Opinion: What Does Priest Sex Abuse Trial Mean?

by Victoria A. Brownworth

The jury in the ground-breaking two-month long priest sex abuse trial in Philadelphia ended a third day without a verdict on Tuesday. On Monday, the jury had asked the judge for clarification on a number of issues, including the legal definitions of rape and conspiracy. The jury also asked if they could return a verdict on one charge while continuing to deliberate on others. The next day they ask for more clarification.

The jury’s questions, plus the long deliberation, suggested that they may be deadlocked on some of the charges against the two clergy on trial.  

Many are waiting to see what the jury decides. But for many others–including victims–the mere fact of the trial is verdict enough and a monumental indictment of the Church, the accused priests and the hierarchy that protected the abusers. The revelations throughout the trial have exposed the Philadelphia Archdiocese as a pimping ground for young boys and girls. Lurid and disturbing details revealed that the Church hierarchy consistently moved abusive and pedophile priests from parish to parish while never contacting police about the sexual assaults, sodomizing and rapes of numerous minor victims, both male and female.

On trial is Monsignor William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Part of what makes this trial so significant is that Lynn is the first church official in the U.S. to be charged with child endangerment and conspiracy. Lynn is accused of maintaining secrecy about abusive priests and allowing them to remain in ministry–including positions where they had contact with children.

One of the more shocking testimonies during the trial was that of a priest who stated that as a seminarian he had been tied down and nearly gang-raped at St. Charles Boromeo Seminary by other priests. He testified that another priest stopped the attack, only to rape him on several occasions himself.

The priest testifying later assaulted minors in his own parish, but is not being prosecuted because he is himself a victim. Still, that priest also remains in ministry, as have so many others.

On trial with Lynn is the Rev. James Brennan, charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy. Another priest, Rev. Edward Avery, was scheduled to be tried with Lynn and Brennan, but he pled guilty to sex abuse charges and is already serving time in prison.

The details that have emerged throughout the trial are as shocking as they are plentiful. Numerous victims have testified throughout the trial to a horrifying litany of sexual crimes against children and teens. In addition, previously unseen reports and other documents kept secret by the Archdiocese have been presented, all adding up to a pattern of subterfuge. Thus, regardless of what the jury decides, that material is now a matter of public record, as is the fact that the Church knew what was happening and chose to protect its own image as well as the priests who were nothing more than serial rapists. At the same time, the church–either under Lynn’s auspices or, as he alleges, under the direction of the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua–ignored the young victims, or, as was the case at points during the trial, demonized them.

Yet during the trial these same victims testified to the life-long impact the assaults have had on them, resulting in substance abuse, depression and an inability to maintain relationships or jobs.

As the jury continued its deliberations, Archbishop Charles Chaput released financial data the District Attorney’s office and others have been clamoring for: the cost of the sex abuse scandal for the Archdiocese.

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) and other victims had demanded an accounting for the past 25 years, but the numbers Chaput revealed were for a little more than the last year.

Yet those numbers are staggering.

Chaput revealed that the Archdiocese has spent $11.6 million on legal fees for the priest sex abuse cases just since 2011. According to Chaput, that figure is for defending priests and the Archdiocese in both criminal and civil cases. It also covers the cost of the Archdiocese’s own investigations into allegations which results in the suspension of 28 priests in the past year. The amount does not, however, include the costs related to the current trial of Lynn and Brennan. Chaput had only one comment to the press regarding the huge expense to the Archdiocese which recently revealed plans to close or consolidate more than 40 schools and nearly 20 churches due to financial stresses: “Disheartening.”

Disheartening indeed. Anyone who attends services at the Basilica, as I sometimes do, must pass by the daily picketing by SNAP members. It’s impossible to ignore the fact of how much this priest abuse scandal has impacted the entire Catholic community, but no one more than these victims.

And yet all Chaput had to say about the million dollars a month for the past year for legal fees while schools and churches are being closed was, “disheartening.”

Chaput had more to say about Pope Benedict XVI having chosen Philadelphia for the site of the next World Families conference. The word came from the Vatican as the jury was deliberating.

Chaput said the Vatican’s choice of Philadelphia was “a blessing”–but since the meeting won’t be until 2015, Philadelphia Catholics have to wonder what will happen to the Church in the interim.

What will the impact of the jury verdict be? What does Archbishop Chaput intend to do to heal the terrible wound caused by the decades of sexual violence against children, teenagers and the congregations of devout Catholics at the hands of so many priests? How does Chaput intend to change the structure of the Archdiocese so people like Lynn can’t plead the defense of “just following orders” that was last employed at the Nazi Nuremberg trials? What will the Vatican say about the jury’s decision? And if the Vatican says nothing, what will that mean for the victims and their families?

Ultimately it may not matter what the jury decides. Now that the facts of how the Church allowed such monstrous acts to be perpetrated against its most vulnerable members has been revealed, now that all Philadelphians know that Lynn and so many others hid these violent crimes from parishioners and the police, now that the entire country has been watching the horrific details emerge, all that remains for the Vatican, Chaput and the Archdiocese to do is to prostrate themselves before the victims and beg forgiveness of them, their families and those of us who put money in the collection plates during every Mass thinking we were making an offering for the good works of the Church when we were actually paying to cover up its crimes. 

Follow me on Twitter @VABVOX and follow my political blog at www.victoriabrownworth.com.