Erie’s Persico, in a first, greets protesters

By Ed Palattella
GoErie
August 21, 2018

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180821/eries-persico-in-first-greets-protesters

Demonstrators with the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests showed up outside the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Erie. ‘I am quite surprised,’ organizer says of bishop’s visit.

Judy Jones has been organizing protests for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests for 16 years.

The St. Louis resident, who helps direct S.N.A.P.’s Midwest operations, has been turned away by bishops.

She has dropped off letters at their chanceries, or administrative offices.

She has gone up against diocesan representatives.

But she has never talked to a bishop, let alone met one.

That changed on Tuesday, when Jones and five other protesters with S.N.A.P. showed up in the parking lot at St. Mark Catholic Center, the chancery for the Catholic Diocese of Erie.

The protesters are pushing for reforms included in the Aug. 14 grand jury report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Erie and five other Roman Catholic dioceses statewide.

To the protesters’ surprise, Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico greeted them in St. Mark Catholic Center’s parking lot.

“It is the first time in my life that I have ever met a bishop,” said Jones, who said a priest abused her brother. “This shows there is one person in the Catholic Church who is decent.”

“Actually, I am quite surprised,” she also said.

Persico talked to Jones and the other protesters and invited them to hold their demonstration in the parking lot rather than on a sidewalk on East Grandview Boulevard, a slice of public property where they had planned to gather. The sidewalk is at a distance from St. Mark Catholic Center, which sits on a hill above the road.

Persico’s presence was so unexpected that it created a somewhat comical episode. The bishop had to convince one of the organizers, Steve Spaner, also of St. Louis, that S.N.A.P. really could stay in the parking lot even though it is private property.

“We don’t do it on private property,” Spaner said to Persico.

“I’m giving you permission,” Persico said.

“I will tell Judy,” Spaner said. “Thank you.”

“I think I can give them permission,” Persico said as he talked to abuse victim Jim VanSickle, who joined the protesters.

“I think so,” VanSickle said. “You are the bishop.”

“Down there,” Persico said, gesturing toward East Grandview Boulevard, “what good is it?”

“Yeah,” VanSickle said. “It’s farther away.”

Jones and the other protesters agreed to stay at the parking lot. And Persico agreed to meet afterward with VanSickle, 55, who said he was abused from 1979 to 1982 when he was a student at Bradford Central Christian High School in the 13-county Catholic Diocese of Erie.

VanSickle said his abuser is the Rev. David L Poulson, 65, whom the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office charged in May as part of the grand jury investigation. VanSickle testified before the grand jury.

“I am not opposed to any conversation,” Persico told VanSickle. “Dialogue is important.”

S.N.A.P. has been holding protests throughout the state in the other dioceses that were part of the grand jury investigation: Allentown, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Scranton and Pittsburgh. S.N.A.P. has also been holding private sessions with abuse survivors including a meeting at Blasco Library on Tuesday evening.

S.N.A.P wants the General Assembly to adopt the recommendations that the grand jury proposed in its 884-page report, which found that more than 300 Roman Catholic priests, including 41 in the Erie diocese, had been accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children over the past 70 years. The recommendations include the creation of a two-year window for abuse victims to sue no matter what the statute of limitations or how long ago the abuse occurred.

Persico, 67, said he is reviewing the recommendations, and he said he is open to the creation of the two-year window as long as it applies to institutions in addition to the Catholic Church, such as public school districts.

“A floodgate has been opened,” Persico said on Tuesday of the grand jury report. “It also shows that abuse is pervasive in our society. We have to get things right.”

Persico has also pushed for dioceses to be more transparent. In a first nationwide, he released the names of accused priests and laypeople in the Catholic Diocese of Erie months before the release of the grand jury report, which includes only accused clergy.

Persico’s policy of transparency gained praised from Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office conducted the grand jury probe, and Jones, who called the release of the laypeople’s names “a good thing.”

But she and the other protesters said they want to see the Catholic Church change through actions as well as words. The pope’s condemnation of abuse in a 2,000-word letter on Monday is encouraging, they said, but they want to see more.

Persico said he understood, and that he wanted to hear the concerns of the protesters, who gathered at 11:30 a.m. and remained on site for about an hour.

The grand jury report, Persico also said, “has called us to see the need for reform. We can’t do business as usual.”

Protester Mark Fuller, 63, traveled from Connecticut to join the demonstration. He said the late Rev. William F. Presley, a priest in the Erie diocese named in the grand jury report and in the diocese’s release of names, abused him when Fuller was 19 and at the University of Notre Dame. Presley was dismissed from the clergy before his death. Fuller said seeing Presley’s name in the report has aided his recovery.

“I was so glad to see it,” he said. “It was so good to see that finally and to find out I wasn’t the only one. That helps. That helps survivors to hear that I’m not the only one.”

Neither the Diocese of Erie nor Persico escaped criticism.

“It might look like Persico has done a good job protecting children,” Jones said. “But the only reason he posted the names of credibly accused clerics on the diocese’s website is because he was forced to do so because the grand jury report was coming out.”

VanSickle targeted his anger at Persico’s predecessor, Donald W. Trautman, 82, who served as the bishop of the Erie diocese from 1990 to 2012 and whom Shapiro claimed covered up the abuse allegations in the Poulson case. Trautman, who is retired and living in Erie, has said he acted properly.

“This is the time for Bishop Trautman’s reign of terror to be finished,” VanSickle said.

As for Persico, VanSickle said he was looking forward to talking to him, and said he was glad for the bishop’s visit in the parking lot.

“I appreciate Bishop Persico for coming out here,” VanSickle said. “I don’t think most would. He’s made some steps that are positive in the church.”