Springfield Diocese Restructures Child Protection Office
By Anne-Gerard Flynn
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has renamed its department that oversees clergy sexual abuse allegations — as well as matters related to child protection and victim outreach —and made two new appointments. Effective June 10, Jeffrey J. Trant will serve as director of the newly designated Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance, and Li-Ling Lam-Waller is its compliance officer. The appointments are designed to improve outreach to victims following feedback from parish sessions Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski held earlier this year. The sessions followed concerns about how this diocese handles clergy sex abuse allegations in the wake of a number of national and international investigations into clergy abuse. The announcement also comes in advance of Rozanski’s attendance next week at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Spring General Assembly in Baltimore. It will focus on bishop accountability measures to address the abuse crisis. “The re-naming of the former office of Child & Youth Protections is to better define the mission of the office,” diocesan spokesperson Mark Dupont said. He added, “It doesn’t immediately change any of the reporting procedures, but with the addition of a compliance coordinator it will allow more time for the director to work directly with victims as well as evaluate what other changes might be necessary for the office to be more effective. This new structure was brought about by an internal evaluation which began back in January and from what we heard at the listening sessions from victims and their advocates.” An Elms College graduate with a master of social work degree from Boston College, Trant is a licensed certified social worker and certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner. Lam-Waller’s responsibilities will include education of parish child advocates and training employees, clergy and volunteers in creating environments that protect children from sexual abuse. She has been an assistant in the diocese’s fiscal affairs office and worked previously in the Hartford diocese. The Vatican recently issued new a policy requiring all religious to report clergy sex abuse and cover-up by their superiors to church authorities and also made the policy a law in Vatican City. In February, the diocese, which has had a review board dating to the 1990s and a hotline for the reporting of allegations of abuse, released a report showing how it handles those allegations. It also released data on the number of abuse reports made by year back to 1986 and the decades going back to 1930s when the incidents reportedly. The highest number of claims - 52 – were made in 2004, and the second highest – 15 – last year. The report showed that to date the diocese has paid out close to $15 million in settling 147 claims since 1992. It also showed the diocese has paid $2.25 million for therapy and counseling for victims of abuse with more than $150,000 paid in 2018. The system has been criticized as it is the bishop who ultimately decides whether an allegation is credible and for 10 years the diocese was headed by the late Bishop Thomas Dupre, who resigned as bishop in 2004, just prior to being indicted on charges that he raped two boys back in the 1970s. He was removed the from public ministry by the Vatican in 2004. The late Richard Meehan, who was removed from the clerical state in 2006 over credible allegations of abuse of minors, was in charge of diocesan archives in the 1990s. At the end of February, the Office of Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni established a hotline to report allegations of sexual abuse by members of clergy in Hampden County. Gulluni said in early May that two state police detectives assigned to his office and trained in handling such cases have been investigating information received through the hotline. While he confirmed last week that no new charges have been brought to date, he said the calls have continued “in a steady sort of way” and that his office in establishing the hotline has “gotten very positive feedback from a lot of people whether victims or those working with victims.” “We want to be an ongoing resource and not just for something that happened in the last six months. We want to hear about historical things as well,” said Gulluni who established the hotline out of concerns his office did not have all the cases of abuse it should have as reported by the diocese. “If people feel their case has been addressed by the diocese but have an inkling to report something, err on the side of reporting. We will vet it out and compare to our records and figure things out even with the statute of limitations. Please make that phone call and have a conversation about it with one of our investigators.” Gulluni said the “process is improving” in terms of having a reporting system in place with the diocese and other partners that is effective and transparent and consistent across administrative systems. The statute of limitations in Massachusetts for bringing criminal charges for the sexual abuse of minor is 15 years, and 35 years for filing a civil lawsuit. Priests removed by the Church from public ministry or the clerical state due to credible accusations of sexual abuse of a child made against them would not without a criminal conviction have to register as sex offenders. Richard Lavigne, removed from the clerical state by the Vatican in 2003, is one of only a few among several dozen priests in the Springfield diocese with credible accusations made against them to be criminally charged. He pleaded guilty in 1992 to two counts of molestation of a minor and was given a 10-year probation sentence. Lavigne was also the only publicly identified suspect in the 1972 murder of Springfield altar boy Daniel Croteau. That slaying remains unsolved.
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