Editorial: Finally, churches renounce sexual abuse by their leaders

The Columbus Dispatch
June 18, 2019

https://www.dispatch.com/opinion/20190618/editorial-finally-churches-renounce-sexual-abuse-by-their-leaders

Confession being good for the soul, it is a step in the right direction that both the Southern Baptist Convention and U.S. Catholic bishops met last week to deal with allegations of sex abuse within their ranks.

Both churches have announced measures to deal more effectively with abuse complaints going forward.

The Dispatch hopes their efforts help to put all clergy — as well as others in positions of trust with vulnerable populations — on notice that preying on innocent victims no longer will be tolerated or shielded from public view.

For too long, the repeated pattern in the Catholic Church — and, unfortunately, in other institutions — has been to put the well-being of the institution ahead of the well-being of abuse victims.

But both victims and the institutions have been further harmed by misplaced loyalties.

Another oft-repeated pattern is for the full accounting of misdeeds to be revealed by those outside the institutions and then followed by an inadequate institutional response.

In a number of high-profile cases across the country, it has been local newspapers that have brought into daylight widespread cases of abuse allegations being ignored or downplayed, sometimes leaving perpetrators free to harm others.

Articles by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News in recent months reported that about 380 clergy and volunteers of the Southern Baptist Conference, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, had sexually abused more than 700 victims over 20 years, allowing dozens of those accused of misconduct to remain in or return to positions of trust.

Much of the reporting and subsequent research examining priests’ sexual abuse in the Catholic Church stemmed from the Boston Globe’s 2002 “Spotlight” investigations.

Meeting last week in Birmingham, Alabama, the 15-million-member Southern Baptists took action that, if ratified next year, would allow churches to be removed for failing to address sexual abuse. A report released by the church said, “We lament the fact that it took a national movement of reckoning for abuse to force us to take this issue seriously in our own convention.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meeting in their annual Spring General Assembly in Baltimore, voted to include bishops with priests and deacons in accountability for protecting children and youth and to create a third-party system to receive confidential complaints of misconduct by bishops. Another vote includes involving lay leaders in child protection plans.

Sadly, Columbus has not been immune from allegations of clergy abuse, and The Dispatch has helped to bring more of the picture into public view. Reporter Danae King analyzed assignment records of 40 priests that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus says were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors in cases dating from 1992 and earlier.

The analysis showed that those priests had a high rate of reassignments and had served in more than two-thirds of the diocese’s 105 parishes. While Catholic priests generally are known to serve a parish about six years at a time, the 40 credibly accused priests averaged nine assignments in 32 years — spending about half the usual time in one place.

The Dispatch created a searchable online database noting where the credibly accused priests served and when, at dispatch.com/priestdatabase as part of ongoing coverage online at dispatch.com/catholicsecrecy.

We hope no new allegations arise as churches stand up to sexual abuse by their leaders.