By Barbara Blaine
Philly.com
February 24, 2011
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/116799203.html
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| Cardinal Justin Rigali has suspended three priests and hired consultants in response to a scathing grand jury report. |
Heard enough about sex crimes and cover-ups in the Philadelphia Archdiocese? OK, let's move beyond the disclosures of recklessness, callousness, deceit, and betrayal in the recent grand jury report.
Let's look instead at Cardinal Justin Rigali's responses to the revelations. One is positive. The others are questionable at best.
Though belatedly and begrudgingly, Rigali has suspended three of the 37 clerics whom the district attorney and grand jurors alleged to be working in local parishes despite credible accusations of child molestation. Obviously, that's helpful.
Beyond that, however, Rigali's response becomes far less convincing.
First, he disingenuously denied that any "admitted or established" predator priests are actively ministering. As far as we can tell, no other American bishop has used that phrase in the context of sex crimes against children.
In 2002, Rigali and his colleagues made a much stronger pledge: to suspend all priests "credibly accused" of sexual abuse, not just those whose wrongdoing has been "admitted or established." Their promise was to suspend first and investigate later, in the interests of keeping kids safer. Whether or not Rigali ever intended to honor that pledge, he is certainly ignoring it now.
Next, the archbishop created the nebulous position of "clergy support associate." Last week, he hired Joseph A. Cronin Jr., a lawyer and psychologist, to fill the position. Cronin is charged with ensuring "priests' compliance with the Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries," a code of conduct for priests.
But Rigali failed to explain how on earth Cronin - or anyone else for that matter - could possibly go about that task. Priests aren't confined to jail cells, and predators are shrewd criminals. They're notoriously devious and successful at gaining access to kids and concealing their crimes. What's this consultant going to do - enforce nightly curfews and install hidden cameras in rectories?
Keep in mind that the recent grand jury report suggested half a dozen remedies or improvements that the archdiocese could institute, and nowhere did it mention a "clergy support associate."
Meanwhile, Rigali rehired an abuse consultant, Mary Achilles. He originally brought Achilles on board with much fanfare five years ago, in the wake of another devastating grand jury report, which cited more than 50 child-molesting clerics and a stunningly similar pattern of complicity on the part of the archdiocesan hierarchy.
During her first tour, Achilles offered 11 recommendations on how Rigali could better deal with reports of sexual abuse of children. The archbishop ignored all of them. Now he's hired Achilles back. This is progress?
Finally, Rigali hired another lawyer, Gina Maisto Smith. Like the other two new staffers, she's a Catholic, and she has also served on the board of a church institution. While she is a former prosecutor, her more recent work includes helping institutions "manage" sexual-misconduct cases.
At first glance, this is reminiscent of Rigali's widely criticized "victims assistance coordinator." Will the church's latest staff additions end up being more committed to defending the accused than helping the accusers, and to concealing the truth rather than exposing it?
In short, what Rigali's done so far has been weak and self-serving. So what should he be doing?
For starters, instead of hiring, he should be firing. If more than 50 priests have sexually assaulted kids, and 37 of them are still in parishes, some of Rigali's top aides have acted irresponsibly, and they should be canned.
If he does insist on hiring more experts, they should be true "outsiders" - non-Catholics who never have and never will rely on church agencies for their livelihoods. And he should ask District Attorney Seth Williams to recommend two or three candidates for any new position, and then pick from among them.
Most important, Rigali should suspend all credibly accused clerics immediately. He should give up on the notion of paying handpicked employees to review their cases. And he should have the cases examined by independent law-enforcement professionals, not Catholic lawyers who might be loyal to the archdiocese.
That's what genuine, effective reform would look like.
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