November 2, 2006

Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver
1300 South Steele Street
Denver, CO 80210

Dear Archbishop Chaput:

In the past two years, several dozen lawsuits have been filed against your archdiocese charging clergy child sex crimes and cover ups. Over and over, victims say the same thing: They want the truth exposed. They want deeply-held church secrets about clergy sex crimes would made public.

Earlier this year, Colorado lawmakers seriously considered legislation that would have enabled victims of these horrific crimes the chance to expose dangerous pedophile priests and complicit officials. Had these proposals passed, it’s likely that at least some of the truth about child molestation by clergy in your archdiocese would have surfaced.

In response to these developments, several months ago, you proposed a “mediation” process that could potentially resolve some of these lawsuits, most likely without any discovery, depositions, interrogatories or courtroom testimony by church officials; in other words, with no real exposure of secrets.

This past weekend, Pope Benedict spoke to some of your brother priests to about clergy sex crimes. His words were very clear: “The wounds caused by such acts run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged. In your continuing efforts to deal effectively with this problem, it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims."

We are writing to ask you to obey the Pope’s advice to “establish the truth” and “above all, bring healing to the victims.” In our years of experience of helping victims heal, we have learned that healing for all parties happens best when clergy sex crimes are fully revealed. “The truth,” the Bible tells us, “will set you free.”

In the light of the Pope’s wishes, our experience, victims’ needs, and the deep need for truth-telling and healing in your archdiocese, we respectfully ask that you help heal the wounded and protect the vulnerable, by voluntarily disclosing all church documents relating to clergy sex abuse. We especially request that this be done before and during any “settlement talks.”

Increasingly, more victims are insisting that such records be made public. Almost always, however, these requests are met with hostility by church officials.

We think this is a narrow, short-sighted approach. We believe full disclosure is best for all concerned. And we know that you and your attorneys can fight, or can offer, such disclosure. We beg you to choose the more healthy approach “disclosure” even though it may cause you and your staff short-term discomfort.

For the long term, if everyone knows how abuse cases were handled (and mishandled), and knows who the predators are, society will be safer.

Thank you.