In My Opinion...
John Salveson, FACSA President
March 27, 2010
Once again we are reading news accounts of the sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church. This time, the focus is on Ireland and Europe, and the paper trail reaches into the Vatican, to the Pope himself. The people in the pews of the Catholic Church are reacting with horror, newspapers are writing editorials and the Vatican is issuing long apologies but
taking no meaningful action.
Am I the only person who has seen this movie before? Is anyone else struck by the fact that this issue is “rediscovered” on a regular basis, but there are never any meaningful consequences for those who have perpetrated this outrage?
I’ve seen this cycle of exposure, outrage and amnesia many times over the years, and want to share what I have learned from it. First, some background.
I was sexually abused by a priest of St. Dominic’s parish in Oyster Bay, NY starting at the age of 13. The abuse lasted years and was devastating. In 1980, as a young adult, I wrote a letter to the Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York to tell him what had happened to me and to ask that the priest that abused me, who was still in active parish work, be removed from ministry. I was first ignored, then stonewalled. The Bishop kept moving the priest from parish to parish, even sending him to serve in an all boy’s school. It took me nine years of fighting, culminated by a news conference out in front of the priest’s parish, to have him removed. That was 1989.
Since then I have been active in many efforts to expose the issue of clergy sex abuse, to try to get the Catholic Church to address the issue and to work toward legislative changes. I have testified in front of two grand juries in two states. I have written an award winning article on my abuse for Notre Dame Magazine. I have brought a law suit. I have met with legislators. I have founded an organization to work on reform – The Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse. I have been at this for 30 years.
My comments are limited to the Catholic Church, but rest assured that the vast majority of child sex abuse happens outside of religious institutions – mostly in families and communities. But my experiences have been with the Catholic Church, so that is my focus.
First, let me tell you what has not happened over the past 30 years:
- My perpetrator was never arrested, despite the fact that he sexually abused many, many young people.
- The Bishop and other diocesan officials who shuffled him from parish to parish were never indicted, even though a Grand Jury found that “…certain Diocesan officials would have warranted criminal prosecution but for the fact that the existing statutes are inadequate.”
- I have never received an actual, written acknowledgment from the Diocese I grew up in that I was sexually abused by my perpetrator.
- I never received an apology for my perpetrator’s actions, either from the perpetrator himself or the Diocese.
- I have never received a single dollar to reimburse me for a lifetime of therapy. I have learned many things over the past 30 years of dealing with this issue. On some issues, I have changed my mind, become more understanding or become angrier. But there are some things of which I am certain. I believe these realities explain much about how we got here and what we need to do to address this problem. Let me share the things I believe without a doubt:
- The Catholic Church does not consider the sexual abuse of children and the protection of sexual predators to be a moral issue. It is, and always has been, a risk management issue.
- The primary objective of the Catholic Church in dealing with the abuse crisis is to hide the truth of how bishops and cardinals perpetuated and enabled the sexual abuse of children by reassigning abusive priests and sheltering them from criminal authorities.
- The biggest fear of the Catholic hierarchy is being party to a criminal or civil case in public court. They know that the discovery process involved in these cases would expose files and documents which they have kept hidden for decades. They also know that these documents would expose exactly how culpable and complicit they have been in allowing their priests to rape children.
- The only way to change the behavior of the Catholic Church is through legislation, courts and the criminal justice system. The institution is unable and unwilling to change itself.
- There is no real reason to believe that the Catholic Church has removed all sexually abusive priests from active service.
There are two simple but powerful steps which could be taken in the United States to address this issue and begin to afford some meaningful protection to children from sexually abusive members of the Roman Catholic clergy:
- The Justice Department could launch a comprehensive, national criminal investigation into the practices of the Roman Catholic Church related to the sexual abuse of children and the protection of sexual predators over the past several decades.
- Each state could remove their statute of limitations for civil claims related to child sex abuse, and establish a 2 year window during which civil cases from the past could be brought to a court of law. This would result in the exposure of thousands of previously unknown child abusers and would expose to the public the exact actions taken by the Catholic Church to protect sexual predators.
It is long past time to revoke the free pass that has been given to the Catholic Church for its reprehensible, criminal behavior. Do we really have to delay action until the stories of abuse start coming in from South America, or from Africa, where the Church is growing like wildfire? We know everything we need to know now to take action and hold the Church accountable to the laws of our society.
If not now, when?
John F. Salveson, President
Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, Inc.
salveson@abolishsexabuse.org
