BishopAccountability.org

Will the horrific Pa. report on sexual abuse by priests be a game-changing moment?

By Ted Sherman
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
August 19, 2018

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/08/will_the_pennsylvania_report_on_sexual_abuse_by_pr.html

The fallout continues over the explosive grand jury report out of Pennsylvania on sexual abuse by clergy, as some look in New Jersey for a similar investigation by the state.
Photo by Christine Baker

The wide-ranging report from a Pennsylvania grand jury exposing the long-hidden secrets of predator priests is sparking calls for a similar accounting in New Jersey.

New Jersey's Catholic bishops, in the wake of the report, said the disclosures "show a heartbreaking departure from our fundamental belief in the dignity and value of every child."

At the same time, the head of the state's largest Catholic diocese has announced it will hire an outside firm to conduct an audit of alleged child abuse cases, although Cardinal Joseph Tobin of the Archdiocese of Newark has not committed to a release of any findings.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, who has pushed for years to eliminate New Jersey's limits on civil lawsuits involving child sex abuse complaints against priests, said it is time for the attorney general to act, calling on the state to conduct an investigation similar to that in Pennsylvania.

"This issue has not gone away and victims continue to suffer," said the Middlesex County Democrat.

Indeed, the explosive grand jury reports out of Pennsylvania, with its monstrous narratives of hundreds of priests who preyed on more than 1,000 children, may be a game-changing moment, some believe.

"In my mind, the Pennsylvania investigation begs the question--shouldn't this be something that every state should be doing?" asked Brigid Harrison, a Montclair State University professor who studies New Jersey politics.

Harrison said the "horrific elements" of the Pennsylvania report--which demonstrated a level of collusion that had been hinted at and revealed in isolated instances--showed the power of a state-sanctioned investigation in revealing what many in the Catholic Church have tried to keep hidden from public disclosure.

"Pennsylvania has been the only state that has conducted an investigation. It was an official governmental action and this was the result," she said, referring to the shocking disclosures revealed in the grand jury report naming names and describing in often raw detail of what they did. "I think other states will look at that and hopefully use their resources to conduct similar investigations."

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said the office is reviewing the Pennsylvania grand jury report and the work undertaken by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office "to determine what, if any, additional actions are appropriate in New Jersey."

In Pennsylvania, the grand jury said abuse was allowed to go on for years, with no public accountability. "Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades," said the report, which described in detail the criminal abuse of children.

"There was the priest, for example, who raped a seven-year-old girl--while he was visiting her in the hospital after she'd had her tonsils out. Or the priest who made a nine-year-old give him oral sex, then rinsed out the boy's mouth with holy water to purify him," the grand jury wrote.

At the same time, the report said those in charge knew what was going on, but did whatever it took to avoid scandal. One priest who finally decided to quit after years of child abuse complaints, asked for, and received, a letter of reference for his next job--at Walt Disney World.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who announced the release of the findings, said the two-year probe found a systematic cover-up by senior church officials. "The cover-up was sophisticated. And all the while, shockingly, church leadership kept records of the abuse and the cover-up," he said.

Victim advocates in New Jersey say the secrecy of the church keeps the stories of victims here from being told.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark said the church is transparent about cases involving allegations against priests.

Jim Goodness, the spokesman, said the parish is informed when allegations are brought, as well as other parishes where that person has been.

Church officials also report or urge victims to report abuse allegations to local law enforcement, a requirement enacted by the U.S. bishops after the wave of sex abuse cases in the early 2000s.

However, Phillipsburg attorney Greg Gianforcaro, who has represented a number of individuals alleging abuse by priests, said many of those cases are sealed by the courts at the demand of the church, and are never revealed to the public.

"I've been litigating these cases for approximately 20 years and I'm not shocked by anything that I saw that came out of the Pennsylvania grand jury report," he said.

The attorney said there was nothing that came out of the state inquiry that he has not seen in court records in New Jersey.

"The difference is that in New Jersey, the documents are sealed and never permitted to be disclosed to the public," he said. "I have tried on numerous occasions to plead to the courts to unseal documents and to no avail."

While church officials insist they are transparent, Gianforcaro said they are anything but transparent.

"It's like climbing Mt. Everest for the church to turn over anything," he said.

Mark Crawford, an abuse survivor and New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said whether the Pennsylvania grand jury report will be a game changer is still unclear. He noted that public outrage over stories of clerical abuse has been seen before.

"But I think people are starting to realize it may be systematic and pervasive. That this is in fact at the highest levels of the church," he said. 

Vitale, who hopes the scandal in Pennsylvania will bring more legislators to his side of the table, is looking to push forward on his bill that has languished for years. The bill would eliminate the statute of limitations on civil litigation by those who were sexually abused by priests as children.

"I'm tired of waiting," said Vitale.

Contact: tsherman@njadvancemedia.com




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