NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent
Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., June 30, 2016
Last week at the Diocese of Gallup’s confirmation hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Bishop James S. Wall offered something that a lot of people in the diocese have been expecting from him for years: an apology to those who have been sexually abused by clergy and others working in this diocese.
“I want to first begin by acknowledging the reason why we’re here today, and the reason is because bad people, bad men committed bad and sinful acts against good people,” Wall told the abuse survivors in the courtroom. “And there’s no excuse for that. There never was and there never will be an excuse for that.”
Actually, the actions of those sex abusers went far beyond being bad and sinful. They were criminal acts that were covered up both by the perpetrators and their superiors in the Gallup chancery. That is something Wall needs to acknowledge.
However, we recognize Wall’s apology as an important first step. It took courage for him to sit in that courtroom and apologize. But first it took the courage of 13 abuse survivors who filed public lawsuits against the Gallup Diocese, thereby refusing to go along with the diocese’s usual practice of making backroom, confidential settlement deals. And then it took the humbling power of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court system to get Wall into that courtroom chair.
So now that Wall has made that first step, there are a couple of important issues to note.
First, we have heard similar apologies in the past. The late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte went to Winslow, Arizona, more than a decade ago and offered similar apologies that sounded similarly heartfelt. But they proved to be merely apologetic words that were never backed up with sincere actions.
In another highly publicized event, Pelotte also met with several abuse survivors — including one who spoke at last week’s court hearing. The survivors presented Pelotte with an extensive list of names of suspected clergy sex abusers that Pelotte promised to investigate. Pelotte also promised the diocese would launch a “search and rescue” effort to locate Native American abuse victims across the diocese. What happened to those promises? The list of names was filed away for several years, never to be seen again until the Rev. John Boland — whose name had been on the list — was abruptly removed from ministry, leaving chancery officials to launch a frantic search for the list of names. And as for the promised “search and rescue” effort, it never happened.
Secondly, we need to consider Wall’s own record. When he arrived in 2009, Wall made national headlines for promising to review every past and present clergy personnel file and quickly release the names of credibly accused abusers. That didn’t happen until more than five years later — after the diocese landed in bankruptcy court. Even today the list is incomplete and inaccurate. Wall also promised to publicly release information about the diocese’s investigation into Boland. That has never happened.
And in 2011, two years after Wall’s arrival in Gallup, the public learned he had never even bothered to meet with the diocese’s sex abuse review board. Nowadays, Wall keeps the identity of those board members confidential. Is that to prevent the public and the media from checking on the status of that board?
For seven years, Wall has not even provided Catholic parishioners truthful and straightforward answers about why a number of current priests have abruptly vanished from their ministry assignments. And most recently, Wall and his bankruptcy attorneys stonewalled the requests of abuse survivors for the public release of personnel files of credibly accused abusers. Why was that? Perhaps because those files would provide evidence of the abuse cover-ups perpetrated by high ranking officials in the diocese?
So the question we have to ask is just how sincere was Wall’s courtroom apology? Was it just something he had to say to get the diocese’s plan of reorganization confirmed in bankruptcy court?
If Wall is sincere, he can begin to prove it by carrying out the plan’s non-monetary commitments with transparency and truthfulness. One of those provisions states Wall must visit each operating Catholic parish or school where sexual abuse occurred or where abusers served, and Wall “shall provide a forum/discussion during his visit to address questions and comments.”
The provision doesn’t say conduct a prayer service; it says provide a forum/discussion. We haven’t seen Wall do this anywhere before, so this will be another important step. Does Wall have the courage to do it? Both abuse survivors and Catholics in the pews deserve honest answers about clergy sexual abuse and misconduct as well as other issues facing the diocese today.
If Wall wants us to believe that he is really sorry, he’s going have to offer more than just apologetic words. We’ll be watching his actions.
In this space only does the opinion of the Gallup Independent Editorial Board appear.
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