Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

The institutional Roman Catholic church can attack every newspaper in every country in the world but that will not change the fact that as an institution it has participated in an extremely well documented, egregious pattern of enabling and covering up for the sexual abuse of thousands of innocent children the world over during almost an entire century.

Today, members of the hierarchy are railing against The New York Times. Eight years ago the Boston Globe was the recipient of Archbishop Bernard Cardinal Law’s calling down of the wrath of God.

It has been eight years since the U.S. Catholic church was rocked to its foundations by revelations of clergy sex abuse in the Boston archdiocese and five years since a Philadelphia grand jury released a report documenting in explicit detail decades of abuse by clergy and cover up by the Philadelphia archdiocese, where I was born and baptized, and still church leaders are spinning their wheels trying to place blame on the messengers rather than on themselves and on a system that has become so corrupted that it put the protection of individual sexual predators along with an institution’s reputation before the protection of the most vulnerable of its members, the children.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, who served on the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board for child protection from 2002 through 2005, suggested recently [1] that it might “still be good for a few more bishops to step down.” Such action does have merit given the documented collusion of those in authority in protecting and covering up for sexually abusive clerics.

Yet, while some are touting the directions and procedures that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops put in place in 2002 as some kind of gold standard for the rest of the world to follow, bishops in Connecticut, Florida, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania have done everything possible to keep more adequate child abuse legislation from being passed. They have adamantly opposed [2] any legislation that would change statutes of limitations that prevent alleged victims from seeking redress after a certain age.

If church leaders want to attack untrue, unsubstantiated and specious statements, let them start with what Archbishop Henry J. Mansell stated in his letter of April 8 [3] in regard to Connecticut’s proposed House Bill 5473,

Mansell said that passage of the bill would have a “devastating financial effect” on the “Catholic dioceses of Connecticut, including parish assets and those of other Catholic service organizations.” Though unsubstantiated, his messaged had the desired effect. The bill was officially withdrawn as the legislative session ended April 30, but legislators promised “they will try again in the future.”

Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio reportedly threatened to close parishes [4] in the districts of New York legislators who dared to vote for the Markey-Duane bill. Such threats go well beyond all bounds of civility, but they had the desired effect.

And finally with the predictions of economic doom [5] and gloom made by Archbishop Edwin O’Brien in opposition to Maryland’s most recent child abuse bill sponsored by Delores Kelley, one can understand why so many good Catholics bought into the bill of goods being hawked by church leaders.

“Do as I say not as I do,” is the message still coming across to the people of God who are waiting for the accountability and transparency promised in 2002 but doled out grudgingly by too many bishops.

While what the pope may or may not have known or done may be unclear at present, one can be sure that the truth will eventually be known. One hopes and prays that Pope Benedict is not directly involved in harboring individuals who should have been reported to authorities but no amount of prayer will change the truth.

The more important questions that should be asked, answered and then acted upon are these:

What are the systemic and endemic flaws in church structure and governance that gave rise to the continuing crisis of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church?

What was it that gave bishops and their subordinates the idea that they had license to act with such utter abandon and disregard for the safety and protection of children; their bodies as well as their souls?

And is it really necessary for bishops to call down God’s wrath on another newspaper when what they should be doing is “besieging” their fellow hierarchs to initiate the reform and renewal that is so necessary?

Have they learned so little in eight years?

[Maureen Paul Turlish, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, is a victims' advocate and writes from New Castle, Del.]

No Free Pass by the New York State Assembly

The New York Assembly should not be giving a free pass to sexual predators of children - of any stripe, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. Nor should they be giving more protection under the law to these same sexual predators than to victims of childhood sexual abuse - by anyone.

A major epidemic is going on in our country, a pandemic if one considers it in its worldwide proportions and it is hard to believe, in light of such concerns, that we continue to have churchmen in the state of New York like Brooklyn's Bishop DiMarzio as well as others who actually oppose the removal of statutes of limitations regarding the sexual abuse of our children.

In the state of New York, it appears that leaders of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Jewish denominations are of the opinion that sexual predators and abusers should not be held accountable.

