Failure to report criminal acts to police
From a criminal law viewpoint, the single worst failure of the Roman Catholic Church was the widespread failure of those in authority, once alerted as to the behaviour of individual sex abusers and paedophiles under their authority, to report the incidents directly to the police in their state. This phenomenon occurred in every country with rare exceptions. The Church, where it saw rules as having been broken, focused almost exclusively on its own rules and its own legal code, Canon Law, rather than the criminal law in their country. Though such a phenomenon exists widely in religion in general (where disputes regularly arise over non-compliance with planning regulations, anti-discrimination legislation, employment rights, etc) in the case of child sex abuse it proved to have catastrophic consequences. The Norbertine Order, for example, knew not merely of Fr. Brendan Smyth's paedophile tendencies but of allegations of sexually interfering with children from as early as 1945, yet it was only in the late 1980s and early 1990s that the two police forces in Ireland, the Garda Siochána and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, were able to gather sufficient information, all from non-church sources, to prosecute Smyth.
Allegations of systematic plots to conceal evidence
Reviewers of the Smyth case differ as to whether it was a deliberate plot to conceal the nature of his behaviour, or whether much of what happened involved complete incompetence by his superiors, the Abbots of Kilnacrott Abbey, or perhaps a mixture of an institution presuming that what happened to its members was its own business, plus the complete incompetence of his superiors, who failed to grasp the human and legal consequences of the actions of a particularly manipulative paedophile, who found ways to circumvent whatever restrictions the abbots placed on him. (Cardinal Daly, both as Bishop of Down and Connor (where some of the abuse took place) and later as Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh, is recorded as having been privately scathing at the Norbertine 'incompetence').
The recently publicised 1962 document Crimen Sollicitationis, which encouraged silence in the face of a range of misdemeanours by clergy related to their conduct with people attending the Sacrament of Confession, may also have encouraged bishops to cover up accusations of child molestation.
However, unambiguous evidence of individual plots to conceal evidence does exist. In 1990, Auxiliary Bishop Quinn of Cleveland was secretly recorded recommending that evidence be removed from files of priests, and that if necessary some sensitive paperwork be given to the Apostolic Nunciature, the embassy of the Holy See, on the basis that the evidence would then be covered by diplomatic immunity. [http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/bishopquinn020531.html] In the case of Fr. Jim Grennan in Ireland, who was accused of sexually abusing 12 schoolgirls who were preparing for their local Sacrament of Confirmation under his supervision in the local church, a police file on Grennan went missing. He was never prosecuted for lack of surviving evidence. The since deceased policeman supervising the inquiry subsequently received a church award.
Payments to victims to discourage reporting of the crime
Widespread reports even suggested that some members of the hierarchy paid off victims of the criminal offence of child abuse to prevent them reporting the crime. In the mid 1990s, the Roman Catholic Archibishop (later Cardinal) Connell of Dublin 'loaned' money to a priest who had abused altar-boy Andrew Madden, to enable the priest to pay "compensation" to Madden and prevent Madden reporting the abuse to the police. Connell later claimed never to have paid money to a victim, insisting that he had simply "loaned" money to a priest who just happened to use the money to pay off his victim.
This failure has perhaps caused the biggest sense of betrayal among church members. The belief that the institution thought itself above the criminal law, in the process endangering the safety of millions of children worldwide, caused widespread shock. Its defenders sought to suggest that, though a wrong reaction, the Church's handling was a simple example of how large organisations and institutions judge issues in terms of their own rules and regulations, "looking after its own", a phenomenon reflected in the activities of major corporations, sectors of society and even political elites in how they react to unacceptable behaviour by a minority of their own members; keep the issue 'in-house' and try to find a solution without involving 'outsiders'. In the Smyth case, efforts were even made to silence a critic of the Norbertine Order's behaviour, Fr. Bruno Mulvihill, while in the aftermath of the revelation of the full story of Smyth's behaviour in a UTV television, Suffer Little Children, the vicar to the head of the Norbertines, Abbot Benjamin Mackin of the De Pere Abbey in Wisconsin in the United States came to Norbertine's Irish headquarters to speak to the Order's priests. Far from apologising, he blamed the media for covering the Smyth story, saying it was out to "attack . . . the church."3 Critics note the tendency of religion in general to assume that it, as a religion dealing with the 'word of God', is superior to civil and secular society. Catholicism's belief in itself as the "true church" of Jesus Christ, they argue, made it believe that its own rules, created by its God-ordained elite, were morally superior to mere state law, hence the priority given to Canon law over civil or criminal law enacted by secular society.
