Clerical culture blinded
Disgusting, horrifying, sickening — one runs out of adjectives for the actions of priests chronicled in the Pennsylvania grand jury report that lists more than 300 priests accused of abuse in six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses during a 70-year period.
More than 1,000 children were abused during that time. Others have not yet come forward, and hopefully this report will encourage them to do so.
Just as disconcerting is the failure of many bishops in the early days of the crisis to respond appropriately to the abuse. Why?
Clericalism blinded the bishops to their responsibility to the children. They lived in a clerical culture where priests looked out for one another as “brothers” in the priesthood. They didn’t blow the whistle on each other. Some bishops didn’t want to hear or look into the accusations.
The bishops were told by their lawyers not to meet with the victims or their families, and they initially kept the abuse secret because they wanted to protect the dioceses’ assets from lawsuits. Each victim thought he or she was unique until the flood of victims came forward after the exposé by The Boston Globe.
As late as 1992, the bishops were told by psychologists that some priests were safe to return to ministry after treatment. In the early days of abuse, untrained priests were investigating and making recommendations on the handling of abusive priests. It was not until 2002 that the bishops adopted a zerotolerance policy, under which even one act of abuse bans a man from ministry. And only in 2002 did the bishops agree to have advisory boards that included lay people to review the accusations. Laity must be involved in the investigation of any accusations, and in investigating the response of bishops. No profession is good at judging its own.
The Pennsylvania grand jury report is another devastating blow to the U.S. Catholic Church. This is not to say everything in the 1,300-page report is incontestable. False accusations are rare, but they happen. One also needs to allow those attacked in the report a chance to respond.
The grand jury proposes four reforms in its report: eliminating the criminal statute of limitations for future cases of the sexual abuse of children; opening up the dioceses to civil suits from victims who are now excluded because of the civil statute of limitations; clarifying the penalties for continuing to fail to report child abuse; and disallowing civil confidentiality agreements from covering communications with law enforcement.
In any case, the grand jury report is a wake-up call for bishops who thought that the past could be forgotten as long as they did the right thing in the future. It also becomes a precedent for other state attorneys general and grand juries. The bishops would do well to issue their own reports before the other states do. People will not be satisfied until a complete accounting has been given in every diocese.