Episode 3

Transcript

“Why was my family pushed out of Rez, while the Rivera family was offered pastoral care, priestly support, personal prayer with you and Katherine, and financial support, on multiple occasions, by the church?

None of you have taken any responsibility for what happened surrounding this, or made even the most basic attempt at repentance and reconciliation.”

This is the Wall of Silence podcast, the ACNAtoo story. An account of church abuse and cover-up in the Anglican Church in North America, of things done and left undone and why we should care about it. 

This is Episode 3: Cherin's Story. 

A disclaimer: though not graphic, this episode contains accounts of sexual assault and child sexual abuse. 

The first two episodes of The Wall of Silence offered the foundation of the sexual abuse case of lay pastor Mark Rivera. This happened in an Anglican church in Big Rock, Illinois, a distant suburb of Chicago. Anglicans were originally the National Church of England as one of the movements of the Reformation. But are also known as the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Anglican Church of Canada, or numerous other Anglican national churches around the world. This particular church in Big Rock was part of the Anglican Church in North America, a conservative denomination that split off from the Episcopal Church and became its own entity in 2009. 

Our episode tells the story of one of Mark Rivera's abuse victims. The 9-year-old daughter of Cherin, and thus of Cherin herself. As you hear her story, here are three factors you need to keep in mind. 

One: we are not going to delve into the specifics of Rivera's abuse, assault, or even manipulation of Cherin's daughter. Those are details she's chosen not to disclose to the public for the sake of protecting her daughter and her family's privacy. 

Two: this is a condensed version of her story. If you're looking for more details and all the various correspondence that took place between Cherin and church leadership, I invite you to look at her tweet threads when she decided to go public, along with numerous articles already published on the ACNAtoo website. Links to them will be provided in the show notes for today's episode. There you will be able to read through her story in full and make up your mind on all the facts. 

Three: you will primarily hear Cherin's story in her own words, but not in her own voice. In the process of developing the material for this episode, it took Cherin a season of discernment to come to the decision that yes, she wanted her daughter's story told in this format, but that she herself could not participate. She could not risk retraumatizing herself or enduring the emotional toil it would take on her to revisit her accounts yet once again. 

As you hear her story, I want you to consider all the time spent fashioning emails and talking to lawyers and public officials. I want you to imagine all the conversations and meetings she attended, and what it meant for her to advocate for the justice of her daughter over the course of numerous years. And then think of the court hearings she sat through, and doing so without the support of the church community she was raised in. Finally, think of the loss of friends and family she endured because she spoke up, and continued speaking up. Think of the loss and pain and exhaustion of it. Yeah, Cherin, it's okay. You don't need to be here for this. You've done all you can. And right now, your friends are going to lift your arms up for you and carry you, your daughter, and your story through this. We're looking out on a great battlefield of a mess we never asked for, but we know we can do this if we're together. 

It's worth noting that I've never met Cherin or spoken with her. I've actually never met anyone in ACNAtoo in person, though we've spoken numerous times over Zoom or on the phone. It's to them I turned in order to figure out how to tell her story, and with Cherin's blessing, two of their members will be telling it for her. I'll explain more about that in a few minutes. But all of this leads to an ongoing concern. A segment I introduced in the last episode that will consist of various ongoing fears and self-criticisms that plague me as I produce this podcast. These are the potential pitfalls that help me stay the course and lead, hopefully, to persistent vigilance in producing each episode. So, this episode's ongoing concern is simple: that I would get an abuse victim's story wrong and risk traumatizing them further. One of my greatest fears is that we would get some fact wrong or represent a survivor in the wrong way. I already know this podcast is going to face criticism and scrutiny, but I want it to be for the right reasons, and especially not because I've messed up somehow. 

With that said, allow me to describe our process for this episode. Abbi Nye and Audrey Luhmann of ACNAtoo took Cherin's already released accounts and statements and condensed them into a single narrative. But they worked together in successive turns, fact-checking and dialoguing at each step, in order to determine they were telling everything correctly. Finally, they let Cherin read the account, and then after getting her approval, continued to refine it up until recording their parts. But I want you all to know that getting things right is a charge that's forever on my mind and heart. Along with that, I don't want to cause any further wounds to any of the survivors by what we produce here. Instead, I hope it brings healing and hope. 

