CHARLOTTE (NC)
WFAE
December 3, 2019
By Sarah Delia
[The first episode in this podcast was blogged previously in Abuse Tracker. See The List – Episode 1: The Who and the What. Also blogged previously were a conversation with the author, Sarah Delia, expert Tom Doyle, and the survivor “Anthony”; and an interview with Delia.]
In this episode of “The List,” we learn more about the child sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and why dioceses across the country have been releasing lists of credibly accused clergy. We also learn more about the history of the Charlotte Diocese — which as of Dec. 1, 2019, still hadn’t released a list despite plans to do so by the end of the year. And we hear from a survivor of abuse at the hands of a former priest who once served in Charlotte — and the attorney who represented him in a lawsuit against the diocese.
The following includes descriptions about sexual violence. Please be advised.
SARAH DELIA: I told you I’ve been thinking a lot about lists. How do you decide what’s important to remember? And how do you decide what’s not? And when it comes to creating a list like the one the Charlotte Diocese has committed to release by the end of the year, one that includes the names of credibly accused clergy who at some point served at the Charlotte Diocese, how do you begin that process? How do you know when it’s complete?
TOM DOYLE: In our justice system, if you’re credibly accused of murder, people know about it. You know, your name is put in the newspaper. It’s not kept secret. The people in North Carolina have just as much a right as anybody else to know what priests who’ve been employed by that diocese have been known to have sexually violated children, minors or vulnerable adults.
DELIA: That’s Tom Doyle. Some describe him as one of the original whistleblowers of the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Doyle is an expert in Catholic law and a former priest. He walked away from the Catholic Church and the priesthood about 15 years ago, largely in part because of the abuse and the coverup he saw.
DOYLE: When the bishop assigns them to a parish as a pastor, as an assistant pastor, when he assigns them to work in a high school, he’s telling those people that this man is morally and spiritually fit for this position and you can trust him and you can count on the fact that he’s there for your spiritual and moral guidance.
DELIA: He’s dedicated the last 35 years of his career to helping hold the church accountable. He’s routinely used as a court expert in lawsuits. He also uses his skills in other ways. For example, the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph hired Doyle to audit personnel records. He dug through archives and documents to see what the organization’s response to sexual abuse accusations and inappropriate behavior was. The audit went all the way back to the 1880s. It was published in 2013. [A revised version of the report was published soon after.]
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.