NEW YORK
Syracuse.com
By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com
on September 13, 2015
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Roman Catholic bishop of Syracuse issued a public letter today clarifying a 2011 deposition in which he said child victims of priest sexual abuse were partly to blame.
Bishop Robert Cunningham sent the letter in response to a story on Syracuse.com and in The Post-Standard that cited his deposition in a federal lawsuit.
“Victims of abuse are never at fault!” Cunningham wrote.
“Depositions are difficult by their nature,” he wrote. “The line of questioning varied between the specific and generic scenarios concerning the Sacrament of Confession.”
He said he was trying to explain that he didn’t know what went on in a person’s heart and mind.
“I tried my best to answer questions and I must admit gave responses that I wish were different,” he wrote. “It saddens me to read the article and to realize that my words gave the wrong impression to victims, their families and the people of the diocese that I believe the victims of abuse are at fault. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
In the deposition, Cunningham said,”the boy is culpable” and later referred to victims as accomplices.
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