In light of this commitment, I need to address something that I included at the end of the previous episode. In the hopes of inspiring listeners, I used a clip of actor Ben Kingsley reading a poem by Elie Wiesel. Wiesel is an icon to many. Growing up, I read his memoir Night twice, and as a young person, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. twice as well. Those visits were some of the more profound experiences of my life. For countless people, he has been a beacon standing against injustice and fighting for the survivors of atrocities the world over. 

And thus, it was utterly deflating and enraging to have it pointed out to me that he's been accused of sexual assault in the form of groping a woman. That woman is Dr. Jenny Listman, a research scientist, and she offers her own account of what happened between her and Wiesel at a fundraiser in 1989 on her own blog. A link to that in a related article is in this episode's show notes. The intent was not to harm by including Wiesel's poem, but I could very well have. For that, I apologize. Knowing what I know now, well, I still may have included the poem since Wiesel is such a ubiquitous and iconic figure. Similar things could be said of Martin Luther King, Jr. But I could have at least offered a prior explanation had I looked into his past and any accusations against him. It's sad to say, but it seems the words of his own poem now apply to him. Let us tell tales. The last word belongs to the victim. Yes, Mr. Wiesel. Let us tell tales. Let us give voice to the victim. I'm allowing your victim to tell hers here in this space. She's the one that gets the final say. To conclude, in the future, I will look up other quotes of the sources that I use just to be sure that there are not any allegations or charges related to the person they come from. 

Now on to Cherin and her daughter's story. Cherin spent her childhood and adolescence in a close-knit Anglican church. Church of the Resurrection, nicknamed Rez by many, was a community of long-time family, friends, relatives, and clergy whom she loved and respected. Cherin trusted her leaders and she believed that they would always keep her and every member safe. Cherin never dreamed that a leader in that community would turn out to be a predator, but on May 17, 2019, her nine-year-old daughter bravely shared something devastating with her. 

Mark Rivera, Cherin's godfather, church leader, spiritual mentor, former neighbor of ten years, very close friend, and groomsman in her wedding, had been sexually abusing her daughter. Cherin did not immediately call the police. She was in shock. And the people she had been taught since childhood were the most trustworthy and safe were her priests. She texted the priest at her small church plant, Christ Our Light Anglican, or COLA for short, which was an offshoot of her childhood home, Church of the Resurrection, and part of the Upper Midwest Diocese. Father Rand York was a man her community loved and revered. He was also her great-uncle. Cherin had known him her whole life. Surely he would know what to do. Cherin told Father York there was an emergency she needed to talk to him about, and they agreed to meet the following morning. What would follow this disclosure and outreach for help would be a nightmare that would not only shatter a family's life, but would also rock a denomination to its core and shake the faiths of many of its members. You see, the way abuse is addressed in our churches exposes the foundation of our beliefs, and about good and evil, sin and redemption, and the value or neglect of protecting our most vulnerable. It does not simply affect a few individuals. It affects us all. As explained earlier, with Cherin's permission, I've asked two of her friends, Audrey Luhmann and Abbi Nye, to share her story. 

Audrey will primarily be speaking for Cherin, with Abbi giving additional commentary to offer more context and explanation. How did church leaders respond to the disclosure of a child being sexually abused by one of their lay ministers? And what did her mother go through in the process of speaking up for her daughter? Here is Cherin's story. 

The day after my text about our emergency, my husband and I met with Father York at his house, and I told him what had happened. Father York's initial response was of shock and grief. He told us that our church, Christ our Light, or Cola, would pay for my daughter's counseling, and that he would support us through whatever came next. Father York told us that he wanted to confront Mark Rivera privately, and that he would be waiting until after that evening's COLA church service, where Mark would be serving as church catechist. We had to insist that Father York cancel the service and address this immediately. 

