January 2, 1998

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Some time ago we learned at the seminary of the plight of 12 local children fleeing from their warm homes to brave the coldest months of a cruel Minnesota winter in cardboard and plywood shacks in the Winona woods. What happened to them? Were they for real?

They were for real, alright. The good news is what did happen to them. The bad news is why they were in the woods in the first place. Both good and bad news concern the family, so for the month of the Feast of the Holy Family, let us tell you about these 12 fugitives, seven boys and five girls, ranging from 11 to 16 years of age.

When they were discovered to be living in the woods on their own, with no desire to contact any adults at all, discreet inquiries at the local police station revealed that not one of the twelve children had had a "Missing child" notice posted about it! Did the parents not care? If only! The truth is that they must have cared, cared to keep the world in ignorance about the children, because if ever the wrong people came to find out why the children were missing, eleven fathers and one uncle could have found themselves in jail for several years each!

Twelve more or less long sequences of rape and incest, heterosexual or homosexual, committed against children, in the dear, sleepy, conservative, "decent", mid-Western 25,000-inhabitant town of Winona. These 12 cases came to light. Then think of all the cases that will not have come to light. Then imagine what is going on in the big cities!

As for the mothers, of course the children told them in each case what was going on, but these mothers either did not believe them, or, did not want to believe them. Now to wives in such circumstances, compassionate adults might cut some slack, but children have no such compassion. With their rigorous sense of justice, children rank such mothers as traitors alongside their fathers. That is why these twelve fled from all adults and took to the woods. Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens" did the same -

In the last century France had a horrible penal colony in French Guyana on the northern coast of South America. To it were shipped out all of France's worst criminals who had nobody there for company except one another. We are told that amongst themselves they had a high tolerance for all crimes except two: murder of father or mother, and the molesting of children. So strong was the family instinct even amongst hardened criminals. But not today amongst adults in the United States!

Is it any wonder then that so many children look like zombies? Are they not deadening their soul's nerve-ends against a nameless pain, because the adults are in denial? After all, what adults do not believe in liberty, democracy, money and pleasure? It stands to reason-

We worship liberty, as a goddess: "This is the land of the free. They are my children. They owe me everything. I can do as I like". We glorify democracy: "We, the people, are sovereign. There is nobody above me. Nobody - but nobody - tells me what or what not to do". We idolize money: "We give our children everything. What more do they want? They can't expect us to sacrifice our life-style, can they? We give them 'quality time'!" And of course the real religion of most people today is the three letter word (s_x): "I expect my wife to dress attractive around the house... Of course her girls imitate her... They develop physically, under my eyes... What do you expect a man to do?... And if there are no girls, why, boys are almost as cute at that age..."

As for the Catholic religion, it is powerless to restrain such horrors because it too has been made "cute" by the soft culture (e.g. "Sound of Music"), and it has been subordinated by Vatican II to American-style religious liberty: "I'm a good Catholic because now I go to Mass when I honestly feel like it, and not just when the rule-book says so. Besides, we all know Fr. Joe is a _______ himself!"

Dear friends, eleven out of these twelve children came from "Catholic" homes. It is clear that as the Catholic Church became the Newchurch, so the horror of the Cross went out of the front door, and the horror of these sins returned through the back door. If men will not be nailed with Christ to the Cross, they will be nailed to sin by the Devil.

But people say, "Our American Way of Life is wonderful! Thanks to separation of Church and State, and our Supreme Court, God is banned from our schools, so now children are free to learn how to do it in biology classes in kindergarten! Isn't that wonderful? Besides, thanks to the First Amendment, we have no censorship! Pornography? It's a healthy outlet! The Internet? Women's underwear catalogues? What's your problem? We put it all in front of our children so that they learn to choose. Bishop, write about things nice! Write spiritual things to make us feel tingly all over!"

What is it going to take to wake these people out of their Universal Wet-Dream? Out of their Wet-Dream "Catholicism"? Answer, severe suffering (and even then...). Fortunately, the God who rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah has not changed. He has been divinely patient with this 20th century, but He will not be mocked. At this beginning of 1998 we stand before great suffering. It will be a gift of God when it comes.

Meanwhile the story of the 12 children did have a happy ending. Attendance at the Old Mass when still available at some distance from Winona had made known an older couple around 60 years of age with a large farm and farmhouse left somewhat empty a few years ago when a car accident killed both their own teenage children. They were told of the 12 children. Might they take them in?

A dozen kids! Strangers. Out of the woods, possibly wild. No family or state support. Themselves at ages plus or minus 60! Yes, they would take them in. Now that is real religion! (James, I, 27)

And the children have been happy ever since. Of course it took a little time for the older couple to win their trust, which is a process still going on. Incest, etc., has scarred the children for life, but the scars are, as best they can be, healing. The one child from a Protestant home ran away because he could not take to life in the country. The littlest girl underwent two major operations because she had caught frostbite in the calf of a leg from the four months in the icy woods, where she had run away from two years of being attacked by her father. The frostbite turned gangrenous. Muscles were cut out of her back to put in the calf. Two months later the entire leg had to be amputated. Two weeks later, as she was hospitalized for the third time, she said to what might be called her real mother, who had had time to teach her to pray: "I shan't be coming home again. God has told me I won't be suffering any more". She died a few days later, this last August, age 12.

But the ten remaining children are thriving, by time-honoured, old-fashioned methods: affection, discipline, quantity time and attention, with a curse upon anything "politically correct". The boys are put to work on the farm while the girls - dare I tell you? - are put to work in the... in the... in the... kitchen! Even more horrible to relate... it works like a charm! For the littlest girl, there is an outstanding hospital bill of several thousand dollars, but what is money? Her little soul is surely now safe in heaven, and when she departed this life, the father who cared for her said it was just like losing his own children over again.

Dear readers, human nature, family structure and children's needs do not change, only our accursed modern world changes for the worse all the time. Don Bosco promised a special blessing from God upon those who would look after abandoned children. Only, it takes good sense as well as good-will.

Two more candles in the darkness. Firstly, the Doctrinal Session here at the Seminary after Christmas drew 63 men, our largest number ever, and everyone we know of was very happy with it. This must be because the concentrated course of doctrine was addressed directly to the needs of men and family fathers in today's dreadful situation. We have yet to hear from the wives, but we are sure they are, for the family's sake, happy to have let their men go for the week. Unfortunately, this summer few retreats or doctrinal sessions can be made available at Winona. Mark down the one women's five-day Ignatian retreat, from Monday June 29, 5 pm, to Saturday July 4, 4 pm, and the one men's five-day Ignatian retreat from Monday July 6, 5 pm, to Saturday July 11, 4 pm. Inscriptions welcome.

Secondly, a flyer from the Dominican girls' school in Idaho presents a compact disc of the girls' singing. Now nobody in their right mind pretends that schoolgirls (any more than schoolboys) are angels, but if the singing is angelic, imagine the land-marks of beauty and harmony being left in their souls for the rest of their lives! The Devil is not winning every battle!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

+Richard Williamson

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