State Must Investigate Harrisburg Diocese (editorial)

York Daily Record
August 10, 2016

http://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/08/10/state-must-investigate-harrisburg-diocese-editorial/88509020/

A list of accused priests reported by YDR might represent just the steeple of a massive cathedral of child exploitation.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was on trial this week, defending herself against charges she says were trumped up by the old boys’ network in our state’s judicial system. So she might have been too distracted to read YDR’s story about priests accused of sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, which includes York County.

But someone in her office must look into questions YDR’s report raises about how forthcoming and proactive the diocese (a different sort of old boys’ network) has been with priest abuse cases in our region.

Someone with subpoena power.

Reporter Brandie Kessler identified 15 priests with ties to the Harrisburg diocese who’d been accused of sexually abusing children – including a priest who served in Dallastown.

In response to the reporting, the diocese grudgingly acknowledged those cases, even issuing a statement to parishioners (printed in at least one local church bulletin) warning them that the YDR story would include previously reported abuse cases but also some that “had a lower profile.”

A lower profile.

In other words, cases that had been essentially buried in the church’s massive bureaucracy – publicly unacknowledged, unaccounted for, possibly unatoned for.

If we’ve learned anything from priest abuse scandals in other regions, not to mention the Jerry Sandusky case, it’s that where there is smoke there is fire. And burying that fire doesn’t douse the flame. It eventually becomes a raging inferno.

Handling such cases in a low-profile manner, shuffling abusers around to other dioceses, is at the very heart of the priest abuse scandals in Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere. This is what high-ranking church officials have been charged and convicted of doing.

The list of accused priests reported this week by YDR might well represent just the steeple of a massive cathedral of corruption and exploitation.

But we don’t know.

Prosecutors and grand juries are the only ones with legal power to compel cooperation by the diocese.

When Ms. Kane’s office recently investigated the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, it found an unholy horror show. A grand jury report on that probe said that hundreds of kids were abused by clergy over some 40 years. At least 50 priests and religious leaders were involved. Church leaders participated in cover-ups. The report said the church held sway over local officials and police, preventing or hampering investigations.

Is that what has occurred in our area diocese? It’s impossible to say from the outside. But it’s unsettling that the number of cases doesn’t seem to add up.

In 2007, the diocese said in a PennLive report that it had received allegations against 24 priests since 1950, but it did not name them. YDR asked for a full list of accused priests since 1950, but the diocese did not respond. YDR found 15 who’d been accused. Who are the others? Have more cases been uncovered since that 2007 report?

Church officials have said they want to be transparent and have encouraged victims to come forward – no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. In fact, this week the diocese shared links to YDR’s story on social media and urged victims to come forward.

So why not now release a full list of priests who have served in this diocese and who were accused of sexual abuse here or elsewhere?

A public list is what brought Susan Blum of New Freedom forward. She saw the name of the priest she said abused her on a published list and realized she was not alone; others had suffered at his hands.

In its statement to parishioners, the diocese wrote, “There are many viewpoints concerning the disclosure of information about instances of abuse, particularly of deceased clergy who cannot now defend themselves. This is one of the reasons it has been the longstanding policy of the Diocese not publish names.”

Well, when she was a child being abused by a supposed servant of God, Ms. Blum couldn’t defend herself either. It took her many decades to come to terms with abuse that she could not even bring herself to share with her husband.

She and the many other victims like her at the very least deserve a full accounting of abuse in the church.

The path to such an accounting in the Harrisburg diocese should be through an investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office.