Questions about Grand Jury Process Shouldn't Overshadow Findings about Predator Priests

By Paul Muschick
Morning Call
December 4, 2018

https://www.mcall.com/opinion/muschick/mc-opi-catholic-church-sex-abuse-clergy-names-muschick-20181204-story.html

A debate may be brewing about the fairness of Pennsylvania’s grand jury process following Monday’s state Supreme Court opinion blocking publication of the names of some priests accused of sexually abusing kids.

Go ahead, have the debate.

But don’t let it become a smokescreen. The focus must remain on the conclusions of the contested grand jury report — that clergy preyed on children for decades, and Catholic church leaders and others didn’t do enough to stop it.

There’s no debate about that.

Many of the allegations in the August grand jury report, which accused hundreds of priests of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children, came directly from the church’s own records — what the grand jury referred to as the “secret archive.” The archive held memos and letters from bishops, clergy and others. While not every priest who was accused of sexual abuse in those records acknowledged it, some did.

Also, more than a dozen priests testified before the grand jury during its two-year investigation. According to the report, “most of them admitted what they had done.”

The grand jury investigation identified 301 predator priests. About 270 names were published in the report. Only 11 current and former clergy fought to keep their names out of the report. Don’t let them steal the headlines with their cries about how unfair the grand jury process was.

They raise valid questions about the inability to defend themselves during a one-sided legal process. With the majority of the Supreme Court justices siding with them and allowing their names to be concealed, that could lead to more challenges of the system during future grand jury probes. Defense lawyers have applauded Monday’s ruling, so expect them to run with it.

What we all should expect is for the Catholic church to respond appropriately to the pattern of abuse spelled out in disturbing detail in the report. We’re still waiting.

Yes, Pennsylvania’s dioceses have said they will set up compensation funds for victims. But that’s after the church successfully fought legislation that would have allowed lawsuits in cases where the statute of limitations had expired.

Last month, when U.S. bishops were poised to take meaningful action to police themselves going forward, the Vatican stepped in and halted the vote.

That’s the kind of unfairness we should be focusing on.