Carol, Fr. Christian’s little sister, has become a great friend of mine. By stepping up and talking to me, and many of his victims, Carol, along with two of his nieces Pete, and Sue have cleared their family name. I asked Carol to put down on paper some of what she has done to fight her pedophile brother in the 18 years before his death. Here is Part I of what she sent me.

It was in January 1986 that I received a letter from my brother, Fr. Norman Christian.  He was attending a six month sabbatical in Jemez Springs, NM so as to work through a hidden “secret life” he’s had for over 40 years.  We exchanged letters over the six months, and I encouraged him even though I had no idea what his “secret” was and never expected to find out.  Upon release from the program, he returned to his normal parish duties and even found time to spend with my teenage daughter who had been under doctor’s care for several years herself.  It would be a couple of years later that my husband and I would be stunned to learn from our daughter that her uncle was a pedophile and had victimized her as well.  She was frightened to tell me about him.  It took her three years to do it.  Uncle Norman had told her; too, that no one would believe her, the priest would be believed.  I believed her.  She was in such obvious pain telling me, there was no doubt.  I hugged her and told her she did the right thing in telling me, and it was awful Norman betrayed us like that.  Then I told her dad, a man who is never lost for words.  He was speechless.  My next step was to call my sister.  She found it hard to believe, but agreed we needed to check with the rest of our kids if they had been victimized by him.  They said they hadn’t.

June 10, 1989  -  I sent Norman a letter telling him my daughter had told me his “secret”, and I had told our sister.  We wanted to hear it from him first hand.    When he got my letter he called saying he would meet with us.   We met shortly after at our sister’s house and talked for hours.  At first, he was very angry that my daughter had “betrayed his confidence”.  What nerve.  I told him I was proud of her for finding the courage to tell me of his sick behavior.   Then he went on telling us bits and pieces of his childhood trying to make excuses for his behavior, none of which made sense to us.  He admitted to us that he had been having sex with kids over the years but insisted he never forced any of them into it.  His version was they were all looking for it.  He claimed to have been molested as a child while in grade school, when a server, and as a seminarian at Kenrick.  As far as I know he never asked anyone for help.  He became an abuser himself.

As time went by, we felt dirty for keeping his secret.  We had no one to talk to about it.  Other priests were of no help.  I kept in touch with Norman in order to keep an eye on him.  I was encouraging him to keep up with his routine exercise, self-help groups, and whatever else he was to be doing to keep himself “sober”.  When I felt uneasy about anything, I’d call Msgr. Naumann and discuss my concerns. 

June  1989  -   Norman was two years into “recovery”   My daughter was avoiding his calls.  I still wasn’t fully aware of how Norman had victimized her.   I was getting angry with my daughter.  Here was my brother reaching out to “help” her (I thought) and she was turning her back on him.   (It would be much later when I’d find out that he hadn’t just told her he molested boys.   He had been very graphic and had taken her places my husband and I would have never permitted her to go!  He was filling her mind with his horrible, sick thoughts and putting thoughts into her head about her self that were not true.  It was a horrible betrayal of our trust!  We thought he was counseling her.  It sickens me to think of the position we put our daughter in with him.  Thank God she was strong enough to break free of him, even when I was angry with her for doing so. 

November 1989  -  My sister and I met with Msgr. Naumann about our concerns and guilt in keeping Norman’s secret.  He assured us it wasn’t ours to worry about.  The church was taking care of it.  We talked at least an hour but left feeling none the better.

Once Norman learned we had talked with Msgr. Naumann he was livid.  He told us “his private sins were none of our business and why should his “secret” affect our interaction with others?  Why would we protect others before we’d protect him?”  He wasn’t going to help us deal with his problem.  My sister and I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t removed from active ministry, but we trusted Bishops May and Rigali knew what they were doing.   (In 1996 he was removed from active ministry)

March 1999  -  Norman was a priest for 38 years and it was now three and one half years since being removed from active ministry.  He was still collecting his full salary from the diocese, had medical coverage, was going for outpatient sex abuse therapy and had a job selling tickets at Metrotix (needed to make extra money to help pay off a settlement for one of his victims).

March 17, 2002   An article in the Post-Dispatch on Fr. Joe Lessard re: sexual abuse against kids caught my eye.  I sent now Bishop Naumann a letter along with a copy of a three page letter I had sent to Archbishop Rigali on how I no longer trusted or respected the church because of the way it treats its pedophile religious and their victims.

