They just don’t get it!
Or, do they?

Over the last several years, many survivors and advocates of clergy sexual abuse survivors have been heard making the statement “they just don’t get it.”  These statements are often made following meetings with bishops and cardinals and in the belief that the survivors and advocates had made a positive impact by sitting with their Catholic leader.  Days or weeks later, and time after time, almost without exception, we come to learn that it’s business as usual for the hierarchs.

I personally made this same statement after meeting with Maine’s two Bishops, Malone and Gerry, following meetings with both where they made such frequently heard statement as, “I will look into that” or “I will take that under advisement” and most recently in Maine we heard it when Malone claimed he would consider posting the names and locations of credibly accused priests on the diocesan web site.  You might not be surprised that he made the same statement to Voice of the Faithful leadership some 3-4 years ago!

In reality, I now believe, “they do get it!”
They came to realize that their power was all important and the need to protect the Institutional Church from scandal took priority over everything.  The way to preserve their power necessitated aiding and abetting priest after priest and placing these rapists into new, unsuspecting parishes some distance from the community in which they abused.
They “got it” in that they knew they needed to use hardball legal tactics to fight victims and their families and demand confidentiality agreements with those strong enough to fight them.
They “got it” in that they told families they would take a priest out of ministry only to reassign said priest to other parishes or schools where others were abused.
They “got it” in 2002 when they went on the offensive to blame the Boston Globe for their downfall and continue doing this today in diocese after diocese.
They “got it” when they refused to heed the warnings of reports generated in the 80′s by their very own staff, following the extensive abuse crisis and cover-up in LA.
They “got it” by convincing local police and prosecutors to believe they would take care of everything when these public officials inquired about reports of abuse.
They “got it” because they knew time was on their side. They know many victims often wait decades before divulging or reporting their abuse thereby exhausting statutes of limitations.
They “got it” when they drafted the Dallas Charter providing no real teeth in dealing with their own support of the rapists. Not one bishop has been punished and not one priest excommunicated.
They “get it” today by talking about new protection programs while throwing away the survivors and victims and denying them justice by fighting changes in statutes of limitations and aggressively fighting look-back windows.
They “get it” because they know a comprehensive protection program includes notification of the names and whereabouts of known abusers.  Fewer than 10 dioceses have published such information. Predators are kept underground.  Children remain at risk.
They “get it” because they are banking that pew Catholics, Women’s Sodality and Knights of Columbus members will look the other way and continue to support them.  Further, they know most Catholics would never believe that their bishop or cardinal would lie to them.
They “get it” because they won’t hesitate to spend millions of dollars fighting survivors and fighting legislation which would bring justice to survivors.  Bishops and cardinals deny the suicides caused by their malfeasance.
If only they had practiced the principle Primum non nocere when it came to their treatment of children.  If they had, tens of thousands of children in the US and hundreds of thousands of children world-wide would never have been abused!
They “get it” because they know that their authority and power come from money, prestige and the deference showed to them, not from God.
Oh yes, my friends, they “get it.”

Michael Sweatt
National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC)