Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Part IV in a series that looks at Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church from 1984-2010. (continued)
By Tom Doyle J.C.D., C.A.D.C

There were numerous civil and criminal cases in courts throughout the United States between 1984 and 2002. We learned much from the legal engagements between victims and the bishops.  We learned that the bishops were and continue to be willing to expend vast sums of the money donated by the “faithful” to defend themselves and to utilize every manner of stonewalling imaginable.  At the same time we learned that the Church learned that the secular legal system is a power greater than itself in spite of all efforts at cultivating deference.  Entreaties of all kinds, appeals to various Church teachings and even to the Gospels had little or no effect on the bishops’ unchristian response to victims.  However the power of the courts made them move….reluctantly, but it made them move.

The Survivors Band Together
By the end of the eighties something happened in the U.S. that would have a profound impact on the future directions of the clergy abuse phenomenon.  Victims banded together and formed support groups.  Frustrated by the institutional Church’s response to them and convinced it would do nothing to help them, they decided to help themselves.  Two organizations, SNAP and VOCAL (later known as Link-Up) were founded in Chicago in 1988-89.  Without these organizations, especially SNAP, it is doubtful that the momentum to face clergy sex abuse in the U.S. and worldwide would have survived.  These organizations were followed by others including several from other denominations.  Their influence inspired victims in other countries to step forward.  The persistence of survivor organizations, especially SNAP, has been the foundation of what is perhaps the most important development in the world-wide “happening:”  the clergy sex abuse “problem” is no longer in the control of the pope and the bishops as it always had been in the past.  The victims and their supporters now controlled the development and eventual outcome of the “scandal.”