‘Empty Promises’

How could Benedict have approached the topic more effectively than he has thus far?
When the Holy Father met Wednesday night with the U.S. bishops, rather than congratulating them and telling them what a terrific job they're doing, he should have singled out those with the most egregious track record and said how they should be punished. We believe that would have sent a chilling message, and then other church leaders would follow that directive.

How do you think the church can confront the issue of abuse before it becomes a problem, as opposed to punishing perpetrators and enablers after the abuse has already happened?
Well, the Catholic Church has always had pedophile priests and probably [always] will. The question is whether or not people who enable and cover up for them will be punished. That's the crux of the problem. It's not [for] the individual predators—they have a specific compulsion and addiction, and we know that deterrence doesn't work for that kind of criminal. But deterrents do work for church supervisors and bishops.
The other thing is that the bishops have a policy in place with lofty words, but there are absolutely no consequences to those who don't follow the policy, so it's largely meaningless. So [the bishops] say that someone involved in abuse will never be allowed in ministry again, [but] we keep finding examples of how these predators are involved in ministries still. It's comparable to the speed limit. If there are speed-limit signs on the highway but there's never a police car giving a ticket, most citizens would never follow the speed limit. A policy has an impact if there's a consequence for not following the rules.

What would be appropriate discipline?
Either firing or demoting or sanctioning them. [The pope] surely knows how to sanction them. Some of the commentators were saying "This is such a large maneuver for the Holy Father. He didn't even have to say anything. This is sufficient." And to that I would say 'No, words aren't enough. Nothing can restore our innocence or our childhood and that leaves us feeling helpless and hopeless.' But what we've learned is that it becomes empowering for us if we can prevent others from being abused. So if the Holy Father wants to help us as victims, he needs to put in measures that actually protect kids.

When he addressed the issue this week, did the pope re-open the wounds for all the victims?
Well, at this moment, we're inundated with many more calls from new victims and family members of victims. But we have an extensive network of survivors that knows how to handle the volume of new cases.

So since his message, as you say, was more ceremonial, would it have been better if he didn't approach the topic at all?
He was forced to say something. If he's going to come to America, he had to say something, but we're hoping that he does more. He has the authority to act and make consequences and we're still waiting for him to do that.

What about priests who oversaw cases that occurred decades ago? Should they receive punishment, which would include stripping them of their pensions?
We're far less interested in punishing actions like that. We're not a vengeful people. I don't think any victims wish anything ill toward the individual predators. It's not the individual predators. But church leaders enable them. That's who we want to see punished. If you remove bishops from their positions, we think the bishops would stop acting like that. That's the real problem.

© 2008