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?

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.

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.