruction/Mennasians:
“My dear children whom Jesus our Saviour loved so much that he embraced them. Come to us, stay with us, we will be the guardian angels of your innocence.”
More on the email later. It may have to wait until tomorrow. We shall see….
*****
A reminder that Nathan Labatt, a former youth volunteer for the Archdiocese of Regina has a courtdate on Monday:
04 May 2015: 10 am, Humboldt courthouse, Humboldt, Saskatchewan (805 8th Avenue)
Labatts’ lawyer has not appeared in person for the last two courtdates. I have no idea of tomorrow will be any different.
*****
A positively beautiful day today! 26 C!! We’ve gone from Winter to Summer in the twinkle of an eye. Today my husband and I took advantage of the situation to tackle some much needed outdoor work – and husband spent much of that time scraping mounds of salt off the garage floor! Mounds. Really and truly! Mounds. I think the city outdid itself salting roads and streets this year 🙁
Enough for now,
Sylvia
Sylvia, I have just been on the phone to SNAP (Survivor Network for those Abused by Priests for those unfamiliar with the acronym).
They have advice soon to be posted that the United Nations Committee on Torture now is stating that they recognize child sexual abuse as torture which has no Statute of Limitations.
More on this news as the documents come to hand. It means people like the ex Japan Brothers now living in Canada are within the clutches of Courts. And the “good news” is that they categorize enablers in the same category as those who assist torture. Bonjour Raymond Ducharme.
There should be no Statute of Limitations anywhere in any free or not as yet free world Period
No one who has been a victim could disagree with your sentiments one bit. These specimens and enablers need to be removed from holy orders and deposited in homeless shelters (if they are lucky). This removal from holy orders surely never happens for but one reason. The reason that those in high places have guilty consciences about their own molesting history. Can there be another reason. Clearly NO.
The e-mail above was written by someone who’s never been abused or would ever understand what one has to live with. I’d also like to strangle anyone who ever uses the phrase ” You have to move on, or Just forget it, or even better, Time will heal your wound”. It’s not a cut. It’s an open wound that while it may scab over there is always something that rips it off, either by dreams (which one can’t control), or by smells, news, time of year. There’s no one thing that will heal the wound, and nothing anyone says or does, or a thousand trip to Therapy or any amount of $$ will ever fix an abuse at such a young age double Period It’s a life sentence that one never get’s paroled from. I can’t be the only one that feels this.
The 2 brothers need to be sent to a prison with no segregation rules or walls, and see if them can get over that.
What ridiculous! This Email was written by a rubber stamping cold accountant.
He and the other “brothers” always have the money at heart: how much they bring in and how much they will have to fork out in a settlement…How much sweet, compassionate and caring words can be dolled out to mitigate the damages to the “order”, the “church”…
On the same subject, different post, I believe it was the same “charming” “Ducharme” who qualified the meeting as “religious activity” to either leave themselves an out or, as I believe Sylvia you had remarked, to save on the “taxable ” issues…
The “problem” was and is always a matter of “administration” for them!
The “bump on balls” reference , considering what has happened to this poor “child” seems to once again have a poor choice of words by a “religious” rep. who takes more pleasure in exposing his own sexual twists and lies and to what end? Just very out of touch but attempting to be smart!
That’s just a can of empty air trying to convince the victim that it will change the air he has to breath for the rest of his life.
Another accounting column for them!
jg
Yea the same DUCHARME who for so many priests correctly calls molesting a RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY. if it was not a religious activity there would be no Sylvia’s blog on the topic. Sylvia would be much freer to devout her time to herself and family.
But as for this sham panel ! Is it sincere enough to ask and fund Sylvia to make a submission and travel to Japan to solicit her opinions and more importantly her advice on dealing with the abuse APPROPRIATELY. No there is unlikely to be any sincerity from the panel and their lap dogs
I think that “Benjamin” ought to be able to give a bump on the balls to both Brother Raymond and Brother Lawrence WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER!!!!!
John MacDonald
Pray do tell Brother Raymond. What chastity lapses did you have that “did not involve intercourse” to use your words ? How many lapses were there ? You must naturally assume their were boys involved from the totality of the letters published to date. But how can someone with these morals be Vice Provincial in charge of other Brothers including young Novices? The mind boggles
Good idea but don’t forget the ARCH enabler. Peter Okada the Archbishop of Tokyo