Springfield Bishop: No "Specific Local Requests" to Reopen Clergy Sex Abuse Cases, Documents Being Preserved
By Anne-Gerard Flynn
Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, who will attend next week's bishops meeting in Baltimore, said his Springfield diocese has not had any "specific local requests" to reopen investigations here into clergy sex abuse cases. Rozanski said his diocese, which covers the four counties of Western Massachusetts, has been asked by the U.S. Department of Justice, as all dioceses have in the wake of a Pennsylvania report, to "preserve" its related documents. "To date while we have not had any specific local requests, like all U.S. dioceses, we have been asked to preserve documents as part of the U.S. Attorney's investigation focusing on the Pennsylvania dioceses," Rozanski said. "I have expanded this request to include all our parishes and schools." The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will gather Monday through Wednesday for its 2018 Fall General Assembly in Baltimore. Rozanski will be among the attendees who will vote on proposals approved by the USCCB's administrative committee to address clergy sex abuse issues that continue to impact dioceses around country. The bishops' proposals come in the aftermath of the Pennsylvania 18-month grand jury report released in August that revealed 300 priests in six dioceses there had sexually abused 1,000 children over seven decades and that the cases were covered up by church hierarchy. Some 13 attorney generals have now opened investigations in their states. Rozanski, who was appointed an auxiliary bishop in Baltimore in 2014 and installed as bishop here in 2014, added that "we pledge to continue, as we consistently have done, to cooperate fully with law enforcement." The Springfield diocese is estimated to have paid more than $12 million to sex abuse victims since 2004, and a 2016 list of "credibly accused clergy" in the diocese shows 18 names. A Nov. 4 report by the Boston Globe/Philadelphia Inquirer, "Failure at the top," examines how U.S. bishops failed to police themselves despite the protocols they established 16 years ago. "As a bishop I have been deeply saddened by all of the recent reports, which taken together serve as a clear indication that the Catholic Church still has much work to do to address our past failures," said Rozanski when asked about recent national investigations and the upcoming bishops meeting. "While much of what has been reported dates back decades, the pain caused by past clergy sexual abuse and the failure to respond is still very real and present in our faith community today. For this I remain deeply sorry to all who have suffered." In reference to updating existing protocols, he added the bishops next week "will discuss improvements to the Charter to Protect Children and Young People." "I believe there is commitment from the majority of bishops to respond in a meaningful way to recent concerns and identified shortcomings," Rozanski said. He said he has "asked the people of our diocese to pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our deliberations" whose "results of which," he said, "most certainly will be carefully scrutinized." "What has not changed is our commitment to all victims of abuse," said Rozanski when asked about victim assistance in the Springfield diocese. "Our diocese continues to actively reach out and provide counseling and other assistance to victims of abuse, no matter how long ago it may have occurred, and regardless of when they came forward." Rozanski said he hoped to have more specific answers following the meeting to what further will be done. He added that he was "saddened by the Church's past failures" but that he remained hopeful in advance of the bishops meeting "that we can and must do better- the people of God deserve no less from us." The bulk of the cases in the Pennsylvania report happened during the days when clergy was plentiful in the church - from the 1950s into the 1980s. The U.S. bishops instituted protocols in 2002 to protect minors and establish procedures for the reporting of allegations of sexual misconduct by priests and deacons with a statement added about allegations against bishops. In June, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, was removed from ministry after a review board of the New York Archdiocese found credible allegations that he had abused a teenager 47 years ago. Pope Francis accepted the resignation of McCarrick, who has denied the allegations, from the College of Cardinals in July and assigned him to a life of prayer and penance" while the investigation continues. The USCCB established procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons in part to fast track their removal and create a safe environment for minors but its weakness was in how it did not include bishops, who are overseen by Rome and who have in general resigned in the wake of allegations, in the main body of its language. The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, sometimes