Article Title
Church Sex Abuse Review Is Ordered by Cardinal Dolan
Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/nyregion/cardinal-dolan-sex-abuse.html
Source: New York Times
Author(s): Sharon Otterman
Date: September 20, 2018
Synopsis of Article
Timothy Dolan (a.k.a. Archbishop of New York and “Cardinal”) announced his appointment of a former federal judge to review policies, procedures, and practices governing the archdiocese’s response to allegations of sexual abuse of minors and sexual harassment of adults.
Dolan’s appointee, Barbara S. Jones (formerly a judge in Federal District Court, Manhattan), will scrutinize compliance with protocols for the protection of minors, approved by the national conference of US Catholic bishops in 2002. For the most part, her investigation will not look back past 2002. She will report to Dolan and will be paid by the Archdiocese. Production of a public report of her findings and recommendations is not part of her mandate from the “Cardinal.”
According to the article:
The timing of Cardinal Dolan’s announcement left some skeptical that he was simply trying to get out in front of that investigation: officials have already issued subpoenas to the dioceses for all files relating to sexual abuse.
“I think that the Cardinal’s move is basically a P.R. move that was made under duress,” said Michael Reck, a lawyer who represents clergy abuse victims in cases against the diocese. “This is the type of thing that could have and should have been done years ago.”
Shaun Dougherty, a New York representative for SNAP, an advocacy group for survivors of clergy sex abuse, said that if Cardinal Dolan truly wanted transparency, he would stop lobbying the state legislature against the passage of the Child Victims Act, which would lift the statute of limitations for sex abuse cases and allow lawsuits against the church for abuse that took place decades ago.
“Today is just another distraction from the bigger picture,” he said. “The Roman Catholic hierarchy is fully aware that we have just merely scratched the surface into the extent of the cover-up of child sexual assault, and they are desperate to get this lid back on the bottle.”