U.S. Catholic Church mandated boards to independently review sex-abuse claims, but hierarchy holds reins of power, AP finds.
David Lasher stands for a portrait at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 4, 2019. When Lasher reported sexual abuse by a priest to an independent review board, the board ruled against him.
The AP also found dozens of cases in which review boards rejected complaints from survivors, only to have them later validated by secular authorities. In a few instances, board members were themselves clergy accused of sexual misconduct. And many abuse survivors told the AP they faced hostility and humiliation from boards.
“It’s a fraud. It’s a sham. It’s a cover-up,” said David Lasher, 56, the owner of a furniture design company who told the review board in St. Petersburg, Florida, in April about his sexual abuse by a priest. “There’s no one on the board that cares for the victim...it’s all about protecting the church.”
The Baltimore archdiocese names its board members, which, Lori said, “inspires confidence in the process,” and it does not include high-level church officials. An annual report that the board produced this year at Lori’s direction didn’t say how members ruled, but noted that in 11 cases, one priest was removed and 10 others were already disciplined or deceased. The victims were offered counseling.
The review board was an attempt to convince the public “that the days of a mysterious bishop deciding how to handle a scandalous and heinous report of child molestation and sodomy were over,” the jury wrote. “In reality,” it added, a board is “only as real as any bishop may want it to be.” The secrecy that is a trademark of many boards starts with how bishops and their administrators select members — perhaps where they exert the most influence.
The Richmond diocese said it was “saddened” to hear her story and that she was welcome to appear before the current board. In the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, the seven-member panel includes two priests and two deacons. In Montana, a voting member handles most of the Helena diocese’s legal affairs and guided it through a 2014 bankruptcy spurred by a crush of sex-abuse claims. In West Virginia, another diocesan attorney with voting power this year defended former Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield against an employee’s assault allegations.
John Laun, the review board chair in Louisville and a retired state court judge, said church officials don’t direct the conversation, and noted that the consultant found the archdiocese hadn’t withheld anything. He estimated the board handles four to five cases a year and deems most credible. “They’ve got people who are going to follow the line and keep it secret,” Connolly said. “Everybody’s a tool of the bishop.”
Some attorneys and aides on boards have votes, while others are consultants. But either way, their presence at meetings can make for a grueling experience for victims. “David goes in and bares his soul, thinking....Jesus is merciful, and Jesus wants the right thing for everyone,” said legal advocate Peter Schweitzer, a former priest who works with dozens of survivors and was at the meeting. “And that doesn’t happen.”
Some abuse survivors say clergy are not always an obstacle to justice on the review boards. Ann Phillips Browning filed a formal complaint in 2010 to the Kalamazoo, Michigan, diocese about her abuse as a teen decades ago by a visiting cleric from India. She said a local priest who was also a licensed counselor informed review board members about trauma, positively influenced the bishop and “made all the difference in the world.
In Illinois, for example, preliminary findings from the attorney general’s probe said the process used in the state’s six dioceses ranges from too complex to too general, is “a mystery” to survivors and lets dioceses operate in a “non-transparent manner.” Dead priests there commonly get a pass, even if their victims are still suffering, and cases against those accused by a single person aren’t pursued aggressively despite “reason to believe that survivor.
She resigned in 2013 after her efforts went nowhere. An internal task force created months later by the archdiocese issued a report that backed many of her concerns, including that church officials had “sometimes failed to inform the clergy review board of allegations.”How bishops exert their power over the board varies from diocese to diocese.
The decision was especially perplexing because the same priest had already been found credibly accused in another case in 2003, and the diocese had paid a settlement. In a January meeting, Bishop Daniel Thomas said he “can’t go into details,” according to a recording Kinn secretly made and shared with AP.
“The church needs to stay out of any of this,” Capozzi said. “They have shown themselves, time and time again, to not be able to deal with the truth.” Through interviews and documents, AP found dozens of other cases where review boards rejected cases later affirmed by courts and authorities. And in Iowa, Katie Bowman’s case exemplifies how a secular review can draw a different conclusion from the same facts.
Because Davenport was in bankruptcy proceedings, Bowman also had to meet with a court-appointed arbitrator, Richard Calkins. He has assessed claims from about a thousand victims nationwide and found a “preponderance of evidence” proved she was abused. He authorized the maximum payout under the bankruptcy settlement: $83,114.53.Two months later, in Bowman’s mailbox, was a letter from the Davenport review board chairwoman.
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