March 20, 2002   Bishop Naumann called me in response to my letter.  We spoke over an hour.  He said Pedophile priests aren’t removed from active ministry because it’s not fair to dirty the priests name if the victim won’t press charges.  I asked why it’s ok to keep a possible predator in his position with easy access to harm more innocent unsuspecting kids.  He assured me that the accused priest would be sent for treatment.  So, they know he’s done “it” – they just won’t remove him until forced to.

Next he told me he had checked and there were no cases in the files at that time that could be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations being past.  Isn’t that very moral of him!

Next – there were no cases of obstruction of justice

Next – Patient reports didn’t show the men to be dangerous to anyone.  (I laughed at that and told him how Norman had told me long ago that the therapists were instructed to be careful of what they put in writing for fear of lawsuits.)

Next – There’s a committee now to review sexual abuse cases, and it takes a substantiated complaint to get a priest removed.  Only the victim can prosecute.

Next – He denied there was any abuse going on in the seminary.  Said there was a psychologist on staff, all men are screened, and as far as he knew, no abusers on the faculty.

Next – He told me he didn’t know Norman had victimized my daughter.

Next – I had once asked Norman what to tell people when they asked me about him after he had been removed from active ministry with no reason given as to why.  Norman had told me to tell people it was none of their business.  Now, people loved and respected my brother, but it never entered his mind that his behavior or what happened to him affected others.  He only thought of himself.  I had been saying that he was being treated for stress, and Bishop Naumann thought that was fine.  He asked me not to believe what I read in the papers.  The archdiocese was taking care of everything.  He went on to say that Fr. Campbell and Fr. Ross were just “oversights”.  I told him there is never just one victim.  He didn’t respond.

Next – I ended our conversation saying I was concerned that Norman’s computer may contain child porn.  Once he had become very upset about a good friend of his getting caught in a “sting”.  He told me it was so unfair because he was such a nice guy!  I TOLD Norman that nice guys don’t have child porn on computers.  He belongs in jail.  Norman shut up.

This was the last time I spoke with Bishop Naumann.

April 14, 2002  -  I received an email from Norman  PANIC!  Norman had received a letter from Bishop Tim Dolan informing him he would not have the faculties of the archdiocese, couldn’t exercise priestly ministry, celebrate mass, or any sacraments, preach or any priestly ministry. ( as of 4-l-02 he’d get no salary from the archdiocese or as of 6-1-02 be covered by Insurance)  He was told to request laicization from the archbishop.

Norman was searching desperately for a Canon lawyer immediately because “I have to be within a canonical timeline in the procedure, or I could lose by default.”  He feared ending up in dire need.

4-14-02-  I mailed him a letter  -  I felt the subject matter was too personal to email.  I told him I was angry with the church for its bad judgment and with him for his attitude.  When was he going to say he was sorry for all the damage he’s done to so many kids.  When he said in that email how he had to act quickly or lose by default, I asked him how he felt about all the victims who “lost” by not coming forward in time with their accusations and the accused clergy were able to go on with their lives as though nothing had happened.  Kind of different when the shoe’s on the other foot!  I told him he’s only thought of how things affect him, never how his behavior affected everyone else.

Up until now, Norman had been welcome to our home on holidays and birthday get-togethers as he had always been since we were trying to be supportive to him.  But finally it dawned on me that his presence made my one daughter extremely uncomfortable.  She would never have asked me not to invite him, but I sent him a letter saying he’d no longer be welcome when our kids and grandkids were at our home and that I felt he should understand why.  He could come by any other time.

April 15, 2002 --  I received a happy and relieved email from Norman.  He had learned from his former co-pastor at St. Williams who got the word from Bishop Dolan that the Archdiocese now had no intention of abandoning him financially or medically, and that the letter he had received was “only a projection on their part that he might prefer to be laicized.”  (What happened here I’ll never know.  I saw the actual letter he had received from Bishop Dolan.  Who got him to reverse his original decision?  It’s a mystery.  Someone surely protected him.)

May 26, 2002 – I received an email from Norman, but he never mentioned my letter.  He talked about the weather and possibly getting together sometime over the summer for lunch.   He must have been ok with my letter as he did stop by every so often.  If he was feeling rejected by not being invited for our family times, he did a good job of hiding it.  But then, I have learned how good he was at hiding things.

June 1, 2002  --  I received a letter from Archbishop Rigali.  He said he knew that Bishop Naumann had called me and knew my family has been personally involved.  He’s praying for us.  Other than that, he told me, ”God’s grace will bring the offenders to repentance, help the victims, and preserve the innocent priests.”   He didn’t say what the Cardinals and Bishops will be doing about any of it, other than praying.