About an hour later, I received a text message from Mark himself, asking if I knew why Father York had canceled church. Shortly afterward, Mark's wife texted me too, demanding to know what was going on. I didn't respond to either message, but I felt completely sick. A while later, Father York called my husband to say that he would be meeting with Mark Rivera shortly, and he asked us to pray for him. Father York explained that he was very angry at Mark. He called what Mark had done a millstone, because Mark had caused a little one to stumble. We didn't hear back from Father York for some time. When we did, his entire tone had changed. He had spoken with Mark Rivera, who claimed to be shocked and hurt by my daughter's allegations. Father York said Mark wanted to talk, and asked if we would be willing to meet together that evening. I went to the meeting alone, while my husband stayed home with our kids. 

As I turned into the driveway at Father York's house, Mark pulled in right behind me. I rushed inside, before he had a chance to get out of his car. But the house was quiet, and I couldn't find Father York anywhere. I decided to go wait in Father York's living room, where COLA held daily morning prayer services. I heard Mark enter the house just as I sat down on the York's couch, and could just make out Father York's voice greeting Mark and directing him into the room where I sat, waiting, alone. Mark came in and sat down on a chair to my right. We sat alone in silence for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, I left the room and waited in the hallway until Chris Lapeyre, COLA's senior warden, arrived, and he and Father York came in to join Mark and finally noticed I was there. 

As our meeting began, Father York sat off to the side, on my left, looking down at his hands and saying nothing. Chris Lapeyre sat in front of me and took the lead directing the meeting. Chris invited Mark Rivera to speak first, and Mark looked at me, straight in the eye, and lied. With a seemingly sincere expression, Mark Rivera stared into my eyes and said, “I have never touched your daughter, my goddaughter, inappropriately.” He then went on to bemoan the fact that it was his word against hers, and that even he would believe my daughter's story. Mark Rivera then told us that his wife had not been surprised by my daughter's allegations, because another girl in our community had been acting like someone had abused her too. Mark insinuated that he and his wife believed that my daughter's allegations and this other girl's alarming symptoms were a demonic attack against the church, and that it was reasonable for us to believe this as well. After Mark Rivera's horrifying and disorienting statements, Senior Warden Chris Lapeyre turned to me and asked me to disclose, in front of Mark, all that my daughter had told me. I did not do this, but I was stunned and appalled that Chris had asked me to, especially in front of Mark. 

After attempting to extract the details about what my daughter said Mark did to her, in front of her alleged abuser, Chris went on to explain that Father York had consulted with the diocesan chancellor, attorney Charlie Philbrick, about my daughter's allegations. Chris explained, “we've been advised by the diocesan chancellor that we do not need to report this to the authorities. And then he added, and it sounds like you don't need to either.” These two leaders didn't give me any explanation. They were just refusing to report Mark. I was aghast, and I could not believe what I was hearing. Chris's words were still spinning around in my head when he asked me, in front of Mark, whether I planned to report my daughter's abuse to the authorities. The pressure was overwhelming. I felt like throwing up. I was acutely aware of Father York's continued silence, and of Mark's self-pitying frown and slumped posture. Chris looked at me pointedly, with his eyebrows raised, waiting for my response. I finally said, “I have no plans to do that at this time.” And Chris nodded his approval. 

I left in a daze while trying hard not to look at Mark. I think Father York hugged me as I left, and I know Chris walked me out to my car. In Father York's driveway, I hinted to Chris that my daughter's allegations were very serious without telling him any details. In response to this, Chris's eyes filled with tears, and he finally admitted that I needed to report Mark. You have to report this, he said. Chris went on to say that in his personal experience, DCFS was fair and reasonable, and that they would be so for Mark as well. Chris, admitting to me in private that I needed to report Mark, did nothing to diminish the pressure I felt not to do so. The fact that Chris had told me, in front of Mark, that he and Father York were not going to report my daughter's abuse, still weighed heavily on me. I went home still in shock, confused and devastated by Father York's sudden departure from the supportive, comforting presence he had been that morning. I felt like I wasn't allowed to report Mark, and that if I did, I would be doing so without my church's support or approval. Years of spiritual abuse by church leaders had trained me that I needed permission from the church before making big decisions. Mark's best friend, Senior Warden Chris Lapeyre, and Mark's spiritual mentor, Father Rand York, were my church leaders. It was clear they wanted to protect Mark. When I called the police the following Monday, I was on my own, with no support or help. My church leaders and close friends, all of whom were mandated reporters, failed to report my daughter's abuse, and I was left to make this awful but crucial decision on my own. That devastating meeting was on Saturday. 

