A priest has no rights.  He did not heed his own counsel when it came to his personal predilection for sodomizing children. Maybe he was only a priest when he was out doing 'good'.  

The Pigsty

The children egged him on to use the leather belt on them?  and they laughed?  I hear nervousness in their laughter, their hands twisting tighter to the napkin in their hands, their eyes finding the floor or the corner of the ceiling, where, if they looked long enough they could hypnotize themselves away from the pain.  These are the Rev. Weed's words above.  a look into the 'good' father's doings at night, under cover of darkness.  

I read into these words and fill the night air with whacks and cries, and the chosen child that would not feel the full sting of the belt, but the greasy caress of the 'good father's hands as he leads the chosen child to kneel and keep the 'good father' company at his nightly prayers.  

you do know that the god is only present when two or more pray together?

Trinity Wall Street

Trinity Wall Street's blog: background on conference center

the link will take you to the Trinity Church site with a bit of background on the conference center.  the photo slide show has pics from the early 50's forward.  The dedication photo celebrated by Fr Heuss provides a hint of the farm as my grandfather may have known the earlier years, 1915-1930 or so.

Cornwall farm and outfall

Schlueter's Camp to Close! the link will bring you to the July 2012 edition of the Cornwall Chronicle.  Trinity Church of New York has been running it as a conference center; but, has decided to close the camp valued at an estimated $6,000,000.  Trinity has not decided whether or not to sell the property.  There's a lot of bad  karma and tears buried in the earth, the stone, the timbers.  Lots of good memories for some, thank God, but for other's the memory is bound in shame, silence.

The man that would model manhood, raise them up in the way they should go, was also the man that held the family sustenance, the young boys' hopes and dreams within his hands.  I know he is the man that led my grandfather, guided him to Storr's, and eventually steered him west (which was also Father Huntington's unfulfilled dream) to the Wheelock School in Oklahoma, then Pine Ridge North Dakota, then back to New York, eventually to arrive in Manchester. Schlueter followed my family through these changes, making visits I am told (perhaps enforced time away from the parish to consider changing his pedophile ways).  He would eventually retire to Rockport MA, just a few miles from my grandparents.  Close tabs and cover were provided through his infiltration of our family.

The legacy of the "Good Father Schlueter" within my family? multi-generational violence, disintegration of family, post traumatic stress disorder, a father that raped and beat every one of his children.

I often wonder how many other families still feel the repercussions of this man's actions.

Gramps loved the farm, if not the man that raped him.

hard words, hard thoughts.  so be truth.  where there be any error, may i learn.

on the upside:  That piece of property would make a terrific artist retreat center.

may there be grace and mercy, best
deb.

The Trinity Key

The Keys to the Kingdom:  a verre eglomise 

with collaged shadow wall.  a work in progress.

24x36"

This used to be the "Big Spender" a verre eglomise of The Banarettes working the Gloucester City Hall Building Preservation Fundraiser.  It is one of the paintings that I used as a demonstration piece last month at The Cape Ann Museum.   a pic of work before I took the razor blade to the glass can be found on my artblog http://www.debbieclarke.blogspot.com.  Slowly the dancing women of Big Spender morphed in these keys.  The work is ready to go to the easel.  a bit of refinement, ready to frame and ship.

this article about the case against the  Archdiocese of Philadelphia set me to work.

http://news.yahoo.com/pa-accuser-unleashes-fury-catholic-church-231952648.html 

I've focused a lot of my Schlueter research on his work at St. Luke's, the Farm at West Cornwall, The Oblates of Calvary and his association with Father Huntington.  The article against the archdiocese reminded me that St. Luke's was part of Trinity Parish when Schlueter arrived.  Trinity owned the tenement houses where I assume my family lived under the protection, assistance of Schlueter.  Schlueter/Trinity (where the historical files are kept)...have there been sexual abuse allegations within the Trinity Parish?  

a google search brought me first to this.

OSVALDO v. RECTOR CHURCH WARDENS AND VESTRYMEN OF THE PARISH OF TRINITY CHURCH OF NEW YORK

OSVALDO D., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The RECTOR CHURCH WARDENS AND VESTRYMEN OF THE PARISH OF TRINITY CHURCH OF NEW YORK, et al., Defendants-Respondents, Seaman's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, et al., Defendants.

-- March 29, 2007

"Summary judgment was properly awarded on these claims, notwithstanding plaintiff's allegations regarding missing records, which are unsubstantiated and unsupported by the record."


http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ny-supreme-court-appellate-division/1382000.html

 i've been wondering about Schlueter's  papers and how much they have been steam cleaned.  Huntington warned Schlueter not to commit much to writing..

 lost papers, loose papers.  His journal is falling apart.  back to the keys.

best,

deb.

Schlueter's journal April 19, 1929

Friday April 19th, 1929

the day begins at St. Clotilde's, several other churches and a few museums are visited, including the Pantheon and the crypts "chilly and ghastly".  the boys interpret history as written through the frescoes, then to the Sorbonne.  later in the day the three make their way to "Sam's Grille" for supper and pay 8francs a cup for American coffee.

after which:

"We came back to the hotel got the car, went to rue Washington and called on Mrs. Didesheim(sic).  Happily we found Mrs. Simkohovitch and Mrs. Kingsbury both there.  We had a very pleasant evening.  Little Paul Didesheim (sic)woke up just before we left, so we had a chance to play with him and Albert a chance to try his French on him and came home and retired."

I have often wondered about Mrs. Didesheim and little Paul Didesheim.  Today I discovered through photo records that are catalogued on the web in the Schlesinger archives of Radcliffe that Paul Didesheim was Mrs. Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch's nephew.  I knew that Mrs. Simkhovitch and Mrs. Kingsbury (Mary's mother) traveled to Europe; but, never knew, until today, that their travels were coincident with this 1929 journey of Schlueter and the kids "Howard and Al". I've often pondered over the comment of a grown man having a chance to play with a young child, and why no other comments about the social interactions of the visit.

