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Litigating clergy sex abuse
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HOLDING BISHOPS ACCOUNTABLE: HOW LAWSUITS HELPED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CONFRONT CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE
By Timothy D. Lytton
Harvard University Press, 286 pages, $35
JUSTICE DENIED: WHAT AMERICA MUST DO TO PROTECT ITS CHILDREN
By Marci A. Hamilton
Cambridge University Press, 160 pages, $22
SACRILEGE: SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
By Leon J. Podles
Crossland Press, 675 pages, $22.95
One of the missions of the church is to bring light to the world, but sometimes things work out the other way. This is demonstrated by three recently published books that show how the civil justice system has helped to expose the dark secrets of clergy sexual abuse in the last quarter-century.
Timothy D. Lytton, a professor at Albany School of Law, demonstrates the role of litigation in policymaking in church and society in Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse. His book is the most nuanced of the three under consideration here and is careful not to reach conclusions that aren’t supported by the evidence he provides. While declaring that litigation made it possible for abuse victims “to hold publicly accountable one of the largest, richest and most powerful institutions in America,” he refrains from claiming that lawsuits reduced the rate of clergy sexual abuse and also highlights the role of other forces, such as the media.
Professor Lytton shows how litigation helped to open the secret archives of several dioceses that documented the suffering of hundreds of abuse victims, exposed these sins to the light of day, and pressured both the church and law enforcement officials to take allegations of clergy sexual abuse seriously. He quotes Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., as having said the case of Louisiana priest Gilbert Gauthe in the 1980s gave prelates a deeper appreciation of the harm experienced by victims and put them on notice that if they didn’t do something effective to protect the community against priestly predators, “you were opening yourself up to major liability.”
Although the U.S. bishops adopted a “zero tolerance” policy toward clergy sexual abuse in 2002, Professor Lytton says litigation continues to perform a role in exposing noncompliance with the policy in several dioceses. “While it will take a lot more than lawsuits to fix this problem, litigation has been a good start,” he writes.
One way to make litigation more effective would be to reduce or eliminate the statute of limitations for civil cases involving child sexual abuse. This reform is championed by Marci A. Hamilton, professor of public law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. She has testified before several state legislatures on behalf of such changes, which would acknowledge that it frequently takes several decades for child abuse victims to understand, acknowledge and go public with their experiences.
Professor Hamilton helped to persuade the Delaware Legislature to adopt a retroactive abolition of the civil statute of limitations in 2007 and issues a clarion call for such moves in Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children. Unfortunately, the book’s tone is more like that of a talk-show host than what one might expect from a law professor and often makes sweeping generalizations unaccompanied by supporting evidence.
Professor Hamilton portrays opponents of her stance as defending abusers rather than children, presumes guilt before trial in saying that defense attorneys “represent those who have committed the crime or the tort” and charges that the American Civil Liberties Union’s “focus on old-fashioned civil liberties” tends to make it sympathetic to perpetrators’ interest in shorter statutes of limitations. She goes over the top in charging that “the United States has structured itself to date in a way that subverts the interests of children.”
Such rhetoric is unfortunate in a book that has a legitimate argument to make and that demonstrates the unfortunate fact that “the major player trying to block such reform to date is the Roman Catholic hierarchy.”
Leon J. Podles, a former federal investigator, advocates abolition of the civil statute of limitations and other reforms in the civil justice system and the church in his massive book Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. His carefully documented work shows how both conservative views of the elevated, protected role of the clergy and liberal advocacy of sexual expression, including relations between adults and children, helped to create an atmosphere in which abuse could continue without any effective challenges.
Dr. Podles draws on psychological studies that suggest that pedophiles feel a need to control other people because they are not in control of themselves. For this reason, a priest who rapes minors “does not feel he is doing anything wrong because he is the victim and he is angry -- at God, the world, society -- for having made him different.”
The author also discusses obstacles to dealing with such men by a process under which a priest could make appeals to Rome for years -- which may have led some bishops to believe that pursuing such matters wasn’t worth the time and effort -- and an atmosphere in many parishes in which families who complained about priestly predators have been viciously denounced by supporters of “Father Joe.”
