St Louis Catholic Abuse Scandal Survivor Blows the Whistle on Archbishop Timothy Dolan & Immacolata Church
8.17.23 | From Season 3, Episode 42 of 'The Imagination' Featuring Chris O'Leary
Dear Reader,
I met Chris O’Learly recently on Twitter after a mutual friend (and podcast supporter!) suggested I check out his story and reach out to him about getting an interview with him on ‘The Imagination’ Podcast (ALL LINKS TO 'THE IMAGINATION' HERE). And to my surprise, I found out Chris and I both live in St Louis and that the location of his abuse, Immacolata Church, was only about 15-20 minutes from where I live.
Chris was so friendly and eager to share his story - he even took time out of his busy life to meetup with me in person at Immacolata and not only give me the grand tour, but to also share some of his most harrowing and intimate memories and show me where they took place.
As a podcaster and independent researcher / journalist, this was a really incredible experience. I’ve met a handful of my podcast guests many months after their interview took place, and some of my best friends at this point in my life are podcast guests that I STILL haven’t met in person (real recognize real ya’ll!), but I have not had the unique opportunity to meet a guest before recording and to actually get to visit the location that their testimony took place.
Immacolata resided very closely to a mall I’ve visited before called The Galleria in Clayton, MO - almost tucked away to where you’d miss it if you weren’t looking for it. A couple of my friends who were born and raised out here in St Louis had never even heard of or seen Immacolata - even though they had been around the area for their whole lives!
In case you missed Chris’s podcast episode, you should absolutely go listen to it. His testimony has the potential to bring the whole church system down from the abuse that took place (and may still be taking place) at Immacolata all the way up to the Archbishop of NY, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is on par to be the next POPE and who was an enabler to Chris’s abuse…
CLICK HERE TO WATCH CHRIS'S EPISODE ON 'THE IMAGINATION'
When we got to Immacolata, I just happened to coincidentally park right next to Chris and the first thing he did was show me the painting he had been working on that I had seen glimpses of on Chris’s Twitter page (FOLLOW CHRIS ON TWITTER). We took some photos in the parking lot…
As we walked around, Chris showed me the church (behind him in the photo above), the Rectory, Gymnasium, school, and some areas outside the perimeter of the campus that were significant to his story.
The Gymnasium where his main abuser, Father LeRoy Valentine, would ‘test’ the children was a harrowing area to look at. Chris details in our interview how Father Valentine would wear short-shorts that were 2 sizes too small (yuck!), and would wrestle the children and ‘test’ them by grabbing their genitals and seeing how each child would react. You ‘passed’ his ‘test’ if you froze and stayed silent. Chris ‘passed’ the test with flying colors as an innocent child who didn’t have any concept of sexual abuse taking place and became easy prey at the hands of this pedophile priest…
*The Gymnasium at Immacolata
*Father LeRoy Valentine with Chris and two other children
Chris is the first podcast guest I’ve had on who discusses ‘testing’ (very valuable information!), and after he ‘passed’ the ‘test’, he was then initiated into the ‘grooming’ phase where Father LeRoy Valentine would begin initiating those who ‘passed the testing phase’ into the ‘grooming’ and sexual abuse phases.
Chris mentions that even in these photos, you can see ‘testing’ happening where Father Valentine has his hands on Chris and another child…
The grooming started by Father LeRoy made Chris feel special. He would tell Chris how special he was and that because he was so special, he got to have and do ‘special trainings’ that other children weren’t ‘special’ enough to do. One such ‘special training’ included breaking / serving of the eucharist. This made Chris feel incredibly lucky and special and while he would be performing the eucharist ceremony, Father Valentine would be sexually molesting him while he was focused on the task at hand. Chris would inevitably dissociate during the abuse and would only have memories of feeling happy and special until he was an adult and recalled the actual abuse pieces of the partial memories. Testing led to grooming, grooming led to molestation, and molestation eventually led to rape. This ‘special training’ he received from Father Valentine is what eventually would inspire adult Chris to create the impactful painting that’s in the photo at the beginning of this article.
Look at the painting now with fresh eyes… Do you see?
