Church Should Let Priest Sex Abuse Victims Have Their Day in Court (your Letters)

Syracuse.com
March 7, 2018

http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/03/church_should_let_priest_sex_abuse_victims_have_their_day_in_court_your_letters.html

To the Editor:

Bishop Robert Cunningham's sympathy for the victims, Kevin Braney's credibility and District Attorney William Fitzpatrick's attack on Braney should not distract us from the larger picture of justice for credible survivors and protecting children from victimization by predatory, former priests still at large.

The credibility of Braney's allegations aside, there is no shortage of credible victims who were sexually abused as child

ren by Catholic priests. Indeed, sexual child abuse by priests was not a scandal, but a crime wave. Nor do I wish to put the focus on the sincerity of the Bishop's sympathy. Regardless of Braney's credibility or the Bishop's sympathies, the fact is that the Catholic Church has vigorously opposed legislation that would allow the survivors of sexual child abuse, whose cases are past the statute of limitations, to file lawsuits seeking compensation. Why? Because as an institution, it is in the church's financial and public relations interests to do so. If the church, as an institution, had the interests of these survivors at heart, they would not by opposition to such legislation interfere with their pursuit of just recompense in a court of law. Undoubtedly, payments made in response to such lawsuits would be very costly for the church. Settlements paid under the church's compensation program are a far less costly alternative. In light of this, their strategy appears to be more like damage control than a desire to make a just and healing offer to survivors.

More importantly, the still living clergy of the Syracuse Diocese who perpetrated these crimes are not registered sex offenders and are free to victimize more children. The well-documented psychological and behavioral profiles of sex offenders tells us it is highly probable they will offend again, given the opportunity. Even elderly offenders are likely to seek new victims or will do so vicariously by consuming child pornography. Concealing the identities of 11 former priests who committed such crimes only compounds the injustice and their anonymity might further facilitate their sexual predation of other children. This is not to diminish the importance of protecting the identities of victims from public disclosure to every extent possible. But these days, for obvious public safety reasons, no one would consider concealing the identity of a serial rapist regardless of the pleadings of victims to so.

I would urge the church to stand aside and let the survivors have their day in court and be as transparent as possible regarding the identities and whereabouts of offending (former) priests, assuming these unidentified priests have indeed been defrocked.

Wayne Palmeter

Fayetteville