Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God Page #10

the Pope beneath the law,

by arguing either that the

Vatican is not a real state

or that the degree of

his negligence

over the child abuse scandal

does involve him

in a crime against humanity.

This is a global church

that is growing most

rapidly in the developing world.

In these cultures, the idea

of someone coming forward

and saying a priest

has done something wrong,

it doesn't happen.

There is such a stigma to

this problem,

so much shame and embarrassment,

but we know it goes on there.

Because it's a human problem.

And there have started to

be cases, in Latin America,

in the Philippines, even some

in Africa and India, very slowly.

They are about where the American

church was in the 1960s and 1970s.

There is going to be a delayed

reaction in that part of the world.

In America, Bishops have taken

some steps to protect children

and to reckon with

the sex abuse crisis

But the Church has also begun to

attack survivor's groups in Court.

One of the church's

most public defenders

has been Timothy Dolan, who was

recently promoted to Cardinal.

In 2009, Dolan was

the Archbishop of Milwaukee,

where he endured

legal settlements to abuse victims

that cost the church

more than $26 million.

When you think of what happened,

both that a man who proposes

to act in the name of God

would've abused an innocent young person,

and that some bishops would have,

in a way, countenanced that,

by reassigning abusers,

that's nothing less than hideous.

That's nothing less than nauseating.

The second story, morally,

is the church's reaction to that,

which I think has been good.

Many would disagree.

The fact is that abuse cases

continue to surface

all over the country.

While in Milwaukee,

Dolan met with victims,

but also took bold steps to protect

the church from their claims.

Survivors note that Dolan

moved assets

from living victims to dead souls,

by transferring $55 million of

church money to a cemetery trust.

Then in 2011, the Archdiocese

declared bankruptcy.

But in 2012, 570 victims of

sex abuse,

including Arthur and Gary,

were granted the right to

a trial against the Church

in Milwaukee's bankruptcy court.

Their goal was to uncover more

documents regarding sex abuse

and to obtain cash settlements

for survivors.

This is the largest

organization in the world.

You have rivers of cash,

Sunday after Sunday, that flow

into these collection plates.

There is great concern within

the hierarchy

about the impact

of the financial losses.

Eight diocese have taken bankruptcy

protection

to negotiate mass settlements,

Boston lost more

than 50% of it's parishes.

Benedict XVI would like to heal

the situation, to heal the victims.

On the other hand, he is in a

sort of stalemate

because the organizations

of the victims

want full transparency

about the past.

They don't want only that

the priests are defrocked.

They want full transparency

about the past.

And I don't think that Benedict XVI

is able to resolve this problem.

The ongoing revelations

have provoked survivors

to demand a complete accounting

of all cases of paedophile priests.

It's the central demand of the

Jerry Kohut lawsuit against the Vatican

Open the archives.

The Church is a perfect society.

And its witness is as perfect

society to the rest of the world.

If we could get that

out of our minds..

Maybe we could take the pedestal

away from the priest,

take the pedestal away from the

cardinals,

take the pedestal away

from the whole church,

and be willing to say, "This is us, world.

This is us. This is who we are."

"We are a church

of imperfect people."

Jesus wasn't afraid of humanity,

and we shouldn't be either.

When I'm asked in court,

often times,

"How many times have you testified

on behalf of the church?"

And my response usually is,

"Always."

And they'll say, "Really?!"

"Yeah, really."

The people, they are the church.

The victims, their mothers,

fathers, friends,

those are the church.

They're the people of God,

as is found very clearly in the

Gospel stories of Christ.

They are the people of God,

they're the church.

Many of the people of God see their

lawsuits as taking back the church.

In a key victory

in the Milwaukee bankruptcy

victims uncovered nearly

50,000 pages of documents

which revealed predatory priests

and the role the Vatican

played in protecting them.

Terry recognized that the Pope's

power as a head of state

would beat back his lawsuit.

So he withdrew from his own case

and join Garry, Arthur

and the bankruptcy plaintiffs

in their legal crusade

to protect children.

Hi, my name is Gary Smith. Hello. I

thank you all for coming here today.

One of our heroes.

Thank you all for coming here and

supporting us here today.

Thank you. I love you.

I'm so glad that all of us are

here and willing to share,

and I thank the whole team of

lawyers that have been here,

supporting all of us.

I really went into hiding

for about 35 years.

And now I'm here,

and I feel really good.

The future of the children

is what's important.

And I decided to come and support

everyone, all the victims.

That filing of that

bankruptcy did not stop us.

And will not stop us.

The idea of a group of deaf men,

leafleting the cars

outside of a cathedral,

with a wanted poster of a priest,

at a time when nobody suspected

priests of wrongdoing, not

to mention sexual abuse,

and trying to shout and to warn,

that just bowled me over.

They were really the

first victims who realised

that they had to make public what

was taking place. And they did that.

And to think that

a quarter of a century later,

this case is bringing about change,

that is a moment of resurrection.

Coming out of this silence,

of this deaf community,

is this unbelievably loud

and deafening cry for justice.

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