This should be unacceptable to all of us who are concerned with the trafficking of individuals for sexual exploitation, because, make no mistake about it, the sexual abuse of children in religious denominations, sects and cults is part and parcel of the wider epidemic and pandemic of the trafficking of individuals for sexual exploitation.

It is particularly disheartening in light of the fact that the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy See, was one of the earliest signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"Window" legislation, as it relates to civil statutes, is the single most important factor in holding sexual predators and their enabling individuals or institutions accountable.

New York's Markey/Duane bill is rather modest when compared to Delaware's 2007 Child Victims Law which went from an egregious two year statute of limitation to none going forward and includes a two year civil window for previously time barred cases of childhood sexual abuse - by anyone - and which remains open until July 10, 2009.

I was privileged to testify before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of Delaware's child abuse legislation.

So imperious are religious denominations' disregard of children in the state of New York, that the statute of limitations now protects known sexual abusers of children from criminal prosecution forever once short statutes of limitations expire.

I cannot comprehend the hubris that would occasion the type of behavior that has been so graphically delineated in an number of investigations in the U.S. including the 2002 Suffolk County, NY Grand Jury Report which detailed the clergy sex abuse of children in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Yet churchmen still question the rightfulness of extending the statute of limitation.

Why, one wonders, are dioceses in the state of New York not distributing postcards for the members of the Catholic community to sign and send to their legislators in Albany to support the complete removal of statutes of limitations going forward in regard to the sexual abuse of children, criminally and civilly?

This is not a matter belonging to what the Catholic Church calls the "deposit of faith," and, leaving aside the matter of the mortal sin for the moment, the sexual abuse of children is a matter of criminal behavior.

Can there be any question about the intrinsic evil of the sexual abuse of children or of the fact that such individuals are intrinsically disordered?

Church officials who claim that their dioceses, parishes, churches or programs will go bankrupt have produced no data to support such inflammatory statements and in states like California and Delaware there has been not the slightest possibility of that happening.

In fact, in addition to settling a $660 million lawsuit a few years ago, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California built and paid for a new cathedral that any city in the world would be proud to showcase.

It is important to remember that window legislation is not "anti" any particular group; it is pro-child. It forces records, if they exist and have not been destroyed, to be made available in a court of justice and hopefully into the public venue as well.

Moreover, there should be no accommodation in law giving more protection to individuals who have been accused of the sexual abuse of children than to the victims themselves. I think now is the time to make those who violate and abuse our children accountable in all states no matter when the abuse took place. Remove statutes of limitations going forward and include window legislation for past crimes.

It is unconscionable for religious denominations and their leadership to protect and enable sexual predators by refusing to support changes in the laws that would hold both the perpetrators and their enablers accountable.

In all good conscience, I strongly encourage all people of good will in the state of New York, including Catholics, to support criminal and civil laws that are as strong as possible in holding sexual predators of our children and any individuals or institutions, who were complicit in their protection, accountable.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

Carleton P. Jones OP
St. Vincent Ferrer Church
869 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10065
Dear Carleton P. Jones OP,

A friend has made has made me aware of a letter written to you recently by Sister Sally Butler OP, regarding known sexual predator Aaron Cote. I have pasted a copy of that letter below.

I know Sister Sally and the ministry she has been involved in since 1993 and I respect her greatly for it.

I have been involved in supporting and advocating for victims of childhood sexual abuse especially by clergy members of our own church since 2002 and I have lobbied and testified in support of legislative reform before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in Delaware leading to the removal of all criminal and civil statutes of limitation in our state in 2007.

Like Sister Sally I find your behavior in harboring an individual like Aaron Cote, a known serial sexual predator, highly offensive. Like other sexual predators with his history he is a clear and present danger and it would be in the interests of all that he be confined in a facility that has the security of a St. Luke’s in Silver Spring, Maryland or a Southdown Institute in Toronto, Canada. The CEO of Southdown Institute said to me in conversation at a symposium a few years back that the majority of individuals there for sexual abuse problems should never leave the confines of a place like Southdown or St. Luke’s.

