Thread by @katierouquine

Here is Helen Keuning's first witness piece, explaining the yellow (and red) flags she saw firsthand, and the marred and compromised way the Bishop's Council of the Upper Midwest Diocese functioned in the wake of @The_ACNA abuse crisis.

There is A LOT here, it is well documented, it will take you time to sit and read and digest...and it's really important if you've been following the story and are looking to better understand it.

#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @frandrewgross @The_ACNA

Helen doesn't claim to have all of the pieces, but the ones she has are critical to pay attention to.

#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @frandrewgross @The_ACNA

I've highlighted a few key sections:

1) "Important figures in the church have been quick to tell falsehoods and half-truths, while survivors’ stories have been treated without regard for their wellbeing and without safeguarding their very names and identities."...

"I am stepping forward now as a whistleblower to tell you the pieces of this story that I personally know from my time serving in UMD leadership. And I am including documentation – emails, letters, screenshots, etc. – to substantiate my claims."...

"I have kept these confidences for the past two years."...

"But, after trying so hard to work within the UMD system and within the BC, I feel absolutely powerless to make any difference without coming forward publicly...My main goal is to be a public witness to what has happened within our diocese."...
#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA

"You each get to decide whether I am a credible witness and what to do with the information I provide."

2) "There were 5 church leaders who were told about Cherin’s daughter’s original accusations of sexual abuse back on a May weekend in 2019: Fr. Rand York; Cn. William Beasley; Chancellor Charlie Philbrick; Sr. Warden Christopher Lapeyre; and Bp. Stewart Ruch (on that Monday)."...

"None of these men have ever stepped forward and claimed to have made an official report, and yet, we as the UMD – for most of two years – held forth that reporting “had been done” by the church."...

"The consistent narrative that I heard after he stepped down continued to be: “Why is Bp. Stewart being punished in social media for Mark Rivera’s child-molestation when the church reported these crimes?”

"Thus, this portion of the BelieveUsToo letter on their Twitter Post dated March 12th arrested my attention: ‘We have watched as ACNAtoo has crafted a narrative that skews the facts."...

"Bp. Stewart did not “cover up” Mark’s abuse. When Bp. Stewart was informed of the first allegations against Mark, the mother of the child had already reported the abuse to the authorities, and the DCFS had already opened the investigation against Mark."...

"One of us was at the house when the DCFS arrived. When other allegations emerged that even came close to meeting mandatory reporting guidelines, Bp. Stewart immediately required those reports to be filed.’ The story had now shifted significantly from what I heard..."

"...from December of 2020 - March of 2022. It was no longer “we reported it.” It had now morphed into “this had already been reported by the parents and, therefore, there was no need for us to report it.” ...

"The church has never disputed the fact that Cherin texted Fr. Rand York to set up a meeting on a Friday and then reported these allegations to Fr. Rand York in-person on a Saturday morning."...

"The fact that the police were called – two days later – on Monday by Cherin and that the DCFS showed up at Mark Rivera’s house later that same day is similarly uncontested and is a matter of public state record."...

"But, the longer I stayed on the BC and the more I reflected on what I knew about the underlying facts, my new question this spring became:"...

"If the church had always known that nobody from it actually reported this incident, then why was the message that “we had done the right thing — we had reported this to the officials” the one that was trumpeted loudly for most of 2021, 2 years after these events took place?"...

"I submit to you my own conclusion that this happened NOT as a result of a grand cover-up or as a matter of nefarious intention by any priests or bishops. This happened because of NEGLECT on the part of our leadership."...

#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @frandrewgross @The_ACNA

"There was a neglect in paying attention to the important details. It was neglectful of Fr. Rand York, Chancellor Charlie Philbrick, Cn. William Beasley and Bp. Stewart Ruch not to nail down who did the reporting and when."...

"It was neglectful of them not to admit — early on — that the only person who actually reported the child molestation was Cherin, the mother."

#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @frandrewgross @The_ACNA

3) "All of us sitting on the Council recognized the gravity of what was before us. In essence, we were being asked to go toe-to-toe with the Province."...

"We were asked either to side with Bp. Stewart’s return to power (and defy the ACNA) or to side with the ACNA (and deny Bp. Stewart his planned return)."...

#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @frandrewgross @The_ACNA

4) "On Sunday, February 13th: The folks who would later call themselves BelieveUsToo sent an email entitled, Urgent Statement to the Archbishop, the College of Bishops and the Bishop’s Council by 5 of Mark Rivera’s Victims."...

"Attached to this email was the letter that was to be published exactly one month later in a @believeustoo Twitter post. Now, I know that this all certainly could be a coincidence in timing."...

"But, I also went back and noted that in the Alec Smith legal memorandum (that accompanied Bp. Stewart’s letter), there was a substantial paragraph near the conclusion that levels accusations against Joanna in the same way that BelieveUsToo does in their letter."...

"I also knew from my stint on the REZ crisis response team how much access Alec Smith had to info coming forward @ that time about new victims who bravely followed Cherin and Joanna’s footsteps in telling their own story for the first time to those in authority at the church."...

"How did Alec Smith get this very sensitive and private information about Joanna before BelieveUsToo’s letter was released to the public or even to us on the Council, I wondered?"...

"How did the BelieveUsToo survivors decide to go forward with their appeal to have their bishop returned to them so quickly after Bp. Stewart’s bid to return was denied by both the ACNA and the BC?"...

"All of this left me wondering if it was possible that during the autumn of 2021 and into the early winter months of 2022, as Bp.
Stewart and Alec Smith were negotiating with Archbishop Foley and drafting their January 14th documents to him,"...

"....others were also strategizing about avenues to return Bp. Stewart to power?"

#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @frandrewgross @The_ACNA

Ring the bells that still can ring...that's how the light gets in. (Leonard Cohen).

We’re a Mess — ACNAtoo acnatoo.org/acna-witnesses…

#ACNAtoo @ArchbishopFoley @frandrewgross @The_ACNA

@threadreaderapp unroll please

Whoops! Wrong link above. This is the accurate one for the quotes in the thread:

acnatoo.org/acna-witnesses…