WASHINGTON
The Columbian
It was a small and painful action, yet a necessary one.
The Archdiocese of Seattle this month released what officials say is a comprehensive list of 77 Catholic Church officials accused of sexually abusing children in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008. While the disclosure cannot mitigate the actions of the accused, nor the shameful cover-up that followed, nor the pain of the victims, it hopefully can provide a small step toward healing.
The list includes 11 priests who at some point during their careers had been assigned to Clark County parishes, although it is not clear how many of them faced allegations while at local parishes. The names previously had been disclosed through court records or media reports, meaning that the list was far from revelatory. It also means that the priests named in the document have faced accusations carrying at least some level of validity, limiting the risk of falsely accusing the innocent.
Meanwhile, the disclosure represents the continuing efforts of the Church to heal from within and salve the wounds left festering from decades of turning a blind eye to abuse. “I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed,” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain wrote in a letter accompanying the disclosure.
As has been documented as occurring at other locations throughout the country, the Archdiocese of Seattle for years made a habit of moving accused priests to an unsuspecting parish where they would continue their abusive actions. In recent decades, the archdiocese that covers Western Washington has paid $74 million to settle 392 legal claims in connection with sexual abuse. While these settlements and the list released this month cannot assuage the actions of the abusers or Church officials, it does represent a step toward rapprochement between the actions and the ideals of the Church. As depicted in the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight,” it wasn’t long ago that the Archdiocese of Boston attempted to hide documents from the media that would prove the Church tacitly protected abusive priests.
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