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch founder of Greenwich House was a close friend of Schlueter's through St. Luke's where she went to morning mass.  In her writings about Greenwich House she refers to her friend as "the good Father Schlueter".

Priest Jokes about Abusing Boys prompts this post

Complaints against one priest going back to 1948! cover ups, cover ups, cover ups. This is the Catholic Church, but, I'm sure this has/is happening within the Anglican Church.

The last conversation I had with my father, before he died, was about Father Schlueter's prying hands. Father Schlueter followed my family everywhere. My grandfather was in his 90's and still trying to tell the story of Schlueter's bodily interference. The last conversation I had with my grandfather was about Schlueter and the choices my grandfather made to stay out of Schlueter's reach by working in the dairy at the camp in Cornwall.

My confrontation of the sexual abuse within my family caused the family to shatter. and, in a way, gave these two men the permission to finally open their mouths about this meddlesome 'priest'. way too late to confront the priest. but, never too late to tell the story. I often wonder how many other families still feel the repercussions of this priest. My father George kept saying 'they sent him away to fix him. it didn't work.'

Where did they send Schlueter? He spent time at Nashotah House, an Episcopal Seminary in Wisconsin. This seminary has had it's share of recent headlines filled with charges of sexual abuse. The environment that allows sexual abuse of children doesn't just happen.

In our family, under Schlueter's ministrations it was already there, through four generations. The sins of the fathers are truly visited upon the generations, seven generations. my daughter is the fifth generation...she was not abused, but definitely has known the cost of my healing...may the next generations of our family live free of the weight of this responsibility to heal. may they thrive, may their children and their children's children know the sound of joy when they hear our names raised. and may the names of the offenders be forgotten and trodden into dust.

I will continue to raise Schlueter's name until the full story is told. Then i will never speak it again.

following the prompt for this posting.  may it stay active until the full story is told.
http://news.yahoo.com/trial-priest-joked-abusing-3-boys-week-205857367.html


ps:  It is difficult for me to write the thought, but I must.  I find it interesting that the introduction to Schlueter's   'biography'  begins with Father Huntington, founder of the Anglican Order of the Holy Cross.

"He spotted a youngster sitting on a stoop, curly headed, blue-eyed little son of German peasant stock.  He stopped and said, "You are the prettiest little boy I have ever seen" and then went on, "You have the dirtiest face I have ever seen.  Come with me."

The lad looked trustingly toward the monkishly clad oldster (who must have been all of thirty years) and together they went down to 4th Street and with the face washing that followed began the making of a priest."

Huntington was Schlueter's life long friend, confessor and designer of the special orders that Schlueter lived under.  He is implicated in my mind through association.  in other readings Huntington describes how when women became too interested in the priest's doings he assigned them to the older women to keep them from meddling.  something I understand was also Schlueter's way.

my good workplace january 2011

100_4499, a photo by debclarke art on Flickr.

trying to grab this pic, so i can add it to a facebook file. flickr won't allow me to download my pic. so, this is an experiment.  some of my communication tools because sometimes words don't come easily.

Schlueter rhymes with Peter means: keeper of the keys

in his own words Schlueter would one Easter Sunday preach:  "I hold the keys...".   the good keys that I have put to use for this art series come from my dear friend Nancy's dad "Norm".  these are good keys.  they are of good purpose, put to good use.  in their time.  i love that they were gifted to me.  Before putting these good keys to use i prayed:  to my use and thus to thy glory.  and under grace in perfect ways.

Key #1
heh.  the ford key in the middle?
schlueter would travel to europe on a vessel newly equipped to carry automobiles across the ocean.  two young men, later teens? early 20's? Howard C. (?) and Albert Sefton drove Schlueter throughout Europe,
this is 1929.  attested to through his diary, which is in my possession.

Key #2
Howard and/or Al served Schlueter at the altar; particularly the morning mass.  Schlueter was a priest, under vows to observe the hours.  He was priest; he could not transubstantiate the bread/wine unless he was served.  What?  he couldn't even consecrate a cup to his own salvation.  gramps would tell me:  he was all ritual, form.

best,
deb

PS:this truth written through me was shipped January 31st to the Sketchbook Tour 2012.  Will be in Lynn MA in July!

check it out:  Debbie Clarke.  theme:  Villains and Heroes. scraps in a pouch with enigmatic inferences/references.

begin by beginning

have spent the morning sorting keys and transferring the shapes to glass, along with photocopying some of schlueter's words.  i'm working with a theme of 'heroes and villains' for my sketchbook project.  where to begin?  from the man's own words i find the solution to difficulties of beginning is to begin.  the words of beginning that head this blog came straight out of one of my journals from the therapy years.  i counseled myself:  'just begin.  begin anywhere.  begin in the middle, begin at the end, just begin.' this in reference to opening the way to this art, this telling of the story of multi-generational, systemic abuse.

and so i have.

above:  'keeper of the keys'  detail from a work in progress.  the keys quiver and quake the closer i get to source.  and this is fodder for the redaction in progress.

Bless, oh Lord, this food to our use; and thus to thy Glory.
in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen'

a blessing learned  at the table.  spoken by gramp. gramp's
would later tell me:  He was very High Church, you know.  there were lots
of prayers.  remind me to tell you about his runny nose dripping into the communion cup.
  much later, i would offer the cup of salvation.  i was transfigured...felt it and was
witnessed by the Eucharistic minister.  i was in discernment, then.  she thought i would want
to be an Episcopal minister.  no.  full circle.  a grounding.  a reclaiming.  a consecration.