Our View: Archdiocese Should Right Its Wrongs in Abuse Cases

St. Cloud Times
November 5, 2013

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20131104/OPINION/311040004/Our-View-Archdiocese-should-right-its-wrongs-abuse-cases

Archbishop John Nienstedt / AP file photo

Amid the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ recent disclosure it will limit information provided to panels it created to look into clergy sex abuse issues, here are three simple questions.

• What’s the price of silence?

For Pennsylvania State University, it’s literally $59.7 million to 26 sexual abuse victims of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky — plus more than $50 million on related costs. (Think lawyers’ fees, public relations expenses, and making new rules related to children and sexual abuse complaints.)

But be assured, it’s costing those victims and Penn State much more than money.

Those 26 people must live their lives knowing they were abused because adults didn’t do the right thing. Suddenly a big check seems like small compensation.

Meanwhile, a once-storied football program stands decimated while clouds hang posthumously over the record and reputation of once-iconic coach Joe Paterno.

And don’t kid yourself. In the competitive world of higher education, potential students who used to hear “Penn State” and think of a marquee football team now think of a college whose key leaders decided to ignore the facts, who chose to cover up instead of open up.

There is no way a price can be put on that kind of lost credibility.

• What’s the cost of looking the other way?

As USA Today reported, three former Penn State officials, including ousted President Graham Spanier, must stand trial on criminal charges related to an alleged coverup that temporarily shielded Sandusky from police scrutiny.

Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and former university vice president Gary Schultz face charges including perjury, conspiracy and failure to report suspected child abuse. Prosecutors believe their failure to file reports with police allowed Sandusky to continue his behavior and avoid the law.

And, again, that doesn’t even consider the lifetime costs the 26 victims are paying.

• What’s the right thing to do?

For Penn State, $100 million and dozens of wrecked lives later, it’s obvious the right course of action was to immediately involve authorities, to let outside experts investigate claims and trust the judicial process to hold people accountable.

For the archdiocese, creating its own public task forces and then limiting the information those will be able to access seems almost the opposite. And it begs a question that has yet to be answered:

How much is the archdiocese willing to pay — in cash, credibility and followers — before it does the right thing?