There needs to be a careful balancing of the rights and interests of those who are alleging abuse and those who are alleged to have perpetrated abuse. There needs to be a clear and robust manifestation of due process for clergy accused of abuse or misconduct. In addition, there is dismay among clergy and many Catholics that priests and bishops are treated disparately in response to allegations of abuse or misconduct. This absence of clear process on both sides of allegations of abuse remains a privation of justice in too many places.
The limitations of this report as acknowledged by its authors: “The allegations are summarized here, and their inclusion does not reflect a determination by the Department [of the Attorney General] that the allegations are credible or otherwise substantiated.” In other words, the accused did not have a chance to rebut the charges. There’s a good reason for this—32 of the 44 priests are “known or presumed to be dead.” Moreover only 6 of the 44 cases have been substantiated by the Diocese. We cannot assume that all the others involve guilty priests.
“The Attorney General's Report lists allegations without making any determination whether the allegations are credible or substantiated.” Included in the report is an allegation of the sexual abuse of a minor made against a senior priest active in ministry. “We used the services of an investigator with a background in law enforcement and many years of experience interviewing both victims and perpetrators of sexual crimes. At the conclusion of his investigation, it was his opinion that the allegation was not credible. The Independent Review Board also advised that the allegation of the sexual abuse of a minor against Father was not credible.”
In most dioceses, when a priest is accused, he loses his home, his job and his good name — all within hours. He is removed immediately from his rectory and parish assignment, prevented from public ministry for the length of what is often an inexcusably glacial investigation, and required to dress like a layman. A press release is published in which the priest’s reputation is injured, if not ruined. He needs to exhaust his meager savings or beg and borrow money to hire a lawyer. Most excruciatingly, he has to linger for months or years under suspicion of being a sadistic pervert as well as a hypocrite to the faith for which he has given his life.
Pope Francis told the priests and seminarians that if their phones and computers would allow them to block all access to porn, they should set that up, and if not, they should be on guard: “I tell you, it weakens the soul. It weakens the soul. The devil enters from there: It weakens the priestly heart.” Pope Francis also said he was not talking only about “criminal” forms of porn like child pornography, but of “the somewhat ‘normal’ pornography. Dear brothers, be careful of this. The pure heart, the heart that receives Jesus every day, cannot receive this pornographic information.”
Supervised clergy cannot perform priestly ministry duties, such as saying mass or taking confessions, cannot wear their collar or otherwise position themselves as a cleric in good standing, and cannot live in close proximity to children or a school, among other requirements. If an accused priest refuses to cooperate, the Diocese's policies have now been amended to allow the current bishop the discretion to withhold that priest’s pension until they comply.
“If we were to have mandatory reporting and the penitents were aware that anything said under the confessional seal could be revealed then they wouldn’t avail themselves of the sacrament in the first place, and the concern is that we would lose that one opportunity to talk to one of these people to encourage them to do what they need to do.”
This means that if a priest were to hear a sacramental confession where he learned about child abuse – either from the perpetrator or the victim – he would face criminal prosecution if he didn’t report it to the authorities. According to Church law, violating the seal of confession is an excommunicable offense, and priests are supposed to defend the seal, even with their lives.
“A single allegation, even if proven false, can destroy a priest’s reputation permanently,” said a summary report. “Many priests told us in the interviews they did not have a clear understanding of the process in their diocese for how allegations against a priest would be handled.” Attorney Michael Mazza said, “There’s a lot of fear right now of liability and of bad press. … Years ago we didn’t care about the victim, and now we don’t care about the accused priests.”
Priests reported that they are less likely to seek personal support from their bishop, and said they believe bishops regard priests as “liabilities” and “expendable.” “I personally have no confidence in [my bishop]. I would no more call him about something than a stranger on the street,” one priest said. But, bishops reported overwhelmingly (92%) that they “take great efforts to know each of their priests personally.” Even though more than half of surveyed bishops said that they are “too busy to personally counsel and pastor” all their priests.
Father said the archdiocese’s process leaves priests “presumed guilty until proven innocent.”“Let me be clear — I am completely innocent of this accusation. While I am confident that the new allegation will also be determined to be unfounded, this process is so unfair and painful to me and to the community I serve."
"built by a determined sex-abuse investigator and an atmosphere in which accusation was, in effect, all the proof required to bring a guilty verdict," the Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote.