{"id":1834,"date":"2010-04-09T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-10T00:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/04\/09\/should-north-country-prosecutors-take-a-fresh-look-at-roman-catholic-abuse-allegations\/"},"modified":"2010-04-09T20:58:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-10T00:58:00","slug":"should-north-country-prosecutors-take-a-fresh-look-at-roman-catholic-abuse-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/04\/09\/should-north-country-prosecutors-take-a-fresh-look-at-roman-catholic-abuse-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Should North Country prosecutors take a fresh look at Roman Catholic abuse allegations?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press has uncovered<\/a> documents showing that the future Pope of the Roman Catholic Church “stalled” a California bishop’s efforts to defrock a priest who had molested children.<\/p>\n

The AP called the case, dating to the 1980s, “the strongest challenge yet” to the Vatican’s claim that Benedict played no role in delaying the removal of pedophile priests. <\/p>\n

Whatever else these revelations tell us, they point to a stark reality:<\/p>\n

For all its many strengths, the Church is incapable of self-policing when it comes to matters of clergy sexual abuse and pedophilia.<\/p>\n

The letter signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger indicates that his top priority was not the safety of children, but rather “the good of the universal church.”<\/p>\n

Throughout this harrowing crisis, most American prosecutors have taken a distinctly hands-off approach.<\/p>\n

Thousands of children have been raped and molested. Only a handful of offenders have been convicted.<\/p>\n

It is time for law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to consider a more pro-active, aggressive stance.<\/p>\n

Here in the North Country, the Diocese of Ogdensburg formally removed eight current and former priests from active service in 2004. <\/p>\n

Church officials refused to name any of them, citing confidentiality rules.<\/p>\n

At the time, Diocesan officials met with district attorneys from across the North Country at a session held in Lake Placid.<\/p>\n

An internal review conducted by Terry LaValley — now the Bishop-elect — found that more than fifty people in the region had made credible claims that they had been raped or molested by North Country priests over the last half-century.<\/p>\n

The vast majority were children. <\/p>\n

But according to a law enforcement source interviewed by NCPR in 2004<\/a>, local prosecutors took the Diocese at its word that none of the cases fell within the statute of limitations, or warranted further investigation.<\/p>\n

It’s fair to question whether that trust is still appropriate. <\/p>\n

At the very least, law enforcement officials should insist on full disclosure of all documents and details of alleged criminal behavior uncovered by the Diocesan probe so that an independent review can be made of the facts.<\/p>\n

The pedophile priest involved in the California case, Rev. Stephen Kiesle, went on to molest more children years after he was defrocked.<\/p>\n

It’s possible that some of the men removed from service by the Diocese may still pose a risk to the communities where they now live.<\/p>\n

It may also be appropriate to review whether Church officials in the North Country violated any laws in failing to disclose sexual assaults prior to 2004.<\/p>\n

Some Church officials have suggested that further scrutiny of this type would reflect anti-Catholic bias.<\/p>\n

But officials in Ogdensburg have acknowledged that appalling crimes were committed.<\/p>\n

It is hardly bias for law enforcement officials to do their duty, determining whether everything possible has been done to punish alleged offenders and protecting children from further risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press has uncovered documents showing that the future Pope of the Roman Catholic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}