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	Pulpit: Vatican Needs Better Pr Team By Mark Barna Colorado Springs Gazette April 7, 2010 http://www.gazette.com/articles/vatican-96701-priests-benedict.html During the past several weeks, Pope Benedict XVI has endured intense media scrutiny over pedophile allegations against Catholic priests. Vatican officials have presented some persuasive evidence that Benedict did not cover up abuse claims or re-assign predator priests. Yet many media pundits continue to criticize him. "The Vatican communique seem to be ignored," Michael J. Sheridan, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, told me. "It's as though they are out to get him." Perhaps so, but some of the blame must go to the Vatican's PR department. Saying that Benedict's critics are devil possessed, as a Vatican exorcist did last week, and comparing them to anti-Semites, as another Vatican priest did recently, are clear public relations errors. The Vatican would be better off broadening the discussion to place the sexual abuse allegations in perspective, and questioning aspects of the cottage industry that's developed around suing the Catholic Church. It might also try applying the reforms enacted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to Catholic churches worldwide. In 1992, the U.S. Catholic Church cracked down on sex abuse in the wake of two well-publicized priest pedophile cases. During the following year, only 50 abuse cases were alleged to have happened, according to a study published in 2006 by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a New York liberal arts university. In the wake of the Boston scandal in 2002, U.S. Catholic Bishops adopted further reforms, such as zero tolerance toward abusive priests and mandatory reporting of claims to police. Subsequent allegations of U.S. clerical abuse dropped below 50 each year, according to a Georgetown University study, and there were only six abuse cases alleged in 2009. That's pretty good for an institution serving 70 million people in the U.S. By comparison, a study by the U.S. Department of Justice found that 10.3 percent of youth, or 2,370 people, claim that in 2009 they were sexually abused while in a juvenile detention facility by a staff member. Between 2001 and 2005, 2,570 U.S. public school teachers were accused of sexual misconduct with students, according to an Associated Press investigation. The Vatican might also discuss the controversial science surrounding traumatic repression of memory, which is why many alleged victims say they waited decades before suing. Martin Nussbaum, a Colorado Springs attorney who has represented the Catholic Church in dozens of sexual abuse cases nationwide, hopes to see tort reform that imposes shorter statute of limitations and a greater burden of proof. Nussbaum said he's handled cases where the alleged abuse happened in the 1930s. Most abuse cases are brought against a long-dead perpetrator, he said. In a Connecticut case Nussbaum is currently involved in, both the priest and the alleged victim are dead and the case is being brought by the victim's estate. "(Suing the church) is a billion dollar industry," Nussbaum said.
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