An additional complicating factor centres on the Sacrament of Confession, in which Catholics believe that any wrongs confessed to God in the sacrament, in the presence of a priest as mediator, can be forgiven but also cannot be revealed with breaching the 'seal of confession'. According to Roman Catholic theology, a paedophile who confesses his activities in the Sacrament of Confession cannot have his comments and revelations made in confession reported by his confessor to any other person, inside or outside the Church.
Abuse scandal far deeper than disclosed, report says
Victims of clergy may exceed 1,000, Reilly estimates
By Walter V. Robinson and Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff, 7/24/2003
Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly yesterday called the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston ''the greatest tragedy to befall children -- ever'' in Massachusetts, one that involved far more priests and many more victims than 18 months of traumatic public disclosures have suggested.
Reilly, in releasing the report on a 16-month investigation, said that, over six decades, at least 237 priests and 13 other church employees were accused of molesting at least 789 minors. Reilly said the actual number of victims may be much higher, and probably exceeds 1,000.
But Reilly said that, though he wished it were otherwise, he could find no criminal statute under which he could prosecute church leaders, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law. Nonetheless, he concluded that Law, his two predecessors as archbishop, and numerous subordinate bishops facilitated the years of abuse, protecting priests time and again while leaving children vulnerable.
''The mistreatment of children was so massive and so prolonged that it borders on the unbelievable,'' Reilly said. Church leaders, he said, ''in effect, sacrificed children for many, many years.''
Before yesterday, the consensus was that no more than 150 priests in the Boston archdiocese had been accused of molesting minors.
In the report, Reilly concluded that despite some statements by Law to the contrary, the cardinal was deeply involved in decisions that permitted accused priests to retain access to children well into the late 1990s, and he cited cases in which those priests molested more minors.
What's more, the report cites substantial evidence to refute assertions by Law that he was unaware of the extent of the problem.
''There is overwhelming evidence that for many years Cardinal Law and his senior managers had direct, actual knowledge that substantial numbers of children in the archdiocese had been sexually abused by substantial numbers of its priests,'' the report said. Any claim to the contrary, by Law or others, the report went on, ''is simply not credible.''
The report also cited evidence that Law ''had firsthand knowledge of the problem of clergy sexual abuse of children for many years'' -- even before he became archbishop of Boston in 1984.
Reilly's office, which had to use grand jury subpoenas to force disclosure by church officials, discovered fresh evidence of efforts by Law's deputies, five of whom now head their own dioceses, to hide the problem from the public, and sometimes from inquiring law enforcement officials.
For example:
Bishop Robert J. Banks in 1984 urged prosecutors and a judge to be lenient toward the Rev. Eugene M. O'Sullivan, who had pleaded guilty to raping an altar boy. Banks, according to the report, knew something prosecutors didn't -- that O'Sullivan had other victims. Banks is now bishop of the Green Bay, Wis., diocese.
After a Hingham pastor, the Rev. John R. Hanlon, was indicted on rape charges in 1992, Bishop Alfred C. Hughes did not disclose to law enforcement officials who contacted him that a second victim of Hanlon had contacted the archdiocese. Hughes is now archbishop of New Orleans.
As recently as 2000, an auxiliary bishop who is not named in the report was alerted to accusations that Christopher Reardon, a youth worker at a Middleton parish, had been molesting children. But the bishop did not notify archdiocesan officials, and Reardon found new victims before he was arrested several months later.