referred to as the Dallas charter as it was released at the bishops' spring assembly in Dallas, was revised in 2005, 2011, and 2018. The charter established a national review board, called for the creation of confidential review boards in each diocese composed of mostly lay people not employed by the diocese to advise the bishop in his assessment of allegations and the suitability of the priest or deacon for ministry. The charter stresses that any allegation of sexual abuse of a minor is to be reported to civil authorities and that if the alleged abuser is found he is to be removed from ministry. Some dioceses began publishing lists of accused priests. Some 19 Catholic dioceses and religious orders in the United States would reportedly go on to filed for bankruptcy protection, and the total value of sexual abuse settlements in the United States has been estimated to be more than $3 billion by BishopAccountability, the non-profit that has long tracked the abuse crisis. A judge's order to the Boston archdiocese to release documents related to those accused of clergy sex abuse and the 2002 investigation by the Boston Globe showed how that many moved pedophile priests were moved from parish to parish by bishops. The Boston Globe/Philadelphia report indicates that 130 bishops - or one-third of those living have been accused during their careers of failing to adequately respond to sexual misconduct in their dioceses. The first U.S. bishop said to be indicted on the specific charge of child sex abuse was Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre. Indicted on charges that he raped two boys in the 1970s, Dupre, who resigned suddenly in 2004 shortly before his indictment, was never prosecuted because of the statute of limitations and died bishop emeritus in 2016 at the age of 83. The Springfield diocese did settle with two men who named Dupre as their abuser. In 2003, Dupre defrocked Richard Lavigne, a diocesan priest who pleaded guilty in 1992 to two counts of molestation of a minor and was given a 10-year probation sentence. Lavigne was also the only publicly identified suspect in the 1972 murder of Springfield altar boy Daniel Croteau. That slaying remains unsolved. A study done by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2005 at the request of the USCCB revealed that some 10,667 individuals made allegations of child sexual abuse by priests between 1995 and 2002 and that few incidents were reported to the police. One possible reason was because of the statute of limitations. Many survivors ask now why dioceses fight legislative attempts to roll back time limits for child sex-abuse lawsuits or criminal prosecution and why archives that can be investigated for cardinals - Pope Francis has ordered such an investigation for McCarrick - cannot be opened to survivors to see how their cases were handled. Recent developments around the Church's handling of clergy sex abuse cases has exposed divisions among bishops in terms of the papacy of Francis who has been inconsistent in addressing the crisis and in many ways has inherited the results of decisions made his predecessors. In 2016, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter that said church law provides for the removal from "ecclesiastical office for grave reasons" and said grave reason includes the "negligence of a Bishop in the exercise of his office, and in particular in relation to cases of sexual abuse inflicted on minors and vulnerable adults." Writers in the Catholic media have written on ways Francis could advance sex abuse reform in the Church and the National Catholic Reporter recently published an article on panel discussions at Catholic university whose suggestions include a need for greater laity involvement in the issue, more involvement of civil authorities and reform of canon law. In a Boston Globe/Philadelphia Inquirer Nov. 5 interview, Cardinal Sean O'Malley said that bishops during the upcoming meeting must ensure that any bishop guilty of covering up sexual misconduct or engaging in it "will not be allowed to present himself as a cleric, not participate in church activities or boards or liturgical celebrations." He said this is something that he thinks Rome will "respond to us." This proposal, which according to the USCCB that will vote on it during the upcoming meeting, would apply to "bishops who were removed or resigned because of allegations of sexual abuse of minors or sexual harassment of or misconduct with adults, including seminarians and priests Other proposals to be voted on is one that would establish a hot line - operated by a third-party - for complaints of the sexual abuse of minors by a bishop and sexual harassment of or sexual misconduct with adults by a bishop. Another proposal is for a Code of Conduct for bishops regarding the sexual abuse of a minor; sexual harassment of or sexual misconduct with an adult; or negligence in the exercise of his office related to such cases.
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