NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 8
Statement by Mary Caplan of New York City, SNAP Leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (917 439 4187, mcaplan682@aol.com )
It’s been more than a decade since the New York Archdiocese has revealed how much it’s spending on clergy sex abuse and cover up cases. (So says self-described “loyal Catholic” Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal.) And a NY bishop is now deceitfully minimizing the scope of the pedophile priest/complicit bishop crisis.
[CNN]
Bishop John O’Hara, in a NY Post op ed, claims that Noonan “must know” that widespread abuse payouts are “not the case for the Archdiocese of New York, which has not had to pay large settlements.” He claims “The situation in New York is completely different than the one found in Boston, where a decade ago Cardinal [Sean] O’Malley did sell the estate that included the residence for the archbishop of Boston, motivated by a need to pay sex abuse settlements (which we have not had here in New York).”
But Noonan writes, because “the last time the New York Archdiocese released numbers on (abuse) costs was 11 years ago.” So while his boss conceals abuse costs, Bishop O’Hara asks us to take Catholic officials to take him at his word about those costs. Given the church hierarchy’s decades of secrecy around both abuse and finances – and their pledges to be more honest – that’s just silly.
(The truth is that no one knows how many secret settlements the New York archdiocese has paid and continue to pay. That’s because the church is a monarchy and Dolan doesn’t have to disclose this information.)
Furthermore, Bishop O’Hara’s comments mislead the public. In our view, the New York archdiocese handles abuse almost exactly like the Boston archdiocese does – hiding as much as possible, disclosing only when forced to, minimizing the crisis, and exploiting legal technicalities. The difference: New York Catholic officials have more effectively exploited those technicalities and kept a very tight lid on the crisis, thanks largely to archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly state laws (that Dolan and his colleagues lobby hard to keep in place).
Cardinal Dolan should censure Bishop O’Hara. For decades, Catholic officials have pledged to be “open and transparent” about the clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis. Dolan himself is violating this pledge. But O’Hara goes one step further and deceives the flock about it.
Noonan says that NYC Cardinal Timothy Dolan should sell his “splendid 15,000-foot mansion on Madison Avenue.” The profits, she argues, should be donated to local Catholic schools.
(Dolan’s home is worth roughly $30 million, according to an August CNN report “The lavish homes of American archbishops.” That report shows that almost one third of the US’s top Catholic officials defy the pontiff’s example and live in homes worth more than $1 million.)
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.