TOLEDO (OH)
Sandusky Register [Sandusky OH]
July 14, 2024
By Claudia Vercellotti and David Clohessy
Imagine a criminal breaks into your house and steals nearly everything. Years or decades later, you find out he’s carefully and shrewdly hidden it all in a storage facility, and all the while, others knew of his crimes but told no one.
So you finally get to confront the thief.
He refuses to admit his guilt.
He won’t let you in the storage facility.
He won’t even let you glance inside of it for a second.
But he offers to pay you what, on its face, seems to be a good amount of money.
But there’s a catch. You will never get your belongings back. And of course, your pain will never be relieved – all you suffered for all those years, when you couldn’t afford your medicine, cookware or a decent couch to stretch out on doesn’t matter.
This doesn’t even begin to address your psychological and emotional turmoil that crime victims go through such as:
“How could this have happened?”
“Why haven’t the police solved this?”
“Will I ever get my belongings back?”
This scenario has just happened. It involves thieves whose actions were much more devious and devastating than those who take an adult’s possessions. They are thieves who prey on innocent kids in their formative years and struggling adults in their most vulnerable moments, and take what can never be returned: trust, faith, self-esteem and emotional safety.
We’re referring to the recent settling of three abuse lawsuits against the Toledo Catholic diocese for the horrific sex crimes of now defrocked Catholic priest, Fr. Michael Zacharias, who was convicted in May 2023, after a two-week grueling trial and sentenced to life in prison with an additional 20 years for 5 counts of sex trafficking of minors and adults. The victims were in grade school when this nightmare started and Fr. Zacharias’ crime spree spanned 20 years, all the while his career soared to bigger and more impressive assignments.
Why?
This is the third federal conviction of a Toledo Catholic cleric for sexually oriented crimes involving kids since the highly televised national “reforms” promised by all U.S. bishops in 2002.
Let’s be blunt: Who isn’t tired of hearing, time and time and time again, about bad priests and bad bishops who commit and conceal heinous sexual crimes against kids?
At this point after decades of empty promises of reform, we’re desperate to find a silver lining or glimmer of hope, some indication that finally the Catholic hierarchy is doing better at protecting kids and helping victims.
But these new settlements – despite their seemingly impressive amounts – are not a silver lining or glimmer of hope. They’re a cash transaction that means no trial will happen and guilty Catholic officials can keep their corruption hidden while posturing as ‘caring’ for abuse victims.
What’s the point of going to trial?
In preparation of a civil trial, “discovery” takes place, interrogatories are completed, and depositions are conducted. This forces transparency of the wrongdoer. History shows us this in landmark cases that effected sweeping changes public policies such as the big pharma cases that unearthed the full scope of the opioid crisis. Sweeping reforms nationwide followed the landmark tobacco conglomerate cases too. Both of those cases gave the public a true picture of the companies’ knowledge of the harm and risk that their products inherently caused and when these CEO’s knew of it and the risks they took with the health and safety of the consumers. Those cases illuminated the problem and gave us transparency.
As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said over a century ago: “….Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants….”
The Toledo church settlements undoubtedly bring some well-deserved degree of healing, closure and validation to the three courageous young men whose lives, and that of their families, have been forever turned upside down because of a clergy predator, his church colleagues and his church supervisors.
But in truth, in the big picture, this settlement signifies no real meaningful change or reform on the part of Toledo church officials, just a slightly more carefully polished damage control method of using other people’s donations to cover up their own wrongdoing….again.
That said, there are two silver linings here, neither of which involve the Toledo Catholic diocesan hierarchy.
First, these victims were brave and smart to hire an experienced, compassionate attorney who persisted until a resolution was reached.
Second, we are confident that their collective courage will inspire others who were sexually abused and still suffer in silence and shame to get help, expose wrongdoing and pursue justice.
What might constitute real silver linings or signs of reform by Catholic church officials?
• If Bishop Thomas publicly and harshly punished Fr. Mike Hohenbrink, who was directly told by a grade school victim that Fr. Zacharias was assaulting him, yet refused to tell the police or the child’s parents and instead told the child, “…it’s all in your head…” according to unrefuted court testimony.
Sex crimes ignored in Ohio – BishopAccountability.org (bishop-accountability.org)
• If Bishop Thomas mounted an all-out aggressive campaign to find and help other victims of Fr. Zacharias, using pulpit and bulletin announcements, mass mailings, personal appeals, church website and social media accounts.
• If Bishop Thomas completely reversed himself, admitting that “Crimes should be openly dealt with in court, not quietly in church offices.” If he pledged to join with victims “pushing in Columbus to reform the secular laws like Ohio’s archaic statute of limitations, that prevent abuse survivors from seeking justice in court.”
Sadly, virtually none of this has happened, and we fear it won’t ever.
Fr. Zacharias’ young victims and their families have been immeasurably hurt. Catholic insurers and Toledo parishioners, under the threat of embarrassing trials, have paid some money. So, in the eyes of Bishop Thomas, nothing else needs to be done.
We wish we could end on a positive or hopeful note. But in all honesty, we can’t.
The self-serving secrecy by the highest echelons of the Catholic hierarchy that caused the abuse crisis decades ago is still very much ‘business as usual’, as demonstrated by the quiet settlement and cryptic press release issued in response to facing some exposure by the media.
Don’t kids, their families and our communities deserve better?
Vercellotti, of Toledo, and Clohessy, of St. Louis, Missouri, are longtime leaders in a support group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) www.snapnetwork.org