While lamenting the repeated lies of both priests and bishops about abuse cases and the look-the-other-way attitude of Pope John Paul II, Dr. Podles finds hope in Pope Benedict XVI’s measures to speed up the trials of accused abusers when he was a cardinal and in taking action against Br. Gino Burresi, founder of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ. The author writes that Benedict lets all know that “no one is immune from discipline, not even the founders of successful religious orders.”
One regrettable feature of Dr. Podles’ book is his detailed descriptions of abuse cases in quasi-pornographic detail in the first nine chapters. He defends this as a way of demonstrating the suffering of the victims and the need for strong measures for abusers, but this seems questionable. One need not describe various methods of torture in gory detail to make a case for its abolition.
Despite the horrific nature of clergy sexual abuse described in his book and the other two discussed here, Dr. Podles explains how he can remain a Catholic. Any religion can become corrupt, he says. “Attacking sexual abuse is not attacking the Catholic church, but is seeking to hold it to its own standards of justice and mercy and love.”
Darrell Turner is a frequent reviewer for NCR and writes the annual religion section for the Encyclopedia Britannica.
National Catholic Reporter October 3, 2008
Section:
I. Book Reviews 
Too many Catholics to this
Too many Catholics to this day do not believe that many of the horrors of sexual abuse by clergy even occurred. They defend their accused or even disciplined pastors, attack victims and their families, and insist nothing happened. That and that alone justifies the detail in Leon Podles' book. It is not regrettable at all.
Deniers of the truth often
Deniers of the truth often require an overload of fact to even begin to accept the obvious.
The only book mentioned
The only book mentioned above that I haven't read is Lytton's " HOLDING BISHOPS ACCOUNTABLE: HOW LAWSUITS HELPED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CONFRONT CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE."
I would certainly recommend, without reservation, both of the other two.
I agree with Professor Marci Hamilton when she says that removing statutes of limitation regarding the sexual abuse of children is the single, most effective way to hold sexual predators accountable along with any enabling individuals or institutions.
In Delaware we were successful in removing ALL criminal and civil statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children AND we have a two year civil window open for previously time barred cases of abuse.
ALL STATES IN THE UNITED STATES SHOULD REMOVE CRIMINAL AND CIVIL STATUTES OF LIMITATION IN REGARD TO THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND THE INSTITUTIONAL ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH SHOULD BE LEADING THE PARADE IN SUCH A MOVEMENT.
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
I feel very relieved to see
I feel very relieved to see that there are Catholics in our cultures, who still stand up for reason and common sense. The developments that have led to violence against children and women in the history of Catholicity have reached a point of complete intolerance, particularly in the age of fast-speed communications, when no secret can remain hidden for too long any longer. Thanks God.
Thank you, NCR for being that light in the darkness.
Regarding the statement,
Regarding the statement, "One regrettable feature of Dr. Podles’ book is his detailed descriptions of abuse cases in quasi-pornographic detail in the first nine chapters" in reference to 'Sacrilage'. I read the book. The descriptions are factual (sourced), written in expository and technical style, and very often directly from court documents. There has been enough dissembling, euphemism, and misrepresentation in these events as it is. They are not at all pornographic. They are what you would find in any professional report in this area: police/special victims; medical; social work/child abuse investigation and protection; legal; psychological. To describe them as "pornographic" or even "quasi-pornographic" is uninformed, demeaning to the victims, dishonest, evidences a fundamental misunderstanding of the meaning of pornography, and speaks only of the reviewer himself in his response to the material, not the material itself. A response, I might add, that, given what is described, is in need of a searching self-reflection by the reviewer himself.
