AG Diocese Investigation Warranted (editorial)

York Daily Record
September 20, 2016

http://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/09/20/ag-diocese-investigation-warranted-editorial/90700138/

Susan Blum holds her First Communion veil and her maternal grandmother's rosary for a portrait at her New Freedom home. Blum, 63, said she was sexually assaulted by a clergy member in the Archdiocese of Boston when she was 15. A New Freedom resident since 1988, Blum had attended St. John the Baptist Catholic Church for years, but left in March after clergy in the Diocese of Harrisburg read aloud a letter that opposed a Pennsylvania legislative bill that would drop a 30-year statute of limitations on when criminal sex-abuse charges can be filed.

In an August editorial about a list of 15 priests accused of sexual abuse who had served in the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, we wondered whether that list represented “just the steeple of a massive cathedral of corruption and exploitation.”

That, sadly, is what was found in the Altoona-Johnstown when the state attorney general’s office conducted an investigation.

Do we have a similar situation in our region?

It’s impossible to say from the outside.

And the Harrisburg Diocese has not been transparent or forthcoming.

Diocese officials grudgingly confirmed the names of 15 priests accused of sexual abuse who had served in this region in response to YDR’s inquiries.

But we knew from previous news reports that 24 accused priests had served in the diocese.

Who were the others not included in the 15? Church officials refused to say.

Later, three more accused priests were confirmed by the diocese.

But the numbers still don’t add up. We know 18 names. But clearly there are more.

How many more?

Why not provide that information to the public?

Doing so shows survivors of clergy sexual abuse that the church is truly committed to full transparency about this horrible problem – and to making amends to those who have been wronged. Naming abusers validates victims’ suffering. And in some cases, it prompts other victims to come forward and tell their stories to law enforcement and church officials.

Confession, church officials should know well, is a necessary step toward redemption.

So why has the Harrisburg diocese been so opaque?

Is that short list just the tip of the iceberg, the steeple of a cathedral of corruption?

The only way to truly find out is for law-enforcement officials to investigate and make the results of that inquiry public – as happened in Altoona-Johnstown.

In August, we said the state attorney general’s official should launch an investigation.

Subpoena the Harrisburg diocese.

Look at the records.

Determine whether the church has acted properly in protecting parishioners from abusive priests.

Have officials engaged in the appalling practice of shuffling abusers around, which has led to criminal charges against high-ranking officials in Philadelphia and elsewhere?

We need to know.

Victims need to know.

Well, such an investigation is underway.

Last week, news broke that the AG’s office is conducting a grand jury investigation into the Harrisburg Diocese, as well the dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.

It’s about time.

After what we’ve seen in Philadelphia, Boston, Altoona and elsewhere, this investigation is well warranted.

Although the AG’s office has not commented on the inquiry, it appears to be a broad look at what’s been going on behind parish walls in Pennsylvania.

In the wake of the grand jury news, the Harrisburg diocese has simply confirmed it had been subpoenaed and reiterated that it wants to help victims of clergy sex abuse – urging them to come forward.

Amen to that.

But those words would be more convincing if the diocese had been more forthcoming all along.