I will recall in this letter as much as I can about Fr. Richard and what I remember about going to his cabin. As I reflect back on that time I cannot remember my exact age, but from photos and what my parents remember, I was 11 or 12 years old. I went up to the cabin at least twice with XXXX. I also remember that on these trips XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX and XXXX XXXXXXXX were there too.
I remember the drive up in the car and Father Richard discussing what we were to wear in the sauna. XXXXX and I had brought our swimsuits along and the suits closed in the back with a metal hook. Father Richard told us that this metal hook could get too hot that we might get burned. He said that he had some “bands” at the cabin that we could wear instead. I remember thinking that the only “band” I knew about was a rubber band and that I wasn’t going to wear a rubber band around my top. When we got to the cabin the “bands” turned out to be strips of cloth, too short to wrap around our chests. So we wore our swimsuit tops, but Father Richard told us we could leave them unfastened so that we wouldn’t get burned.
Father Richard played this sauna thing up, saying that it would be the best part of the whole weekend; that it was so fun to take a sauna and then go swimming in the lake. We had to help him cut and haul the wood for the sauna and I got whiny because of the work and he yelled at me. I don’t remember what he said, but I remember he was angery. XXXX didn’t want to take this sauna because of a “sinus” problem and she stayed in the cabin. This angered Father Richard and he would leave the sauna and go check on her in the cabin. I remember that XXXX and Father Richard were angered by each other. I remember that XXXX had no swimsuit bottom on when we were swimming in the lake after taking the sauna. She was on Father Richard’s shoulders without a bottom on and she was diving off of his shoulders into the lake.
I remember that the cabin had one main lower room with two sets of bunk beds and that there was a moose head between the bunks. There was a trunk or box in the lower room that had the “bands” in it. There was a table where we ate and had mass.
There was a ladder leading to an upper loft and that loft was where we slept. I remember that we were on a beach one afternoon and that we were going to go fishing, but I don’t remember fishing. This beach was not the same beach that we went to after the sauna, but that we had to drive a short way to get to it. At this beach, we (XXXX and some other girls and I) were burying Father Richard in the sand. We were covering him up and making breasts with the sand on him. One of the girls put a stick where his penis would be. I remember Father Richard encouraging this activity and that it was embarrassing, but that everyone thought it was funny.
I remember that there was a general sexual atmosphere at the cabin. Kids were talking about pornographic magazines, but the only magazines I remember seeing were National Geographic. I remember the girls talking about menstruation. One of the girls didn’t know she had a vagina, and that night she took a flashlight to help look
for her vagina, because she wanted to see it.
I do not recall much of what else we did at the cabin I don’t remember doing any cooking or washing the dishes. I don’t remember going for walks in the woods or fishing or playing board games.
These are my main recollections of Father Richard and going to the cabin. If I remember any more, I will let you know, XXXX.
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May 23, 2000
