The Trials of Father MacRae

Another chapter in the [Catholic] "clergy sex abuse scandal":
Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Trials of Father MacRae Wall Street Journal (May 10, 2013):
"Last Christmas Eve, his 18th behind bars, Catholic priest Gordon MacRae offered Mass in his cell at the New Hampshire state penitentiary. A quarter-ounce of unfermented wine and the host had been provided for the occasion, celebrated with the priest's cellmate in attendance. Sentenced to 33½-67 years following his 1994 conviction for sexual assault against a teenage male, Father MacRae has just turned 60.
"The path that led inexorably to that conviction would have been familiar to witnesses of the manufactured sex-abuse prosecutions that swept the nation in the 1980s and early 1990s and left an extraordinary number of ruined lives in its wake. Here once more, in the MacRae case, was a set of charges built by a determined sex-abuse investigator and an atmosphere in which accusation was, in effect, all the proof required to bring a guilty verdict. But now there was another factor: huge financial payouts for victims' claims.
"That a great many of the accusations against the priests were amply documented, that they involved the crimes of true predators all too often hidden or ignored, no one can doubt.
"Neither should anyone doubt the ripe opportunities there were for fraudulent abuse claims filed in the hope of a large payoff. Busy civil attorneys—working on behalf of clients suddenly alive to the possibilities of a molestation claim, or open to suggestions that they remembered having been molested—could and did reap handsome rewards for themselves and their clients. The Diocese of Manchester, where Father MacRae had served, had by 2004 paid out $22,210,400 in settlements to those who had accused its priests of abuse.
[snip, snip]
"... Among [the charges made by Mr. Grover was] that he had been sexually assaulted by Father MacRae when he was 15 during five successive counseling sessions. Why, after the first horrifying attack, had Mr. Grover willingly returned for four more sessions, in each of which he had been forcibly molested? Because, he explained, he had come to each new meeting with no memory of the previous attack. In addition, Mr. Grover said, he had experienced 'out of body' episodes that had blocked his recollection."
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"Private School Sex Abuse Scandal"

We had the "clergy sex abuse scandal." Now it seems that it's time for the "private school sex abuse sandal." See Jess Bidgood, Abuse Charge at Exclusive Boarding School [Deerfield Academy] Stirs Inquiry, NYTimes. (March 29, 2013). Other cases of this sort have (unsurprisingly) surfaced in recent months. See, e.g., the Horace Mann Case. Will the Deerfield Academy investigation and cases like it garner a journalist or a news organization a Pulitzer Prize? Will it and cases like it lead to the formation of of SNAPS ("survivors network of those abused by private schools"). Will such cases lead to a campaign to discredit and bankrupt private schools? Will such cases produce a new generation of multimillionaire tort lawyers? Will such cases lead to attacks on the religious organizations with which schools such as Horace Mann are affiliated? Will they lead to calls for faculty members who are sworn to celibacy? Compare:

Thursday, March 25, 2010

News Flash: The BBC and the New York Times Discover Sexual Sinners in the Roman Catholic Church!

Child sexual abuse is a horrible, grievous crime. Homosexual child abuse by priests is a terrible wrong.

But this non-Catholic (Lutheran) & heterosexual has a few questions:

...

6. It is often suggested that clerical celibacy is the root of the problem among the Catholic clergy. SNAP seems to think that celibacy is the root of the problem. See Comment of David Clohessy, National Director, SNAP ("Sometimes, sexually troubled young Catholic men will turn to the priesthood, hoping and praying that if they promise to be celibate, God will give them the gift of celibacy, and help them overcome the troubling sexual urges they feel. Obviously, often that doesn't happen.") Cf. Clifford J. Levy, A Flock Grows Right at Home for a Priest in Ukraine, New York Times (March 23, 2010).

But question: If celibacy of the Catholic clergy were abolished, would the problem of child sexual abuse go away or diminish? Or would the phenomenon just migrate?

Was I mistaken in believing that the most common instances of child sexual abuse are those committed by parents on their children?

Perhaps the rule should be: sex by clergy: OK; having children: not OK? Is this the idea here?

