Advocates Commend, Criticize Release of Sexual Abuse Allegations in Harrisburg Diocese

By Rick Dandes
Sunbury Daily Item
August 2, 2018

http://www.dailyitem.com/news/advocates-commend-criticize-release-of-sexual-abuse-allegations-in-harrisburg/article_4a0a67bd-7186-5acb-b15a-5b8f86a70e47.html

Individuals and child advocacy groups on Wednesday reacted sharply to the release of a list of priests and other church officials alleged to have sexually abused minors in the Harrisburg Diocese for decades.

The list of 71, including 37 priests, was made public by diocese Bishop Ronald Gainer on Wednesday ahead of next week's deadline to redact names from a grand jury report into sex abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, including Harrisburg.

"The Church could have and should have done this five, 10, 15 years ago," said Tim Lennon, president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group of survivors of sexual abuse. Lennon said the release of that many names left him "speechless."

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) on Wednesday, in a prepared statement, commended the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg for revealing the names of those accused of child sexual abuse, "and wishes it would have happened sooner."

Lennon echoed that sentiment.

"The Church hierarchy knew about the systematic sexual abuse of children and did nothing," Lennon said. "While the public has previously known of only 10 publicly identified predators in the Harrisburg diocese (BishopAccountability.org), the Church hierarchy knew, maybe for decades, of 60 other credibly accused clergy.

"This demonstrates that for Church hierarchy," Lennon said, "the reputation of the Church and the Church hierarchy was more important than the safety of children."

"This is an incredible number of accused priests who have been kept secret from the public," added Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Regional leader. "It was only through the courage of Attorney General Shapiro and the people of Pennsylvania that took on this powerful institution to investigate and force the exposure of more possible threats to the safety of children, minors and the vulnerable. Without civil society, grand jury, we might not have ever learned of these credibly accused clergy."

SNAP and other survivors, Lennon said, have been knocking on the doors of the church to open the secret files, expose and remove the predators and inform the public. "The Church fought back every step of the way," he said. "But at least now, we are finally something close to the truth."

Father Martin Kobos served at Mother Cabrini Church, Shamokin, the last eight years. Reached for comment, Kobos said he felt sickened by the allegations revealed by the diocese.

“My head is still spinning. I knew it was coming, I didn’t know the magnitude,” Kobos said.

Kobos said he plans to address the accusations with parishioners this week. He said he will be truthful and speak from the heart.

“I don’t know what I’m going to say in the sense of exact words,” Kobos said. “It’s embarrassing. It’s awful. It’s heinous. It’s all those things. The sins of the church are on the stage.”

Kobos credited Gainer with being “forthright” in handling the allegations and making the information public.

"How sad that this has gone on for so many years and so many children have probably been involved," said Dr. Pat Bruno, director, Geisinger Child Advocacy Center, late Wednesday. "Even if half of this report is true, think of all the lives that were affected."

Hopefully, Bruno said, "these kids have found their way forward knowing now that their allegations were true. Allegations made against people they loved and trusted."

Bruno hesitated a moment before saying, "So many lives affected. It's a tragedy."

Reporter Eric Scicchitano contributed to this report.