Will bishops face felony charges because of clergy sex abuses?

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April 2002

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Will bishops face felony charges because of clergy sex abuses?

Will bishops face felony charges because of clergy sex abuses?
In a new twist on the clergy sex abuse scandal roiling the nation, a suit was filed on March 22 in Missouri federal court naming three U.S. bishops under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute, a law originally written to prosecute organized crime rings. The suit names Bishop Anthony McConnell, who recently resigned as bishop of West Palm Beach, Florida after admitting to an inappropriate sexual relationship with a seminarian. It also names the dioceses of Jefferson City, Missouri; Knoxville, Tennessee; and West Palm Beach.

Essentially, diocesan hierarchy are being accused of participating in an ongoing criminal activity because their efforts to "protect" the faithful from scandal by protecting the identity or relocating priests suspected of sexual assualts can be construed as an effort to hinder the criminal prosecutions of such priests.

G. Robert Blakey, author of the RICO statute and professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, says the RICO filing is probably just a publicity stunt. Blakey believes the specifics of the law will not apply in the Missouri case, but he says that it could be within the bounds of criminal law to charge a specific bishop with a felony for a role in covering up a crime.

Regardless of whether any such criminal or civil suits would succeed, their filings raise critical questions for Catholic hierarchy and laypeople alike.

Is the church guilty of a willful pattern of criminal behavior? Or were these hundreds of cases across the nation simply the result of poor judgment or an underappreciation of the perniciousness of pedophilia? Is it as simple as Archbishop John Foley put it on an MSNBC news commentary show, that "all of us throughout life make mistakes"?

Blakey says it reminds him of another organization that often has trouble with corruption scandals—the New York City Police. "Every twenty years or so, there's a police corruption scandal, and the chief says, 'There's always a few rotten apples, but the barrel is still good.'"

He says that the all-male, authoritarian culture of the priesthood has contributed to the atmosphere of secrecy and closed ranks. "Bishops protect the institution and the priesthood just like the chief of police who says, 'Rally around the flag, boys, it's a thin line between us and the civilians.'"

Blakey points out that some kind of corruption has been a part of church history since its early days. "The church for the first 300 years was a small group," he says, "made up of mainly the poor, living outside Roman law, which said one must pay homage to the emperor. When Constantine converted, within 50 years they were suppressing paganism. The church adopted Roman law—not the law of the republic which was democratic—by 313 the Roman Empire was anything but a republic. The law it adopted was: 'Whatever the prince rules.'

"And now the pope is in charge of everything, and in the diocese, the bishop is in charge of everything, and in the parish, the priest is in charge of everything. It's a . . . boys' club, and civilians—laypeople—are the outsiders," says Blakey. "The church needs to learn something about democracy. If it doesn't it will suffer substantially."

In light of this clerical culture, many state legislators are seeing fit to intervene, writing bills to make clergy mandated reporters of sexual abuse. Laws are pending in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New York. Twelve states already have similar laws. The Associated Press reports that many state laws governing "mandated reporters"—those required by law to report to authorities any suspicions of child abuse, such as teachers, doctors, and social workers—do not require a member of clergy to report suspicions against a colleague, but only against the victim's family member, guardian, or caretaker.

The pending legislations have spurred a debate over the seal of the confessional, the standard of secrecy protecting a confession, particularly in Massachusetts where the scandal has hit the hardest.

The Attorney General of Massachusetts, Thomas Reilly, announced in March that he would like his office to have a role in the archdiocese's hiring policies. The Boston Globe reports Reilly suggested he should have influence in the "recruitment, selection, training, and monitoring of priests."

Call To Action, a national Catholic organization working for reform in the Catholic church, has called for uniform standards in dealing with allegations of child abuse. Linda Pieczynski, a former state's attorney in Illinois and spokesperson for Call To Action, says, "The policies in place in the past have failed. We must drastically change the way the church handles allegations of child abuse.

"Only experienced child abuse investigators are trained to interview the alleged victims and perpetrators and weed out false allegations. In most states, people who are required by law to report child abuse must contact child abuse reporting agencies when they suspect a child has been harmed, not when they believe they have 'probable cause,' a standard that many dioceses use."

In a Call To Action press release, Father Bob Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils, says, "Let the police handle the crime, and the church handle the sin."

The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops has announced that it will address the sex abuse scandal at its June meeting.

In the meantime, Call To Action suggests that Catholic laypeople make themselves full partners with clergy in deciding how to reform institutional structures. The parishioners of St. John's parish in Wellesley, Mass., have begun this process with weekly discussions using a consensus model that involved over 600 parishioners. A report of their process is available on the Web at http://www.voiceofthefaithful.org.

A group of young adult Catholics affiliated with Call To Action started a petition to "reform Catholic priesthood and leadership." It calls for an end to "secrecy about pedophilia charges and proceedings," recognition of the criminal aspect of child abuse, establishing all clergy as mandated reporters, and a "review and [revision] of the entire system of Holy Orders and the priesthood." The petition is available at http://www.thepetitionsite.com, or through Call To Action's Web site. —Tara Dix

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