Is child sexual abuse by married adults less common than child sexual abuse by unmarried adults?

Should celibacy by Tibetan monks also be done away with? Or should we embrace celibacy there on the ground that celibacy in Tibet is quaint & admirable -- and an effective form of birth control in a part of the world that very much needs effective birth control, perhaps even more effective than the PRC's one child policy?

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Sexual Misbehavior by Catholic Clergy Members

Although I have raised a number of questions a number of times -- see, e.g., this blog post and this one -- about the evidence used in some or much American civil litigation (and in some criminal cases) for alleged abuse by Catholic priests of minors, it is of course true that some Catholic clergymen have engaged in improper and sometimes illegal and sometimes criminal sexual misconduct. See, e.g., Accused Scottish Cardinal Admits Sexual Failings, NYTimes (March 3, 2013). (But I do not know whether Cardinal Keith O'Brien has been accused of improper sexual behavior toward minors or whether he has only been accused of acting improperly toward adults.)

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The American Roman Catholic Church and American Tort Lawyers

It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the American Roman Catholic Church is fighting for its survival against tort lawyers who are trying to bring large numbers of civil actions for sexual abuse that, in many instances, occurred -- allegedly occurred -- decades ago. The current theater of battle is over persistent efforts by tort lawyers and their allies to get states to abolish or amend statutes of limitations that currently impede civil recoveries for (alleged) misconduct that occurred long ago. In this blog I have intermittently chronicled alleged victims' lawyers' repeated use of junk science ("repressed and recovered memory" and analogous "prods" to memory) in their pursuit of  what they claim is justice for long-silent alleged victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. I am now convinced that a very substantial fraction -- probably the majority -- of claims against Catholic clergy for conduct that allegedly took place decades ago are bogus. I also worry that the selection of the Roman Catholic Church as the principal target of sex abuse claims reflects, not the relative scale of the problem of sexual abuse in different sectors of American society, but, in part, prejudice against the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently, all in all, I am glad to see that the current efforts to get states to remove statutes of limitations as barriers to new tort litigation against the Roman Catholic Church seem to be stymied for the time being.

I would not normally cite or quote New Times articles as a reliable source about the long-simmering [Catholic] clergy sexual abuse scandal -- I believe that the NYTimes' coverage of the scandal has been  gravely unbalanced; the NYTimes generally seems not to not have seriously questioned whether the financial interests of the tort lawyers on which it seems to rely requires that the claims of the tort lawyers (and their clients) be examined with a skeptical eye  -- but, despite the tone of the headline, the innards of the following current article has some material of interest about the current fight over states' statutes of limitations:

Laurie Goodstein & Eric Eckholm, Church Battles Efforts to Ease Sex Abuse Suits NYTimes (June 14, 2012):

Victims [sic!; "alleged victims" would be more appropriate] and their advocates in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York are pushing legislators to lengthen the limits or abolish them altogether, and to open temporary “windows” during which victims can file lawsuits no matter how long after the alleged abuse occurred.

The Catholic Church has successfully beaten back such proposals in many states, arguing that it is difficult to get reliable evidence when decades have passed and that the changes seem more aimed at bankrupting the church than easing the pain of victims. 

Already reeling from about $2.5 billion spent on legal fees, settlements and prevention programs relating to child sexual abuse, the church has fought especially hard against the window laws, which it sees as an open-ended and unfair exposure for accusations from the distant past. In at least two states, Colorado and New York, the church even hired high-priced lobbying and public relations firms to supplement its own efforts. Colorado parishes handed out postcards for churchgoers to send to their representatives, while in Ohio, bishops themselves pressed legislators to water down a bill. 

....

“How can an institution conceivably defend itself against a claim that is 40, 50 or 60 years old?” Mr. Brannigan said. “Statutes of limitation exist because witnesses die and memories fade.”

“This bill would not protect a single child,” he said, while “it would generate an enormous transfer of money in lawsuits to lawyers.”

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The "Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal" in Context: The May 2011 John Jay Report

From the very first day I began this blog -- August 25, 2002 -- I have posted -- intermittently -- about the "clergy sex abuse scandal," which has often been used as a synonym for the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal. Along the way I raised various questions about the scandal. I wondered, for example, why the Boston Globe, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting, was interested only in sex abuse by members of the Catholic clergy. I was disturbed by the use of questionable evidence -- such as repressed memory -- in many of the legal actions brought against alleged offenders. I wondered whether sex abuse was more prevalent among the Catholic clergy than in, say, families or schools. I worried that the financial interests of potential plaintiffs and their lawyers were leading to distortions of evidence. I worried that the zealotry of victims' groups and their lawyers were leading to worrisome shifts in the balance between the interests and rights of victims and the interests and rights of civil and criminal defendants.

All of the questions I raised depended to some degree on empirical propositions. Now a report has been released that may shed light on many of those questions of fact: John Jay College Research Team, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010: A Report Presented to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (First Printing, May, 2011).

Although impressive steps were taken to preserve the independence of the John Jay investigators (Karen J. Terry, Principal Investigator; Margaret Leland Smith, Data Analyst; Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., Consultant; James R. Kelly, Consultant; Brenda Vollman, Research Associate; and Christina Massey, Research Associate), the report will almost certainly not satisfy many constituencies, including groups that have a stake in advancing legal claims against Catholic organizations in America. Nonetheless, I do hope -- perhaps in vain -- that the report will lead to more balanced reporting in the mass media and that some attacks -- for example, on the celibacy rule -- will now be seen for what they probably are, attacks based on little more than prejudice and anti-Catholic animus.




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The New York Times and the Roman Catholic Church

The New York Times has the Pope in its cross-hairs. See Rachel Donadio, Pope May Be at Crossroads on Abuse, Forced to Reconcile Policy and Words, New York Times (March 26, 2010). The Times plainly has little use for the Pope.

I doubt that the Times' "revelations" -- in the past and most assuredly in the future -- will garner a Nobel Peace Prize for the paper. But I suspect that the Times does have a Pulitzer Prize in mind. Perhaps it has even grander things in mind: Perhaps it wants to discredit a religion that it sees as misogynous, homophobic, and reactionary. (I wonder: Is the Times aware of the Roman Catholic Church's vast array of social services for the poor and the downtrodden?)

I suppose I'm a curmudgeon. I don't believe that the unfolding campaign of the New York Times or the 2002 campaign of its junior sister -- the Boston Globe -- against [Catholic] "clergy sex abuse" are exemplars of investigative journalism. Both the Times and the Globe seem to swallow every morsel thrown their way by plaintiffs' tort lawyers. These news organs do not look at the evidence or reports of abuse with any significant degree of skepticism. For example, almost no claim of "long-repressed but recovered" (and financially-rewarding) memories of sexual abuse by priests seemed to be sufficiently outlandish to make the Globe wonder, "Could that really be?"

A footnote: On January 15, 2010, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected the appeal of the defrocked priest Paul Shanley, a former priest whose conviction for abuse rested at least in part on "repressed but recovered memories." Shanley was at the epicenter of the clergy abuse scandal that exploded in Boston in 2002. An interesting and revealing footnote to this sad story is that back in the 1970s and 1980s both the Boston Globe and the New York Times criticized as homophobic the Boston Archdiocese's efforts to reign in the activities of Shanley, the "street priest" (as he, the Globe, and the Times then characterized him). The Catholic hierarchy, it seems, is damned if it doesn't and damned if it does.

I think someone ought to write a book called The Scandal of the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal. This book -- if someone had the courage to write it -- would tell the scandalous story of shoddy and systematically-biased reporting by Amertican news media about actual and alleged sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy members.

Sometimes I genuinely fear for freedom of religion in this country. I think it's time for Catholics -- but not just Catholics -- to fight back at the current assault on the Catholic Church. I tend not to be an alarmist but I'm beginning to think (now & then) that the future of Catholicism in America really is at stake. And, as I said before, b'gosh, I'm not even Catholic! (Perhaps I'll convert to Catholicism just to show my sympathy and support.)