Indeed, only twice in six decades, according to the report, did church officials alert law enforcement authorities to the illicit sexual behavior of priests. And in one of those cases, the alert came only after church officials allowed the priest, the Rev. Paul J. Mahan, to spend an unsupervised summer living with teenage boys.
For the beleaguered church, there were few encouraging passages in the 76-page report. With two exceptions -- a nun and one auxiliary bishop -- no one spoke up against the practice of shielding abusive priests, the investigation found. ''(N)one of [Law's] senior managers advised him to take any of the steps that might have ended the systemic abuse of children,'' the report said.
And while the investigation, overseen by Kurt Schwartz, the chief of Reilly's criminal bureau, concluded that the reported incidence of sexual abuse by priests has decreased over the last several years, Reilly yesterday expressed concern that the drop may be only because children who have been recently abused have not come forward.
The report also concluded that the archdiocese's new child protection policy, adopted two months ago, has serious deficiencies.
Even now, the report said, ''The process protects priests at the expense of victims'' when complaints are lodged by victims by giving the archbishop discretion on whether to investigate. Also, Reilly said, the lay review board does not have independence from the archbishop, and there is still no provision to monitor the behavior of accused priests who have been removed from ministry.
The Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, the archdiocesan spokesman, said in a statement yesterday that the archdiocese ''believes it has already taken substantial steps'' to protect children. But he said the church is willing to work with others, including Reilly's office, to improve the policy.
Coyne said he could not offer a substantive response before church officials have time to study the report. But Coyne reiterated the church's commitment to ''treat sexual abuse of a child as a criminal matter'' and ''end the culture of secrecy in the handling of such matters.''
Perhaps the most surprising disclosure was the evidence that many more priests were involved in sexual abuse of minors than has previously been known.
In mid-2000, 18 months before the Globe Spotlight Team first reported that the problem was widespread, the archdiocese's internal tabulations recorded that church officials were aware of allegations involving 191 priests and 402 victims, according to records kept by the Rev. Brian M. Flatley, the cardinal's aide for sexual abuse issues.
The total number of diocesan and religious order priests accused, according to Reilly's report, is 237, although aides said yesterday that the 237 includes a handful of religious brothers. Reilly's report does not say how many of the 237 are diocesan priests.
Before yesterday, the Globe had reported the number of accused priests and brothers was more than 150. A database developed by the newspaper -- covering 50 years, not the 60 years studied by Reilly's investigators -- includes 161 accused clergymen. Of those, 133 are diocesan priests, 22 are priests from religious orders, and six are brothers.
Among the documents the church turned over to Reilly were secret annual reports prepared by Flatley between 1994 and 2000 for Law and his top deputies. It was in these reports that Flatley noted that the number of priests known to have been accused of sexual abuse was at 191 in mid-2000. Since then, accusations have been lodged against several dozen more.
In five of those six years for which Flatley included figures, the archdiocese paid $17.6 million to settle claims by victims, and hundreds of thousands more to pay for treatment for both victims and their abusers.
Last year, the archdiocese paid $10 million to settle 86 claims against one defrocked priest, John J. Geoghan. More than 500 others who say they were abused by priests in the archdiocese have claims that are pending, amid estimates that it will cost the church another $50 million to $100 million to settle them.
In the report, and at his news conference yesterday, Reilly said he decided in March 2002 to launch a formal inquiry when church officials, after considerable prodding, turned over records implicating 69 living priests who had 214 alleged victims.
By June, the attorney general had decided to convene a grand jury, and use its subpoena power, after church officials failed to cooperate with investigators.
According to one official familiar with the investigation, some of the bishops insisted that they be given questions a month before their interviews, that they would not take follow-up questions, that they would not answer questions about any documents and that some subjects would be off-limits in the interviews.
For those reasons, Law and at least six bishops were ordered to appear before the grand jury.
After reviewing 30,000 pages of documents, conducting numerous interviews, and taking 100 hours of testimony before the grand jury, prosecutors believed there was strong evidence refuting statements by Law that he was unaware of the continued threat to children from abusive priests and that his subordinates most often handled the issue on his behalf.
