What Were They Thinking?: Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad, and the Totally Clueless

The Church’s Pedophilia Scandal: Skeletons in the Closet

The problem of pedophilia in the Catholic Church and the crisis of communication that surrounds it is nothing new. Certain priests, sick and dangerous ones, have been molesting young boys (and to a lesser extent girls) for decades, shrouded and protected by the organization’s unwritten, apparent code of silence. As a lifelong Catholic, I am quite familiar with the pedophilia issue. In an opinion piece for The Times of Trenton, New Jersey, that I wrote fifteen years ago, I said, “There were stories and rumors about priests ‘you should stay away from’ as far back as I can remember.” Despite all the gossip and the stories about priests, this potential time bomb was never discussed in public twenty or thirty years ago. Most kids were scared to death to tell their parents (never mind Church leaders) that the priest in the pulpit giving the sermon on Sunday was the same guy who the day before asked the altar boys to do unspeakable things. That was the environment in the 1970s.The Church was infallible. So as a kid, you would never accuse a priest of such a heinous act because you would have been not believed by your parents.This The Church’s Pedophilia Scandal SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET 47 The leadership in the Catholic Church was thinking that it could solve its problem with a three-prong, ill-conceived strategy: 1) ignore, 2) deny, and 3) try to pay your way out of trouble. What were they thinking?. It is always better to be proactive and deal directly and publicly with an exposed “skeleton in the closet.” The Lesson. Adubato_final_book 5/20/08 4:31 PM Page 47 is a big part of why so many of the complaints were not voiced until twenty or even thirty years after the incidents occurred. When Old Facts Emerge Even though most of the boys did not make direct accusations at the time of their abuse, I have a hard time believing that those who could have done something about the estimated 5,000 priests known to be pedophiles had no clue that something very sinister was going on. I can’t help but think that if my Church, which is so vigilant about the conduct and morals of its parishioners , had tried harder or been more receptive to media inquiries based on the early complaints of parents, a lot of kids could have been spared the physical and emotional pain of this abuse. But it was only after several highly publicized and sensationalized cases broke and after the initial convictions of some molesting priests that the Catholic Church hierarchy finally began to act. Consider just a few examples of friendly neighborhood priests who eventually got their due justice through the legal system, not through the Church’s internal checks system: ■ A deposed pastor in New York accused of running a “sex club” involving up to fifty boys.1 ■ Father Raymond Pcolka from Bridgeport, Connecticut, who was convicted of molesting young boys from 1966 to 1982.2 ■ Father James Porter of Minneapolis, who abused more than 100 victims, many of whom were altar boys in then Father Porter’s parishes. Porter left the priesthood in 1974. ■ Father James Hanley, who molested dozens if not hundreds of boys in the Paterson, New Jersey, diocese between 1972 and 1982, while his boss, Bishop Frank Rodimer, sat back and did nothing except resist the press and parents of Hanley ’s victims when confronted with the accusations.3 48 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Adubato_final_book 5/20/08 4:31 PM Page 48 ■ One of the worst cases was in Boston, spanning over three decades between 1962 and 1999, and involved Father John Geoghan. The strategy of Cardinal Bernard Law (like that of many of his peers in the Church hierarchy) was to orchestrate millions of dollars in out-of-court settlements, which included gag orders.This had the effect of perpetuating and exaggerating the pedophilia problem in the Boston Diocese.4 ■ A pattern of abuse of young boys by Father Galden at Good Counsel School in Newark, New Jersey, during the 1960s and 1970s came out many years later during a long and painful court case, ending in a guilty verdict. While there are countless such cases of pedophile priests and accommodating bishops, the handling of the cases regarding Galden and Hanley has had a particularly strong impact on me. Father Galden supervised...