Church investigators seeking to corroborate sexual abuse charges against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin want to talk to his accuser, but the man’s attorneys have not decided whether to let that happen.
One of Steven Cook’s lawyers said Monday that Cook would cooperate with the church investigation, but he would not say how much they would help. And, he said, Cook and his lawyers have more faith in the courts to deliver justice.
“We have no problem with allowing an unbiased fact-finder-a jury-to decide the truth,” said attorney Edward J. Ross, one of the lawyers handling Cook’s $10 million suit against Bernardin and priests in the Cincinnati Archdiocese.
“We’re not ridiculous. We’re gentlemen. We’re not angry. We just feel that the truth is the truth. No one has gotten down and dirty with this one yet.”
The Chicago Archdiocese has one of the nation’s most comprehensive systems for investigating allegations of clergy sexual misconduct, set up primarily through the efforts of Bernardin.
The investigative body-formally known as the fitness review board-decided Sunday that Cook’s complaint should be pursued. The board agreed with fitness review administrator Stephen Sidlowski’s recommendation that “the safety of children does not require withdrawal of the cardinal from his ministerial assignment.”
Cook alleges that Bernardin sexually abused him once and another priest, Rev. Ellis Harsham, abused him repeatedly between 1975 and 1977. On Monday, Harsham denied Cook’s allegations.
Besides talking to Cook, Sidlowski said that he was “looking for specificity of information, and corroboration of the allegations, if it exists,” he said.
Sidlowski, a lawyer, is employed by the archdiocese and formerly worked in the Cook County public guardian’s office. He was appointed by Bernardin, effective Feb. 1.
He said he has contacted accuser Steven Cook’s attorney and told him “I am ready to meet immediately. . . . an in-person meeting. . . . in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago or other alternative sites,” and was told that Cook would consider it. In keeping with the revised policy announced by Bernardin last year, Sidlowski said he would take a “victim assistance minister” to offer help to Cook, if he agrees to the meeting. Archdiocesan educator and counselor Ralph Bonacorsi has been named to that position.
Sidlowski was vague about when the nine-member review board would meet again, saying only it will be “when I tell them there’s something to talk about.”
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The nine members Bernardin appointed to the review board were attorney Virginia Martinez, a victim of child sexual abuse; Dr. Domeena Renshaw, director of a sexual dysfunction clinic; social worker Alberta Bowles; clinical psychologist Dr. Patricia Bledsoe Cronin; parish pastors Rev. William Flaherty, Rev. Joseph Grembla and Rev. Martin O’Donovan; attorney Sister Catherine Ryan; and Michael Prus, an archdiocesan pastoral council member.
According to the archdiocesan policy put in place last September, it is now Sidlowski’s task to conduct “additional inquiry,” which might include “interviews of witnesses, review of documents including documents reflecting action taken by public bodies, and a request for the psychiatric review of the accused priest.”
Although the cardinal has submitted the case to the board, and removed himself as the superior to whom Sidlowski reports, no decision on a psychiatric review has been made. If charges are substantiated, archdiocesan protocol empowers the chancellor to suspend the cardinal. Any action beyond that would have to be taken by the Vatican.
The procedure Bernardin enacted last fall, and to which he has now submitted himself for investigation, is considered among the most progressive among the nation’s 188 dioceses. But some church critics say past policy is to blame for current suits.
“The reason this issue is now being played out so often in court is because the church for years hasn’t assisted people who really hurt,” said Elizabeth Stellas of the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence.
The interreligious center was founded in 1984 by Rev. Marie Fortune, a United Church of Christ minister. It is both an educational center for denominations seeking policies to combat abuse and a support center for victims and their families. It has grown dramatically in the last few years.
“We’ve learned three things,” Stellas said. “We know that the problem has always been there. There has been a huge increase in the number of people willing to come forward and bring sexual abuse allegations.
“And of some 2,000 cases we’ve dealt with, only about a dozen charges were unfounded.”
The 2.3 million-member Chicago archdiocese has dealt with a high number of cases of clergy sexual misconduct with minors compared to the country’s other large dioceses. It is not clear whether that increase is due to better reporting or a more open policy.
In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, for example, there have only been two cases in the last five years, one of which resulted in conviction and imprisonment of a priest, according to spokesman Bill Rivera.
The nation’s largest diocese, with 4.5 million members and 1,400 priests, Los Angeles has no internal investigations board for sexual abuse cases.
In the New York Archdiocese, third largest with 2.2 million Catholics, an advisory board of priests and lay people investigates charges, but there is no mandatory reporting to law enforcement, said spokesman Joseph Zwilling.
“Our policy states that when an accuser brings charges, we tell that person they have the right to report to civil authorities,” Zwilling said. Besides “a couple of anonymous letters,” Zwilling said, only two priests have been accused of sexual abuse in the past three years.
“We hope there aren’t other cases out there,” he said, admitting that the diocese’s experience has been that “victims feel guilty. They don’t want to go public. They want to protect their privacy.”
Before revising its policy, and mandating Sidlowski to report allegations to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the Chicago archdiocese expressed concerns that such a change might make some accusers reluctant to come forward, fearing loss of privacy.
Twenty priests have been removed from parishes due to sexual abuse allegations in the past two years in the Chicago archdiocese, Sidlowski confirmed. But he would not discuss their eventual disposition as a result of investigations. He did say that the Bernardin investigation is not his only case. “I do have other matters either in the inquiry or follow-up stage,” he said.