Dear Mr. Sullivan,
Whether it appears in the Courier Times or the Times of Trenton, I generally enjoy your writing very much. However, I found "Distressing days: Suffering as Much from the Church as for It" to have some very unfortunate wording and/or to be uninformed by the most current information:
- "In February, a grand jury in Philadelphia released a second report on sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Like the first report issued in 2005, this second report is a disgusting chronicle of sodomy and mendacity. Shortly thereafter, the archdiocese suspended 21 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual corruption or improprieties."
Two distinguished mental health professionals, Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons and Dr. Peter Kleponis, recently came forth to indicate that at least some of those 21 priests were placed on leave unnecessarily and unfairly:
- "The placement of 21 priests on leave shortly after the Philadelphia Grand Jury’s report on the outrageous child abuse by two priests has had a severely damaging effect upon the reputation, good name and future priestly ministry of these priests. This is because the majority of people in the Philadelphia area and around the country believe that all 21 priests were guilty of the same heinous acts as the two priests identified by the Grand Jury.
"In fact, the majority of the 21 priests identified for further evaluations of accusations made against them previously went through such an intensive process in the past conducted by competent professionals without any new charges being filed against them. The result of the investigation was that the charges were not substantiated against many of those 21 priests. Then, these priests were notified and there was no disruption of their priestly ministry....
"In the Church false accusations have related recently to confusion in regard to what is referred to as “boundary issues” which are buzz words arising from the post-crisis programs in the Church. Boundary violations are behaviours that are viewed as being suspicious, but are not directly sexual. Priests are being increasingly accused of so-called boundary issues and of grooming minors while engaging in completely appropriate priestly ministry and behaviour toward youth in Catholic schools, on playgrounds and in parish centres or rectories....
"In our clinical experience many of the priests accused of so-called boundary violations were strong in faith and in loyalty while their accusers often harboured resentment toward them. While accusations of specific sexual behaviours need to be immediately addressed, caution needs to be exercised in regard to the evaluation of so-called boundary violations. Certainly such priests should not be removed from ministry while an accusation is assessed, nor do they necessarily need a mental health evaluation....
"Most Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia do not know that thorough evaluations were done on the majority of the 21 priests and that they were found innocent of the charges against them."
Sincerely,
