A national support group for people sexually abused by priests wants Vermont's Catholic Church to publicize the names and whereabouts of all personnel accused of molesting parishioners."If a chemical company had dozens of toxic dumpsites scattered across Vermont, we think their moral obligation would be to say where they are and to stay away," David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said Wednesday.
Clohessy, meeting with Vermont survivors and supporters outside the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese's headquarters in Burlington, also blasted the church for "harsh and misleading" comments regarding priest misconduct.
Clohessy pointed to the diocese's reply to a letter in the July 27 Vermont Catholic Tribune in which a former police sergeant and active Catholic wrote that "unless the church un-circles the wagons, comes clean, and then moves forward with the help of the Holy Spirit," it never will "deal with the problem in earnest."
In response, an editor's note said, "Your letter reflects the opinion of those unaware of the various child abuse educational programs mandated for clergy and laity (including all volunteers working with children)," noting the diocese "over the past year alone, has trained 1,400 clergy, religious, lay teachers and volunteers in accordance with the specifics defined by the U.S. Bishops' 2002 'Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.' "
What the editor's note didn't say was that the diocese is one of only two in the nation yet to fully comply with such policy, even though it has received repeated warnings over the past five years from a private auditing firm hired by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"The diocese is hyping the training programs it has been found negligent in pursuing," Clohessy said. "They say in essence 'We're training the next generation,' but they're ignoring the problem they've helped to create and keep in our midst even now."
Vermont Catholic Bishop Salvatore Matano wasn't in his office Wednesday but issued a written statement saying the diocese "deeply regrets any instance of child sexual abuse and apologizes to those victims of sexual abuse by clergy."
But the leader of the state's largest religious denomination didn't agree on publicizing names."It is well known that these sad episodes of clerical misconduct have placed the Church in the midst of legal proceedings intended to respect the rights of both plaintiffs and defendants," the bishop wrote.
"With this in mind, it is not a simple task to list persons as guilty of the alleged misconduct whose cases are either still under review by the Office of the Attorney General or before the court in cases of civil litigation awaiting trial or where there has been no admission of guilt or corroborated and substantiated evidence."
The Vermont diocese has spent more than $1.5 million to settle at least six priest misconduct cases out of court since news of a national sex abuse scandal hit the Catholic Church five years ago. Even so, it still faces 25 more civil misconduct lawsuits against eight of its retired or deceased priests.
The SNAP group, noting that 15 other dioceses had publicized information about accused priests, called on Vermont's Catholic Church to "permanently post on the diocesan Web site the names and whereabouts of all proven, admitted and credibly accused Vermont priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers and lay employees."
Clohessy said the Archdiocese of Baltimore was the first to publicly disclose such information, and the statewide Diocese of Portland, Maine, was the most recent.
"This move is the quickest, cheapest and most effective way any bishop can prevent future sex crimes by clergy," he said. "We think this is a bare minimum step every bishop should take."
Delaware's bishop released the names of priests charged with child sexual abuse last fall after one suspended clergyman was arrested for molesting another boy."By disclosing the names and locations of those living priests," Bishop Michael Saltarelli said in a letter to Delaware Catholics, "we perhaps in some way may help prevent or deter any further incidents."
Clohessy also asked Vermont's bishop to "personally visit every parish the accused clerics worked at" rather than continue to send out written statements."That's a passive PR approach — that's not what Jesus would do," the support group leader said. "We believe Jesus was very clear that you go out into the dark and cold and find the lost and wounded sheep."
Clohessy added that church officials should "strongly prod anyone who witnessed, experienced or suspects abuse" to call police, explaining "many bishops say, 'call us,' but the sexual abuse of a child is a crime and should be investigated by criminal authorities."
In response, Matano said he already had visited several parishes, was "cooperating fully" with law enforcement and was open to speaking with "victims of abuse whom I continue to pray for each day."
Wednesday wasn't the first time the national group spoke out against the Vermont diocese.
A year ago, it blasted Matano after he placed local parishes in charitable trusts with the explanation "in such litigious times, it would be a gross act of mismanagement if I did not do everything possible to protect our parishes and the interests of the faithful from unbridled, unjust and terribly unreasonable assault."
Shortly after, the diocese issued a statement saying it "sincerely regretted" any interpretation that the bishop's statement was "one of insensitivity to victims."
But Clohessy said Wednesday that "comments like that can do nothing but discourage already deeply wounded victims into staying trapped into silence and self-blame."
SNAP reports 8,000 members nationally. Clohessy, who made his comments while vacationing in Vermont, also met with three Vermont sex-abuse survivors including Michael Gay, a South Burlington man who last year received a record $965,000 settlement from the diocese.
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