By Charles McMahon
You have clearly been following instructions that have come from the Vatican in the past three decades regarding the divulging of priestly crimes to civil authorities. The letter from the Sacred Congregation for Clergy, dated January 31, 1984, stated that “The files of a Bishop concerning his priests are altogether private; their forced acquisition by civil authority would be an intolerable attack upon the free exercise of religion in the United States;” and “no priest’s files will be sent to any lawyer or judge whatsoever.”
Nancy Mortimer O'Brien representing Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) brought her signs to St. Patrick's Church on parade day. | photo © Katharine Gilbert
The people of Ireland suffered for many decades under the domination of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, who succeeded in brainwashing them as children in the Church-run school system. More recently, under the hammer blows of the successive government investigations into the complicity of the hierarchy in concealing the child molesters, the people of Ireland are starting to come out of their altered state of mind. Now that we have seen the second Philadelphia grand jury report, will the Irish-American Catholics of our Archdiocese begin to follow their example?
After the Catholic bishops in Ireland published a document announcing that they intended to inform civil authorities about future allegations of sexual abuse, they received a letter dated January 31, 1997, from the Papal Nuncio that stated as follows: “The text, however, contains procedures and dispositions which appear contrary to canonical discipline and which, if applied, could invalidate the acts of the same Bishops who are attempting to put a stop to these problems. If such procedures were to be followed by the Bishops and there were cases of eventual hierarchical recourse lodged at the Holy See, the results could be highly embarrassing and detrimental to those same Diocesan authorities.” In other words – Don’t you dare do it if you value your career.
Finally, we have a quote from a February, 2002, interview with the Italian journal 30 Giorni by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time and later became papal secretary of state: “In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offense of pedophilia is unfounded,”
It is quite apparent from the two Philadelphia grand jury reports that you and your two predecessors have been blindly obeying such orders. You undoubtedly know the difference between good and evil as an abstraction, but, in practice, you do not appear to care about the difference when it comes to the protection of your position in the institution versus the protection of children.
This syndrome has been lumped under the heading of clericalism. This involves the delusion that ordination renders a man ontologically superior to the non-ordained and therefore entitled to certain rights and privileges for which ordinary people are not eligible. This condition is exacerbated by the training of clergy to believe that the institutional Church is, in essence, a holy icon. It is so holy that nothing and no person is as important as maintaining its unblemished image. This kind of indoctrination of clergy has resulted in the worst kind of hypocrisy and deceptive behavior.
This is the mentality that has led you, as the head of the so-called Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (actually the lobbying arm of the Pennsylvania bishops) to fight tooth and nail, at great expense, against bills in the State legislature that would remove the shield of the statue of limitations from the child molesters and their enablers. Many of your “sheeple” have swallowed the story that court cases heard long after an offense has been committed are discriminatory against the accused, meaning you and your cohort. They are apparently unaware that the burden of proof in such cases still falls on the accuser.
As Philadelphia Catholics are gradually emerging from their stupor, they are becoming increasingly aware that the only way to reveal the truth and to give victims a chance to face their abusers lies in the court system. They can forget about voluntary actions of redress from the Archdiocese. Two grand jury reports have established that beyond any question. Therefore, you can expect growing and widening pressure from newly awakened citizens to support House Bills 878 and 832 that have recently been entered in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives.
Cardinal Rigali, both you and we as fellow Catholics are suffering greatly from this execrable business. We from the embarrassment of having unwittingly financed through our weekly donations the lawyers’ fees and the lobbying efforts and stonewalling, and you from the exposure of the reprehensible behavior of the Archdiocesan leadership. It’s not too late to turn all this around.
Let us resolve together to reform in the spirit of the mission of Jesus. For your part, you can make it your Lenten resolution to call off the lobbying dogs and announce your support of the bills to abolish the statute-of-limitations shields that conceal the crimes against children. We will be waiting to see evidence of your true repentance in the form of ensuring this protection for future generations of innocent children, Catholic and otherwise.