Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre made a powerful statement on behalf of both the Roman Catholic Church and the truth last week when he called on the Vatican to provide “decisive answers” to allegations that Pope Francis knew about accusations of sexual abuse by a former American cardinal but failed to act.
Barres also joined with Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who requested an investigation into accusations that former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for years had engaged in sexual misconduct with adult seminarians.
“The allegations against Archbishop McCarrick are extremely serious,” said Barres, who is the leader of Long Island’s 1.5 million Catholics. “If those allegations are true, then he disgraced his office and the Church – which is dedicated to helping, not victimizing, people – and committed terrible sins.”
The comments by Barres and DiNardo are welcome from leaders of an institution that has often resisted efforts to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct.
We hope the pope acts on their requests. A thorough investigation by the church is needed to prove whether the allegations are true or not – and to take whatever action is necessary to address any wrongdoing found.
This is a standard that should apply to the leader of any major institution, even a pope or a president of the United States.
But an investigation by the church is not enough to address the issue of misconduct by church officials.
The allegations of sexual abuse against church officials are not just sins, they are also crimes. Against children, boys and girls, who have suffered years of pain in the aftermath of assaults.
A Pennsylvania grand jury empaneled by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro recently released a report which concluded that bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in the state covered up child abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years.
The report, which covered six of the state’s eight dioceses and was two years in the making, found more than 1,000 identified victims and said there were likely thousands more.
The nation’s 49 other states and the federal government should follow Shapiro’s lead.
The New York attorney general’s office said last week that it is working with district attorneys throughout the state to launch a statewide grand jury investigation into the church sex abuse scandal.
The investigation should move ahead quickly and with the full support – financial or otherwise – of the governor and the state Legislature.
A statewide grand jury investigation in New York would be less necessary had state Senate Republicans not blocked legislation six times over 10 years that would extend the statute of limitations to age 50 in civil cases and to age 28 in criminal cases.
And establish a one-year window in which anyone would be permitted to bring a lawsuit, even if the statute of limitations had expired.
The Child Victims Act passed the Assembly in a 124-9 vote this year and is backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and by 90 percent of state voters.
But Republicans in the state Senate have not even allowed the legislation to come to a vote.
This year, facing the possible loss of control of the Senate to Democrats and their jobs, some GOP senators proposed an alternative bill which had one improvement over the Democrats’ legislation — the elimination of the statute of limitations for criminal cases.
But the bill has a giant flaw — it shields sexual predators and those who covered up their crimes from financial penalties in civil court from victims over 23.
Instead, it would require a victim over 23 to apply to an administrator who would hear the case behind closed doors and if the claim was found credible make an award out of a fund paid for by taxpayers.
This would appear to satisfy opponents of the Child Victims Act such as the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jewish groups, the Boy Scouts of America and insurance companies, who have cited concerns about the potential cost of lawsuits.
But the use of this fund would undermine one of the central purposes of a civil court system – to punish wrongdoers and deter future wrongdoing.
Not that the GOP had a chance of passing a bill. The Senate’s leadership didn’t even let the legislation come to a vote, supporting suspicions that it was intended more to help GOP senators keep their jobs than provide justice to child sex victims.
The Catholic Church could help put a stop to these games — and prove its sincerity in rooting out sexual predators — by dropping opposition to the Child Victims Act.
As should Orthodox Jewish groups, the Boy Scouts of America and insurance companies.
Republican state senators might then drop their charade and allow the Child Victims Act to come to a vote.
And if the GOP senators oppose the act, voters could — and should — toss them out of office.
Anything else would be a sin if not a crime.
