Harrisburg Diocese Withdrawal of Priest Honors Fails to Impress Accusers

By David Wenner
Penn Live
August 1, 2018

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/08/harrisburg_diocese_withdrawal.html

The leader of the Harrisburg Diocese considers it a significant action, and one he expects some will view as going too far. But it doesn't go far enough for Shaun Dougherty, who was sexually abused by a priest as a child.

"Removing the names of priests from buildings is not going to remove the memories from my mind," Dougherty said on Wednesday.

Dougherty was reacting to the announcement by Bishop Ronald Gainer that names of all bishops dating back to 1947 will be removed from buildings, halls and rooms within the diocese. While many of those bishops haven't been accused of a crime, the move is intended as an acknowledgment of their failure to protect children from sexual abuse.

Rather than remove names from buildings, Dougherty said, Gainer should withdraw lobbyists working against a proposed Pennsylvania bill that would lift the statue of limitations for criminal and civil charges against priests accused of sexual assaults.

Also on Wednesday, Gainer released names of 71 Harrisburg Diocese priests and other clergy who have been accused of child abuse.

His actions came as Pennsylvania's attorney general prepares to release a 900-page grand jury report expected to be one of the most damning reports on sexual abuse by priests, and subsequent coverup, ever compiled. Church officials had tried to delay the report, but a state judge ruled it must be released by mid-August.

Because of the timing, advocates for victims of abuse and people who say they themselves were abused were unmoved by Gainer's actions.

"Only when they are exposed do they take action," said Tim Lennon, the president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

Lennon expressed disgust that, in his view, it wasn't until they faced a tidal wave of public outrage that church officials put protecting children ahead of protecting the security and reputations of church hierarchy.

Jim VanSickle, who said he abused by a priest in the Erie diocese, said he "applauds" the actions announced by Gainer on Wednesday.

Still, he said it fails to adequately address the pain and "anger" felt by him and other survivors with whom he is in contact.

He says doing so will take allowing victims to face the priests who hurt them in criminal or civil court, or an effort by the church to acknowledge individual victims and compensate them.

VanSickle, 55, only recently went public about the abuse he says he suffered decades ago in the Diocese of Erie. Since then, he has connected with many survivors.

Most of them, he said, aren't looking for financial compensation, but rather an opportunity to see the priest in court and, ideally, to hear an acknowledgement of guilt and harm.

But VanSickle also believes exacting a financial price from the church is the only way to ensure it will fully devote itself to rooting out abusive priests, rather than deploying money and influence toward protecting its reputation.

"As we speak, there are young people being groomed, being abused," he said. "The only way we can make change is to attack them [financially]."

Otherwise, the church will "wait us out until the story goes away and go back to business as usual," he said.