BishopAccountability.org
 
  Church Must Break Tradition of Silence

Monterey County Herald
May 28, 2009

http://www.montereyherald.com/opinion/ci_12467301?nclick_check=1

Nearly seven years ago, Bishop Sylvester Ryan was asked whether the Diocese of Monterey faced the types of abuse-related cases that were battering the Catholic Church nationally.

None at all, he assured the questioner, a parishioner who very much wanted to believe him.

When subsequent news accounts about local lawsuits and quiet settlements here and in surrounding counties showed that Ryan, now retired, had been less than candid, the parishioner maintained her faith in the church but not in those responsible for administering church affairs on the Central Coast.

In the intervening years, little has occurred to reassure her and others—at least little that has surfaced publicly. Now, a couple of more local court cases threaten to do even more to weaken the trust unless church officials chose to break with their tradition of silence and denial.

One is the criminal case against the Rev. Antonio Cortes, pastor of St. Mary of the Nativity Church in Salinas, who is accused of molesting a 16-year-old boy, but the larger and even more troubling case involves allegations that two priests took turns sexually assaulting an altar boy during a six-year period starting in 1988 when the boy was 8 years old.

As chronicled in a recent article by Herald reporter Virginia Hennessey, diocesan leaders have already testified that they did not alert authorities when they first heard of the abuse, took no meaningful steps to protect the boy, and made no effort to determine whether there were other victims.

Court papers allege that when the boy's parents asked for money to pay for counseling, diocese attorney Albert Ham and the Rev. Greg Sandman, now a teacher at Palma High School, advised them that such abuse was common and that it would be in the victim's best interest to simply forget about it.

The truth of that assertion has not been tested in court, but it casts a shadow over the diocese. Like the trauma of sexual abuse, the shadow won't simply go away on its own. One way or another, in court or in the court of public opinion, the current diocesan leadership needs to respond to that and related allegations and to assure the public that such actions and attitudes are not tolerated. Church officials say they now have a zero-tolerance policy, but without a fuller airing of the issues with some level of detail, the mere existence of a policy is not persuasive.

Paperwork from the lawsuit, known as Doe v. Doe, contains other troubling information, including that this diocese, like many others, was in the practice of moving priests around when abuse allegations surfaced rather than notifying authorities. Court papers suggest that Ryan knew, despite public protestations to the contrary, about a series of molestation allegations against now-defrocked priest Robert Trupia, who was brought in to work as a canon law consultant for the diocese in 1993.

As in hundreds of other cases around the country, this one is likely to be settled out of court, perhaps as soon as this week. A settlement conference is scheduled Friday. If past practice holds, lawyers for the church will insist on a confidentiality agreement preventing disclosure of any monetary settlement or other terms.

We believe it would be a mistake, and a disservice to abuse victims and the faithful of the Central Coast, if the diocese chooses that path, which would prevent church officials from offering any type of public explanation or apology if one is appropriate.

The allegations are beyond disturbing. If they are false or exaggerated, the public needs to know that. If they are true, the public and the congregation deserve to know what has been done—and what is being done now—to prevent such things from happening again.

It is time — well past time actually — for the diocese to level with its public about past failings and the cost of correcting them. It is time for it to confess to its failings to help it earn back the trust it has lost.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.