Sex-Abuse Victim Advocates Say Pope Must Better Address Issue

By Brian Fraga
The Herald News Staff Reporter
December 21, 2013

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x140443292/Sex-abuse-victim-advocates-say-pope-must-better-address-issue

Pope Francis listens to his speech translated in several languages during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Wednesday.

Pope Francis has invited homeless men for dinner and embraced physically handicapped people in St. Peter’s Square.

But Robert M. Hoatson said the pope has yet to connect with victims of clergy sex abuse.

“What greater population of need is there than people who have been abused by their own clergy?” said Hoatson, a survivor of clergy sex abuse and co-founder and president of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey-based nonprofit that advocates for sex abuse victims.

Hoatson, along with nine other high-profile Catholic whistleblowers on clergy sex abuse, signed an open letter on Dec. 9 to Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and a member of Pope Francis’ panel of cardinals that advises him on church governance and reform.

The letter called upon Cardinal O’Malley, the former bishop of Fall River, to appoint Hoatson and two other victim advocates to the new commission that Pope Francis is creating to advise him on protecting children and counseling victims of sex abuse.

Hoatson, whose organization has advocated for sex abuse victims in the Diocese of Fall River, said the new Vatican commission needs to focus on providing victims with legal, juridical and psychological services, not just pastoral initiatives.

“Reaching out is one thing, but these people are so badly damaged, they need a host of other services,” Hoatson said. “Francis needs to provide them whatever these folks need to recover.”

Hoatson said Francis did not have a stellar record on clergy sex abuse when he was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

“There were some cases he didn’t handle very well,” Hoatson said, adding that he does not believe the pope has announced any concrete steps to stop clergy sex abuse, which rocked the Catholic Church in the United States in 2002.

“The very structures that created all this abuse, things like mandatory celibacy and the church’s treatment of women, are still in place,” Hoatson said.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston civil attorney who has represented hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims, said he has not seen a change in attitude from the Catholic Church. He described the new Vatican commission as “just another layer of bureaucracy” without victims’ input or a plan to prevent future abuse.

“The church has turned its back on victims,” Garabedian said. “The church should be receptive to victims, listen to victims’ plights and learn from victims, but yet they are conducting business as usual.

“Many victims feel as though the church is conducting a public relations campaign in order to enhance its image and increase its income,” said Garabedian, who added that clergy sex abuse victims are still “pouring” into his office more than a decade since the scandal broke on the national stage.

Garabedian said he has not seen any action to back up Pope Francis’ recent statements, and added that many of his clients remain dismayed, disappointed and estranged from their church.

“Some victims do have a speck of hope, but they highly doubt this new commission will change the way the church treats victims,” Garabedian said, “Which is shameful.”

Garabedian said Pope Francis should meet personally with clergy sex abuse victims.

“The pope doesn’t really need a commission to do that.”

Meanwhile, Richard Eldridge, 59, a clergy sex abuse victim who now lives in Everett, said he has some hopes for Pope Francis.

“The way (the pope) addresses things, he’s always very straightforward, and I appreciate that,” said Eldridge, who alleges a now-retired Fall River diocesan priest molested him when he was a teenager in the early 1970s.

Eldridge said he occasionally attends church, mainly for weddings and funerals. Every now and then, he said he still feels the pull to walk inside a church and sit alone for awhile.

“It’s amazing what people in power can do. They can either tear you down or bring you up,” Eldridge said. “He (Pope Francis) is one of those people who can lift you up, so I’m happy.”



Contact: bfraga@heraldnews.com