The Catholic Diocese of Dallas hired a respected police officer. It must empower him

Morning News
December 17, 2019

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Dallas police officials cart out boxes from a raid on the Catholic Diocese of Dallas on May 15. Photo by Tom Fox

The road back to trust is deservedly long for the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

The sexual abuse scandal that saw the church harbor abusive priests and shuffle them from parish to parish is impossible to comprehend, so dark and terrible were its intentions and consequences.

We are glad the church has taken and continues to take steps that, we hope, demonstrate a promise that never again will protecting the institution come before protecting the innocent and the vulnerable.

The diocese’s decision to hire a respected law enforcement officer, Dallas Police Deputy Chief Albert Martinez, to supervise the victim’s assistance coordinator and oversee parish security strikes us as an important step.

We agree with the local leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests that any person wishing to disclose allegations of abuse do so first to law enforcement and not go through a diocese official. The diocese has urged doing the same.

Still, we believe that there is value in having a trained law enforcement official charged with protecting churchgoers within the diocese.

It is critical that Martinez have the independence and power to take any information he does receive to authorities in a way that treats potential victims appropriately and ensures proper preservation and handling of any evidence that may come into his possession.

For too long, the church lacked independent and empowered laypeople to serve as a balance to the clergy. Too many of those clergy used the veil of the church to hurt those who most trusted them.

The diocese has worked to restore the trust it lost by releasing the names of credibly accused priests and by implementing programs intended to educate people about abuse and how to report it.

But the pall of suspicion cannot and will not be easily lifted, and a raid in May by Dallas police on the diocese’s headquarters continues to raise questions with few answers.

We hope that Martinez’s presence will foster genuine accountability within the halls of the diocese even as it helps ensure that no other child in Dallas will ever again be the victim of an abusive priest.

If that has to be a prayer in addition to a hope, let it be.