BishopAccountability.org

Taking Pen in Hand

By Dan Carlson
VanishingPredators.com
December 02, 2018

https://bit.ly/2C09vtd


Question: What happens to predator priests after they have been laicized?

Answer: In most instances … nothing.

Though harsh, this is the cruel reality clergy sex abuse victims confront upon learning that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, their abuser will avoid prosecution because the statute of limitations has expired on the crimes for which he would have otherwise been charged. For the Catholic Church, of course, this is a good deal … it means they can simply cut the malefactor loose and remove him of his priestly vows. In other words, they can wash their hands of him.

By way of explanation, statutes of limitations are rules that prohibit prosecutors from charging someone with a crime committed more than a specified number of years earlier, and it is worth noting that the Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars lobbying in opposition to bills that would extend statutes of limitations for child sex abuse cases.

But back to that predator priest who has been defrocked and expelled from ministry … what comes next for him? Where does he go? Sadly, the answer is that nobody really knows for, in many cases, he just drops out of sight. Had he been convicted of a sex offense, he would have to register as a sex offender and thereafter comply with limits on his contact with children, living arrangements and employment. But absent a conviction, he can quietly take up residence in any unsuspecting neighborhood he chooses.

Think about that for a moment … a known child predator can reside, anonymously and without restrictions, in close proximity to children … and the position of the Church is: “Not my problem.”

There are three things the Catholic Church must do to correct this outrageous situation:

1.  Create a national data base naming all clergy removed after credible allegations of child sexual abuse. This information should appear publicly in two places: on the website of any Diocese where the disgraced cleric served, and on a master list maintained by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops.  

2.  Determine the current address of each of these former clergy, and include that information on the two websites just mentioned.

3.  Mandate that every diocese provide law enforcement and school officials with the name, current address and offense for each former clergy listed in the two aforementioned data bases.

Church leaders have a moral obligation to warn communities of the potential dangers posed by the presence of these predators, and there is a way to urge them to act. At the top of this page, click the ACTION tab to find a sample letter, and a link to the addresses of all Dioceses and Archdioceses in the United States. By taking a moment to personalize the letter and send it off, we can be guided by the Chinese proverb:

The longest journey begins with a single step.




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