But when I reflect on matters, I think the Catholic Church will survive this assault. It has survived harsher assaults. I think it will do so again -- because, whether the New York Times knows it or not, the Roman Catholic Church is populated with millions of people who not only mean well, but also do well. That the Church's members and leaders sometimes fall down and do terrible things is, of course, undeniable. But I don't know any serious-minded person -- whether inside or outside of the Church -- who has said or thought that all of the members of the Roman Catholic Church are without fault or sin. I suppose the same could and must be said of any organization or association run by human beings -- including, yes, even the New York Times.

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News Flash: The BBC and the New York Times Discover Sexual Sinners in the Roman Catholic Church!

Child sexual abuse is a horrible, grievous crime. Homosexual child abuse by priests is a terrible wrong.

But this non-Catholic (Lutheran) & heterosexual has a few questions:

1. Is it true that the Roman Catholic Church is "Benedict's church"? Is it true that the Roman Catholic Church is "fragile"? See Peter Schneider, Benedict's Fragile Church, New York Times (March 22, 2010).

Hasn't the Roman Catholic Church been around for at least 1,500 years? Doesn't it have more than 1,000,000,000 nominal members (some of whom are possibly more than "nominal")? Has it suffered from scandals before (e.g., the Italian Renaissance; see also "Martin Luther-Indulgences, Reformation")? Is it possible that the Catholic Church will outlast Peter Schneider, the BBC, and other such entities -- and that it will survive the clergy sex abuse scandal and, even thrive (if not necessarily in Western Europe)?

2. Do 60 or so discovered cases of possible child abuse by Catholic priests in Switzerland (during the past five or so decades?) constitute a "wave"? See Deutsche Welle story -- also carried by the New York Times -- reporting that the "wave" of child abuse cases had reached Switzerland.

How many Catholic priests have there been in Switzerland during the last five decades or so? Thousands? How many thousands?

3. Is the Roman Catholic clergy just a den of vipers, consisting of homosexual predators of children? Cf. comment by David Clohessy, National Director, SNAP ("Picture 5 priests in a rectory. One's caught masturbating, another's caught cruising gay bars, another's caught seducing congregants, another's caught viewing porn, and one's caught bringing kids to his bed room. None are apt to tell on the other. So more abuse happens and is concealed in Catholic settings.")

So are teachers in our high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools nothing more than a collection of vipers & sexual predators?

Isn't it true -- is it true -- that child sexual abuse by secondary & primary school teachers is more common than among the Catholic clergy? Therefore, doesn't it follow that the teachers of our children are nothing more than sexual predators?

4. If a large number of cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy have not been discovered somewhere -- such as Guam --, doesn't it follow that one must look again and look very carefully (and encourage victims to come forward and announce themselves to SNAP [and SNAP's tort lawyers?]) because -- after all -- there must have been large numbers of sex abuse by clergy in such a place. See SNAP Holding Meetings With [Alleged and Apparently Not-Yet-Discovered] Victims of Sexual Abuse In The Catholic Church [in Guam] Pacific News Letter (March 24, 2010).

Of course, there is no risk, is there, that actively encouraging people to come forward with charges of decades-old sexual misconduct -- and perhaps reap substantial financial rewards through civil litigation -- might induce some people to misremember the past? People are never as vile or as self-deceiving as that, are they? What a ridiculous thought!

5. To judge from the silence of the major media organs such as the BBC and the New York Times, there has been no "wave" of child sexual abuse by Protestant clergy.

What else could possibly explain the almost-complete silence of the media, tort lawyers, and some victims' organizations about child sexual abuse by Protestant clergy?

Was Sinclair Lewis wrong in suggesting that Protestant clergy sometimes commit sexual abuse? See his novel Elmer Gantry. See also Daniel Burke, "Study: 3 Percent of Women Victims of Clergy Sexual Advances,"Ethicsdaily.com (September 11, 2009)

.

6. It is often suggested that clerical celibacy is the root of the problem among the Catholic clergy. SNAP seems to think that celibacy is the root of the problem. See Comment of David Clohessy, National Director, SNAP ("Sometimes, sexually troubled young Catholic men will turn to the priesthood, hoping and praying that if they promise to be celibate, God will give them the gift of celibacy, and help them overcome the troubling sexual urges they feel. Obviously, often that doesn't happen.") Cf. Clifford J. Levy, A Flock Grows Right at Home for a Priest in Ukraine, New York Times (March 23, 2010).

