Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors Speak out

NECN
March 14, 2013

http://www.necn.com/03/13/13/Clergy-sex-abuse-survivors-speak-out/landing.html?blockID=834649&feedID=11106

[with video]

Clergy sex abuse victims spoke out Wednesday following the election of Pope Francis I.

Victims say they hope Pope Francis will do a better job than his predecessor in dealing with the continued fallout.

For one clergy sex abuse survivor in Massachusetts, the introduction of Pope Francis was anything but exciting.

"It struck me how the world has been obsessed with it. Imagine if the world had been watching 10 years ago about the issue of childhood sexual abuse," Gary Bergeron says about the media attention on the conclave.

Bergeron was an altar boy in Lowell in the 1970s and says he was repeatedly sexually abused by the late Reverend Joseph Birmingham.

In 2010, Bergeron met with Pope Benedict XVI to discuss abuse in the Church.

"Not pleased. He apologized, but there was never any open dialogue, no mention of protection of children," he says.

Still, Bergeron is hopeful that the new pope will root out clergy sex abuse worldwide.

"I think they have a blank slate today, they can create a map for the future," he says.

Not nearly as optimistic is attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has been defending clergy sex abuse victims since the scandal broke, says his clients have been reaching out to him about the selection of Pope Francis.

"I've spoken to many of my clients. To them it's the same old, same old. They don't see any changes happening. They don't see any new examples being set. They ... expect to hear the same slogans about how pedophilia has to stop and how bishops have to be moral, but they don't see any new norms being put in place," he says.

Mass. clergy sex abuse victim Bernie McDaid says he's disappointed Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley is not the new pope. He says O'Malley's selection would have signaled a church ready to deal with its sex abuse problem, but now he just sees a church more interested in uniting its hierarchy.