Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a front-page story in today’s Boston Globe on alleged victims of priestly sexual abuse who are speaking up on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Globe’s series on the scandal in the Boston Archdiocese:
Many Catholics that I have spoken to, including the clergy, have grown weary of those who claim they were victimized by a priest decades ago and are still not satisfied with the Church’s response. No matter what the Church does—doling out millions, providing endless counseling and therapy, mandating training sessions for every employee to guard against abuse—it’s never enough. It’s time for some straight talk: these people don’t want to move on, and that’s because they have too much invested in maintaining their victim status.
Consider the remarks printed in today’s Boston Globe by alleged victims.
- “The church has failed miserably, miserably, miserably”
- “I’m very underwhelmed”
- “I don’t think it’s anything [the reforms] to brag about”
- “If anything, it’s worse than we ever thought”
Evidently, facts don’t count to these people, but for the rest of us, they do. Here are two worth pondering:
- Most of the abuse took place over a quarter-century ago, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s
- No institution, secular or religious, has a better record combating sexual abuse today than the Catholic Church
When I speak to my friends who are not Catholic, they agree with everything I’ve just said. But many of my friends, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, are afraid of voicing their sentiments in public for fear of being branded insensitive. However, there is nothing noble about allowing intimidation to skew the truth. It won’t happen at the Catholic League. Indeed, we are more emboldened than ever to get the truth out.
