<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18876">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2>
<H1><FONT size=3>[Add pastors, religious school
instructors/administrators/staff, religious day care center personnel, etc to
priests.]</FONT></H1>
<H1><FONT size=3>W.</H1>
<H1><BR></FONT>Governments must step into priest sex abuse cases</H1>
<DIV class=cnn_stryathrtmp>
<DIV class=cnnByline>By <B>Terence McKiernan</B>, Special to CNN
<SCRIPT
type=text/javascript>cnnAuthor = "By Terence McKiernan, Special to CNN";</SCRIPT>
</DIV>
<DIV class=cnn_strytmstmp>
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>if(location.hostname.indexOf( 'edition.' ) > -1) {document.write('March 19, 2010 -- Updated 1716 GMT (0116 HKT)');} else {document.write('March 19, 2010 1:16 p.m. EDT');}</SCRIPT>
March 19, 2010 1:16 p.m. EDT</DIV></DIV><!--endclickprintinclude--><!-- google_ad_section_end --><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--endclickprintexclude-->
<DIV class=cnn_strycntntlft><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!-- CONTENT --><!--startclickprintinclude-->
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript
type=text/javascript>var clickExpire = "-1";</SCRIPT>
<!-- REAP --><!--startclickprintexclude-->
<DIV class=cnn_strylftcntnt>
<DIV class="cnn_strylctcntr cnn_strylccimg214">
<DIV><!--===========IMAGE============--><IMG border=0
alt=tzleft.mckiernan.terry.courtesy.jpg
src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/OPINION/03/19/mckiernan.catholic.sex.abuse/tzleft.mckiernan.terry.courtesy.jpg"
width=214 height=122></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=cnnEditorialNote><EM><B>Editor's note:</B> Terence McKiernan is the
founder and president of <A class=cnnInlineTopic
href="http://bishopaccountability.org/" target=new>BishopAccountability.org</A>,
a library and Web archive of the Catholic sex abuse and financial crisis.
</EM></P>
<P><B>Waltham, Massachusetts (CNN)</B> -- We've come to a remarkable moment in
the ongoing clergy abuse crisis. What began years ago as revelations of sexual
abuse by priests -- recounted, in solitary acts of courage, by their victims and
played out for the most part in parishes and local newspapers -- suddenly seems
to have gone global.</P>
<P>This is because Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sean Brady, primate of all
Ireland, are now involved in the <A class=cnnInlineTopic
href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/church_abuse_scandals/">crisis</A> in a very
ground-level way.</P>
<P>Through news reports, we have learned that in 1980, when <A
class=cnnInlineTopic href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/pope_benedict_xvi/">Pope
Benedict XVI</A> was Archbishop of Munich Joseph Ratzinger, he approved an order
to move a priest named Peter Hullermann into the diocese of Munich, Germany, for
therapy after parents complained that the priest had had sexual relations with
their children. Hullermann soon resumed his pastoral duties, while Ratzinger was
still archbishop. Shortly after Ratzinger left his Munich post in 1982,
Hullermann was moved to a church in Grafing, nearby, and was convicted, four
years later, of sexually abusing children there. Yet he was kept in ministry
until a few days ago. </P>
<P>Cardinal Brady, back when he was the Rev. Brady in 1975, swore two little
boys to secrecy during a church investigation into their abuse by the Rev.
Brendan Smythe. In the ensuing 18-year silence, Smythe went on to abuse dozens
of other children in Ireland and the United States. He died in Irish prison in
1997.</P>
<P>As a result, some victims are now calling for Brady to resign, and people are
asking why Ratzinger and Brady didn't call police.</P>
<P>That question goes to the heart of a major change that is occurring in
state-church relations. As the depth and range of the secrecy that allowed child
sexual abuse to continue within the Catholic Church is revealed, some
governments are becoming comfortable with the notion that they must become more
active. The U.S. should follow suit. Congress should convene hearings on the
true scope of child sexual abuse within religious institutions.</P>
<P>Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has insisted that "truth and clarity" are
required, and the Irish government is considering investigations of every
diocese in Ireland. Three investigations have been completed already: of the
Diocese of Ferns (October 2005); of the horrendous system of institutional
schools (May 2009); and of the Archdiocese of Dublin (November 2009). When the
report on the institutional schools was released last year, thousands of
Dubliners took to the streets.</P>
<P>This is the context in which Brady must decide whether to stay or go.</P>
<P>Some may be surprised that after 15 years of news about clergy <A
class=cnnInlineTopic href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/child_abuse/">abuse</A>
in Ireland, there are still such reserves of public distress. This raises
another important point about the government reports. Not only has the Irish
government accepted its responsibility to investigate, but what it has found has
transformed the landscape in Ireland.</P>
<P>The government's access to church files, its resources and its
professionalism have revealed the crisis in Ireland as never before, with an
astonishing level of detail -- providing a level of realism that has overcome
any reluctance among <A class=cnnInlineTopic
href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/roman_catholicism/">Catholics</A> to accept
what has been going on. Why is this important? Because until all the facts are
known, as Merkel has said, sex-offending priests remain at work in parishes and
schools. Grown men and women whose lives have been damaged remain frightened to
come forward, priests' superiors look the other way, and the potential for more
crimes to be committed continues.</P>
<P>In the United States, there have been six local and state investigations: of
Westchester and Suffolk counties in New York; and of New Hampshire; Boston,
Massachusetts; Maine; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Westchester
investigation was cursory, but the others were substantial.</P>
<P>Thanks to the New Hampshire investigation, we know that in one thoroughly
investigated diocese, almost 10 percent of the priests have been accused of
sexually abusing children. Because of the Boston report, we understand how
middle management participated in mismanaging the crisis. Thanks to the
Philadelphia report, that archdiocese now devotes a page of its Web site to a
list of its accused priests, with their photos and whereabouts. But these six
investigations cover only a tiny percentage of the U.S. population, so very
little of the United States has benefited from the investigations.</P>
<P>What's more, most of the country has not experienced the revelations that
made headlines in Boston; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; and other
cities. In many dioceses, the names of many accused priests are not known, let
alone the full extent of their crimes.</P>
<P>This means that in most dioceses in the United States, sex-offending priests
are probably still in ministry, and the culture that supports them is still in
place. Little wonder that, long after the zero-tolerance policy was approved
with much fanfare by bishops in Dallas, Texas, in June 2002, the Rev. Daniel
McCormack was accused of abuse in the Chicago archdiocese but was kept in
ministry by Cardinal Francis George.</P>
<P>Despite George's violation of the Dallas agreement, his colleagues elected
him president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in which capacity he
welcomed Benedict to the United States when the pope visited in 2008.</P>
<P>Sexual abuse by clergy is not just a Catholic problem. Every religion and
denomination has covered up sexual abuse.</P>
<P>A congressional investigation in the U.S. would make our population safer and
would also address the international aspect of the abuse problem.</P>
<P>The Catholic Church and other churches are global entities that have too
often used their transnational structures to protect accused clergy and to
provide them with new populations on which to prey. </P>
<P>The clergy abuse crisis is a national emergency that has had a serious health
and economic impact on millions of citizens. The Irish government has provided
the United States with a blueprint for effective action. It is crucial that
Congress get involved.</P>
<P class=cnnInline><I>The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those
of Terence McKiernan</I></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>