Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., released the following letter to employees of the Philadelphia Archdiocese Aug. 14.
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Dear Friends in Christ,
As you know, there has been much media attention leading up to today’s announcement from the State Attorney General regarding six dioceses throughout the Commonwealth. The content is difficult to read and painful for all of us – most especially survivors and their loved ones. The Church in Philadelphia continues to express regret and sorrow for that pain and remains committed to providing support and assistance aimed at healing.
It is important to note that the Archdiocese was not subject to the grand jury investigation and is not part of this report. However, our own past experience with local grand juries in 2005 and 2011 is likely to be referenced in news coverage.
Over the past 15 years, the Archdiocese has prioritized its responsibility to create safe environments for the children and young people entrusted to its care. Prevention of abuse is part of our Church’s culture and our zero-tolerance policy dictates our aggressive response, which includes immediately notifying law enforcement regarding any allegation of sexual abuse or other criminal activity.
The Church has accepted responsibility for the abuse that occurred within its ranks – no matter when the abuse occurred. In that vein, it’s important to note that the vast majority of reports received by the Archdiocesan Office of Investigations since its inception concern behavior that was alleged to have occurred several decades ago.
There have been less than half a dozen allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by Archdiocesan clergy related to the period 2005-present day. Of that handful, all of which were reported to law enforcement, one allegation was substantiated. That priest was immediately removed from ministry by the Archdiocese when it learned of the allegation and he was later convicted on federal child pornography charges.
During this same time period, approximately 100,000 Archdiocesan clergy, staff, and volunteers have received Safe Environment and Mandatory Reporter training programs to help them recognize, respond to, and report suspected abuse.
Those facts, along with the significant support we provide survivors of abuse and their families, are rarely acknowledged or reported. Last year alone our Archdiocese committed $1.7 million in these efforts. To provide transparency and to further assist in healing, we’ve published the names of all clergy with substantiated claims of abuse against them — both living and deceased — on our Archdiocesan website for several years.
Please know of my gratitude for your generous dedication to our Church and her mission. Everyone in our Archdiocese plays a part in the ongoing efforts to protect God’s children. I have attached our official statement regarding the grand jury report. It illustrates the extent of our commitment to rooting out the societal evil of child abuse as well as assisting survivors and their loved ones.
In addition, I encourage you to view a newly established website AOPPledgetoProtect. It tells the story of where we have been, where we are, and where we are headed in our work to create safe environments and support survivors.
In a world where the evil of child sexual abuse infiltrates every facet of society, I know that our work to combat it will go on – permanently.
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With due humility it appears to me Canon law has not yet be changed to really address this crisis. The sexual molestation of a minor should simply not be permitted. No excuses: defrocked, loss of retirement, and all benefits, and gone. Until canon law effectively addresses this horror may I suggest bishops post in their cathedrals a copy of the painting “Domine, quo vadis”.
The justifiable anger is also about the sexual intimidation and harassment of seminarians and other priests by those clergy/bishops who had power over them. Even the secular work environment penalizes sexual harassment. Can we not expect more – virtue – from the clergy? When was the last time you heard a homily about chaste love? About the 6th and 9th commandments? Positive approach: as Christians we are called love even when there’s no pleasure in it for us.
Archbishop Charles Chaput is a solid-as-a-rock, no-nonsense good human being who COURAGEOUSLY AND SELFLESSLY put his future, his career, and his character on the line when he was charged with the THANKLESS cleaning up the same sort of mess in Denver, and then was tapped to clean up the disaster in Philadelphia, if not all of Pennsylvania.
I know of NO ONE who would have relished either job, but know of NO ONE who has, in fact, so relentlessly pressed forward toward resolution, healing, and placing iron-clad safeguards in place to NEVER, NEVER-EVER allow this to happen again in the Catholic community.
A breach of trust in one faith community, particularly one so long revered as the Catholic faith, cascades down the bye-ways like a ruptured water main (or sewer line) affecting and tainting ALL FAITHS.
Pray for healing, meaningful change, and…..somehow, ….even ( Lk 18:27) …..forgiveness.
Pray for continued strength, courage, and effectiveness, for Archbishop Charles Chaput. May his efforts go neither unnoticed nor unrewarded.
This is incredibly offensive and shows that the archbishop is completely out of touch with victims, the laity, and even his own priests. Does he not understand how much his priests and faithful are hurting by what has happened? Doesn’t he get that any bishop, let alone several of them, misusing his office destroys the credibility of every bishop, including him? Does he not understand how offensive these words are for victims? His role as archbishop should be to be a father to us and guide us with charity. We need bishops who will lead us, not repeat the same old beautiful empty rhetoric and deflect everything. Statements like these are why I left the Church. I don’t blame the Church for my rape, but I blame it for everything that was done to me afterwards to silence and intimidate me. If the archbishop truly believes that the Church has conclusively dealt with the problem, he is sadly mistaken and part of the problem. The Church continues to protect abusers and silence victims. Additionally, my heart breaks for every good priest in the archdiocese- they are the ones who deal with the consequences of what has happened on a daily basis, they are the ones who have to face the laity, they have to remain faithful while seeing evil priests get ahead and rewarded, they take the blame for every bad priest and the lack of action by bishops, they have to remain faithful to the vow of obedience, all the while their bishop is out of touch with what the reality of the situation is. Catholics need bishops to rise up and be bishops, not for them to deflect, shift blame, or excuse evil.
My parish was Saint Titus in East Norriton.
Three priests, Fr. Cudemo, Fr. Schmeer and Fr. Trauger are on the pediphile list.
Two of them molested and raped my friends little brothers while at Saint Titus.
Why are they not in Graterford Prison tonight?
