Those abused by priests need justice, more protection from the Catholic Church, advocates say

By Justin Hoffmann And Michelle Simpson Tuegel
Star-Ledger
April 24, 2019

https://bit.ly/2USKPO

The Church must implement a zero-tolerance policy toward abusive clergy and the priests and bishops who protect them, and candidates for the priesthood should have to undergo more rigorous screening, Justin Hoffman and Michelle Simpson Tuegel say.

Recently, the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill that would give survivors of sexual abuse in New Jersey more opportunity to seek justice for the crimes committed against them. This is an important step in addressing the decades of clergy abuse, but for countless survivors in New Jersey, it is too little, too late.

For decades, the Catholic Church has turned a blind eye to the child predators in its ranks and refused to be held accountable for the thousands of lives it ruined. In fact, they have worked hard to keep the abuse quiet, knowingly rotating sexual predators around to different communities, offering often meaningless reforms that fail to address the cycle of abuse, and sometimes providing or attempting to provide minimal compensation to survivors behind closed doors.

Take, for example, the recent Vatican conference on sexual abuse of minors that was portrayed by many as a positive step forward by the Catholic church. Unfortunately, the conference failed to establish any real solutions or tangible outcomes for survivors of clergy abuse. Despite a contrite tone, Pope Francis proposed no concrete solutions to deal with the scourge of clergy abuse and failed to promise a zero-tolerance approach from the Church.

Survivors of clergy abuse in New Jersey and beyond deserve more. It is time for Catholic bishops in New Jersey to make real reforms rather than empty promises and do what the participants of the Vatican conference refused to do — focus on the survivors and enact concrete changes so that this abuse never happens again.

The Church must implement a zero-tolerance policy toward abusive clergy members and the priests and bishops who protect them, resulting in automatic dismissal from the clerical state. In addition, candidates for the priesthood should have to undergo more rigorous screening to help prevent such abuse from occurring in the first place.

Part of ending the culture of covering up is holding abusive priests, the individuals who protected them, and the Church accountable in court. We strongly urge Gov. Murphy to sign S477/A3648 swiftly, creating more opportunity for survivors to seek justice and get answers. The new law would give survivors of sexual abuse more time to seek criminal or civil charges against their abusers and create a two-year window for survivors to file lawsuits that were previously barred by the statute of limitations. It helps ensure that from now on, survivors of sexual abuse in New Jersey will not be silenced.

For the Church, the new law means they will be held accountable for the mistakes of the past that they’ve never had to address in the legal system before. The culture of silence and covering up the exploitation of innocent children will be exposed, and the Church will be forced to change its ways so that future generations do not fall prey to the same tragic abuse.

Hopefully, through the bravery of survivors who have come forward so far, others who have experienced similar abuse will be inspired to come forward and seek the answers they deserve. All survivors of sexual abuse now have the opportunity to pursue the truth and demand complete transparency from the Church.

Nothing can reverse the trauma of sexual abuse that survivors will live with their entire lives, but justice is a good place to start.