... shortest one act play.
Belgian's Cardinal Godfried Danneels, met with a victim of sexual assault, now 42, and his uncle-perpetrator, Bishop Robert Vangheluwe, in early April. The bishops spoke freely because they did not understand the conversation was being taped and would not be kept secret as so many others like it had. As a result, their conversation provides the most succinct explanation for the complicity and failure of our church in this continuing crisis. From today's N.Y. Times:
Cardinal: "The bishop will resign next year, so actually it would be better for you to wait... I don’t think you’d do yourself or him a favor by shouting this from the rooftops.” The cardinal warns the victim against trying to blackmail the church and suggested that he accept a private apology from the bishop and not drag “his name through the mud.”
Victim: “He has dragged my whole life through the mud, from 5 until 18 years old. Why do you feel sorry for him and not for me?”
The hierarchal cover-up is still dragging the entire Body of Christ through the mud. Cut the rope,,, resign
Here in the United States previously sealed depositions that church authorities never expected to be made public support the fact that attempts at containment know no national boundaries.
Crimes against humanity? No question.
Will the institutional Church take ownership for the complicity of its leadership in covering up for the actions of those who have preyed on the young and their own actions in putting so many more children in harm's way? Doubtful.
To date, have any complicit bishops in the U.S. been sanctioned for their actions? Rewarded, yes. Sanctioned, no.
The crisis continues worldwide while in the U.S. bishops and state Catholic Conferences continue to viciously oppose legislative reform in any state where bills addressing it have been introduced.
Even in the state of Delaware which now has no criminal or civil statutes of limitations on felony sexual abuse of children, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington managed to get around the 2007 Child Victims Law and stopping the civil trials brought against it by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy almost a year ago.
Certainly not what one expected when the bishops promised Accountability & Transparency in 2002.
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com