Child Abuse in Catholic Church
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Collared. The Catholic Church of the United States confronts pedophiles among its priests and bishops. After spending years and millions keeping the secret, it is now being forced to confess.</s>JOHN ASHCROFT, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The United States has not forsaken your husband, nor the values that he embodied and cherished. The story of Daniel Pearl, that he died trying to tell, will be told, and justice will be done.</s>MANN: In the wake of the death of UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, the Angolan government said Wednesday it is offering the rebels a blanket amnesty and a plan to rebuild the lives of ex-soldiers and displaced people. The government also said it was willing to discontinue its military activity against the group. In exchange, it wants the rebels to lay down their arms and demilitarize. The United States accounting firm Arthur Andersen is now under indictment on an obstruction of justice charge. Andersen spurned a deadline to plead guilty to the charge stemming from the company's admitted destruction of Enron documents. Andersen was Enron's outside auditor during the years the energy company was presenting a bright financial future to the public, when in fact huge amounts of debt were kept off its balance sheets. The United States government plays no role in religious organizations. The separation of church and state would make it unconstitutional. But the attorney general of the state of Massachusetts has told the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston that if it doesn't find a way to protect children from its clergy, the state would step in to influence how chosen and trained. A lot of people in that city are that angry.</s>JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, do solemnly swear...</s>MANN: It's mayor went on to serve as ambassador to the Vatican. Now, a local priest has made the diocese an example of a very different kind.</s>RICHARD SIPE, PSYCHOLOGIST/FORMER PRIEST: The church, the whole church of the United States, is never going to be the same because of what is happening in Boston.</s>MANN: John Geoghan was popular with his parishioners, a welcome figure in the city's Catholic homes. Now he is in prison, sentenced to 10 years for fondling a young boy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED VICTIM: It brought up a lot of the past. Now I want to be over with it, finished, and just move on.</s>MANN: Geoghan may have abused a lot of boys. The Catholic Church has paid more than $10 million over the years to settle at least 50 lawsuits against him, involving more than 100 children. The most recent settlement came this week, another $15 to $30 million to dozens of other people who say they were abused. Even so, the diocese faces new claims by more than 100 alleged victims, all eager for redress because of Geoghan or other priests they accuse.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: You have to understand, this isn't happy money. This is blood money.</s>MANN: And the money doesn't address why the church hid the crimes for so long. Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law is the most senior U.S. prelate. He and other church leaders knew about Geoghan's pattern of sexual abuse, but kept it secret, hoping to solve it, and moved him from parish to parish for years.</s>RODERICK MACLEISH, ATTORNEY: The problem of pedophilia could be dealt with so much more effectively if those who are in a position of power, like the cardinal in this state, erred on the side of protecting children as opposed to protecting the inner circle.</s>MANN: Law now says that what he did then in good faith was obviously a mistake.</s>CARDINAL BERNARD LAW, BOSTON ARCHDIOCESE: I apologize once again to all of those who have been sexually abused as minors by priests. Today that apology is made in a special way with heartfelt sorrow.</s>MANN: Even so, so many Catholics are calling for the cardinal to resign, the controversy has reached the White House.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm confident the church will clean up its business and do the right thing.</s>MANN: But the problem isn't limited to one place. Anthony O'Connell became the bishop of Palm Beach, Florida after the former bishop was found to have sexually abused boys. The new bishop's role, in part, to restore confidence.</s>BISHOP ANTHONY O'CONNELL, FORMER BISHOP, PALM BEACH: As reprehensible as it is, and it is, the bulk of our Catholic priests are totally faithful to their commitment to celibacy, are totally trustworthy in their parishes.</s>MANN: But after the Boston scandal, Bishop O'Connell resigned as well.</s>O'CONNELL: I am saddened. I am embarrassed and ashamed.</s>MANN: O'Connell admitted having an encounter with a teenage boy at a seminary 25-years ago.</s>O'CONNELL: There was nothing in the relationship that was anything other than touches.</s>MANN: But he spoke publicly only after the story emerged, after his accuser went to a newspaper. Now many communities want to end the silence surrounding clerical sex abuse. In several cities, and the country's largest archdiocese, Los Angeles, bishops are considering or adopting zero tolerance/full disclosure policies. But the lawsuits may run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the cost of the church could be of an entirely different order as well.</s>SIPE: And once this is opened to the light of day, and people become aware of how the system works, they're not going to be satisfied. You cannot put the top on the box.</s>MANN: In fact, in Boston, 10 priests have now been suspended and Cardinal Law has given prosecutors the names of 80 priests facing accusations going back five decades. We take a break, and when we come back, a conversation with a man who has been both a victim and a priest. Stay with us.</s>MANN (voice-over): Few allegations of sexual abuse are ever made public by the church. It is to be expected that some are not true. It is known that many are settled with money from the church, and an agreement to remain silent from the victims.</s>CHRISTOPHER DIXON, VICTIM OF ABUSE/FORMER PRIEST: You're welcome, Jonathan. What happened to me is a story we could talk about for hours, I'm sure, but ultimately, in the final analysis, I was abused sexually, and finally, a week ago tomorrow, my allegations and accusations were vindicated and validated by Bishop O'Connell.