Detective Benson would have had to restrain her partner had they been the arresting officers in any of the Jesuit abuse cases that were just settled in Seattle.
Each week, the TV drama pulls at our heartstrings as they dramatize the many types of victims of sexual abuse. The most heinous abusers are those who select children as their prey. Their cowardly acts stir an anger within us that is unmatched by any other type of crime. When these horrible people are caught and imprisoned, I know that I don’t lose any sleep over the jailhouse justice that hopefully awaits them.
According to the Associated Press:
“The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus has been accused of using its schools in remote villages and on reservations as dumping grounds for problem priests.”
Four hundred and fifty victims – some having waited nearly 50 years for justice – will receive $160 million dollars (less attorney fees, which I am guessing are substantial). Six million will be held aside for future claims. Two hundred prior claims of abuse were settled by this Province in 2009. They have been in bankruptcy proceedings since making the 2009 settlement.
These cases have become so frequent that the crime has come to define the clergy in the minds of many. If you don’t believe me, turn to your neighbors and play a game of word association. If the response to “catholic priest” is not “child molester” more than half of the time, I will be very surprised.
Having been raised a Catholic who attended parochial schools and a Jesuit high school, I have always known priests to be kind, caring, and deeply religious people. My personal experience with priests, however positive, cannot outweigh the mountain of evidence to the contrary. There is a problem in the priesthood and an even bigger problem in The Catholic Church. Neither are being addressed with these settlements.
I’ve written before about separating faith from religion. I can believe in a higher power without swallowing whole some of the nonsense that comes from the leaders of organized religion. For serial rapists to be shielded from prosecution by the Church’s hierarchy, who often chose to reassign the guilty to new environs where they could continue their wicked deeds, is a sin that cannot be adjudicated away. The number and scale of these cases reveal a structural failure within the Church.
While reading about this case, two aspects of its resolution troubled me greatly.
First, one of the priests in this case, who is alleged to have molested 100 children, will not be charged with any crimes because of the state’s statute of limitations. How can this be? Is there also a statute of limitation on the complicity of those who enabled this priest’s behavior?
And second, the ability of this Province to limit the compensatory damages that they must pay by filing for bankruptcy is bewildering. There should be no corporate veil behind which they can hide. If the Province cannot pay, then the next level up the hierarchy should, up to and including the Vatican.
I’m a believer, but what I can’t believe is that my Church has done the best that it could do.
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Society of Jesus Oregon Province letter from the provincial, dated February 25, 2009
Society of Jesus Oregon Province Q & A About Chapter 11
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