Many of the predator priests were actually sent to St John Vianney Treatment Center in Downingtown, Pa. which is owned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Also not decades ago but in recent years.
“Prevention of abuse is part of our Church’s culture and our zero-tolerance policy dictates our aggressive response, which includes immediately notifying law enforcement regarding any allegation of sexual abuse or other criminal activity.”
I wonder if this supposed “prevention of abuse” includes some kind of investigation into the root causes for such abuse. As Church leadership is well aware (I hope), it’s not just the abuse and rape of children that enrages people, but also the apparatus of secrecy that enabled these monsters to continue to carry out their heinous acts and protected them from being brought to justice.
Yet these “official statements” issued by the bishops thus far seem to highlight only REactive measures in place for (somehow) preventing child rape and abuse. They altogether fail to set forth any plans to PROactively combat this epidemic by looking into its cause. No one speaking on behalf of the Church has endeavored to specifically address the root causes that — as one New York Times reporter recently put it — “created a system of hypocrisy and secrecy in which the abuse of minors could take place.”
Assuming, for a moment, that the “official statements” rendered thus far have adequately reassured the Faithful that “this will never happen again” (which, in my humble and respectful opinion, they have not), where — in any of these statements — can we draw any level of confidence that the aforementioned “system of hypocrisy and secrecy” has been eradicated or, at the very least, is being dealt with? Given McCarrick’s ability to rise up through the ranks of the Catholic hierarchy while simultaneously carrying out decades of abuse of both children AND seminarians, you’ll have to forgive my incredulity in the face of any claim that no such system exists or ever existed, whether in our archdiocese or elsewhere.
The above-cited NYT article on the late Richard Sipe, a reported “leading expert” on the roots of sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, quotes a letter Sipe wrote to Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego in 2016. In that letter, Sipe writes, “Sooner or later it will become broadly obvious that there is a systemic connection between the sexual activity by, among and between clerics in positions of authority and control, and the abuse of children,” adding that “[w]hen men in authority — cardinals, bishops, rectors, abbots, confessors, professors — are having or have had an unacknowledged-secret-active-sex life under the guise of celibacy, an atmosphere of tolerance of behaviors within the system is made operative.”
Sipe reportedly sought to present his findings to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops back in 1986 but was turned away. His research could very well be flawed and his opinions might be entirely unreliable. But has anyone on behalf of the Church bothered to look into it? We know from the McCarrick Scandal that seminarians were routinely subjected to abuse and put in compromising situations to be held over their heads for the rest of their lives under a constant threat of humiliation and disgrace through public disclosure. They were forced to keep quiet about McCarrick’s and others’ devious acts out of fear of punishment and retaliation (and some, conversely, were probably rewarded for “playing ball”).
With that as well as the recently-issued grand jury report in mind, is anyone taking a close look at our seminaries to see whether the next generation of priests are being subjected to the same or similar abuses of power? What about church rectories? Is anything being done to see whether a culture of blackmail pervades these institutions to be used as a tool of compliance and control? Will there be an investigation into rooting out priests and other leaders in the Church who are compromised in this regard and, thus, actively or passively perpetuate the very system that previously resulted in decades of child rape and other abuses of power?
The transparency and accountability the Faithful are calling for demand answers to these questions and other similar questions. Until then, the wounds will not fully heal and trust will not be completely restored.
The contribution ask is from the website, not the Archbishop.
On CatholicPhilly.com, yes, because contributions from readers do support this news website, not unlike other news websites such as the Guardian, and others. — Editor
Unfortunately, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia IS a part of this current report as Cardinal Bevilacqua transferred Father Connor to St. Matthew’s in Conshohocken after he had been warned about him by the bishop of Camden. And another unnamed Allentown priest whose name was redacted from the report allegedly brought a 14-year-old Easton boy to St. Charles Seminary and “wined and dined” him and encouraged a physical relationship. How does that happen? Do we know how many of the priests mentioned were products of St. Charles Seminary? A few of them were in Philadelphia parishes before being transferred to other dioceses. We really can’t distance ourselves when there were clergy being transferred from diocese to diocese.
As far as transparency, how much money has our Archdiocese had to pay since our grand jury report (2005) was released. I know I never saw a full accounting of the money. It’s great that on paper there are policies in place — but execution and adherence are critical. Trotting out the “list” of what’s supposed to be done every time these scandals occur in actuality creates a false sense of security that everything is under control.
In one of our stories posted in response to the grand jury report, we did reiterate a report from earlier this year about money spent by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia:
“Last April, the archdiocese revealed it has spent $24 million since 2003 to aid victims of abuse and build safe environments in the church.” — Editor
I take a number of exceptions to this response. First, it is more “defensive” than it is “apologetic” in that the Archbishop writes far more about what we’ve done in terms prevention than he does in expressing sorrow. Moreover, there is no “Crisis Response Plan” mentioned (or promised). Finally, and most important to me, is the reference to behavior that was “alleged to have occurred several decades ago.” In no way does that mitigate the pain felt by victims even though it happened decades ago. Additionally, if a husband were to admit to his wife that he cheated on her 30 years prior she would immediately experience suffering in the form of anger and distress (even though it happened decades ago). We, like the betrayed wife, are just finding out about this now.
good comparison!
After reading your statement I felt that maybe you were actually affected by what is happening until I scroll down and saw that as always the church does not miss an opportunity to ask for money. What a wasted opportunity to make an ex-catholic feel good about the church she was so devoted to. Very sad!
The statement never “asks for money,” but does state how much money has been spent on aid to survivors of abuse last year. — Editor
Why are you on here. Go troll on philly.com, they are desperate for readers and idiot comments.