WASHINGTON (DC)
Boston Herald
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
The head of this nation’s Roman Catholic bishops may find comfort in playing a numbers game over the perpetrators of clergy sexual abuse, but this is one community that won’t forget.
Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., told a meeting of American bishops Monday that a “handful” of abusive priests has caused the rest of the clergy “to endure an avalanche of negative public attention.” That’s an insult to those victims who have endured years of pain because of the betrayal they suffered at the hands of their priests and those within the church hierarchy who covered up their crimes.
It is estimated that Roman Catholic dioceses in this country have paid out more than $1 billion in acknowledgment of some 11,500 claims of sexual molestation – claims documented by our own attorney general and his counterparts around the country, most recently in Philadelphia.