UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Mary Caplan on August 24, 2012
We are troubled that Cardinal Dolan, who has acted recklessly and deceitfully in recent clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, is being given such a prominent role at a political convention. In four recent instances, Dolan has acted recklessly, callously or deceptively.
1) Several months ago, Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx, the public learned that there was child porn on an assistant principal Lawrence Gordon’s school computer.
But Catholic officials – including Dolan – kept silent for nine months about the child porn, giving the criminal and his supervisors ample time to destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate witnesses, threaten whistleblowers and thwart law enforcement.
For a solid decade, Dolan and his peers have promised to be “open” about child sex crimes. But for most of last year, he was keeping such crimes secret. There’s just no excuse for Catholic officials keeping parents in the dark about child porn at their kids’ school month after month.
2) Last August, Dolan similarly made no moves to help resolve child sex accusations against Fr. Jaime Duenas.
In a short statement on the archdiocesan website, Dolan didn’t ask Catholics or citizens to do a thing when Duenas was arrested. It is crucial that victims, witnesses and whistleblowers be urged to call police and prosecutors. Dolan is not dumb. He knows appeals like this are often effective. But instead of begging anyone with information or suspicions to call the cops, he said nothing.
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