SYRACUSE Diocese Agrees to Tell DAS about Child-molesting Accusations against Priests

By John O'Brien
Syracuse.com
October 27, 2015

http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/10/syracuse_diocese_agrees_to_cooperate_with_area_das_in_accusations_of_priests_mol.html

Bishop.jpg Bishop Robert Cunningham celebrates a special mass at Destiny USA in 2013. (Kevin Rivoli | krivoli@syracuse.com)

The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has signed an agreement with the seven top prosecutors in Central New York to immediately report suspected child-molesting by priests.

Bishop Robert Cunningham signed a "memorandum of understanding," along with the seven district attorneys in the diocese, that sets out how the diocese will respond to allegations against priests or other religious workers.

No one involved in the agreement is saying what prompted it.

A diocese official would not comment on the document, except to say Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen plans to hold a news conference on Wednesday about it.

None of the seven DAs who signed the document responded to requests for an interview.

Among the terms in the memorandum is that the diocese will immediately refer

child-molesting accusations to the local DA's office for investigation "regardless of the age of the allegation or whether or not the clergy member or religious is active."

The reference to the age of the allegations is different from the diocese's own policy on reporting requirements. The diocese's policy, established in 2003, says the diocese "will immediately report current cases involving a minor and any clergy member, employee, religious or volunteer to the appropriate civil authorities."

The memorandum says the diocese won't do its own independent investigation before reporting a case to the DAs office. It also says the diocese will preserve any evidence and coordinate with the DA's office to preserve and collect any evidence.

The purpose of the memorandum is to implement a "consistent policy and reporting protocol" regarding child-molesting allegations involved priests and other religious workers in the diocese, the document says.

The agreement comes a month after two survivors of child-molesting at the hands of priests started a petition drive calling for Cunningham to resign.

The survivors, Kevin Braney and Charles Bailey, cite the bishop's refusal to release the names of the 11 priests against whom the diocese has found credible evidence of child-molesting.

Braney and Bailey also cite a 2011 court deposition in which Cunningham testified that the victim is partly to blame in cases of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest. In the deposition, Cunningham said,"the boy is culpable" and later referred to victims as accomplices.

After a story about the deposition was published on Syracuse.com and in The Post-Standard, Cunningham wrote a public letter saying the victims are never to blame and that his words gave the wrong impression.

jobrien@syracuse.com