Clergy abuse crises flaring throughout region, world
Michael Whalen returned last year to his childhood Catholic parish in Western New York to unload a decades-old burden on his conscience.
He handed the priest $131, he told Buffalo-area media. That had been his share as a kid decades ago, when he and friends had split the proceeds from a stolen parish collection plate.
But as Mr. Whalen spoke to the current priest, he also revealed a far darker burden: that he had been sexually abused by his childhood priest, the Rev. Norbert Orsolits.
After that conversation, and more discussion with the local diocese, Mr. Whalen publicly identified his abuser this February.
A Buffalo News reporter sought comment from Father Orsolits — who candidly admitted to molesting “probably dozens” of boys before quietly retiring in 2003.
That unleashed months of
against children, while his colleague, Cardinal George Pell, a top financial official under Pope Francis, faces allegations of both abuse and cover-up.
In France, a cardinal and a Vatican doctrinal chief have been summoned to court over allegations of cover-up.
And after Pope Francis defended the Chilean hierarchy earlier this year with a ferocity that cut against his pastoral image, he reversed course and launched an investigation that led Chile’s entire cadre of bishops to offer their resignations, which the pontiff has begun accepting.
Father Reese said one reason scandals continue to flare is that people don’t think the hierarchy has been held accountable.
“What we finally learned in Chile is, when this happens, you have to have mass resignations,” said Father Reese. “We never had this in the United States. If we had 30 to 40 bishops resign in the United States (back in 2002), people would have said, ‘OK, we get it.’”
Other than the resignation of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, bishops “held on by their fingernails” until retirement, he said.
One might think that by 2018, all the secrets would be out. But they’re not.
“We’re actually not surprised,” said Judy Jones, Midwest regional leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “The church wants to think it’s all done. It’s not. Victims are still coming forward.”
Amid mounting pressure earlier this year, the dioceses of Buffalo, N.Y., and Erie, Pa., released lists of dozens each of credibly accused perpetrators, many of whom were not previously named publicly.
And in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, a document filed with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court suggests the grand jury report is identifying more than 90 “offenders” — or about twice previous estimates.
In both Pennsylvania and New York State, top Catholic leaders have lobbied heavily against efforts to temporarily waive the statute of limitations and open the way for lawsuits against the church over abuse that occurred decades in the past.
In states where that has occurred, such as Delaware and California, dioceses have filed for bankruptcy and paid nine-figure settlements. Earlier this year, Minnesota’s archdiocese similarly reached a $210 million settlement.
New York bishops are opposing the legislation for the same reasons cited by Pennsylvania’s.
Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, said the bill would exempt governing institutions, meaning a victim of a public school teacher couldn’t sue but that of a parochialschool teacher could, creating “twoclasses of victims.”
He said statutes of limitations “exist for a reason” given the difficulty defending against claims of decades-old abuse. Lifting the statute “would expose the church and other institutions that do good in the community to an unprecedented financial catastrophe,” he said.
But advocates say the laws have worked against victims who often take decades to come to terms with the abuse they suffered. And they note that plaintiffs would still have to prove their cases and that even dioceses in other states that paidheavy damages drew on insurance and were able to emerge from bankruptcy reorganization.
Mostdioceses in New York have offered what’s called the Independent Reconciliation andCompensation Program.
The Diocese of Buffalo just had completed a threemonth period where victims could apply, and it’s processing the claims.
The Archdiocese of New York reported paying $40 million to 189 survivors. It was one of the victims who came forward in that program who reported Cardinal McCarrick — setting in motion his spectacular fall from grace.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has represented victims of clergy sexual abuse for years, said in an interview that some victims prefer the process because it allows them to present claims outside of an adversarial court proceeding. But he noted that others do prefer to pursue their claims in court.
One effect of the compensation program is to reduce the number of potential claimants in future lawsuits — and to the discovery of internal court documents that often document real-time decisions to keep abusers in ministry in past decades.
Spokesman George Richert of the Diocese of Buffalo said its own program “was a way to try to bring some closure to the victims.”
And when Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone released the names of 42 credibly accused priests in March, it was the “logical next step with transparency,” Mr. Richert said.
At the same time, though, Buffalo media were aggressively following up on the public admission by Father Orsolits, who had quietly been removed from ministry in 2003 without the public learning why.
By Wednesday of this week, the Buffalo News rep o r t e d m o r e than 30 priests who were not on the diocese’s list have also “been linked publicly to sex allegations.”
The reverberations from Buffalo were felt south of the state line. Even as the Diocese of Erie was bracing for its part in the Pennsylvania grand jury report, its bishop released its own list of credibly accused offenders, now numbering 62.
And some in New York State are calling for a Pennsylvania-like grand jury.
Michigan isn’t using a grand jury, but prosecutors concluded that the Diocese of Saginaw was “stonewalling” in an investigation of an accused priest and executed a search warrant on the diocese’s offices, the bishop’s home and the cathedral rectory.
The priest’s upcoming trial “is going to be the bellwether” on whether the probe expands, said Saginaw County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Mark Gaertner.