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Editorial: The Failure Of Leadership From Hotchkiss To The Catholic Church

Hartford Courant
August 23, 2018

http://www.courant.com/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-hotchkiss-abuse-catholic-church-20180822-story.html

The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville.

Reports that leaders of prominent institutions actively concealed — or failed to address — allegations of sexual abuse serve as a sad reminder of the lengths some people will go to protect the reputations of institutions at the expense of the safety of their members.

The Hotchkiss School in Salisbury released an internal investigation Friday that detailed allegations that seven former faculty and staff members had sexually abused students — and that school officials covered it up.

School administrators “inadequately responded to sexual misconduct by faculty members,” the report states, in the name of protecting the school’s reputation.

The victims include 16 students, some of whom endured years of abuse. The scope of it is shocking.

To its credit, the school shared its findings with law enforcement, although the statute of limitations may have expired in many cases. It also made appropriate moves such as removing names of administrators who failed to act from various scholarships and spaces on campus.

There is no question that anyone who inflicted abuse must be held accountable. But the question remains: Are those who failed to act to protect the students liable for their suffering? An attorney for four victims said the report did not discuss “what they are doing about all these headmasters and other people who knew about the abuse and did nothing.” It’s a valid point.

Administrators of any organization who attempt to cover up such gross misconduct are equally culpable — especially when the abuse continues. The school must answer for that. It’s a textbook sin of omission.

The Catholic Church was also stunned last week when a grand jury in Pennsylvania reported that more than 1,000 children had been abused by hundreds of priests over 70 years and the church actively covered it up. Former Hartford Archbishop Henry Mansell had a role in the 1985 transfer of a known pedophile priest from New York to Pennsylvania, where sexual abuse continued, according to the report.

“The report does not suggest I did anything wrong,” the former archbishop said in a statement. But if he failed to act to stop further abuse, he enabled it.

It’s encouraging that Pope Francis condemned the lapse, saying, “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”

The abuse is bad enough. It’s heartbreaking that it could have been stopped — or at least curtailed — if leaders had put aside their concerns about institutional reputation and instead focused on the welfare of the victims.

 

Contact: opinion@courant.com




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