Advocates Decry Cardinal Sean O’malley’s Latest Step on Clergy Sex Abuse

By Lsia Kashinsky
Boston Herald.
March 8, 2019

https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/03/08/advocates-decry-cardinal-sean-omalleys-latest-step-on-clergy-sex-abuse/

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley on Friday announced an anonymous third-party system for reporting sexual abuse by cardinals and bishops, but clergy abuse victims and their advocates were quick to question its effectiveness.

The reporting system comes after a widely hyped Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse last month failed to engender substantive reform, producing little more than a guidebook for bishops on handling abuse.

Phil Saviano, a survivor of priest sexual assault, said O’Malley’s latest measure was “a step in the right direction” but urged those looking to report abuse to bypass the church and go straight to law enforcement.

“The cardinal says, ‘Make a report to us and then we’ll report it to civil authorities,’” Saviano said. “But you don’t know if they’re going to edit something out or how quickly they’re going to make the report to civil authorities. Why go through a middle man?”

In a letter to the local Catholic community, O’Malley said he plans to use the confidential EthicsPoint system “exclusively for the reporting of misconduct” by a cardinal, bishop or auxiliary bishop. Archdiocese of Boston spokesman Terrence Donilon said misconduct refers to accusations of sexual abuse against high-ranking officials, or issues with their handling of an abuse situation.

The new system will be run separately from the EthicsPoint system the archdiocese uses for reporting ethics and financial violations. Reports can be made online or through a toll-free hotline, and will be sent to O’Malley’s Independent Review Board, which he said must “immediately notify” law enforcement of abuse claims, as well as the Holy See’s diplomatic representative to the U.S.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, an advocate for victims of sexual abuse by priests, told the Boston Herald that O’Malley “fails to see the Archdiocese of Boston has a poor track record on sexual abuse and this proposal is just another layer in a cover-up of clergy sexual abuse.”

Running abuse reports through the Independent Review Board “is just a sanitation process,” Garabedian said, adding, “The church has proven time and time again the church cannot self-police properly.”

Saviano noted increasing frustration among the faithful over the church’s handling of sexual abuse.

“Maybe by doing this, it’ll buy (O’Malley) some goodwill among parishioners who are otherwise dismayed by the lack of progress,” Saviano said.