BishopAccountability.org
	Our View: Abuse Victims Get Victory with Church Decision Norwich Bulletin [Connecticut] March 9, 2006 http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060309/OPINION01/603090308/1014/OPINION The abuse of a child is repugnant, and it is exponentially more so when it comes at the hands of a most-trusted person -- a teacher, a coach, a parent, a priest. That the Catholic church for decades covered up the sexual crimes of its priests added greatly to not only the numbers of victims, but the pain and humiliation suffered by them and their families. The church finally appears to have seen the light, and is making amends to the thousands of victims sexually and physically abused by priests. One of the latest victories, which we wholeheartedly cheer, involves a local family. A former local priest was defrocked in May by Pope Benedict XVI. Bernard Bissonnette allegedly abused children while serving locally at parishes in Putnam, Moosup and Pawcatuck. Gene Michael Deary of Brooklyn said his brother, Thomas, was raped and molested by Bissonnette in the 1960s. Thomas Deary committed suicide in 1991. For more than 20 years, Gene Michael Deary and his family led the fight to have Bissonnette tracked down and removed from the priesthood. It was a plea that fell on deaf ears during the tenures of two bishops in the Norwich diocese. The current bishop, the Most Rev. Michael R. Cote, was the one who presented the case for Bissonnette's dismissal to cardinals in Rome last year. We commend this belated victory, but acknowledge that the heartache for thousands of abuse victims and their families still has not been mended. Just Wednesday, the Roman Catholic Church in Dublin, Ireland, announced that 102 of its priests are suspected of abusing at least 350 children since 1940. The Catholic church in Ireland, as has happened here, has been rocked by incidents and allegations of abuse for a dozen years. Clearly, the end of the scandal is not in sight. But with fortitude and faith, the Catholic church must stand tall, as Bishop Cote did, to defend not the monsters in its midst, but its youngest believers.
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