Priest misconduct report prompts questions among survivors

By Kevin O'connor
vtdigger.org
September 01, 2019

https://vtdigger.org/2019/09/02/priest-misconduct-report-prompts-questions-among-survivors/

From left, Bishop Christopher Coyne and members of the church’s lay committee, Mike Donoghue and Mark Redmond. Photo by Mike Dougherty

A Vermont Catholic Church report revealing the names of 40 Vermont priests accused of sexually abusing children over the past seven decades has both provided answers and prompted questions for survivors and members of the state’s largest religious denomination.

“This is a long overdue step towards transparency — and there is still more work to do,” says Zach Hiner, executive director of the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The support group says the Vermont report is similar to documents from other states that offer such basics as an accused priest’s name, dates and locations of assignments, and whether that person is dead or alive. But SNAP doesn’t understand why dioceses nationwide aren’t including photos and other clarifying details about clergy or sharing more about how many people have complained of abuse.

“There really hasn’t been one list anywhere that has all the information that’s most useful to the public,” Hiner says.

Vermont Catholic Bishop Christopher Coyne gave the state diocese’s long-locked personnel files to a seven-member lay committee last November to review and release the names of clergy who have faced credible allegations of child sexual abuse since 1950. SNAP went on to criticize the church for not publicizing a list sooner — a point the bishop acknowledged upon releasing the report last week.

“If only a list of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor had been released 15 years ago, perhaps we would be farther along our collective path of healing,” said Coyne, who became the diocese’s leader in 2015.

The four men and three women on the lay committee said their biggest obstacle was the fact the personnel files were both overwhelming and under-organized and mostly limited to diocesan priests and not other religious orders such as the Society of Saint Edmund that also serve the state.

“The volume of the files we were presented with was itself a challenge,” the committee wrote in its report. “It was apparent the Vermont diocesan recordkeeping system was inadequate and incomplete.”

The diocese, for example, sorted through the records of its 400 priests since 1950 to give the committee more than 50 folders it considered potentially problematic. Even so, one file alone contained 1,000 pages of paperwork ranging from reams of everyday correspondence to an occasional explosive charge.

“It quickly became clear that our original target date to release the report by December 31, 2018, was unreasonable,” members wrote.

The committee ultimately found credible allegations against 40 priests and determined the remaining clergy pinpointed for review had no reason to be identified publicly.

“That’s why I’m glad we took the time,” says Mark Redmond, executive director of Burlington’s Spectrum Youth & Family Services and committee leader alongside former Chittenden County State’s Attorney Robert Simpson. “We never even considered just throwing the names out there. We had to be fair to everybody.”

The 40 accused priests account for about 10% of total Vermont clergy since 1950 — a similar ratio compared with other dioceses in New England and nationally, according to the watchdog website bishopaccountability.org.

The committee, discovering there are no standards for such reviews, decided to define a credible allegation as one that’s either considered “natural, plausible and probable,” corroborated with other evidence, or acknowledged by the accused.

“I knew the issue was significant, but it was a bit larger than I would have anticipated,” says committee member John Mahoney, a retired Burlington schoolteacher who was abused by a priest around eighth grade. “I saw names of victims I did not know I was going to see. I saw names of perpetrators I did not know I was going to see.”

That said, the files don’t contain the full extent of the problem. One of the most sued former priests, Edward Paquette, has faced 32 court cases with several more filed recently. But his official records only note incidents involving two boys in Rutland and five more in Burlington, as most of his accusers didn’t come forward until decades later and went directly to a lawyer rather than to church leaders.

“The sad truth is for every kid who reported abuse there were more who didn’t,” Redmond says.

As a result, the committee — which chose not to include details of individual incidents to protect accusers’ privacy — decided not to even estimate how many children were abused by Vermont priests individually or collectively.

As a survivor, Mahoney isn’t upset the report doesn’t include such facts or figures.

“One credible allegation is horrendous, period,” he says.

Mahoney also doesn’t regret the committee’s timetable.

“Ideally our work would have been finished sooner, but we wanted to be thorough,” he says. “As a committee we were disappointed that, even at this stage, the diocese had not organized a database.”

Fellow committee member Mike Donoghue reviewed the records from the perspective of a former Burlington Free Press reporter and current executive director of the Vermont Press Association. Some have questioned why a journalist wouldn’t want to publish information as soon as possible. In response, Donoghue cites the need for accuracy.

“With my background of being a fact finder and worrying about accountability, my sense was to look at every piece of paper in the entirety of the files,” he says. “Everyone on the committee wanted to be fair to the victims and fair to the priests. I went in with a blank slate and said, ‘Show me the facts.’ We weren’t going to report anything out until we were 100% sure.”

SNAP credited the Vermont diocese for including at least one name of an outside accused priest who had visited the state — something many other churches haven’t done.

“That’s something we always ask to be included,” Hiner says. “We want this list to be an affirmation for survivors. We need to have as much information in the hands of the public as possible.”

The committee agrees. Its members — who also include planner Mary O’Neil, nurse Johanna Sheehey-Jones and mother and project manager Caroline Riehl Smith — want the church to better organize its records.

“The diocese needs to up its game,” Redmond says.

The committee also wants to return to its work if more allegations surface.

“Additional files will need to be reviewed,” it writes. “Formalizing the reporting process and including independent citizen panels are steps toward ensuring these crimes are no longer hidden.”