I agree that the “majority of Dominicans are good people, hard-working and generous,” but I cannot think of any rationale that would justify your taking this kind of a risk. Your attitude is all too reminiscent of the clerical attitude of the bishops who have brought the institutional Church in the United States to this incredible low point in her history.

Sincerely,
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims’ Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

The Rev. Paul R. Shanley is an archetypal figure, a product of the clerical system that spawned, enabled and protected him.

He speaks to the tragic need to change all states’ inadequate childhood sexual abuse statutes for the protection of children.

To even consider that Shanley remained a priest for 43 years after the first credible and official complaint was made to the Archdiocese of Boston in 1961 is appalling.

Moreover, that he will remain a priest forever, even though he was officially laicized by the Holy See in 2004, because the church teaches that there is some indelible priestly character taken on by the soul during ordination is even more distressing.

It is insulting to the priests I know, especially those I have met across the country who attempt to minister to two and even three parish communities in rural areas of Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana and Minnesota. These men, these priests, represent the spiritual underpinning of the church I know.

However, the more important reality is not that Shanley may retain forever some indelible priestly mark. Rather, it is that the possibility exists that he may obtain a new trial.

If life were fair, Shanley would spend the rest of his natural life incarcerated. Children, young people and vulnerable adults would never again be put in harm’s way as they were since Shanley’s 1960 ordination in the Archdiocese of Boston.

If life were fair and church officials like Cardinals Medeiros, Cushing and Law and Bishops Daily, Mulcahy and John McCormack, who knew about Shanley early on, had done what they should have done, there would be no entertaining the possibility of a new trail.

This reality is much harder to stomach and it is the reason why the citizens of all of our states should be supporting legislation that will forever remove all criminal and civil statutes of limitation regarding the sexual abuse of children.

It is unconscionable and downright immoral for churches of any denomination to be opposing the removal of statutes of limitation and fighting allegations of crimes, known to be credible, in court on the basis of arbitrary statutes.

This is tragic and it speaks to the skewed value we as a society place on children, especially those victims of childhood sexual abuse.

Church history tells us that the problems of sexual abuse were seriously condemned in the earliest days of the church. Church Councils and Canon Law were very specific in their condemnations of sexual aberrations and just as specific as to punishments, sometimes even including death.

As members of a community of believers, the people of God, we say we are concerned with the rights of the unborn. We say we are concerned with protecting the rights of immigrants, legal or illegal. We say we are concerned with the trafficking of human beings.

But while we may take the moral high ground on these issues, many of us ignore the victims of childhood sexual abuse who are right in front of us and instead talk about the abuse victims who must be in it for the money along with their greedy lawyers, make inflammatory statements about the anti-catholic attitudes of anyone who would suggest accountability and the bias of just about every newspaper in the country, calling down God’s eternal wrath on them from time to time.

This is a continuing societal problem, a tragedy of unspeakable horrors which must be dealt with, but justice, like charity, has to begin at home.

We are all still waiting for that promised accountability and transparency even while then United States Conference of Catholic Bishops president Bishop Wilton Gregory was telling us that, “The terrible history recorded here today is history.”

No, it is not behind us as Gregory would have wished because church records, forced into the public venue by courts across the country and around the world, have brought that reality home to us with a vengeance.

Jesus said, “the truth shall set you free,” but when will the truth be known?

Pope John Paul II did not do what needed to be done and Pope Benedict has come and gone yet the tragedy continues and so does the heartache.

Real accountability requires that all arbitrary statutes of limitation, criminal and civil, on the sexual abuse of our children be removed and that a window of at least two years be provided to allow previously time barred cases to be brought forward in a court of law.

Justice and charity are what Jesus taught. He never said it was contingent on the price tag. The people of all states and religious persuasions deserve better and our churches should be leading the way, not building barriers that thwart access to justice.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish is a educator and member of the Delaware nonpartisan coalition Child Victims Voice.

FireThePope.com

Advocate Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

Church leaders are spinning their wheels

No Free Pass by the New York State Assembly