Next month will mark the 10-year anniversary of the explosion of the sexual abuse crisis, triggered by a January 2002 article in the Boston Globe on Fr. John Geoghan, accused of abusing more than 130 children over a 30-year career. (Geoghan was killed in prison in August 2003.)
Geoghan remains an appalling symbol of the church’s failures. He was the archetypal serial predator, transferred from parish to parish despite repeated warnings about his crimes.
A decade into the arc of the crisis, we now have a new symbol of another of its distressing features: the way all Catholic priests have been tarred with the same brush, presumed guilty until proven innocent and often cut loose by officialdom at the first hint of an allegation.
That symbol is Fr. Kevin Reynolds of Ireland, and his is a story that merits serious reflection. Before getting into it, however, let’s stipulate two points.
First, there’s no moral equivalence between the agony experienced by victims of sexual abuse, especially children, and the hardships of a falsely accused priest. The point is not to compare the two things, but rather, that you can’t remedy one injustice by creating another.
Second, the fact that some priests have been falsely accused does not mitigate the culpability of the church, or its leadership, for scores of other cases in which the abuse is all too real. Nor does it supply a free pass to church leaders to dismiss criticism, or to wave off arguments for reform.
That said, the Reynolds story illustrates two points that must figure on any list of lessons learned in the last decade:
- The need for more effective firebreaks against false allegations, both in the church and in the media.
- Greater support for priests facing accusations, including church leaders more inclined to balance legitimate measures of precaution when an allegation surfaces against concern for the reputation and rights of the accused party.
Continue reading the story at NCR: A new symbol of false sex abuse allegations
Image: Clerical Whispers
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