A coalition of professional and religious organizations, ranging from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, has now publicly offered support for the Diocese of Lubbock in its ongoing legal fight for autonomy. The diocese simply seeks to have independence in how it navigates internal church business regarding transparency of sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. This concept is, apparently, controversial.
In January 2019, following years of rumors and reports about rampant sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church’s leadership, all 15 Texas dioceses published lists of clergy members credibly accused of abusing a minor. The definition of minor used was purposely broad: It included people abused under 18 or even people older than 18 who lacked the mental faculties of an average adult.
A clergyman named Deacon Guerrero made that list, and he was not happy about it. Guerrero claimed the person who has accused him of abuse was not a child and should not be on the list. In March 2019, Guerrero sued the Diocese of Lubbock, claiming defamation despite the fact that he was fully aware the Catholic Church had made the definition of “minor” more encompassing than normal.
The nonprofit legal organization Becket has come to the defense of the Diocese of Lubbock before the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that the court system should stay out of internal church disciplinary matters, especially when such litigation may encourage the Catholic Church to halt its efforts at transparency related to the abuse of minors by Church leadership, a vital step toward earning back the trust many Catholics lost in their church when this was first exposed.
“The courts should not punish the Church for doing the right thing,” Eric Rassbach, Becket vice president and senior counsel, said in a statement. “It is hardly justice to drag the Diocese through a lawsuit because it is trying to right past wrongs and be more transparent about clergy sexual abuse. And suing the Church for being transparent certainly doesn’t help victims.”
Many other faith groups, including legal scholars, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, and others, have joined in solidarity encouraging transparency by filing amicus briefs in favor of the court allowing the Catholic Church to retain its autonomy in this matter.
However, I hope all these groups, particularly the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, which was included in the Baptist General Convention of Texas’s amicus brief, do continue to take the abuse of minors seriously, not just in words but through their actions as well.
Sex abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church and shaken its integrity to the core for the last several years. The dioceses released a list of the names of 5,300 credibly accused priests but immediately was criticized that the list was incomplete. The Associated Press found the names of almost 1,000 clergy members accused of child sexual abuse missing from the initial list.
They discovered this by “matching those public diocesan lists against a database of accused priests tracked by the group BishopAccountability.org and then scouring bankruptcy documents, lawsuits, settlement information, grand jury reports and media accounts.” Many of these names that had not been listed are clergy “charged with sexual crimes, including rape, solicitation and receiving or viewing child pornography.”
The inclusion of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in the coalition defending transparency is notable: In February 2019, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News revealed in a devastating expose that the Southern Baptist Convention had covered up the sexual abuse of hundreds of minors. Their investigation revealed pastors and others in leadership associated with the Southern Baptist Convention had abused 700 people in 20 years and, frankly, their response to the expose hardly seemed sufficient, leaving many to wonder if the abuse and cover-ups are ongoing.
Abuse by a member of any faith denomination is awful enough. Coordinated efforts by leaders to cover it up is just as bad, if not worse. Just as Catholic clergy should not be able to use litigation to incentivize the church to remain secretive about past abuses, nor is an amicus brief enough proof that neither the Catholic Church nor the Protestant Church has fully earned the trust they lost in their members. But it is surely a step in the right direction.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