</s>MANN: You lived within the church. You were in seminary, and then you became a priest. Did you find other victims? Did you find other pedophiles?</s>DIXON: No, I did not know of any other abusers other than those that abused me, and did not know about it. No one came to me saying some other priest had abused them, so no.</s>MANN: So you carried this alone, and I gather you carried it into what may have been very painful places. If I understand your life history well, you were actually assigned to one of the churches where you were abused?</s>DIXON: Actually, I was assigned back to the seminary high school, which was the place where I was abused by two priests, one of whom was then Father O'Connell. He was the rector of the seminary. He was in charge of the place, and I had gone to him for counseling and support. It was very difficult to go back there as a priest, and as a matter of fact that was the beginning of the end of my being a victim anymore, because that place brought out in me the emotions that I had so successfully buried for so long. And ultimately I got clinically depressed, sought treatment, got in touch with what had happened, and the horrible nature of it all, and was able to identify it for what it truly was, and that's when I decided I don't want to be a part of this anymore, and left.</s>MANN: You're touching on something very important, because sometimes when we hear about dozens of allegations being made about one individual in particular, people might think that there are people rushing forward to make these charges. It sounds like, really, you didn't rush forward. You didn't really want to think about it much.</s>DIXON: I didn't, and as I'm sure the professionals would tell you, many victims, if not most of them, are ashamed. They keep these things secret, because they feel guilty themselves. I was like that. I didn't want to come forward. I didn't have the courage. I didn't feel supported. I actually felt like a victim a lot longer than the actual acts of abuse went on, so it's very difficult.</s>MANN: Did I understand you correctly, to say that you ran into Father McConnell again? That you actually ran into one of the priests who abused you?</s>DIXON: I'm not sure I understand</s>MANN: Did you ever encounter them again, as a priest yourself? Did you ever run into these men, or did they pass through?</s>DIXON: Oh, sure. Absolutely. When I was a priest, I was assigned back to that seminary, as I mentioned a moment ago. My boss then was Father Daley (ph). He was now the rector, when I was assigned as a priest. He was one of my abusers. He was my boss.</s>MANN: What was that like?</s>DIXON: It was horrible. But it took me sometime to come to terms with it. I could only bury the emotions associated with all of that for so long, until I did get depressed. I woke up one morning and I said, Chris, you're either going to kill yourself or you're going to get some help. And I chose to get some help.</s>MANN: Did he ever acknowledge what had happened?</s>DIXON: Yes, he did. Yes, he did. When I told him that I'm out of here, basically, I told him why, and that he was a part of the reason, and what he did to me back then. And he said, I'm sorry.</s>MANN: What was it like being a priest, serving the church, with this terrible suffering in you that you had endured within the church?</s>DIXON: Well, honestly, when I was ordained a priest, it was one of the happiest days in my life, one of the happiest days for my family. My parents were so proud. I was proud of my accomplishments at that time. And honestly, I was so masterful at keeping all of the anger and the rage and the horror of what had happened to me so successfully buried, that I wasn't in touch with that at that time. So the first few years of priesthood were like a honeymoon. They were great. They were wonderful. I enjoyed it. But once that ugly stuff started oozing back up, and once I sought treatment and therapy for that, then it all just poured out and flooded out, and I realized, oh, my God, this is not what I want to do. And I still don't want to have anything to do with it.</s>MANN: Now, when you say that, you have abandoned the priesthood. Have you abandoned the church? Have you lost your faith because of this?</s>DIXON: Several people have asked me in the course of the last week, you know, didn't this shake your faith. And I say to them, it didn't shake my faith, it shattered my faith. Frankly, I have no faith in the institutional church whatsoever. None. And no, I do not practice my faith or exercise my spirituality in any formal way, in any institutionalized form.</s>MANN: And yet there will be people who say that the appropriate anger should be directed to the priests, but the church itself -- is it an appropriate target for blame?</s>DIXON: Well, I guess it depends on how you define the church. And, of course, our faith, as we're led to believe, or as we're taught, our faith isn't in the church. It isn't in the buildings. It isn't even in its ministers. Our faith is in God. That's where my faith is. It isn't in the ministers, and it isn't in the buildings. And I won't exercise it through the medium of that, either, at any point in time that I can predict for myself. I just -- may be my anger is misdirected, but because of the betrayal, over and over again, and the secrecy involved in this, I'm not going to relinquish any part of my heart to the institution ever again.</s>MANN: Christopher Dixon, thank you so much for talking with.</s>DIXON: You're quite welcome. Thank you.</s>MANN: After the break, the church expresses its regrets. Stay with us.</s>MANN (voice-over): Rudolph Kos cost the diocese of Dallas $23 million. It could have been worse for the church. A jury awarded the altar boys he molested $119 million, but that threatened to bankrupt the diocese, and it was negotiated down.</s>BISHOP JOSEPH GALANTE, CATHOLIC BISHOP: Since '92, '93, there has been a constant desire, attempt, to come to grips with the problem. Now, admittedly, not always successfully. But always with the desire to eliminate, eradicate, this terrible plague and to tend to the victims.