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	Joye Brown: Diocese Shouldn't Fight Statute of Limitations Bill By Joye Brown Newsday March 15, 2009 http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lijoye156070178mar15,0,3161996.column [Suffolk County Grand Jury Report] For too many years, victims of clergy sex abuse have been silenced, ignored and legally shut out. The consequences have been well documented: Lives destroyed or changed forever, justice denied. Finally, there's a chance to set some things right, legally and morally. Albany should pass the measure that finally will give many of these victims their day in court. And the Diocese of Rockville Centre should do nothing to stand in the lawmakers' way. If anyone needs a reminder of why, consider this: To this day, only one public document catalogs some of the appalling, illegal behavior that went on in the diocese for decades. "Priests assigned to and working in the Diocese of Rockville Centre committed criminal acts," according to a 181-page special grand jury report issued in 2002. "... These criminal acts included, but were not limited to, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of a child and use of a child in a sexual performance." The report includes cases of sexually abusive priests identified only by letters of the alphabet. They start with Priest A and continue on to Priest W - who told diocesan officials that he'd been abused by yet another priest, Priest O, as a high school student. Together, the report tallies 23 priests accused of sexually abusing, by my count, at least 113 children, most of them boys, from the late 1970s through the early 2000s. What's even more troubling is that the report cites an internal diocese memo that, in 2002, said the diocese had complaints about 58 priests. In 2004, Bishop William Murphy apologized to the diocese, saying 132 people had reported being abused by 66 priests since the parish's founding in 1957. It's not clear how much has been paid out by the diocese, but jury awards, settlements and statements by Murphy, who was installed as Rockville Centre bishop in 2001, suggest an amount more than $25 million. But this is about more than predatory priests and children. It's about past actions of the diocese itself. In decades past, even when the diocese knew of abusers in its midst, officials made no reports to police, the report said. "They failed to act on obvious warning signs of sexual abuse," the report said, "including instances where they were aware that priests had children in their private rooms in the rectory overnight, that priests were drinking alcohol with underage children and exposing them to pornography." In the wake of the national sex abuse scandal, the church adopted a charter on child protection and for the first four years of its use, the Rockville Centre diocese was in compliance. In 2008, it was one of 12 dioceses that were not in compliance. On Friday, the Diocese of Rockville Centre said it could go "bankrupt" if the state passed the measure that would extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits. But, as the report makes clear, the diocese actually went bankrupt years ago, when it shuttled predator priests from parish to parish across Long Island. According to the report, the diocese also did everything it could to cover up, bully victims and ignore professional assessments that called at least one local priest a "sociopath." "The grand jury finds that it was no accident that by 1990, the Diocese of Rockville Centre had only paid out $4,000 in legal claims for the sexual abuse of children by priests," the report said. "This low number was the result of a carefully orchestrated plan ... executed by the diocesan hierarchy ... to appear responsive to the needs of priests, victims and to protect unsuspecting children. In reality ... [there was] one purpose, protecting the diocese." At one point, for example, unidentified high-ranking diocesan officials told Priest W to deny allegations against Priest O after Newsday made inquiries - about yet another allegation involving Priest O. "Victims were betrayed by the diocesan hierarchy. ... The culture of the diocese was one of secrecy and obfuscation," the report said. "The policy was to avoid scandal by the suppression of information. Priests and diocesan officials lied about what they knew about sexually abusive priests to their parishioners and to the public at large." And for victims who stepped forward? This paragraph - for them, and for lawmakers considering the pending child sex abuse victims bill - is key: "In some cases, the grand jury finds that the diocese procrastinated for the sole purpose of making sure that the civil and criminal statutes of limitation were no longer applicable in the cases." It's too late for criminal cases. But, under the proposed legislation, victims in these and other clergy child sex abuse cases could press their claims in civil court. It's time for New York State to act. And for the Diocese of Rockville Centre to stand out of the way.
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