On Monday, May 20, I called the RAINN Sexual Assault Helpline for guidance. Based on their advice, I contacted the local police to formally report Mark Rivera for child sexual assault. Shortly afterward, Mark Rivera's wife and children received a surprise visit from DCFS. Within a few hours of the DCFS visit, Father York texted me a message that he needed to cancel the baptism of my infant son, which was scheduled for that coming weekend. In the weeks that followed, I was kicked off of our church's vestry, and our family was shunned by church members who had found out quietly about our allegations against Mark. 

On June 4th, Mark Rivera sent an email to his supporters, stating that the Chancellor for the Diocese of the Upper Midwest, Charlie Philbrick, had been searching for a pro bono lawyer for him. Mark stated that thanks to his supporters' promises of long-term financial loans to cover legal fees, Chancellor Philbrick had expanded his search and found an expert defense lawyer, Jim Ryan. 

Did you pay attention to what I just said? The attorney who served the diocese was attempting to find the alleged abuser legal defense. Mark wrote the email to his supporters two weeks after Cherin's daughter's allegations were quietly made known to the small COLA community. During the time that the diocesan chancellor was actively working to help find Mark a lawyer, Cherin's family had yet to receive any support or care from church or diocesan leaders. In fact, it would be 43 days before the Bishop of the Upper Midwest Diocese, Stewart Ruch, would ever speak to Cherin or her husband. Although he was notified of the allegations the same weekend that Cherin met with Father York, Bishop Ruch never reported to any authorities nor directed anyone on staff under him to do so. He also did not disclose that any allegations had been made against Mark Rivera to his home church—the church that Mark had attended and held leadership roles in for almost two decades—until almost two years later. 

Before I go on, this is a good time to talk about mandated reporting. A mandated reporter is someone who is required to report known or suspected instances of child abuse and neglect to the state department that handles child services. Healthcare providers, teachers, daycare workers, and police officers are some of the most common mandated reporters, but many states include a much wider range of professions in their list of mandated reporters. In 18 states, any person who suspects child abuse or neglect is required to report it. 

In the state of Illinois where this story takes place, all clergy are required by the Illinois Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act to immediately report to the Department of Children and Family Services when they have “reasonable cause to believe that a child known to them in their official or professional capacities may be of an abused or neglected child.” Note that the law requires clergy to report even suspected abuse. Under Illinois State law, Father York, Bishop Ruch, and other diocesan leaders you'll get to know, were all mandated reporters. Each of these men failed to report to the authorities and are guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. 

On June 10th, almost a month after my daughter's disclosure, Mark Rivera was arrested and charged with four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a victim under 13 years old and five counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault of a victim under 13 years old. No one from Kane County, COLA, or Church of the Resurrection, the bishop’s church and what is called the diocesan cathedral church - and also Mark Rivera’s former church of almost two decades - told me that he had been arrested. I was left to find this out on my own after that fact. Because of this I missed Mark’s first court appearance.

After a month of waiting, Cherin and her husband met with Deacon Valerie McIntyre, head of Pastoral Care at Church of the Resurrection, and Deacon Val's assistant, Meghan Robbins, to receive promised pastoral care. I told Meghan and Deacon Val that in just the past few weeks, I had learned of five additional victims of Mark Rivera, each of whom attended Rez at the time they were victimized. I also named two vulnerable young people who had been in close proximity to Mark and who had been showing concerning signs that might indicate that they had been sexually abused. 

My husband and I had not felt it was safe for our family to attend COLA before Mark's arrest, so we began attending Church of the Resurrection, my childhood church, and COLA's mother church. However, the few people who were aware that something had happened at COLA avoided me and my family. When I voiced this to Deacon Val, she recommended that my family attend a different service at Rez. She said that our presence was making family members of Mark Rivera, who were now also attending Rez, uncomfortable. Not long after that, we stopped attending, feeling unwelcome and unwanted. 

In November of 2019, I reached out to Deacon Val and asked if Rez could help me get some counseling. Val said absolutely, and she gave me a counseling referral right away, assuring me that Rez would be happy to help and encouraging me to schedule a call. I did, and paid the $250 out of pocket the following week to meet with a therapist whom Val referred me. When I followed up with Val the day after my appointment to ask how we could go about getting reimbursed and how we should arrange payment for future sessions, she said she could only offer me $500 towards counseling, $250 of which I had already spent. As I could not afford to pay for that therapist out of pocket, I did not schedule any additional sessions. I never received the reimbursement for the $250 I paid for that first session. 

Around this same time, the neighbor who helped Mark find a new defense attorney put forth the needed 10% of Mark's $250,000 bond and signed off as his bond surety, enabling Mark to return home to live with his family while he awaited trial. Again, Cherin wasn't notified that Mark was released from jail. No one from Kane County, COLA, or Church of the Resurrection alerted her. She stumbled upon this information accidentally while searching through online court records to confirm the date of Mark's next hearing. By this time, Mark had already been at large in the community for over two weeks. 

Mark was released on bond from the Kane County Adult Justice Center under the following conditions. He must appear at every court hearing. He must obey all previous court orders, including having no contact with minors, could not leave the state without permission, and would have to report any change of address within 24 hours. He couldn't commit any criminal offenses. He would agree not to possess any firearms, and he would have no contact with complaining witnesses or their immediate family members. Mark failed to comply with multiple conditions, including having no contact with minors. 

Eight months later, in July 2020, an Illinois Kane County judge placed Mark on electronic home ankle monitoring after police received reports that he had violated his bond by interacting with minors at his home, online, and at a children's supplemental education center that shared a rented property with Rivera and his family. However, what was not publicly known was that Mark had already continued his harm. 

In March 2020, Mark Rivera raped an adult woman, Joanna, who will tell her story on a later episode. Joanna would take the brave step to disclose Mark's sexual assault to her community that fall, after more than two years of being trapped in the emotional vortex and paralyzing control of Mark's manipulation, gaslighting, and abuse. 

In November 2020, Joanna Rudenborg wrote a detailed account of how Mark had raped her twice, one of those times while he was out on bond release, and manipulated her into keeping silent about it. Joanna shared this in an email with Mark's wife and key members of the COLA community, including Father York and Senior Warden Christopher Lapeyre. She also sent her disclosure email to Mark's landlords, Mark's bond surety, Cherin, and another mother whose daughter alleged abuse by Mark. 

After the mother of one of Mark's victims forwarded Joanna's email to Bishop Ruch, he and his wife, Katherine, emailed Joanna, thanking her for her courage in sharing her painful, incredible story. They also encouraged Joanna to contact the authorities. In this email, Bishop Ruch told Joanna that the church would be providing pastoral care to Mark Rivera and his family, and extended a similar offer of support to her. The next month, Bishop Ruch and his wife Katherine reportedly went personally to Mark Rivera's house to pray for Mark and his family. Two separate sources reported that during the Ruch's visit to Mark Rivera's house, Bishop Ruch exercised an estimated 10 demons out of Mark. 

Over the winter of 2021, Cherin, Joanna, and other advocates tried to communicate the severity of Mark's abuse and the need for an independent third-party investigation. There needed to be a safe way for more victims to come forward and receive care. The diocese' culture and policies should be reviewed by experts to determine how to prevent something like this from happening again. 

Cherin had already had meetings to share her concerns regarding safety policies, training, and reporting with Bishop Ruch, and Canon William Beasley, leader of the Greenhouse Movement, which was a church-planting organization housed under Bishop Ruch's authority and the catalyst behind COLA's inception. The diocese agreed to find a firm to conduct the investigation. 

In February, it became clear that things were not going well. The firms that Bishop Ruch and his response team were considering did not demonstrate a track record of victim-focused care. In an email to Bishop Ruck and the diocesan team, Cherin wrote,

“I am deeply troubled that these firms are willing to undergo an investigation that might undermine the already small chance of Mark being convicted. Even the slightest discrepancy in witness accounts can lead to a case being dismissed and a predator walking free, which is exactly why GRACE is unwilling to take any steps that might lead to this happening.”

Let's pause again. Cherin named GRACE in her email. That is a name anyone paying attention to public cases of abuse in churches over the past few years has likely already heard of. GRACE, which is an acronym for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, is an organization whose mission is to empower Christian communities to recognize, prevent, and respond to abuse. They offer educational resources about abuse prevention and response to churches and religious entities. They also offer independent investigations following abuse allegations, as well as thorough assessment of a church or organization's safety policies, culture, and leadership structure with the goal that future abuse or abuse mishandling may be prevented. 

Let's return to Cherin's February 2021 email to Bishop Ruch. Remember, she had just explained the need for the investigators to be extremely careful in their handling of sensitive details of the allegations of abuse, as any mishandling could result in the criminal case against Mark being dismissed. 

“Because of this, I would not be able to give interviews to or even speak with any of these firms should the diocese hire them, as it would be unsafe for me or my family to do so. Something I've only recently come to understand from my research these past several weeks is how much damage can be done by an investigative firm who is not fully focused on supporting victims. Unfortunately, these are concerns that I have with each of the three firms you were most considering. I've been very grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the diocese on all of this, but I would regretfully need to step back from this process if one of these firms were hired in order to protect my family and safeguard my daughter's case.”

On April 30th, 2021, Cherin finds out that the diocese has hired Grand River Solutions, a firm that has never been mentioned in any prior communications with the survivor advocate team. In response to this news, Cherin emailed Bishop Ruch on May 1st, 2021, and asked him these questions. 

“Why is it that in May 2019, when my family came to Rez for help, no one listened or took me seriously? I shared stories of seven different victims and likely victims, and no one did anything. 

Why did I not have a voice in the church I have attended since I was eight years old? 

Why didn't the church believe my daughter and take a public stand to support her?

Why did no one take ownership for the diocesan chancellor's devastating advice to Father York and Chris, and why did no one apologize to my family for it? 

Why did no one in Rez leadership identify that having a sexual predator at large in the church was something the entire congregation deserved to know about, so they could take steps to protect their children or find out if their children had been victimized? 

Why was my family pushed out of Rez while the Rivera family was offered pastoral care, priestly support, personal prayer with you and Katherine, and financial support on multiple occasions by the church? 

None of you have taken any responsibility for what happened surrounding this, or made even the most basic attempt at repentance and reconciliation.” 

3 days after Cherin's email, on May 4th, 2021, Bishop Ruch finally told the diocese about Mark's abuse through a public letter. Here are some excerpts from that letter. You can find the link to the full letter in the show notes for this episode. 

“Dear Upper Midwest Diocese, I am writing to share with you about a devastating situation that has occurred in our diocese during the last two years. We have been working toward taking the appropriate next steps, and our diocese has now signed an agreement to begin a formal investigation. We should have done this earlier, but we signed the contract last Friday, April 30th, and wanted you to know as soon as that process was officially underway. Let me begin by saying there are those who have been horribly victimized in these events. I desire to own where we have not served them well, as we should have, and to care for any potential victims who may still come forward.” 

