Article Title
Pennsylvania Grand Jury Says Church Had a ‘Playbook for Concealing the Truth’
Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/pennsylvania-child-abuse-catholic-church.html
Link to Grand Jury Report: PA 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury Report 1 Interim Redacted __ 2018-08-14
Source: New York Times
Author(s): Scott Dodd
Date: August 14, 2018
Synopsis of Article
Evidence amassed by the Pennsylvania 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, Report 1, Interim-Redacted was reviewed by FBI agents from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. They identified repeating patterns of similar practices that were regularly used, by the six dioceses investigated, to cover up clerical sex abuse. The grand jury referred to these patterns and practices as a “playbook for concealing the truth.”
According to the grand jury, the playbook effectively reads as follows:
First, make sure to use euphemisms rather than real words to describe the sexual assaults in diocese documents. Never say “rape”; say “inappropriate contact” or “boundary issues.”
Second, don’t conduct genuine investigations with properly trained personnel. Instead, assign fellow clergy members to ask inadequate questions and then make credibility determinations about the colleagues with whom they live and work.
Third, for an appearance of integrity, send priests for “evaluation” at church-run psychiatric treatment centers. Allow these experts to “diagnose” whether the priest was a pedophile, based largely on the priest’s “self-reports,” and regardless of whether the priest had actually engaged in sexual contact with a child.
Fourth, when a priest does have to be removed, don’t say why. Tell his parishioners that he is on “sick leave,” or suffering from “nervous exhaustion.” Or say nothing at all.
Fifth, even if a priest is raping children, keep providing him housing and living expenses, although he may be using these resources to facilitate more sexual assaults.
Sixth, if a predator’s conduct becomes known to the community, don’t remove him from the priesthood to ensure that no more children will be victimized. Instead, transfer him to a new location where no one will know he is a child abuser.
Finally and above all, don’t tell the police. Child sexual abuse, even short of actual penetration, is and has for all relevant times been a crime. But don’t treat it that way; handle it like a personnel matter, “in house.”