Citing that evidence, the report said Law ''bears ultimate responsibility for the tragic treatment of children that occurred during his tenure.''
Law, the report said, ''had direct knowledge of the scope, duration, and severity of the crisis experienced by children in the archdiocese; he participated directly in crucial decisions concerning the assignment of abusive priests, decisions that typically increased the risk to children.''
The report also pointed to evidence that Law was knowledgeable about the extent of clergy sexual abuse and the high recidivism rate for sexual abusers, particularly those who prey on young children. For instance, the report says that in November 1984, the same month Law assigned pedophile priest John J. Geoghan to St. Julia's parish in Weston, Law visited the Saint Luke Institute, a Maryland facility that provides counseling and treatment to sexually abusive priests.
During his visit, the report says, Law met with several priests from the Boston archdiocese, including one being treated for pedophilia, and conferred with the institute's staff about the treatment plan for that priest.
The report also says that in January 1986, Law discussed clergy sexual abuse and pedophilia with Dr. Thomas Kane, then director of the now-defunct House of Affirmation, a Massachusetts treatment center for priests.
In a follow-up letter to Law, Kane discussed the high recidivism rate of priests treated for pedophilia.
''In general practice, the clinical literature seems to support that there has been a great deal of recidivism among treated pedophiles,'' Kane said in his letter.
Reilly said his investigation focused on Law's tenure, from 1984 to 2002, because that was the period of time when it was most likely that evidence would be found that would allow charges to be brought against church leaders.
But Reilly said Law was only one in a succession of archbishops who shared the goal of protecting priests and keeping their misconduct secret to avoid embarrassment to the church.
''It was an institutional acceptance of the sexual abuse by members of the clergy that goes far back to before Cardinal Law,'' Reilly said yesterday.
''Time after time, decision after decision, when they were tested, when they were forced and faced with the choice between protecting children or protecting the reputation of the church and the priest abusers they chose secrecy. And they chose to protect the church at the expense of children,'' Reilly said. ''In effect, they sacrificed children for many, many years.''
In 1993, after Hanlon's indictment and allegations by scores of people against the Rev. James R. Porter in the Fall River diocese, Law approved a new policy that was designed to protect children and rein in abusive priests.
But even then, the report said, the church maintained its policy of secrecy. It turned aside suggestions from victims and a nun on Law's staff, Sister Catherine Mulkerrin, that parishes be notified when priests were accused so victims would come forward. And after priests were sent away for treatment, some were returned to ministry, allowed to wear clerical garb and their access to children was not monitored.
In at least four cases, priests continued to molest minors.
The church's top officials, Reilly said, ''didn't seem to recognize the wrongfulness of it.''
c.i.
Do you agree with Wilso that I am scum?
PEDOPHILIA WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CLERGY
Members of the Catholic clergy have been involved in many pedophilia scandals in the past and continue to become involved in them today. It is extremely difficult to obtain estimates of how many due to the secrecy invoked by the Catholic Church. In many cases, the victims and their families are forced to remain silent on the issue to receive their settlement and we cannot expect the Catholic Church to come out and publicize the wrongs of its clergy.
Unfortunately for the Catholic Church, the crimes occur so often that their occurrence is impossible to conceal. A March 9 article by Sue Anne Pressley, a Washington Post staff writer, reports on yet another case in which a bishop for the Catholic Church has admitted guilt in a crime of sexual abuse of a minor and has stepped down from his post. Ironically, Anthony J. O'Connell had arrived within his diocese to replace another bishop, J. Keith Symons, accused of similar crimes.
Theists would have us believe that morality is attained through religion. Through deduction one would assume that church leaders, being representatives of theism, would be the most moral. From this one would further deduce that sexual abuse of minors, a damnable offense in my mind, would be committed at best very infrequently by these supposed leaders of morality. This is contradicted by the wave of just such crimes being committed by these people.
