Tri-Lakes Takes: How parishioners respond to naming of local clergy accused of sexual abuse
The Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake, NY is also reporting on the list of priests just made public. Peter Crowley, managing editor of...
Nov 14, 2018 — The Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake, NY is also reporting on the list of priests just made public. Peter Crowley, managing editor of the paper, and also a practicing Catholic, and was in church Sunday when it was announced that the list would be released this week. He talks with Martha Foley.
Martha Foley. And, full disclosure, I was also raised in the Catholic Church. This list is the latest chapter in what’s been a really long, difficult period of disclosure. Which is not over. We don’t have much detail to provide context of this latest piece of this history. We hope we’ll learn more. But, Peter, you were in church - what was the reaction on Sunday?
Peter Crowley. Well, it was during mass, during the announcements at the beginning, that the letter was read that they would - they did not read the list the names - but there was a letter from the bishop saying he would be posting that on the diocesan website. You know, people are quiet during mass, so nobody reacted aloud. Afterwards I had to skip out quickly, so I didn't talk to people after. But there have been letters in recent weeks from the bishop kind of leading up to this, so I think people had some sense of preparation, although they didn't necessarily suggest that the names would be released before now.
Martha: Priests typically really are a big part of their parishioners' lives, sometimes part of the family, really. So these names will be familiar to many people. As a member of that community, what’s your sense of the feeling out there?
Peter: It's very mixed. I would say that from years of talking to people about this, there is a sense of wanting justice. There's a lot of wait-and-see attitude. But part of that is simple that laypeople in the Catholic Church don't have a lot of say, really, even at their parish level. The pastor might allow laypeople to be involved to the degree in which the pastor wants them to, but ultimately, it’s a hierarchy. So people don’t' have much choice but to wait and see. I think some people really want more disclosure, really want more justice. I think a lot of people do.
However I also know people who are family members of one of the - friends of the priests who are on this list and I can only imagine how hard it is for them. I also know - parishioners I've talked to have often distinguished between those - they'll say 'Well, some of those might be worse than others.' There might be a priest on there who abused multiple children multiple times in really gross ways. But there might also be somebody who it was - you know, some parishioners might defend one or two of them and say 'oh, that was a misunderstanding' or 'that was just a priest who hugged people too affectionately' or something like that. You'll hear stories like that. I don't know if even these people know what's true.
Martha: So it's a lot of wait-and-see and some sadness and some anger. Peter Crowley is managing editor of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and there's lots more in his paper today. Again, it's important to say that these are not criminal charges, and we don’t have much information on the individual cases, yet.
New York's Attorney General has announced a statewide investigation of clergy abuse allegations and accusations of cover-ups by church officials. Documents have been subpoenaed from every diocese in New York including the Diocese of Ogdensburg.
