The Catholic Church continues to walk a thin line between the perils of full disclosure and protecting the rights of those involved in scandal, both accused and victim.
While clearly better at addressing indiscretions and even crimes within the ranks, the Church’s desire to maintain a low profile with its process continues to haunt efforts at true reform.
Take the case of Monsignor Charles Kavanagh, a high profile fundraiser in the New York City diocese.
Faced with charges more than 20 years old that Kavanagh once had inappropriate contact with a teenager, the Vatican granted Cardinal Edward Egan’s request to move the Church’s canonical trial out of the media circus that is New York City.
The Church sought a quiet outpost for this messy business and landed in Erie, Pennsylvania. Testimony began at Saint Mark Center this week.
A less public location works to give the Church a less severe black eye, but that benefit doesn’t mean that there isn’t legitimate merit to the request.
The New York Post tabloid headline previewing the trial read, “Perv Priest ‘Inquisition.’”
Monsignor Kavanagh has maintained his innocence throughout, by the way, and one person’s allegations made more than twenty years ago is no sure proof of conduct.
In fact, the Statute of Limitations has long since expired on any criminal investigation, raising the possibility of shooting down a man’s career through the target eye of the media with little in the way of third party evidence.
It goes without saying, of course, that anyone participating in that kind of conduct should be removed from the priesthood, and the Church can rightly point to the Erie proceedings as proof that the effort is there and the assessment is being made.
Still, secrecy is a double-edged sword.
Obviously, arguments can be made to the validity of a closed process, despite a request from the accuser to open testimony.
But that decision does little to quiet the rumblings that the Church still works to mitigate damage first as opposed to fully and openly addressing the issue of abusive priests.
That could be completely false for all I know, but the peril of secrecy is that at the end of the day we must trust a system already found once to have obscured its faults.
I have no reason to doubt that many in the Church are heartfelt in their efforts to identify and remove abusive priests.
But with no information coming from the process, I’m left with little reason to believe, either.
THIS JUST IN-Shortly after posting this I was sent to a press conference held by Voice of the Faithful, a lay organization looking to open the Kavanagh proceedings.
The group is looking for at least lay monitors to be allowed inside the process. So far there has been no response from the Church.
HEY!-We still have the comments shut down here due to spam issues. Anyone wishing to comment can write to me at scott.bremner@35wsee.com. It only takes an extra moment to email and I’ll post your thoughts. Please write Comments in the subject line. Thanks.