Adam Fisher: an Abuse Case's Aftershocks

Daily Hampshire Gazette
July 31, 2012

http://www.gazettenet.com/print/381640

NORTHAMPTON - On precisely the same day that Andrew Nicastro of Williamstown on Friday withdrew his priest-abuse lawsuit against two retired Springfield bishops in return for $500,000, a contrasting scenario was playing out a half a world away.

In Australia, Bill Wright, the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, stated publicly that he would support a public inquiry into his church's handling of sexual assaults by priests.

The Newcastle Herald promptly wrote an editorial applauding the bishop and observing: "There was a time, when the first shocking revelations of abuse began to emerge into the public eye, when many probably believed the matter could be satisfactorily dealt with by the churches and the police. But since that hasn't been entirely the case, and since - on the contrary - more cases of abuse by more priests keep surfacing along with distressing evidence of church cover-ups and failed police investigations, public opinion has dramatically altered."

Back in Springfield, one of the retired bishops accused by Nicastro, Joseph F. Maguire, 92, issued a long and apparently heartfelt statement acknowledging Nicastro's molestation by defrocked priest Alfred Graves. The other defendant was retired Bishop Thomas L. Dupre.

Maguire's statement said in part: "That in this instance I was unable to protect young people from abuse is an enduring and deep regret. I ask the good people of western Massachusetts to join me in offering prayers for Mr. Nicastro and all victims of abuse. May they know God's love and compassion in their healing."

The style and substance of Maguire's press release has become a staple of a beleaguered Vatican attempting to buttress its meaning and relevance in an increasingly skeptical world: Acknowledge with apparent compassion the suffering of victims; point out the efforts made to reform procedures within the church; and call for a "healing" or "closure" that will permit the church to maintain its power and stature and move forward without further ado.

These damage-control tactics, seen in case after case of priest depredations, neatly sidestep the centuries-old systemic dysfunctions that allowed and in many cases covered up those depredations in the first place. The tactics allow the Vatican to wall off any deeper or more far-reaching culpability.

But how long such tactics will be allowed to prevail has become an open question. Those tactics were dealt a severe blow July 24 when Monsignor William J. Lynn was sentenced in Philadelphia to three to six years in prison.

Lynn had not been accused of molesting anyone. Instead, in a first-of-its-kind ruling, he was convicted of covering up the activities of the molesters.

With his conviction, the Vatican was put on notice: Not only would the molester be held accountable, but those in positions to do something about it would likewise have to take responsibility. No longer could the Vatican simply pay off the victims and issue heartfelt press releases. Now the evidentiary bomb zone had been widened ... and who knows how far up the line that might go?

At Penn State University, officials seemed quick to recognize that they needed credibility if they were to restore the university's good name in the wake of revelations about former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. On June 22, Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts relating to the sexual abuse of young boys. The fallout was enormous, and the university hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh, an outsider, to investigate. Freeh's report, which laid out link after link in the chain of witting and unwitting complicity, was damning to the university.

But what Freeh's report ladled out in damnation, it made up for in honesty and credibility. No one knows where Penn State will go from here, but at least it has a credible, if painful, foundation to work with.

In Springfield, like others before him, a single man receives $500,000 to step away from what might have been an exhausting and lengthy legal proceeding. The Vatican can, as it has in the past, put Andrew Nicastro behind them. No further questions need to be asked. The foundations of power remain. And the insurance company can short-circuit the even bigger payout it may have seen coming through a continuing trial.

In Australia, a bishop supports an unaffiliated investigation of the church he and no doubt many fellow Catholics have loved for years. There is a time for honesty, the bishop seems to be saying, and the time is now: No more diverting deceptions, no more style-over-substance ... just honesty.

Louis Freeh's work at Penn State is complete. If asked, perhaps he would take on a similar job for an institution similarly afflicted.

Adam Fisher of Northampton is a regular contributor whose most recent book is "Answer Your Love Letters: Footnotes to a Zen Practice."

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