Editorial: Opening the Sexual Abuse Files

The Chicago Tribune
January 14, 2014

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-sex-abuse-chicago-archdiocese-edit-20140114,0,7921509.story

Cardinal Francis George at his residence. (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune / February 21, 2013)

This is what happens when allegations of sex crimes go unreported.

"Once again, I apologize to all those who have been harmed by these crimes and this scandal, the victims themselves, most certainly, but also rank and file Catholics who have been shamed by the actions of some priests and bishops. Thank you and God bless you."

— Conclusion of a public letter from Cardinal Francis George to Catholics of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The anguish of victims, the crimes of perpetrators, the humiliation of innocent clerics who've been tarred by association — the turbulent legacy of clergy sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Chicago soon will reopen. The archdiocese this week is to release to an attorney for abuse victims the previously undisclosed files of substantiated cases involving 30 current and former priests. Eventually the records will be posted online.

We've seen none of these documents and won't hazard guesses about their contents or the reactions they will stir. By some measures there will not be surprises. The 30 men are among more than 65 priests whose names have been readily available on the archdiocesan website under a damning headline: "Archdiocesan Priests with Substantiated Allegations of Sexual Misconduct with Minors."

One-third of the total number are dead, many others have been removed from the priesthood, and none is now in active ministry, according to an attorney who represented the clergymen's interests in negotiations that led to the release. An attorney for the archdiocese told the Tribune that 95 percent of the incidents in the records occurred more than 25 years ago, and none occurred since 1996. More recent files involving ex-priest and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormack aren't included; the archdiocese says a judge has sealed them for upcoming trials.

The release of complaints, reports from internal investigations and actions taken by the archdiocese will put renewed focus not only on victims and the 30 priests, but on how Cardinal Francis George's predecessors responded to accusations of abuse. Church findings that claims have been substantiated — an administrative process with a different standard of proof than trial courts would require — put these cases in a legal netherworld: Most of the allegations had occurred so much earlier that they couldn't be prosecuted. So inclusion on the list isn't the same as criminal conviction. In his public letter, George said that for more than 20 years the archdiocese has reported all allegations of sexual abuse to civil authorities and to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

That said, the exploitation of any children by churchmen they had been taught to trust was beyond reprehensible. As was the compounding refusal of many American bishops to view these incidents as crimes. The documents coming to light now follow nine years of efforts by victims of abuse who want all of us to understand how they were mistreated and betrayed.

In his letter, distributed in parishes over the weekend and posted at archchicago.org, George writes that, "(T)he publication puts the actions of these men and the archdiocese itself in the spotlight. Painful though publicly reviewing the past can be, it is part of the accountability and transparency to which the archdiocese is committed. ... (P)ublishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level. It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many."

While victims probably will know the bulk of that pain, some of that pain also will go to priests who have lived their vows of chastity and never misused their stature. That is but one more consequence foisted on many innocents by those clerics who did take advantage of their positions. They ruined many lives and, in the process, turned their peers into suspects.

The release of information that is about to happen, then, should happen. Had church officials always treated allegations of abuse as potential crimes and reported them to police, the resulting investigations would have pushed credible cases toward prosecution and possible punishment. Similarly, any cleric falsely or mistakenly accused would have had the opportunity to clear his name.

For lack of that immediate stewardship, that show of responsibility and respect to children and even to the accused, we're all left to evaluate cases from yesteryear using old archdiocesan files.

We should, in earlier decades, have observed these cases play out in our criminal justice system. One guess we will hazard now: Had church officials reported each accusation to civil authorities as soon as it arrived, the public airing and subsequent adjudication of those allegations would have deterred a lot of vicious crimes against children.