BishopAccountability.org

In Our View: Church Right to Shed Light

The Columbian
January 27, 2016

http://www.columbian.com/news/2016/jan/27/in-our-view-church-right-to-shed-light/

It was a small and painful action, yet a necessary one.

The Archdiocese of Seattle this month released what officials say is a comprehensive list of 77 Catholic Church officials accused of sexually abusing children in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008. While the disclosure cannot mitigate the actions of the accused, nor the shameful cover-up that followed, nor the pain of the victims, it hopefully can provide a small step toward healing.

The list includes 11 priests who at some point during their careers had been assigned to Clark County parishes, although it is not clear how many of them faced allegations while at local parishes. The names previously had been disclosed through court records or media reports, meaning that the list was far from revelatory. It also means that the priests named in the document have faced accusations carrying at least some level of validity, limiting the risk of falsely accusing the innocent.

Meanwhile, the disclosure represents the continuing efforts of the Church to heal from within and salve the wounds left festering from decades of turning a blind eye to abuse. “I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed,” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain wrote in a letter accompanying the disclosure.

As has been documented as occurring at other locations throughout the country, the Archdiocese of Seattle for years made a habit of moving accused priests to an unsuspecting parish where they would continue their abusive actions. In recent decades, the archdiocese that covers Western Washington has paid $74 million to settle 392 legal claims in connection with sexual abuse. While these settlements and the list released this month cannot assuage the actions of the abusers or Church officials, it does represent a step toward rapprochement between the actions and the ideals of the Church. As depicted in the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight,” it wasn’t long ago that the Archdiocese of Boston attempted to hide documents from the media that would prove the Church tacitly protected abusive priests.

Last year, after meeting with abuse victims in Philadelphia, Pope Francis told reporters: “When a priest abuses, it is very grave because the vocation of the priest is to make that boy, that girl grow toward the love of God. For this reason, the church is strong on this, and one must not cover these things up. Those who covered this up are guilty. Even some bishops who covered this up.”

Seattle’s Archdiocese Review Board worked deliberately since 2003 to piece together the list of suspected abusers and detail where they had been assigned throughout their careers. And while thoroughness was necessary, the delay also had some harmful effects. The Seattle Times reported this week that it could find only five molesters who were convicted of abuse, with one of those convictions occurring in Washington. Meanwhile, about half of the accused priests have since died.

More important and more shameful is the thought of how many victims have died before they could find the courage and the support to speak up about the egregious violation of trust they endured. Victims of sexual abuse, whether from a member of the clergy or anybody else, often suffer in silence out of shame or a sense that they won’t be believed.

That is the true tragedy of a scandal that for decades was covered up by the Catholic Church. Which means that the naming of accused priests is one small step toward reconciliation.




.


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