The Oscar for best picture of the year went to “Spotlight,” the movie that told the story of the child sex abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston. It was released Nov. 6, 2015, and received six Oscar nominations, including two wins. To date, it has grossed nearly $100 million in foreign and domestic sales at the box office.
I resisted going to see at first, but now I’m glad I did. It helped me to understand the bravery of The Boston Globe reporters who fought through a lot of opposition to uncover all the facts. It also brought to light the extent of the cover-up, which went far beyond Massachusetts.
My heart and prayers go out to all of the victims. I was a victim myself once. When I was 13, a priest smelling of alcohol attempted to molest me. Even though I resisted, I remember crying for two days afterward. I was too afraid to report it to anyone.
Years ago, when an accusation was made, many bishops hesitated to call the police immediately. Bishops wanted to hear the priest’s side of the story, and they abhorred the possibility of a public scandal. In America, a person is innocent until proven guilty, but in these cases, once a serious accusation becomes public, the priest’s reputation is ruined, and then the presumption of innocence disappears.
Many of these accused priests pleaded innocent. As a result, justice was often delayed, and sometimes even denied.
Today, there is a zero tolerance policy firmly in place. All of the recent popes have denounced these crimes, saying that there is no place in the Catholic Church for a priest child abuser.
I’ll tell you a story from my own experience to show how easy it is to be fooled by a child abuser. It never entered my mind that a fellow priest, whom I thought I knew well, was in fact a child abuser. There was no sign of it. But one day I read in the paper that he was accused of abusing a young boy; as it turned out, more than one.
In time, he was tried, found guilty, defrocked and sent to jail. Then, tragically, after two years, he committed suicide in his jail cell. Please say a prayer for him and others like him.
In the past, psychiatrists believed that with treatment and rehabilitation, a child abuser could be healed and allowed back into active ministry. They often put it in writing: “Father (so and so) is now ready to return to active duty.” The bishops were glad to give a repentant sinner another chance. Alas, this was a big mistake.
In those days, child abusers were treated in the same way that alcoholic priests were treated. Once they repented, stopped drinking, went for rehab and returned clean and sober, they presented themselves as ready for a new assignment. But in the case of child abusers, we now see that there is a high rate of recidivism among them. We can no longer take the risk, even when they are subjectively sincere.
Human nature is the issue, not the priest’s sincerity. Pray for priests, and if you are one of the many who left the church because of these scandals, please think about coming home. We love you, and through the sacraments and other ministries, we want to help you in the healing process.
May the Lord be your strength and your joy.
