AS ROMAN Catholics celebrate Easter this weekend, their Church is involved in its biggest controversy in years, with allegations that Church leaders systematically protected priests who were pedophiles. While the Roman Catholic Church has long been a secretive organization, it must follow the law like everyone else. The Church should come clean about all allegations made against priests and the subsequent cover-ups, and those who participated in such acts must be brought to justice and put in jail.
The latest controversy began in January when The Boston Globepublished a story about a priest's pedophilia and the subsequent cover-up. What has resulted has been an international crisis for the Roman Catholic Church: Each day new allegations are made against priests and new stories emerge about how the charges were covered up.
In this week's Time cover story, "Can the Church be Saved?" Johanna McGeary wrote, "The Roman Catholic Church kept silent for decades about the immoral, even criminal betrayal of its children, but in this era of openness, that just won't do." This lack of concern for its own members shows that the Church has no sense of accountability to itself or the law. Reviews Database Update Form
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According to Time, up to 12 Los Angeles priests have been dismissed in recent weeks. Monsignor Russell Dillard, a popular pastor of Washington, D.C.'s oldest African-American church, has been suspended while recent allegations are dealt with. While it seems as if some archdioceses are becoming proactive in dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct among priests, there still are problems at the top levels of Catholic leadership.
America's top Catholic leaders have been implicated in the scandal. Even Edward Egan, Cardinal and Archbishop of New York - probably the most powerful Catholic in the country - has not escaped the scandal unscathed. While bishop of the Bridgeport, Connecticut diocese, he allowed the Rev. Laurence Brett, someone the church had known to be an accused pedophile since 1964, to come back to Bridgeport as a priest. If the highest level of Catholic leadership is allowing for cover-ups to take place, changes must be made at the top.
Pope John Paul II issued a Holy Week message saying, "As priests we are personally and profoundly afflicted by the sins of some of our brothers who have betrayed the grace of ordination." The Pope's statement shows that he is not committed to a complete overhaul and investigation of the way the Church handles pedophilia, and this is sad.
Currently only 19 states require clergy to report suspicion or allegations of sexual abuse against minors to civil authorities. This must be changed. Every state needs to make its clergy responsible for reporting alleged sexual abuse, especially if fellow clergy perpetrate the acts. Perhaps states did not think to make this a requirement because they thought that it was so morally wrong that no one in the clergy would cover up such things. They were wrong. If clergy can't follow their own religious ethics, then they better be responsible to the law.
One could argue that what one priest confesses to another is supposed to be private according to religious tenets. However, the law of the land must take precedence over religious dogma. If a child's safety is at stake, no religion can justify that religious form be followed rather than moral judgement.
States also must get rid of their statutes of limitations for sex-abuse claims. While some states such as Florida allow criminal charges to be brought in most cases, many do not allow prosecution five to 10 years after the injured child has turned 18. Most of the current allegations occurred many years ago, and the statute of limitations long ago has run out.
While justice must be done, it is important that the public show restraint and that we avoid a witch-hunt of Catholic priests. Some probably will be accused of allegations that are false because dishonest people will hope to get a settlement from the Church, which certainly has a good deal of money. Another important thing is for people not to blame the Catholic religion as a whole for what has occurred. Just as it is senseless to blame all of Islam because of terrorists, Catholics cannot be blamed for a number of disturbed priests. Terrorism clearly violates the Koran, as does pedophilia violate the teachings of Jesus.
Religion cannot be used as a way to get around the law in the United States or anywhere else. Fundamental changes in the Roman Catholic Church are up to its members, but preventing and reporting pedophiles is not a choice that the Church has the liberty to make.
(Harris Freier's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at hfreier@cavalierdaily.com.)
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