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.
A lot of his words are offensive, people email me about R ratings, etc. We do not pull punches on purpose at City of Angels. If anyone is "offended," stop a moment and think. How offended are the people on the receiving end of these crimes? I'm sorry, but there was no editing going on when these priests raped us, so there is no editing going on here as I write about it.
This Sexual Autobiography of Father Robert van Handel is just one example of how bad the pedophile priest epidemic got in just one high school in one religious order in one city, the crimes of just one perpetrator. Multiply that by six thousand pedophile Catholic priests (as of January 2010 and still counting see bishopaccountability database) and you see how far reaching and extensive the crimes were.
Cash settlements to a fraction of the victims across the country has not resulted in justice. We need more investigation, law enforcement, and prosecution of the pedophile epidemic in the Catholic Church.
Also below we copy and pasted current information on the flagrant friar from the Megan's Law website for monitoring sex offenders in California.
From Probation Report submitted to Santa Barbara Superior Court Case #202042, five of the twenty-seven pages of Van Handel's Sexual Autobiography (Click to Enlarge and Read) (Don't open the second page scanned here, if you are easily offended):
From Megan's Law Website:
Robert Van Handel Last Known Address:
15705 HWY 9,
GARAGE
BOULDER CREEK,
CALIFORNIA
County: SANTA CRUZ
Zip Code: 95006
Date of Birth: 04-02-1947
Sex: MALE
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 173
Eye Color: GREEN
Hair Color: GRAY
Ethnicity: WHITE
Offense: Code 288(a)
LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
We Googled to see a satellite view.
Looks like Van Handel is living about 30 miles northeast of Santa Cruz, deep in the lush green rolling hills between San Jose and the Pacific Ocean. If it is a garage apartment, it's connected to a nice big house.
He was ordered by the Court to continue Sex Offender therapy. Van Handel was going to group and individual Sex Offender sessions at
Pacific Treatment Associates in Santa Cruz,
Hopefully they are keeping an eye on him now.
MORE
FROM THE PROBATION REPORT
The arresting officer explains how the Sexual Autobiography of Fr. Robert Van Handel came into the record:
"Upon being informed that a copy of his sexual history which he produced for a therapist of his at Pacific Treatment Center had been obtained and reviewed by this officer, the defendant became quite concerned, in that it contained very sensitive and embarrassing information about members of the community in Santa Barbara.
“After being informed that the document was, in fact, going to be made part of the Probation Report, in that it had been submitted as part of the statement made by Detective McGrew of the Santa Barbara Police Department, the defendant agreed to discuss the sexual autobiography.”
(IT TRULY REVEALS how the Church inner enviroment caused this epidemic of pedophilia to germinate.)
More to Come soon...
We still need High Fives. It costs fifty cents a page to make copies of legal documents at L.A. Superior Court.
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(CORRECTION: St. Anthony's Seminary high school for boys closed in June 1987, not 1986 as we reported last story....)
8 comments:
Thanks for setting those people straight, who have been offended by your blunt language. I have been having on-going problems on discussion boards with many sanctimonious church-workers, who claim, "It's all about the money!" Their Church is above orchestrating coverups and neglecting those abuse by Pedophile Priests and Nuns..... right! Why do people refuse to take off their blinders? Could it be that a confrontation with the truth might make them question how they can continue to support such a Church with their money and weekly presence?
I have read as much of the documents on this topic as anyone, and the reports of nun pedophiles are very few and far between, actually miniscule in number or percent. It has not been the women, folks, but Priestly Pedophilia that is the long standing tradition since 7 centuries before the days of Peter Damien that has been protected at such great cost. The all male church hierarchy never (again) will allow married or women priests as this would destroy their secret boys club inner sanctum sanctorum bullshitum. Forever and ever, Amen. That's Tutankh-Amen, or Amen-tut-ankh, for the uninitiated and those of you out of the loop. Look it up. They hear and see... but they do not understand...
OK, none of you would make it this far on your own, so here you go-- http://www.youtube.com/user/AdministratorCJ#
And again, or better yet, pay a visit to your local Catholic Cathedral, and bow before the Hidden in Plain Sight god Amen, camouflaged here and paid for by, um, you-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh12tEoGFXw
More, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyvVRl1OC0Q&feature=related
And, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyvVRl1OC0Q&feature=related
Don't look now, you paid for it all, folks, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x2l1ie0RKg&feature=related
Oops, must be another coincidence, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43QS9vHTvfs&feature=related
Your comments, please; still in denial?
We live in a society that has thrown marital commitment and sexual purity out the window. Sexual impurity is wrong across-the-board. The fantasy of wanton self-fulfillment and supposedly safe-sex ruins true loving relationships and families. When is adultery and all other forms of sexual immorality going to get its day in court for runing countless millions of lives throughout our nation?
I do not condone sexual abuse of children in any way, but I must admit to feeling a bit uneasy about a document that seems to have been produced in the course of therapy making its' way onto the blogosphere. Wasn't his therapist bound by confidentiality? Can you elaborate further as to how this document came to be made public, and if the therapy center was bound by the rules of HIPAA?
It has to do with the panic and remorse Van Handel was feeling soon after his arrest, he agreed to release it to the Court, which makes it public. He was using it to support his request for Probation.
I don't believe in holding anything back from publication here, these crimes were so horrendous, and no one is telling the whole truth. The church wants people to believe a small number of priests acted a little inappropriate and the plaintiffs are just after deep pocket money.
WRONG.
We want these crimes uprooted and made public and the perpetrators need to be prosecuted.
So I encourage any priests who want to tell me what it was really like to contact City of Angels, we will run whatever you have to say.
I am a priest. My hands have been touched by God. My finger is the Finger of God. I control you, you pathetic lay person. On your knees before me while I am seated, confess your sins to me. And make a healthy contribution, I will be sure to give it to the poor, wink, wink. Send me your young boys, I will train them. hahahahahahaha
I was a member of the Independent Board of Inquiry Regarding St. Anthony Seminary that investigated the sexual abuse that occurred there. When we issued our report in November 1993 we knew that we had not found all of the abuse but little did we know that we had only scratched the surface of events, there and across the entire Catholic Church. I had known Van Handel personally for many years without an inkling of the heinus crimes he was committing. The Board of Inquiry determined that one out of four Franciscans on the faculty during the period we investigated were perpetrators but the facts that have surfaced since then indicate that the percentage was much higher. I thought I had about heard it all on this topic but now even I realize that it was much worse than I had imagined. This document should be required reading for all Catholics.
Ray
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