I have read the books by
I have read the books by Hamilton and Poodles and regard both as "must read" and excellent in content. The books should be studied by every Catholic; they need to beome believers. The lies and propaganda put out by the bishops through their spin doctors, attorneys, and PR organizations has misled and confused many Catholics. They still cannot believe these evil things happened - like the murder of millions of Jews - in the church. Over the centuries millions of children have been sexually massacured and these books cry out to everyone to put a stop to this criminal activity. The bishops' argument is silence. In many areas it seems most church (catholic) goers know little or nothing of what has and is still taking place. People don't want to hear about it or talk about it. Another book puting the blame where it belongs has been banned from sale in Catholic book stores: "Faithful Departed" by Philip Lawler. This is a a public example of a concerted effort to keep silence. Diocesan newspapers will not publish letters exposing clergy crimes. Victims and families won't talk out of fear of having to pay back money offered by the diocese ( in addition to the usual reasons to be silent ) or threats of excommunication or damnation. The truth must be known.
Must the truth be known
Must the truth be known about the statments made by some of the lawyers involved that their goal is to bankrupt the Church?
Just asking.
Dear Mr. Turner, Re:
Dear Mr. Turner,
Re: "Litigating clergy sex abuse”
I read with interest your review of three books that purportedly "show how the civil justice system has helped to expose the dark secrets of clergy sexual abuse...". Though I have read but one of the three books you reviewed, I found your brief analysis to be excellent, but flawed slightly by omission. For example, you may have informed your readers that Csrdozo law professor Marci Hamilton has obtained substantial monetary profit from representing claimants in tort actions against Catholic institutions. Such a disclosure provides readers with a motive for her views, an essential element for informed readership.
I was especially interested in your review of the work of Leon Podles whom you describe as "a former federal investigator." I have seen this description elsewhere, but I am uncertain of exactly what Mr. Podles ever investigated. He did little investigation for his book, cited no primary sources, and lifted entire descriptions of individual cases directly from the Internet then presented it as his own research. The Internet sites he utilized were agenda-driven, highly prosecutorial , and constructed with one goal: to facilitate and enhance blanket settlements from the Catholic Church.
But under this book's cover - perhaps under the cover of Podles himself
- lurks a darker trend to which you briefly alluded. Your review
described as m "regrettable feature" Podles's "detailed descriptions...
in quasi-pornographic detail in the first nine chapters." Other writers
- e.g., Penn State Professor Philip Jenkins - have addressed this topic
with the calculated detachment of professional investigators, but Podles immerses the reader into something more profane than profound. This may explain why Podles's book languished without a publisher for several years, and was ultimately self-published. Podles drags his readers - and I suspect they are few - down into the seedy details sensationalized in tort actions to embarrass defendants in the media and shock emotionally charged juries into big compensatory and punitive damage awards. Podles's approach is a trip to his native Baltimore's infamous "The Block," swamped in perverse voyeurism before attempting to rehabilitate his exhibitionistic display with a rail against priests, bishops, the late Pope John Paul II, the so-called Sexual Revolution, and, though not by name, modernism. One is left suspecting that much of the spiritual and emotional pathology - not to mention the perverse narcissism of sexual exploitation - which Podles projects upon his priest-perpetrator subjects is actually descriptive of Podles himself. When I finished sections of the book, two questions spontaneously emerged: Was Podles ever dismissed from a seminary - for rigidity perhaps? Is Podles masking through projection some self-loathing over his own issues?
We have seen such projected self-loathing before. Representative Foley railed before Congress to promote bills against the exploitation of alienated youth until he was exposed for repeatedly making homosexual overtures to young male Congressional pages, a behavior the media ultimately let him blame on a vague and convenient claim that a priest once molested him. Back in the 1970's Father Bruce Ritter - the then celebrated but now never-mentioned founder of Covenant House - made a career of publicly championing the cause of exploited children. A decade later, he fled the country after the emergence of multiple claims that he molested some of the very young men he "salvaged" from the streets. In Boston of the 1970's Father Paul Shanley became a local celebrity in the same way, and with the same result.
