Letter: Catholic Church needs to help victims of abuse

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

April 1, 2018

By Suzanne Szustakowski

The latest revelations about past sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Buffalo Diocese are deeply disturbing. The article in the March 21 News has revealed just how many more priests were involved than we, as parishioners, were aware of.

I had hoped the church leaders had learned the lessons of Boston, especially when our current bishop was in the Boston area and saw the destruction that scandal caused. As frequent visitors to the Boston area, we witnessed the empty churches, even on Christmas. We witnessed the distress of devout Catholics as the cover-up of this abuse persisted.

Apparently this was not enough to reform the church’s methods of dealing with this horrid crime. Even as these revelations are being made public, our bishop and prominent church leaders are protesting the passage of the look-back law that would allow victims recourse for past abuse. Our leaders are choosing to protect the church and not the victims.

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