UNITED STATES
The New York Times
By VIVIAN YEE
SEPT. 15, 2015
Dan Ogrodowski stayed silent into middle age. He expected to go to the grave, he said, without speaking out about the Milwaukee priest who had raped him as a child.
But now, embittered by what he calls the Roman Catholic Church’s continued betrayal of abuse survivors, he is publicly describing his childhood torment for the first time, hoping that Pope Francis will prioritize the needs of victims and will hold priests and bishops accountable during his visit to the United States this month.
“Pope Francis said these beautiful words about reparations and weeping for us,” Mr. Ogrodowski said. “How could he watch us be pummeled for years?”
Francis is likely to meet privately with victims of abuse during his visit, as Pope Benedict XVI did during his 2008 trip to the United States, according to church officials. But Mr. Ogrodowski and many other survivors of abuse say the church has yet to live up to its promise of reconciliation. They want Francis to stop the church from spending millions of dollars to fight sex abuse lawsuits and keeping sealed the names of thousands of accused priests, as well as the outcomes of some disciplinary cases sent to the Vatican. …
To some advocates, however, the move was incomplete: Francis could have done much for transparency simply by confirming that the bishops were removed because of their negligence in abuse cases, they said.
He could also direct archdioceses to release the names of credibly accused American priests, at least 2,400 of whom have never been identified, said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a group that documents clerical sexual abuse.
“One obvious reform Francis could start would be to say to dioceses, ‘Transparency means really being honest about what happened in the past,’ ” Mr. McKiernan said.
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