Over the years, we've emphasized that to protect kids, prevent cover-ups, get justice, and expose corruption and complicity, it's still crucial that anyone who sees, suspects, or suffers clergy sex crimes and cover-ups come forward and take action. This is so important because bishops are still ignoring and hiding clergy child sex crimes. It pains us to say this, but the problem in the Catholic church goes beyond just the top officials. It's often the people in the pews as well. That may sound like a harsh indictment. And we don't mean to tar anyone with too broad a brush. But the evidence is pretty straightforward: one reason bishops don't do better on abuse is that their flocks don't insist that they do. And the flock still gives too much deference to their clerics.
Far too often, like their 'leaders,' lay Catholics still don't err on the side of caution and believe accused clerics when they claim to be innocent. And tragically, when suspicions or reports of abuse surface, way too many rank-and-file Catholic adults are still unable or unwilling to take the brave, effective steps needed to truly investigate and STOP more child sex crimes. Too many people in the pews still can't bring themselves to inform the police, prosecutors, journalists, and other outside sources that historically do a much better job at exposing abuses. Let's look at two disturbing cases that have been in the news recently:
Fr. Geoffrey Drew of Cincinnati is now behind bars, having pled guilty in 2021 to charges of raping a child.
But back in 2005, 40 boys at a Catholic school in Dayton where Fr. Drew worked complained in a letter to school officials of the priests touching them and asked them to make him stop. The students typed the letter, and every boy signed his name. The result: No action was taken, and the boys were ordered to apologize to Fr. Drew.
"We wanted him to stop physically touching us," one former student said. "Basically, he was coming into class like every day ... and like massaging us, like rubbing his face on our faces and like sticking his hands in our ears and massaging our shoulders and saying weird comments and stuff like that. We tried to tell the adults to like help, but they didn't," he said. "I remember just that they told us we were being ridiculous, and . . . they definitely just told us to stop bringing it up."
Here's a sad, similar case involving the dioceses. In a federal lawsuit, a "John Doe" said he "was abused many times on approximately 30 trips to Washington DC, by Fr. Joseph Sredzinski. According to the filing, Doe "reported the sexual abuse, or attempted to do so, to church and secular authorities on multiple occasions...left message(s) about the abuse with a woman in the (diocese's) office...reported the abuse to a nun..." but was "told he must be mentally disturbed...."
So here again, according to Doe, multiple non-clerics or lay Catholics had a chance to act responsibly, protect kids, and help an alleged victim but did not. These are not just allegations in a lawsuit. Church officials themselves have reportedly investigated and put Fr. Sredzinski on their 'credibly accused' abusers list in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Fr. Sredzinski worked in a number of Pennsylvania towns - including Lower Burrell, Republic, New Kensington, Brownsville, Calumet, Everson, Point Marion, Greensburg, and Jeannette. And here is more on the Greensburg, Pennsylvania Diocese.
Every once in a while, we at Horowitz Law see a glimmer of hope from Catholic laity. In Massachusetts, for example, some Catholics were frustrated that Bishop Edgar da Cunha was sharing so little information about a suspended cleric, Fr. Jay Mello. Just last week, hoping to pressure their bishop into being more transparent, they had set a date to protest diocesan secrecy surrounding the accused abuser.
According to the local newspaper, "the diocese normally does not disclose the status of investigations while they are underway (but) da Cunha "took the unusual step" of writing a letter to parishioners a day before some of them planned to protest outside the diocesan headquarters. A Fall River native, Fr. Mello worked in at least four Massachusetts towns: Dartmouth, Falmouth, Mansfield, and Fall River. He was also a chaplain at a high school and the police department. His alleged sexual misconduct took place at a parish in Acushnet.
But sadly, the laity pressuring the hierarchy to be more open about abuse. There's an adage about elected officials in the US, often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, "You get the kind of government you deserve." While no doubt a fairly harsh assessment, this statement has a grain of truth. And it seems to apply not just to democracies like the US but also to monarchies like the Catholic church. Many Americans throughout history have - with some success - pushed and prodded and lobbied and even denounced politicians for acting recklessly and callously towards marginalized groups. We hope more rank-and-file Catholics who care about preventing and exposing abuses and cover-ups do the same, even though it may seem that prospects of real change in church officialdom are even more daunting.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by religious authority figures and other clergy. If you need a lawyer because a member of a religious organization sexually abused you, contact us today at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse nationwide. We can help.