RHODE ISLAND
Crux

By Margery Eagan
On Spirituality columnist January 13, 2016

If you’re not from New England, you may have missed news of a devastating sexual abuse scandal engulfing St. George’s School, a prestigious Rhode Island prep school that educated President George H.W. Bush and other children of America’s aristocracy.

Two of the lawyers representing an ever-growing number of accusers there — Eric MacLeish and Carmen Durso — represented dozens of victims in the Catholic Church abuse scandal as well. And the patterns between the two cases are stunning.

Decades of abuse unreported to law enforcement. Institutional secrecy, cover-up, and denial. Perpetrators relocated, but not punished. Victims intimidated and harassed. And when the story made news, as in the Church case, emboldened accusers went public. The number of accusations skyrocketed.

The cover-up of abuse in the Church, which daily preaches morality, is a reason many Catholics cite…