Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly concluded a 16-month investigation of the Archdiocese of Boston by issuing no indictments. Catholic League president William Donohue commented on it today:
“Attorney General Thomas Reilly has finally issued his Starr Report. To be fair, however, at least Ken Starr had a shot at bringing down the Clinton administration—Reilly had no chance of bringing down the Boston Archdiocese.
“After wasting a colossal amount of public funds in a wild-goose chase effort to prosecute molesting priests, Reilly has concluded there will be no indictments. As if he didn’t know this when he commenced the investigation.
“There is something in law called a statute of limitations that, believe it or not, applies to priests as well as plumbers. There is also a provision in Massachusetts law that demands prosecutors prove that bishops who transferred molesting priests did so with the intent of causing harm to children. Even the most outraged victims never made such a charge.
“Molesting priests and their enabling bishops are a disgrace to the Catholic Church. Moreover, they should have the book thrown at them. But it should be the same book thrown at everyone else. To be specific, if the book doesn’t contain provisions to punish crimes committed long ago—or if the book demands that intent-to-harm be proven (when everyone knows it can’t)—then it is a waste of public monies to drag any person or institution through the mud. Whenever the outcome is preordained, prosecutors should back off and not let their greed for PR get the best of them.
“Move over Ken Starr—Thomas Reilly has outdone you.”