After detailing the basic facts of what happened to Cherin's daughter and Joanna, Bishop Ruch goes on to explain that the next day he,

“learned that a third young woman had disclosed to two pastoral leaders that very day that she and Mark had engaged in a sexual relationship for several months. Because we were not clear about her age and to exercise caution, I directed these two pastoral leaders to call DCFS in the prosecutor's office. They did so immediately. As best as these letters could ascertain, she was a young adult when their sexual relationship began. A couple months later, I learned of other possible minors at risk and personally called DCFS to make an additional report. The alleged crimes occurred in a private home or on private property, not on church property or at a church event. But we still want to take an active role in learning how best to ensure that something like this never happens again. Let me say at the start that I made regrettable errors in this process. When the original allegation came out against Mark in 2019, I mistakenly assumed that the necessary criminal investigation was a sufficient next step. I thought it best to let the county district attorney's office lead a thorough investigation resulting in a clear ruling. I anticipated that after this process, we would inform the diocese of the court's ruling. I naively expected the trial to occur much sooner than it has. I have since learned otherwise, in part through conversations with one of the victims. I now understand that when an accusation of this gravity occurs, and when an arrest is made, a safe opportunity for other possible victims to come forward must be created. I apologize for this, dear family of God. We would have better cared for the victims had we hired a firm earlier. My mistake accounts for the significant gap in time between Mark being accused of an offense in this communication to you. I have always sought the counsel of diocesan leaders and attorneys, and yet I take responsibility for these decisions. Other oversights will likely surface as we go through this process, and we as a diocese will seek to be transparent as possible.” 

He concludes the letter by explaining that they've entered into a contract with the firm Grand River Solutions, and describes the kind of process they are hoping for other victims to come tell their stories and ways they can improve in the process going forward. Despite what he lays out in the letter, based on the redacted Husch Blackwell report, the presentment against him, and numerous documented emails, Bishop Ruch knew there were other victims accusing Rivera much earlier than he indicated. 

Cherin again felt the need to respond. 

“I am concerned that the assertion you made about this creates a false picture and downplays the scope and seriousness of Mark's behavior towards my daughter and other victims at Rez and COLA. I also think it's very important to clearly name the number of victims, what the actual allegations are, and expand on Mark's involvement at Rez and with Rez families so as not to minimize or downplay the gravity and seriousness of this situation, especially as it relates to Rez.” 

She emailed him again at the end of May. 

“My email to all of you back in February, begging you not to hire this kind of investigative firm, and asking you to please hire GRACE, when it was safe to do so, was my desperate final attempt to get the diocese to change course. You did what we begged you, through numerous emotionally exhausting emails not to do. We sent the diocese many examples and articles of other churches who did this the wrong way, and who caused enormous pain and retraumatization to victims in the process. We carefully outlined a great example of how the church could walk through this in a way that honored and supported victims in our very first email to you. And you chose not to follow that example.” 

After exhausting all private advocacy efforts to secure a safe investigation on behalf of Cherin's family and other survivors of Mark Rivera, Joanna, the rape victim whom you'll hear from in a series of upcoming episodes, decided to go public. Six months after her initial contact with the Upper Midwest Diocese, she posted a public Twitter thread on June 26, 2021, outlining the situation in the UMD. 

In response to Joanna's threads, Bishop Ruch held two church meetings to spin his mishandling of Mark's predatory behavior. These meetings revealed that UMD Chancellor Philbrick had been an active part of Bishop Ruck's response team. Even though Chancellor Philbrick was the lawyer who initially advised Father York that he didn't need to report Cherin's daughter's abuse to the police, Bishop Ruch's team had been receiving behind-the-scenes recommendations from Philbrick for months, including guidance on the selection of an outside investigative firm, which would be looking into, among other things, why no one reported the abuse allegations to the police in the first place. This painful discovery led Cherin to post her first Twitter thread on July 7, chronicling how her family had been treated by leaders at COLA and Rez in the wake of her daughter's abuse disclosure. 

