Vatican Would Be Well-served Following Archdiocese of Chicago’s Lead

Chicago Sun-TimesWorthy Adversary
February 9, 2014

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/25446054-474/vatican-would-be-well-served-following-archdiocese-of-chicagos-lead.html

The Vatican could learn something from the Chicago way, and we mean that in a good sense.

On Wednesday, a United Nations human rights panel ripped the Vatican for not doing enough to prevent abuse of children by priests. The committee said a decades-long code of secrecy and the silencing of abuse victims to protect the church’s reputation let priests sexually abuse tens of thousands of children worldwide.

The blistering report by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child sounds a lot like what we’ve heard over the years about the Archdiocese of Chicago, where for years allegations were hushed up and priests known to have abused children were quietly switched to different parishes, where they resumed their predatory behavior and added to the horrific annals of painful human tragedy.

But in the early 1990s, the archdiocese changed its approach from combativeness, foot-dragging secrecy to greater openness and a strong emphasis on prevention. Its record hasn’t been perfect since then — the Rev. Daniel McCormack pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse crimes that took place in 2006 and later, and the pastor of a Schaumburg parish from 1994 to 2006 has just been added to the list of clergy against whom there are substantiated claims of abuse. But since 1992, the trends all have moved sharply in the right direction. Known abusers all are out of the ministry, all known incidents since 1996 have been reported to authorities; the number of new allegations has dropped dramatically, and therapeutic services have been made available to victims who have come forward. As part of a mediated settlement, the archdiocese also has released 6,000 pages of documents from case files of 30 offending priests. All adults, including volunteers, who work with children are trained to recognize and prevent abuse, and children are taught how to deflect inappropriate behavior. A 12-person review board makes recommendations to the cardinal on whether accused priests should remain in the ministry.

As the accompanying chart shows, the allegations of Chicago archdiocese abuse — which lag behind the actual incidents by an average of 26 years — have dropped sharply in recent years, indicating that abuse has as well.

The Vatican, however, lags far behind. The U.N. panel is calling for the Vatican to immediately remove all priests known or suspected to be child molesters, open its archives on abusers and turn the abuse cases over to law enforcement authorities — all reforms the Chicago archdiocese already has in place.

Critics note that the Archdiocese of Chicago didn’t act until it was forced to do so by abuse victims and their representatives. They also say the Chicago church hasn’t done enough. They say it has implemented reforms only sporadically; should release remaining documents related to the abuse scandal, and should discipline not just the offending priests, but also those who allowed their predations by looking the other way.

Yet the archdiocese should get credit for the reforms it has instituted, and its example is one the Vatican should pay attention to.

On Friday, the Vatican accused the U.N. committee of going beyond its mandate and adopting “prejudiced” anti-Catholic positions. The U.N. committee is certainly open to criticism — it shouldn’t be trying to edit Catholic doctrinal teachings — but the Vatican would be better off focusing its energies on repairing the damage from the egregious abuse scandal and doing all it can to prevent future abuse.

The Archdiocese of Chicagoalready has learned that lesson. Secrecy and cover-ups are not the answer. Accountability and transparency are.