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Feeney was convicted in 2004 of child sexual assault of Troy and Todd Merryfield, Dan and Sharon's sons, in 1978,€” after the criminal trial the brothers said they learned the priest had a history of similar assaults in the 1960s and 1970s that the diocese knew about and hid from parishioners at St. Nicholas church in Freedom, which the Merryfields attended. |
Todd and Troy Merryfield, who dropped a claim Wednesday seeking punitive damages, awards handed down in civil cases as punishment for wrongdoing. They explained pulling back the church’s “veil of secrecy” is far more important than the $700,000 they were awarded already in the lawsuit after a jury decided Tuesday the church had covered up its knowledge of sexual abuse committed by the Rev. John Feeney before he abused the Merryfields....
One was a letter from Monsignor Roy Klister to the Merryfields’ parents dated Jan. 23, 1979. It said that “not publicizing the incident and your understanding of the problem was the correct and just approach.”more at PostCrescent
Troy Merryfield questioned how diocesan leaders could claim ignorance of past abuse given the content of those documents.
“Thou shall not bear false witness,” he said.
Troy Merryfield also referenced a 1983 letter sent to Feeney from Bishop Aloysius Wycislo regarding Feeney’s release from the diocese. Wycislo said, “I am capable of forgetting about all this and writing a good letter of recommendation for you to a new bishop.”
“Really?” Troy Merryfield said after reading the passage. “Really? Is that really the Christian way?”
Sharon Merryfield, mother of Todd and Troy, recalled how church officials encouraged silence.“The bishop said I would be blessed for keeping it quiet, ‘You’re doing the right thing,’ and so we never told a soul,” she said.
Is it a major error for our current bishops to continue to not point out the profound negligence of their predecessors(by name). It's time to modify the code of bishops. The buck continues to be passed. It is hard to believe that only ONE prelate in this country has resigned over the abuse crisis, Cardinal Law, and he was not even guilty but just wanted to do the right thing and allow the public to see someone be held accountable. I'm just speaking in general here, not just to this case. This continued push that nobody is responsible will continue to harm the Church. Only once a bishop stands up and says, Bishop X my predecessor made a major mistake in not reporting these men to civil authorities. Vicar General Y who knew the details made a major mistake in telling the victims to keep quiet and not removing the predator from ministry. I'm afraid "we are now in compliance" and "it won't happen again" are just not going to cut it. Yes, it was a different time back then, I get that. But I'm waiting to hear sound bites like "in retrospect, John Feeney should have never been allowed in public ministry" or "we will never again recommend a potential victim 'would be blessed for keeping it quiet'" or "I plan to hold everyone in my curia personally accountable to me to never overlook any report like this ever again." Don't wait for SNAP to sue your diocese.
2 comments:
Anyone know if this letter with the partial excerpt:
One was a letter from Monsignor Roy Klister to the Merryfields’ parents dated Jan. 23, 1979. It said that “not publicizing the incident and your understanding of the problem was the correct and just approach.”
is publiclly available in entirety? It seems like it might be taken out of context.
To be fair, this was the common practice at the time. It was not understood in the same way it is understood today. It was looked upon as a moral failure and psychological consequences were little understood.
Having said that, we have a different understanding today. But you may be interested in knowing, many protestant assemblies still follow this outdated practice and simply "pass the trash" as they say. It should also be noted the public school system follows this same practice today. Teachers are transferred, files are sealed, and settlements capped. You may or may not be familiar one study estimated as many as 250,000 school age children have been abused in the NY public school system in the last 10 years. (I believe it was 10 years. However, this study is available on the Internet or at least a summary. Do a search and you will find it.)
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