NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter
by Ben Feuerherd | Apr. 16, 2013
New York —
Victims of clergy sex abuse are tired of the meager steps taken by the church to prevent these crimes. These victims want the Vatican to acknowledge them and want their suggestions taken into account. Above all, they want bishops and priests who do not report these crimes to be held accountable. These were among the issues raised Thursday at a Manhattan fundraiser for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP.
“Bishop after bishop will say to me, ‘The media have caused this problem,’ ” said retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton at the event. “They are the ones the bishops blame on a regular basis, as well as blaming the victims themselves. They want to keep it all quiet.”
Three Catholic organizations sponsored the event — Call To Action – Metropolitan New York; Voice of the Faithful, New York; and Dignity/NY — and was endorsed by the Center for Constitutional Rights. About 50 people attended.
For Gumbleton and the other speakers at the fundraiser, the sex abuse crisis is an institutional problem. Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney showed a clip from his recent HBO documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” to prove this point. The clip showed Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times speaking about her investigation of clergy sex abuse at a church-run school for the deaf in Wisconsin. The documentary says documents Goodstein unearthed implicated Pope Benedict XVI in an attempt to keep the abuse quiet.
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