Leslie Hittner: Diocese's behavior still cause for concern

By Leslie Hittner
Winona Daily News
October 19, 2014

http://www.winonadailynews.com/print-specific/columns/leslie-hittner-diocese-s-behavior-still-cause-for-concern/article_afaf2769-8b12-55a5-b86f-87e5679ab85f.html

Leslie Hittner

It was refreshing to see the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul settle with attorney Jeff Anderson in his latest case involving the coverup of sexual abuse by Catholic priest, Thomas Adamson.

While the financial details of the settlement have not been made public, we can only hope that neither the diocese or archdiocese will be forced into bankruptcy to meet those financial obligations.

I am still concerned, however.

A central theme of Winona Bishop John Quinn’s response during the settlement announcement seemed to be the following:

“We are ashamed of the horrific crimes that Thomas Adamson has perpetrated against children in our Diocese and in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Quinn said in a prepared statement.”

Quinn, it seems, still does not understand what the lawsuit was about in the first place. This lawsuit was not about what Adamson did. It was about what the two dioceses did — or rather what they didn’t do. The lawsuits charged that the two dioceses, not Adamson, were “public nuisances” because of their responses to then Adamson’s behavior.

As horrific as Adamson’s crimes may have been, the fact remains that he was not reported to authorities by church officials. He was hidden from authorities and from parishioners for decades. Perhaps, even worse, the truths of the realities of his victims were denied by church officials. Attitudes that “little boys heal” prevailed within church leadership in justifying the illegal cover-up of these “horrific crimes.” And that attitude wrecked the very lives of Adamson’s victims.

Indeed, the lawsuit asserted that the church was complicit. It asserted that these horrific crimes were made more so by the actions of these two dioceses; that the response of the dioceses was horrific as well.

That’s what this lawsuit was about.

Yet, there was no remorse in Quinn’s words.

It appears that while church officials have been backed into a corner sufficiently tight to force such settlements, they still are unwilling to take responsibility for their past behaviors. They still are unwilling to acknowledge their own wrongs. The message they want to send is that they are changing because they will now do better to detect and deal with abuse that happens during their watch. But that message does not look back at what church officials had been doing. That message does not acknowledge the church’s role in these “horrific crimes.”

At least one of the victims who were present at the settlement announcement seems to have detected that as well. From the Daily News story:

“The church is no longer our enemy in this. They are our ally,” said Al Michaud, a victim of clergy abuse. “I’m going to admit that I’m skeptical ... but I hope everything I’m hearing today is true.”

He has every right to remain skeptical.