But question: If celibacy of the Catholic clergy were abolished, would the problem of child sexual abuse go away or diminish? Or would the phenomenon just migrate?

Was I mistaken in believing that the most common instances of child sexual abuse are those committed by parents on their children?

Perhaps the rule should be: sex by clergy: OK; having children: not OK? Is this the idea here?

Is child sexual abuse by married adults less common than child sexual abuse by unmarried adults?

Should celibacy by Tibetan monks also be done away with? Or should we embrace celibacy there on the ground that celibacy in Tibet is quaint & admirable -- and an effective form of birth control in a part of the world that very much needs effective birth control, perhaps even more effective than the PRC's one child policy?

7. Am I missing the boat here? I think I must be missing something. Is the nub of the perceived problem homosexual child abuse? Is this what leads the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and the New York Times to focus on child abuse by Catholic clergy? If that's what they and SNAP think, why don't they say so?

I wonder what would happen to those homosexuals who would presumably no longer be interested (or as interested) in becoming Catholic clergy? What would they do? Stop being homosexuals? Would they become public school teachers? College teachers? Fitness instructors? Newspaper reporters? Members of Congress? Well, then, our children would be safer, yes? Institutions such as Congress can surely be counted on to make sure that their members do not engage in homosexual sexual misconduct; there is surely no sexual predation in Congress and other similarly venerated institutions against minors.

Or do SNAP, the New York Times, the BBC, etc., believe that homosexuals should be barred from being teachers, members of Congress, and so on?

A Modest Proposal

What a dimwit I have been! I apologize. A light has dawned in my foggy noggin. I now realize what the solution to the problem is. (You do know what the problem is, don't you, dear Reader?)

The solution to the problem is this:

All organizations that harbor any sexual predators must be done away with.

This of course includes, not just the Roman Catholic Church, but also Protestant churches, Jewish synagogues, high schools, middle schools, junior high schools (and, of course, elementary schools), universities, research institutes, newspapers, TV and radio stations, courts, police departments, large corporations, all large associations & organizations of any description whatever, any small association or organization in which there has been child abuse (as a prophylactic measure, the institution of the family should be abolished since it is in the family that child abuse happens most often), Congress, and so on.

Yes, I know: the destruction of such organizations & associations is a high price to pay. But at least we could all go to sleep at night knowing that our children are safe. (They would be sleeping safely in schools run by the government. They would be safe there.)

Would hanging or shooting the leaders of such organizations and associations be an even more effective remedy? Perhaps such capital remedial measures should be considered (along with, in the U.S., an amendment to the Constitution). Monetary penalties may not be enough. Prison may not be not enough. Even flogging may not be enough.

In any event, it is clear, isn't it, that if the Catholic Church, Protestant churches, schools, universities, newspapers, etc, were abolished, we would be rid of the pestilence of child sexual abuse, yes?

Well, OK. Perhaps I am getting carried away just a bit: I acknowledge that abolition or destruction of such organizations or institutions might be a bit extreme in some cases. I see a possible alternative:

Organizations should be required to make sure that their members regularly engage in gratifying sexual intercourse or other satisfying sexual activity with other freely-consenting adults.

For example, perhaps organizations should be required to levy fines against any of their members who choose to remain celibate. This way we would know that the people who come into contact with our children are sexually gratified and have no reason to seek further gratification by molesting our children.

Short of this sensible remedy (i.e., the imposition of fines against sexually inactive people for being sexually inactive), organizations & associations of every stripe should be liable in spades (i.e., many dollars) for every sexual misdeed -- known or not, foreseen or not -- of every one of its members. That's clearly necessary. And, of course, such monetary penalties fall far short of lynching or shooting -- even though it must be admitted that in some instances monetary penalties could destroy or severely damage institutions such as schools, churches, and hospitals.

We can & should invert Kant's dictum about the horror of punishing the innocent thus:

It is better for the world to perish than for any institution (particularly a religious one) that harbors & succors -- whether wittingly or unwittingly -- even a single sexual miscreant to escape severe punishment.