Leon Podles's book is not an "exposé" so much as it is a rant, and rants about sex shed far more heat than light. What was his purpose in self-publishing this book five years after the clergy sexual abuse scandal emerged and just as it began to wane? Adult survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation - and I am one of them - are not served by the myth that the Catholic Church and priesthood have been special sources of child abuse needing special protections and sanctions from which other institutions - i.e. public schools - are exempt. The myth of the perpetrator priest promoted by Podles and others has served no one but contingency lawyers and those who wish to use the scandal to promote their own contra-Catholic or intra-Catholic agenda.
Your description of Leon Podles's book invites no one to read it, except perhaps those who share its voyeuristic tendency.
Recently, Sr. Camilla D'Arienzo wrote brilliantly in America ["Mercy Toward Our Fathers," August 18] on the next necessary step the Church and victims must take to rehabilitate the Church in the wake of The Scandal that Leon Podles only exploits. Here is my review of that article.
Commentary on "Forgiveness Toward Our Fathers," AMERICA, August 18-25, 2008.
I was a victim of sexual assault. I use the word "was" because I remained a victim until I forgave my abuser and moved on with my life, a process that concluded some years ago. Having said that, I want to comment on "Mercy Toward Our Fathers" by Sister Camille D'Arienzo, and on some of what has been posted here in the aftermath of this excellent article.
As a Catholic and sexual abuse "survivor," I watched with much concern as the priesthood scandal unfolded in 2002.1 was riveted to the story of one of the victims, a middle -aged man who angrily revealed in front of TV cameras the harm done to him some thirty years ago. I listened as this man blamed everything that had ever gone wrong in his life on the priest who took advantage of him. I listened as his lawyer held press conferences describing why his scores of clients each deserved enhanced settlements from the Church (minus a 40 percent contingency fee, of course). Six years went by, and I recently listened again as the same man addressed a meeting of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) saying the very same things he said six years ago. The only addition - a six-figure settlement and a personal meeting with the Holy Father notwithstanding - was a claim that the Church has not done enough to ease his suffering or to respond to the crisis.
I listened as someone in these pages equated such suffering with the horrors of the Holocaust. I have listened enough. I will not hear another word from these so-called survivors and groups like VOTF that seem intent upon enabling them to never move on. I have heard enough.
It was the comparison with the Holocaust that has driven me over the edge. I have never before heard such narcissistic, self-serving, irresponsible rhetoric, and I will not hear any more of it. It offends every part of me, but it especially offends that part of me that worked so hard to recover from sexual victimization. Enough is enough. The sexual abuse of minors has been an epidemic in our society, and we have found a convenient scapegoat in the small percentage of priests who offended and in a Church that failed to act in 1975 as it would in 2005. There will not be true justice for victims until we move beyond the false notion that the Church and priesthood have been a special locus of sexual abuse, a myth that has benefited no one but personal injury lawyers and THEIR enablers in SNAP and VOTF. There will not be justice for victims until every institution in our culture embraces the transparency that has been embraced by the Catholic Church. Where is the public release of documents about accused clergy from other denominations? Why are public schools shielded from civil liability for abuse? Most alarming of all is the rhetoric about the so-called "cycle of abuse." Why did Congressman Foley get to shift blame for his own misconduct on the priest he claimed abused him? The so-called cycle of victim-hood is such a convenient phenomenon. If it is true, then who is keeping an eye on the hundreds of middle-aged men who have received windfall financial settlements claiming abuse by priests in their childhoods?
As long as we allow VOTF, SNAP and others with an agenda to keep us bound up in the cycle of blame and vilification and loathing, there can be no healing for the victims, for the Church, for anyone. It is time for some of the so-called victim advocates in this picture to recognize that they are doing far more harm than good. I applaud Sister D'Arienzo for having the courage to write so openly against a seeming tidal wave of angry, unproductive rhetoric. Arguing for anything less than forgiveness and healing is to perpetrate and perpetuate abuse. It is time to turn off the TV cameras, send the lawyers packing, stop vilifying the new class of lepers we have created among the accused in our Church, and act like the Catholic Christians most of us strive to be.
Santiago Cruz
Santiago Cruz writes from Los Angeles
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/artfcle.cfm7article
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