Editorial: Chaput Should Act to Ease Abuse Victims' Pain

Daily Times
February 4, 2013

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2013/02/04/opinion/doc510f2ae826168832756231.txt

There was a time when child abuse by priests, teachers, scout leaders, coaches, parents or any other adult entrusted with the welfare of youngsters was inconceivable.

It was so inconceivable that children who lived through it never spoke of it or were intimidated from doing so by threats from their abusers. If they did tell, they weren’t likely to be believed or, worse, were punished for even making the suggestion.

Mentally, emotionally and some times, physically, scarred by this violation of innocence, they were forced to try and live their lives as though nothing had ever happened. Some have managed to cope. Others have attempted to stifle the pain with drugs or alcohol. Still others have found suicide to be the only peace from this ultimate betrayal.

Only in the last 40 years since organizations such as Women Against Rape and the Domestic Abuse Project have emerged, has there been an environment where young victims could feel it was safe to report abuse by adults. Such organizations have also helped enlighten law enforcement authorities who, in turn, now devote whole units to prosecuting those who victimize the defenseless.

But it has only been a little more than a decade since more formidable fortresses of protected pedophiles have been scaled, namely those of the collegiate sports world and the Roman Catholic Church.

Last year, on the same day in June, Monsignor William Lynn was convicted by a Philadelphia jury of endangering an altar boy by allowing known pedophile priest Edward Avery to serve at the boy’s parish, and former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted by a Centre County jury of abusing 10 boys he culled from his organization for underprivileged youth.

Last week, Sandusky was denied an appeal the same day another Philadelphia jury convicted two more men — former Catholic school lay teacher Bernard Shero and Franciscan priest Charles Engelhardt — of assaulting the same altar boy who was victimized by Avery. Now a defrocked priest, Avery pleaded guilty just before he was to be tried with Lynn last year, although he recanted his plea when testifying in Shero’s and Engelhardt’s case.

The jury did not buy Avery’s change of heart, just as they did not believe attorneys’ attempts to discredit the now-24-year-old victim. Because of the victim’s history of drug abuse, Shero’s and Engelhardt’s lawyers tried to demonize him, a common defense tactic, but not an easy one for anyone to endure. Nevertheless, he testified about how, at St. Jerome’s parish in Northeast Philadelphia between 1998 and 1999, he was assaulted by Engelhardt then by Shero in 2000. Last year he testified at Lynn’s trial about being assaulted by Avery, also between 1998 and 1999 at St. Jerome’s. He was 10 when these three men began passing him around.

“Not only did he have the strength to report his abuse, he had the tenacity to look his abusers in the eye and testify in front of complete strangers about the horrific details of his attack,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams whose 2011 grand jury report led to the arrests of Avery, Lynn, Engelhardt and Shero.

According to the 2011 grand jury report and the one delivered in 2005 by former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, more than 60 priests allegedly abused children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as far back as the late 1940s. A 2006 expasion of the Pennsylvania statute of limitations on sexual assault finally enabled the arrest of five suspects. The courage of one victim resulted in the conviction of four of them.