This reformulated maxim is a fitting tribute to our modern sense of justice and proportion; it reflects the enlightened temper of our times. See Editorial, The Pope and the Pedophilia Scandal New York Times (March 24, 2010).

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Current Events

News Item #1: Sam Dillon, "Fighting Back, Accused Priests Charge Slander," The New York Times, Section 1, Page 1, National Desk, August 25, 2002 (Sunday, Late Edition - Final) reports that some priests are now bringing lawsuits against accusers who, the priests say, defamed them (the priests) by falsely accusing them (the priests) of sexual abuse. A "survivors group" castigated one such defamation lawsuit as "un-Christian, vengeful-style litigation that may scare others who have been abused and are hurting into remaining silent."

If one is a priest who has been falsely accused and maligned, one might instead be inclined to say that a defamation lawsuit is one way to right a grievous wrong.

It's all a matter of perspective -- and, one hopes, of the facts! Right? Yes? No?

News item #2: Today's NYTimes (which has not yet appeared on an internet site that I can access) carries a story about a prisoner who claims to have been wrongly convicted. The story asserts that a DNA test or tests show that the bodily fluids found on pertinent clothing were not the prisoner's and, it is said, this DNA evidence thus shows (or tends to show) the prisoner's innocence of the murder for which he was convicted long ago. The same story notes that this same prisoner signed a written confession, a confession in which the prisoner apparently admitted committing the murder for which he was tried and convicted. To help explain this confession -- to explain why the prisoner might have confessed committing a crime that he did not commit --, the story quotes an expert -- I am reciting this from memory--, the story quotes an expert who asserts that when police officers have in hand the person who they believe to be the perpetrator, such police officers have a strong inclination to assemble evidence that supports their suspicion and their case. The implication is that this inclination -- this desire to wrap up a case against a person believed to be guilty -- explains the confession of the prisoner who is the subject of the NYTimes story. Suppose it is so: suppose police officers will often go to great lengths to secure convictions of the people who they think are the perpetrators. If this is how police often behave and if this inclination is the explanation for this prisoner's confession, might this (hypothesized) inclination also explain why the bodily fluids allegedly found on the pertinent clothing or materials do not match the prisoner's body? You out there -- you lurkers! -- tell this suspicious mind (mine, I mean)--, dear Reader(s), tell this suspicious mind the {fantastic?} possibility that it (this suspicious mind) is entertaining! (Your discovery will be its own reward.)

Time and Justice in Massachusetts

It appears that at least some of the numerous plaintiffs and alleged victims in the "Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal" cases claim that they repressed their memories of their abuse by Catholic clergy. See, e.g., Douglas Belkin, "Shanley Pleads Not Guilty," The Boston Globe,Metro/Region p. B1 ( July 11, 2002).

Long-lasting defects in memory have occasionally been a rewarding attribute in Massachusetts.

In 1992 Ann Shahzade commenced a civil action in which she averred that she had been sexually abused by the defendant – her cousin – more than forty-seven [47!] years earlier. Shahzade v. Gregory, 930 F. Supp. 673 (D. Mass. 1996). The sexual abuse allegedly occurred from 1940 to 1945. Plaintiff was 68 years old when she commenced her lawsuit against her even more elderly cousin. Defendant – her cousin – made a motion for summary judgment: he argued that plaintiff's civil action was barred by the applicable Massachusetts statute of limitations. United States District Court Judge Harrington, however, denied the motion. He reasoned that there was admissible evidence that plaintiff had repressed her memories of having been abused, repressed memories that plaintiff allegedly recovered during psychotherapy in 1990. Judge Harrington acknowledged that the evidence clearly showed that plaintiff had long believed – indeed, had believed for much of her adult life – that she had been abused by her cousin. But Judge Harrington concluded that there was sufficient admissible evidence to show that until 1990 – when psychotherapy allegedly allowed plaintiff to fully recover her repressed memories and thus endowed her with new understanding – plaintiff did not appreciate the cause of the harms that she allegedly experienced as a result of the alleged sexual abuse by her cousin half a century before.