The recent cases in Florida are by no means isolated. John Geoghan of Boston was accused of similar crimes, of which Cardinal Bernard Law knew full well, but was still permitted to perform his duties within the Catholic Church. Archbishop Robert Sanchez of Santa Fe was forced to resign in 1993 over sex scandals, albeit with adults, as was Archbishop Eugene Marino of Atlanta. Pressley reports that since January of 2002, "more than 25 priests around the country have been suspended or forced to resign because of sexual abuse allegations or admissions." The diocese of Tucson says that it may not be able to afford payments to all of its victims. One can only assume that this is merely the tip of the iceberg!
Many reasons can be given for such statistics. It is possible that many people choose religion as their career because people who occupy these positions are trusted and are given the opportunity and power to commit crimes involving pedophilia. Some are likely homosexuals (I'm not trying to compare homosexuals to pedophiles here) who see a career in religion as the perfect excuse for remaining celibate (the living with your mom excuse doesn't hold very well today). It is also possible that forced celibacy drives some of these people to pedophilia. Maybe not getting laid in forty years does that to some people.
If these disturbing events teach us anything it should be that some people use religion and its position of power to simply take advantage of people and don't give a damn about what they're "supposed" to be teaching. At the very least it should teach us that the religious establishment is not something in which to put absolute trust because there are those who will manipulate that trust to their own advantage.
Clergy pay off crimes with cold, hard cash
By Christine Shin
The silence has been broken. But the recent wave of accusations of sexual misconduct against the Catholic clergy is nothing new to the world. The broken silence of the ongoing problem is just another eye-opener for society to realize what kind of world we're already living in.
A string of cases throughout the nation are surfacing to the public's attention. Here's a rundown of just a few of the appalling incidents.
The Roman Catholic dioceses of Orange and Los Angeles Counties paid $1.2 million Monday in a civil lawsuit to a 37-year-old woman who accused a priest of molesting and impregnating her 20 years ago. This settlement with Lori Haigh was the second the two dioceses have paid in eight months to a victim of priestly abuse.
The archdiocese of Boston paid more than $10 million to settle a portion of pedophile charges against the former Rev. John J. Geoghan. Geoghan was criminally convicted on charges of raping a 7-year-old.
Similar accusations of the dioceses' sexual abuse and negligence with young boys and girls have occurred in Tucson, with 16 plaintiffs in 11 civil suits that were settled for an undisclosed amount of money in January.
Ah, the peace and comfort I feel when I think about how the church simply pays off their sins, oops I meant crimes. I'm wondering what they will do if they run out of money. Yeah right, the church run out of money?
Though some cases have temporarily bankrupted entire dioceses, A.W. Richard Sipe, an expert witness for the plaintiffs in 57 of the lawsuits, estimated in a Washington Post article that the church has paid out $1 billion.
In the same article, Mark Chopko, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called that figure "unfounded and inflammatory" and said the jury awards and settlements that have been publicly disclosed at probably totaling between $200 and $300 million.
Oh, only $300 million?
This money is supposedly coming not from pastoral service appeals or other contributions from parishes and members, but from investment and insurance revenue.
A survey of the 178 Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States shows that at least 232 priests were removed over the past two decades because of sexual misconduct with minors, according to an article in the St. Louis Post.
With such large numbers, it's blatantly obvious that this problem needs to be addressed urgently. Something definitely needs to change. Some think the rules should be changed so priests can marry and therefore release their sexual energy in a healthy, or crimeless, manner.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but don't priests know about the celibacy that they commit to before they dedicate their lives to Catholicism? I have yet to hear about a nun who couldn't control her desires and decided to molest children. True, times change. But, I don't think years of tradition should be amended for the accommodation of men who can't control their sexual urges. Besides, it's too slippery of a slope to start changing things now.
And what would that be teaching tomorrow's generation? It says that if you mess up, hey it's OK, everything will be fine -- as long as you pay your fees and change the rules, it's nobody's fault.
Maybe these few bad apples won't spoil the entire basket but the truth is that trust has been rotted away by the actions of these "higher" members of the church.
I feel for Catholics around the world whose foundations were shaken by the recent disclosures of members of their religion and, of course, the real victims who have been hiding in the dark shadows of Catholicism. Thank you for sharing truth.