*You can see Father Valentine holding young Chris on his lap, naked, while molesting him. Notice all the symbolism - the eucharist as Chris’s head. Young Chris is ‘in the moment’ performing the eucharist ceremony and oblivious (and maybe dissociated) to what is happening. In the upper right-hand corner is (then) Father Timothy Dolan who is in cahoots with Satan who is whispering in his ear, “POWER, FAME, ALL IN YOUR NAME”. Behind Chris and Father Valentine are two doors. The one door in the center-right is the door in this photo (below) that I got to take with Chris holding the painting. He has a memory of sprinting out of that door onto the lawn we are standing on after one of his ‘special trainings’…
*Note the door to the right of Chris - this is the same door in the painting next to Dolan and Satan…
*Another one of Chris next to the room / building where the image he drew in his painting took place
Another odd phenomenon at the church was the symbology. Check out this all-seeing eye that was in the stained glass of the church!
The most concerning part of this symbology is that the church has since changed since Chris attended as a child, but he remembers the organ being near where the piano is in the above photo and he would be seated right below the all-seeing eye symbol! Conspiracy, coincidence, or none of the above? You be the judge…
*The inside of Immacolata Church
Although Chris’s abuse was at the hands of Father Valentine, there was a nefarious cover-up of the abuse by both the church, the church staff, and especially (then) Father Timothy Dolan.
As Chris states in the interview we did together - not only did Cardinal Dolan help cover-up the child abuse at Immacolata, but he was REWARDED for it (hence becoming the Archbishop of NY and potential next Pope). It would appear that ‘the ability to keep secrets’ is a highly sought after trait in the Catholic (and religious) communities and that priests and leaders in these establishments are moved higher in the ranks if they can keep scandals and abuse hidden and covered-up. This was the role that Cardinal Dolan had - ‘The Enabler’. There’s no way he didn’t know what was happening (and if you watch the interview, you’ll see that staff DID try to voice concerns and were disregarded and eventually fired or let go). Later when Chris tried to whistleblow in Missouri, he was also met with an onslaught of authorities who dropped his story after learning who the players were that he was exposing (ie: Dolan).
Now, Cardinal Dolan is in consideration to be the next POPE! Is this something we are going to stand for? Where’s all the outrage? A pedophile enabler who helped cover-up sexual abuse scandals that ruined the lives of God knows HOW many children is being rewarded and pushed all the way up to the top of the ladder? I’m so beside myself and you should be too. Who knows HOW many priests he’s covered up for and how many children had to be abused for him to get to the position he’s in now. But I digress…
Here are some excerpts from Chris’s website regarding Cardinal Dolan:
You should go support Chris’s website and read the full extent of his written testimony: CLICK HERE TO GO TO CHRIS'S WEBSITE
And look at THIS document Chris unearthed - it details Queen Mary of Peace Church actually HIRING known sexual predators (see any familiar names on here?) providing proof of Chris’s allegations against Father Valentine that were dismissed:
Here’s an impactful video from Chris’s YouTube channel (that you should ALL go Subscribe to and support!) showing him fighting for justice with photos of him as a child in front of the Archdiocese of Missouri. Look at how these priests ignore Chris and listen to his powerful message:
CLICK TO WATCH FULL VIDEO ON CHRIS'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
As Chris continues to fight the Catholic Diocese of Missouri as well as Archbishop Timothy Dolan, I ask that you keep Chris in your prayers and support him on social media. You can also donate at his GoFundMe - he needs more art supplies to bring his paintings to life (which are expensive!) and wants to make a trip to NYC in order to show Cardinal Dolan that he’s not going away and not being silenced! Anything helps (and THANK YOU to all who watched the podcast and donated! So amazing!):
DONATE TO CHRIS'S GOFUNDME HERE
Chris’s story is important because he is actually speaking out. So many church abuse victims are shamed into silence and never heard, and children all over the world and in our communities are going through these unspeakable horrors as WE speak. We need to give a voice to these children and to hold these perpetraitors accountable for their crimes. It is horrific what Chris went through and we should all be beyond concerned and infuriated that this is still happening and that these crimes are literally being covered up by those who are supposed to use their positions of power to PROTECT all children - not to cover for each other’s crimes and protect the church.
The underbelly of St Louis - I’m learning - is a dark place. From the child trafficking racketteering in the CPS / Family Court System in STL that
covers on his YouTube Channel…
(WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE ON MIKE'S YOUTUBE)
…to survivors like Laura Worley, Andi Bond, J.R. Sweet, Cathy O’Brien and others listing Missouri as a hot spot, this state definitely deserves a brighter light to be shone over all the darkness.
The good news is that WE can be the light.
Lets shine a light on ALL the darkness!
Wherever you are - you can make a difference. You DO make a difference simply by caring and listening.
Thank you for caring. Thank you for listening.
You all are my heroes!
Until next time, Desr Reader…
MAKE a difference,
Emma Katherine
