Is Catholic Church Doing Enough to Combat Abuse?, by Trey Bundy, Bay Citizen, March 22, 2011

Is Catholic Church Doing Enough to Combat Abuse?

By Trey Bundy
Bay Citizen
March 22, 2011

http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/catholic-church-enough-combat-abuse/

Saint Cecilia Catholic Church

Catholic Church officials in San Francisco said this week that they are investigating new allegations of child abuse by a local priest, but one support group for victims is not convinced the church is taking ownership of the problem.

KTVU reported Monday that Father Daniel Keohane, a 58-year-old priest at Saint Cecilia Parish, has been placed on indefinite leave pending a church investigation into whether he sexually abused a 17-year-old girl in the 1970s.

In an interview with KTVU, Maurice Healy, spokesman for the archdiocese of San Francisco, said the church had been working to determine the precise age of the girl at the time of the alleged abuse.

“It’s a misdemeanor if she’s 18,” Healy said. “It’s abuse if she’s 17.”

That distinction doesn’t sit well with Tim Lennon, an abuse survivor who leads the San Francisco chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

“The question is that priests and people in authority use their status to take advantage of people,” Lennon told The Bay Citizen. “If they’re 18 or 14, or in my case 12, that’s immaterial. It's abuse.”

Lennon said that his own abuse was the result of the power imbalance between priests and children.

“When I was abused, when I was raped, I kept thinking, why is God doing this, why is God doing this?” Lennon said. “I couldn’t separate the person from the image of God.”

In an effort to reach out to survivors of abuse, the church has been meeting with victims and other concerned groups in recent months.

“There have been five meetings in seven months, and so far nothing has happened,” Lennon said.

Next month, SNAP and others will meet with church officials twice to present a four-fold plan to prevent further abuse and support survivors. SNAP will ask the church to disclose and distribute the identities of priests who have been sued, convicted or credibly accused of abusing young people, offer counseling to victims, reveal to church members the long-suspected practice of covering up incidents of abuse and work to abolish the statute of limitations around child abuse.

“We have many people that are in dire need and are suffering tremendously from post-traumatic stress or different types of coping mechanisms like drinking and drugs, relationship problems and trust problems,” Lennon said. “The church needs to step up by helping them with therapy, drug rehabilitation or job training.”