Christine Shin is a journalism major at Cal State Long Beach.
Clergy mislead church by hiding crimes from law
The prejudiced and grossly generalizing nature of your comments is making me wish them to be deleted to preserve MY non-catholic and non-christian sensibilities, Wilso.
gonna start on the other organisations after that, Wilso?
Clergy & Priest Sexual Abuse
Clergy preyed on children by sexually abusing them for decades; yet only recently did these horrific and shocking crimes by religious leaders make national and international headlines. Apparently for years the Catholic Church warranted sufficient clout to hide these crimes through confidential settlements, allowing the Church to unleashing priests on new unsuspecting victims. In Boston alone, the beleaguered Cardinal Bernard Law admitted beginning prosecutions of at least 80 priests.
Father Thomas Doyle assisted in writing a 1985 report to Catholic Church bishops. The report indicated reassigned sexually abusive priests often continued re-offending and a totally out of control problem. Doyle now works with plaintiff attorneys, breaking with the Church hierarchy, saying church leaders did not address the issues then and believes they continue to avoid doing so now.
Father Doyle said an agenda for an recent bishops' conference dealing only with abuse, took "an avalanche of negative publicity that was followed by a tidal wave of more negative publicity that was accompanied by a massive hemorrhage of millions and millions of dollars."
While the Catholic Church may worry most about their financial losses, the most serious losses include the innocence of children, destroyed lives and loss of spiritual faith. Estimates of quiet settlements to victims range from $300 million up to $1 billion. These settlements often require sale of church property, borrowing from parishes and other dioceses due to limits on insurance payments.
Unfortunately the Catholic Church harbors only some of the clergy's pedophiles. Sexual abuse is not just a problem experienced only in United States. Members of other religious sects also shelter and protect child sexual abusers among their ranks. Congregates often place deep trust and respect in their church leaders enabling leaders' victimization for the very people who trust the most. Worldwide reports detail clergy sexual abuse internationally.
Current studies show girls are sexually abused about three times as often as boys, but this study is not limited to sexual abuse by clergy. Some within the Catholic Church suggest their child sexual abuse problem relates to celibacy; others point to the Church having large homosexual population. However studies show that sexual abuse of children is not related to either celibacy or homosexuality.
Cover-up of the activities of powerful and wealthy paedophiles in Ireland
When the "Father" Brendan Smith child abuse scandal broke in 1994 , it brought down the Irish coalition government of Fianna Fail under Albert Reynolds and the Labour Party under Dick Spring. 1994 was a watershed year in Ireland regarding child abuse and the Smith Affair was only the first in a long line of paedophile expose's , involving Roman Catholic priests , which would come to light in the coming years !
In 1997 , while in prison , Ft. Brendan Smith conveniently died of a heart attack , brought on by a drugs overdose , we are told!
Another paedophile Roman Catholic priest was Ft. Fortune from Wexford who also capitulated conveniently to a drug/alcohol overdose , just before he was due in court on several charges involving child abuse.
Ft. Fortune's boss , Bishop Comiskey of Ferns County Wexford , is a self confessed alcoholic , who , according to newspaper reports , took first-class holidays in Thailand , a country infamous for its child prostitution. There were also allegations that the good Bishop refused to cooperate with Garda enquiries into the Ft. Fortune child abuse scandal.
After the Ft. Smith and Ft. Fortune scandals broke , there has been a deludge of child abuse cases involving Roman Catholic priests.
Between 1994 and 2001 , scores of RC Church paedophile priests have been brought before the courts on child abuse charges and now the Laffoy Commission is investigating more than 2500 cases of child abuse against mainly RC clergy.
Notable examples of Irish child sex abuse crimes involving priests are ; the Roman Catholic Christian Brothers at the Artane Boys Home , the Letterfrack Boys Home , St Josephs Home in Tralee , "Brothers of Charity " Lota House in Cork , St Joesphs College Kilkenny etc. These are but a few examples of the RC church paedophile catalogue of crimes against children in Ireland !
