Advocates Call for More Transparency in Light of Reinstated Guam Priest

By Junhan B. Todino
Marianas Variety
April 17, 2015

http://www.mvariety.com/cnmi/cnmi-news/local/75947-advocates-call-for-more-transparency-in-light-of-reinstated-guam-priest

Officials of the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP is calling on Catholic church officials to be more transparent.

Director David Clohessy, said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez’s recent reexamination of molestation accusations made against Rev. John Wadeson is part of a growing trend.

“I?t seems to be happening more and more. It’s happened in dozens of Catholic abuse and cover-up cases. We have very little faith in these secretive, cleric-dominated church “investigations” or “examinations” into child sex abuse reports,” Clohessy said.

Instead, Clohessy said the examinations should be done by independent, experienced and unbiased professionals in law enforcement, “not by self-interested, biased amateurs in church offices.”

Clohessy said more transparency is needed to uncover possible predators and bishops should use parish bulletins, websites and pulpit announcements to call on victims or witnesses to contact police and prosecutors in cases of abuse.

Furthermore, Clohessy called on lawmakers to reform secular laws that make it difficult for victims to come forward about sex crimes in the church.

Wadeson’s removal and reinstatement might have turned out differently had there been more transparency, Clohessy said.

“This might have turned out very differently had Catholic officials in Guam and California sent notices like this to secular news outlets and put them in church publications:

‘Fr. John Wadeson has been accused of molesting two children. He’s asked to be put back to work in a church job. We beg anyone who might have information that could either prove or disprove allegations against him to step forward now,’” Cloheesy said.

Because church officials did not reach out to possible victims, it makes it easier for them to claim the reports of abuse cannot be substantiated, Clohessy said.

On Wednesday, the Agana Archdiocese issued a statement announcing Wadeson’s faculties were reinstated after the Los Angeles archbishop cleared him of wrongdoing.

According to the LA Archbishop, Wadeson was accused in 1992 of reported abuse that happened in the 1970s.

It was the LA Archdiocese that named Wadeson and dozens of other priests in its “Report to the People of God: Clergy Sexual Abuse Archdiocese of Los Angeles 1930-2003.” The report was published in 2004, at which time the allegations against Wadeson were deemed “credible.”

According to a statement from the Agana Archdiocese, Archbishop Anthony Apuron issued a decree on April 13 reinstating Wadeson to minister publicly again nine months after Apuron removed him from ministering.

Wadeson had been serving under the Agana Archdiocese since 2000, until last year when SNAP revealed molestation accusations made against him in the 1970s and he was removed.