Vatican Law Pick Draws Fire from Victims Group

By Richard Weir
Boston Herald
December 24, 2012

bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2012/12/vatican_law_pick_draws_fire_victims_group

Pope Benedict XVI tapped the Archdiocese of Boston’s top canon law expert as the Vatican’s new prosecutor, an appointment hailed by church leaders but criticized by victims rights advocates who say his past positions cast doubt on whether he will be an impartial investigator of priest sexual abuse.

The Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a Bay Shore, N.Y., 
native, currently serves as the archdiocese’s assistant to the moderator of the Curia for Canonical Affairs.

“Fr. Robert Oliver is a gifted priest who has served the Archdiocese with distinction,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley said yesterday, describing the Dartmouth-educated Oliver as “a dis­tinguished canon lawyer who brings the requisite 
experience and an understanding of the importance of this office within the 
life of the Church.”

As the promoter of justice for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Oliver will serve as a prosecutor of sorts charged with probing serious crimes. Among his responsibilities will be investigating claims of sexual abuse of children by clerics.

“Receiving this assignment during the Year of Faith is inspirational and it is challenging. The Congregation’s role is to promote and safeguard the doctrine of the faith and morals in the universal Church,” Oliver said in a statement.

But his past handling of several controversial policy changes has critics questioning his objectivity.

“We are concerned that he is primarily someone who looks out for the rights of the accused priests,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org. “The position … is a sensitive and important one and he will have to be equally a champion of victims. We wonder if he will be capable of being even-handed.”

In 2003, Oliver helped 
revise an archdiocese policy, altering it to curtail access by alleged victims of abuse to church records — a move that surprised lay leaders who sat on the Cardinal’s Commission for the Protection of Children.

Also that year, Oliver said the church went too far in immediately removing priests from their public ministries once they were accused of abuse. He implemented a new policy stripping them of duties only after claims are investigated.

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, called the criticism of Oliver “unfounded and just plain wrong,” adding, “He is a good and decent priest who is widely viewed as just, competent and committed to the truth.”