Put a Period on the List of Abuser Priests | Faith Matters

By Rev. Alexander Santora
Jersey Journal
February 14, 2019

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/02/put-a-period-on-the-list-of-abuser-priests-faith-matters.html

Growing up in Catholic Jersey City – Holy Rosary Grammar School, its church, St. Joseph’s up the hill, St. Peter’s Prep and College – I knew many priests.

Never once did I suspect that one of them, or any, would ever be involved in abusing a minor. I would never even link the words “priest” and “abuse” in the same sentence.

Not until I was assigned to St. Aloysius Church did I gradually learn about a priest – Carmen Sita, whom I replaced. He had been removed and sent to a rehab for his abusive behavior and was then assigned to a parish in Missouri under a pseudonym, Gerald Howard.

His name appeared on the list released yesterday of 188 priests in New Jersey with credible accusations of a sexual abuse of minors against them. From the list, I also learned of priests I had crossed paths with in ministry, though I’d never lived with them in a rectory. And priests I knew as fellow seminarians at Darlington. Probably about three dozen in all.

I was particularly shocked that a Trenton priest who has worked in a Vatican office in Rome for 30 years was on the list. I knew him and his family from a Toms River parish I assisted on weekends for 12 years.

Most of these names were either public or known to have been removed already from ministry. Some were able to retire and forbidden to present themselves as priests, wear the Roman collar or function publicly.

It wasn’t until 2002, 20 years after I was ordained, that the church nationally came to grips with this growing problem, adopting a charter for the protection of children and enacting a zero-tolerance policy. I believe the church was acting responsibly and I see the release of all the names as another step of transparency.

Columnist marks 20 years

Some credit the state attorney general’s inquiry for this move; I doubt it. I think our new archbishop, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, moved the state’s bishops as the new metropolitan, or Catholic state leader, to set up a compensation fund for victims and to coordinate the release of names. He has led two prayer services at Sacred Heart Cathedral and provided a prominent pulpit to victims of abuse; a third one is set for next month. He has met with victims and listened to them. And if there is one quality, among many, that Tobin displays it is that he is a patient listener.

And what anyone can learn from a victim of abuse by anyone, including a priest, is that they often feel abused twice: once by the perpetrator and then by their family or the church when they are not believed or given the runaround. That priest offenders were protected or transferred to other parishes was another slap in the face. None of this will ever happen again; legal repercussions will preclude it.

The next step may be to welcome victims, who desire, into the life of the church and help them reconcile. Tobin is strong on this pastoral move. A victim will never forget, but the church has to be there to help heal as much as possible.

Releasing 188 names at once can overwhelm and shock. Even if one name were on the list, it would be reprehensible. It would have been helpful, though, to know how many priests were practicing through the period of the revelations to put the numbers in perspective. It would also help to know what was done after 2002 and show that the zero-tolerance policy worked.

For decades, this was an unspoken evil. Then as revelations multiplied, secrets began to unravel. Finally, the cover-up by powerful bishops angered the Catholic laity and society at large. At the same time as the Catholic church grappled with the fallout, society and other institutions, like the Boy Scouts and school boards, for example, experienced similar outrage.

My entire priesthood has been overshadowed by this crisis and while few people raise it in person, it’s hard not to feel some embarrassment that the church that shaped my life did not always live up to what I and others expected. As we discern what all this means, it may be the Holy Spirit purifying the church and moving it toward reforms that are long overdue so that the People of God envisioned by the Second Vatican Council will be a reality.

Until then, I pray that the list released on Feb. 13, 2019, has a period and healing can begin especially for victims, the abusers and the church.