On July 8, 2021, ACNAtoo.org went live. A small band of advocates who recognized the truth in Joanna and Cherin's stories knew they needed to take action. Up to that point, Cherin and her family had endured almost 30 court hearings alone over two long years. They had been shunned at two churches, and church leaders had made promises of care they repeatedly failed to keep. In fact, leaders had worked behind the scenes to support Cherin's daughter's abuser instead, trusting and believing a longtime friend over an out-crying child. There's more to this story, but it's important to share that, in December 2022, after 51 court hearings, Mark Rivera was convicted on five felony counts related to child sexual abuse. Two were Class X felonies of predatory sexual assault of a victim under 13 years old, and three were Class II felonies of an aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under 13. In March of 2023, he was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison. A month later, he agreed to a plea deal for his crimes against Joanna, one of two charges of criminal assault of a victim unable to give knowing consent. The result? An additional six-year sentence. Because of the bravery and fortitude of these women, and a young girl, an abuser will be behind bars for years to come. 

But how did it happen? How did a church and its leaders for years not see what Mark was doing? And why did they fail to believe the mother and daughter who came forward? In July 2021, the same month that Joanna and Cherin went public, the Anglican Church in North America took over the investigation efforts in the Upper Midwest Diocese. What ACNAtoo advocates discovered, to their dismay, was that these problems were and are not isolated to one church and one diocese in the denomination. Abuse and abuse mishandling reports began to pour into the ragtag advocate group's newly set up website. They were stunned. Here's Audrey and Abbi's account. 

I joined ACNAtoo in late July 2021, thinking that our group's advocacy efforts would be helpful for a resolution that would come maybe in a matter of weeks, maybe a few months at most. What's happened instead? I can only compare to someone noticing some black spots on their ceiling and thinking that they had this small mold problem, only to go up into their attic crawlspace and find the entire place covered with virulent black mold. The person realizes what they thought was just this small issue is actually life-threatening and will take a massive response if they can even hope to remain in their house. That's what being on ACNAtoo has been like. The ACNA has had this extensive problem with abuse prevention and response, and it's going to take a much, much larger examination of our theology and practice to quote, write the ship, to use the phrase that I keep hearing from leaders too many times. We can't do it on our own. We need help. 

When I joined ACNAtoo just after Audrey, I didn't think much about the future. I just knew that things were on fire and I needed to help. Unfortunately, we've been fighting this fire mostly on our own for the past three years and the fire keeps growing. 

Here's one more thought from Abbi that I will read for you. In it, she describes the importance that clergy and church leaders play when it comes to protecting children and congregations in general from predators. It also acts as a challenging lead-in to our next episode. She says, “Child sexual abuse is heinous and tragically common in church settings. Sexual abusers benefit from Christian teachings on repentance and forgiveness; if they’re caught, they can simply performatively express remorse, rely on unwise church practices that grant access to all in the name of grace, and then secretly continue their abuse. Given the ubiquity of sex offenders in churches, clergy must be essential front-line workers in this crisis. When clergy fail in their duty to report abuse, they leave a gaping hole in critical response efforts.

In light of this weighty responsibility, and in the process of making this episode, I realized that every turn I had questions about the churches and the diocese's response, that questions of clarification needed to be asked. Okay, so this is what happened, but how should church leaders have responded? And thus, in the next episode, we offer a debrief of Cherin's story, where I ask Audrey and Abbi for their insights into how COLA and the Upper Midwest Diocese could have responded differently if they had been better equipped and had listened to Cherin, Joanna, and others.

I hope you'll join us for part two of Cherin's Story: A Debrief. If you believe in what the Wall of Silence podcast is trying to accomplish, please consider supporting us through our Patreon page at patreon.com/wallofsilencepodcast. Each month, there will be extra interviews and conversations released exclusively for Patreon members. Again, that is patreon.com/wallofsilencepodcast. Relatedly, there is also a subscriber option on Spotify. That’s another way to get the extra episodes if you desire, again, through another monthly fee. I appreciate you helping to make this show a reality has me lift up the voices of church abuse victims. 

The Wall of Silence podcast is produced and edited by me, Chris Marchand. I also do the music and our artwork is by Alice Mitchlick. You can find her other work or commission a piece through her Instagram account, @mouthful.of.stars. Please rate and review the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or whatever podcast service you listen on. You can find a link to the transcript of this episode and through related links in the show notes. Thanks again for listening.