National group blasts Syracuse diocese over child-molesting allegations against monsignor

NEW YORK
Post-Standard

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com
on October 02, 2014

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A national victims’ advocacy organization today criticized the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse over its handling of a child-molesting accusation against a monsignor.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests questioned why it took more than a year after receiving the allegations for the diocese to permanently remove Monsignor Charles Eckermann from ministry.

“Why on earth does it take a more than a year – and consultation with church bureaucrats in Rome – to determine whether a child sex abuse report against a New York priest is ‘credible’?”

“When officials move slowly and quietly in abuse cases, they break their promises to be ‘open and transparent,’ and they endanger other children,” Clohessy said. “Child abusers rarely abuse once. There is no telling how many more children might have needlessly been victimized.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.