Be Fair in Judging Accused Priest, The Jackson Sun [Tennessee], September 1, 2006

Be Fair in Judging Accused Priest

The Jackson Sun [Tennessee]
September 1, 2006

http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060901/COLUMNISTS09/609010304/1014

The sudden resignation of Father Richard Mickey of St. Mary's Catholic Church has kicked up fresh discussion locally of the sexual abuse charges still pending against him. While Father Mickey has left our community, the issues his situation has raised remain with us.

Thinking rightly about this issue is deeply challenging. It requires people to hold in tension important facts and moral principles. It also requires the capacity to reason rather than to be carried away by emotions. It tests our capacity for fairness and justice.

Here are some key facts worth noting. Tragically, sexual abuse of children and young people in Christian settings does sometimes happen. Such sexual abuse is an egregious misuse of power. Sexual abuse of children is devastating to those who are its victims and to the moral witness of the church. Preventing and punishing the sexual abuse of children and youth are critically mportant moral and legal priorities.

Local Opinion Columnist

David P. Gushee is Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University. Write to him at The Jackson Sun, Editorial Department, P.O. Box 1059, Jackson, TN 38302.

But here are some other important facts: Ministers, teachers, and all who are in the helping professions are vulnerable to false sexual abuse charges because of their close working relationships with people, especially troubled people, and especially troubled children and youth. Civil lawsuits are a way to make a great deal of money if you win. The current climate of mistrust of ministers, especially Catholic priests, makes it difficult to be treated as innocent until proven guilty, at least in the court of public opinion. Completely unfounded accusations of sexual misconduct can destroy a minister's or teacher's career.

These are all facts, but their implications create powerful moral crosscurrents. On the one hand, the principle of protecting the innocent and vulnerable requires that every sexual abuse allegation must be taken seriously. On the other hand, the same principle requires that the accused should be treated as innocent until proven guilty. On the one hand, prudence demands that all reasonable preventive measures must be put in place to prevent sexual abuse. On the other hand, trained clergy, teachers and other helping professionals must retain the capacity to serve those they are called to serve. This does require access and at least a modicum of privacy for conversation and counsel.

Ultimately, a particular sexual abuse charge must be met by rigorous examination of the purported facts of the case, as well as the character of the accusers and the accused as revealed through longstanding patterns of behavior. Every church, every school and every counseling practice must develop policies for how to prevent sexual abuse and how to adjudicate charges of sexual abuse. If such charges "go public," the media have a responsibility to develop guidelines that ensure that both accused and accusers are treated fairly. And once the case does finally go to court, if it does, the judicial process itself must be at least as fair and rigorous in sexual abuse charges as it would be in any other kind of case.

No one in this community should assume the truthfulness of the charges against Father Richard Mickey brought by the twins Blain and Blair Chambers, his accusers. The fact that Father Mickey resigned "for personal reasons" proves nothing. The fact that he did not address the charges against him when he resigned proves nothing. Perhaps he was mandated to keep silence by his bishop. Many of us have experienced exit situations at work where we could not or did not say everything we wanted to say about why we were leaving.

The credibility of the accusers will be an important issue at trial. My reading of what is publicly available is that this credibility is hardly unimpeachable. The charges were offered more than 20 years after the supposed events. According to the Billings Gazette, their local paper, complaints of partner and family member abuse have been filed against both of the accusers. The women who were involved with them at the time both expressed doubts about their story. One said that the brothers had been researching repressed memories and sex abuse scandals involving priests before the fishing trip in which they claim to have recovered their memories of sex abuse.

We must protect our children from sexual abuse. We also must protect our ministers, teachers, and others who serve our children from false accusations of sexual abuse. We can and must do both. Doing so tests us our moral capacities to their very limits.

David P. Gushee is a University Fellow and Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University. Write to him at dgushee@uu.edu Log onto jacksonsun.com and share your thoughts on this column.