</s>MANN: Many people within the church say that in fact the church hierarchy has done anything but try to come to grips with the problem, that the church hierarchy has tried to hide the problem, to run with it. There was study done by Thomas Doyle, I'm sure you've heard of, in the 80s, that it is said went nowhere. There was a request by a group of psychoanalysts in the 90s to study the extent of the problem, which is once again different than issuing guidelines on how it is to be dealt with, but that study was refused. It's sure not clear form one diocese to another how many priests are involved, and it's only very recently that diocese in some parts of the country, not all of them, have really undertaken a thorough investigation. Do you think, despite everything that you've just said, the church has been very slow not to issue instructions, but to really find out what's happening in its churches?</s>GALANTE: Slow would not be the word I'd use. Ineffective might be a little more accurate. I think there have been well-intentioned but, at times, ineffective means. What has happened, for example, oftentimes, an offender was removed and sent for treatment. If the treatment center said this person is now all right to be sent back to an assignment, generally the bishop or the diocesan officials would go by the judgment of the treatment center, and oftentimes that judgment was poor.</s>MANN: Well, there have been other cases that I'm sure you know about, where treatment centers have recommended against putting priests back into contact with youngsters, and that advice was ignored. It seems, forgive me, to be a little disingenuous to blame the treatment centers.</s>GALANTE: No, I'm not. The ultimate decision always remains with the bishop, and as I said, in many instances, the bishop looked to the treatment center for advice. Now, did he always follow it? Perhaps in some cases he didn't, which, again, is tragic, absolutely tragic.</s>MANN: Would the safest thing for children, would it be to undertake a policy of complete disclosure? Obviously, innocent men will have allegations raised against them and their reputations will suffer, but it seems that the church's interest has been protected by secrecy and the victims have only been victimized further because of it.</s>GALANTE: Well, let me give a very practical example, if I may. There have been cases that I'm well aware of, where there has been a molestation. If a church official gets up to speak about it, at times, and this has happened, the parents of the victim, without mentioning the victim's name at all, the parents of the victim will go to the priest, to the bishop, to whomever, and really object strenuously to this being talked about in public, because they don't want their child to be marked or scarred or whatever.</s>MANN: Certainly that's the exception rather than the rule, though.</s>GALANTE: Well, for a long time, apparently it became the rule. And again, this is not just limited to church. So often in society, the victims were stigmatized, and so oftentimes victims of any kind of sexual assault were reluctant to come forward. We see it time and time again when women are assaulted, and the difficulty oftentimes that they experience in coming forward because of a...</s>MANN: Understood. Forgive me for interrupting, but the church has been secretive even in cases where there were no victims involved. The most recent directives from the Vatican, for example, were issued without any great fanfare among a sheaf of annual documents published only in Latin, and word was that those directives on pedophilia was coming. Word was issued by a cardinal from the Vatican in a letter that presumably you got, in a letter to bishops and the head of religious orders, in which the guidelines were asked to be kept confidential. No victims were involved. That was simply church secrecy.</s>GALANTE: No, exactly. But let me explain that. That was purely internal legal processes. It has nothing to do with the external. For example, in a case of the molestation of a minor, that instruction from the Vatican does not supercede our responsibility to the civil law. That allegation, that charge must be reported to the civil authorities.</s>MANN: Civil authorities in the United States have levied enormous penalties against the church.</s>GALANTE: Yes.</s>MANN: There are estimates that the church in the United States may eventually end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars, $0.5 billion is one estimate that I saw. Where is that money going to come from?</s>GALANTE: Well, I can tell you where the money has come from in some instances. It has come from insurance policies that the church had. It has come from selling church property. Where it usually, in many instances, does not come from, is the money that the faithful contribute for the running of the church. It generally is coming from insurance policies and selling of assets, etcetera, in that sense. And what is of concern, and is part of, again, of the credibility, is to protect the free will offerings of the people to not use that, because people don't want that used for these settlements.</s>MANN: What about the church? What's the effect going to be after all of this?</s>GALANTE: This is a trial for church. It's not the first time the church has suffered a trial. When I say the church, I'm not talking about the institution, I'm talking about all of us together, the baptized people of God. We all are wounded by this, and we all have to, and especially those of us who are leaders, shepherds, have to commit ourselves to being healers, to being more sensitive, to being more committed, to tending to those that we're called to shepherd.</s>MANN: Bishop Joseph Galante. A final thing before we go, time after time when we report on people, or priests accused of crimes, it's easy to overlook that sometimes the accusations are false. A case in point, Cardinal Joseph Bernadine (ph), a widely admired United States cleric who was accused of sexual abuse late in his life. We here at CNN reported on those accusations, and in some depth. As it turned out, the accusations were not true. Less than four months later, Bernadine's (ph) accuser admitted as much. The two men were reconciled, and the cardinal who had pleaded his innocence with patience and dignity, died of cancer three years later. That's INSIGHT for this day. I'm Jonathan Mann. There is more news ahead. END TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com