Archdiocese far from transparent on sexual abuse

BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun [Baltimore MD]

December 28, 2022

By David Anthony Lorenz

A few observations regarding Archbishop William Lori’s recent commentary (”Baltimore archbishop: ‘The Church of today is not the Church described by the attorney general.’ Here’s what’s changed.” Dec. 20). First, providing thousands of pages of documents to the Maryland attorney general because of a subpoena does not make you transparent; it makes you not wanting to go to jail. Providing those documents to the public years ago when you first took office would have made you transparent.

Second, he makes show of the fact that he will not oppose the statute of limitations reform bill currently before the Maryland General Assembly, after having opposed it for years using high-priced lobbyists. Yet he neglects to mention the fourth paragraph of his own news release where he indicates that a huge part of the bill is believed to be unconstitutional. He is clearly laying the groundwork for how the church will attempt to overturn the law by using the judicial system, and this will deny justice to all child sexual abuse victims, not just those abused by Catholic clergy.

He also neglected to mention that in 2017, church lawyers introduced a last-minute amendment to statute of limitations reform that contained a poison pill that makes it more likely that further reform would be unconstitutional. How is that transparent?

Third, he still just doesn’t get that the Catholic Church committed a crime in protecting predators. He claims he will meet with victims in his office to apologize. What other organization gets to dictate the terms of their criminal behavior? None. The victims and the courts should get to dictate the terms, not the offender.

— David Anthony Lorenz, Bowie

The writer is Maryland director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/readers-respond/bs-ed-rr-baltimore-archdiocese-ag-report-letter-20221228-bhncchlalvb4blpixt673d7wz4-story.html