This is a recent, informative article by a long-tenured group who has made it its mission to shed light on sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church.
The upshot of the article is that once a sex-abuse victim reports a claim, the victim is oftentimes treated by the Catholic Church so badly that a form of re-traumatization occurs. To quote from the article:
In fact, victims, outside investigators and even in-house canon lawyers increasingly say the church’s response, crafted and amended over two decades of unrelenting scandal around the world, is downright damaging to the very people already harmed — the victims. They are often retraumatized when they summon the courage to report their abuse through the church’s silence, stonewalling and inaction.
“It’s a horrific experience. And it’s not something that I would advise anyone to do unless they are prepared to have not just their world, but their sense of being turned upside down,” said Brian Devlin, a former Scottish priest whose internal, and then public accusations of sexual misconduct against the late Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien marked the cardinal’s downfall.
“You become the troublemaker. You become the whistleblower. And I can well understand that people who go through that process end up with bigger problems than they had before they started it.”
Our firm has handled sexual abuse cases from different denominations, including the Catholic Church. We have seen this type of response directed at victims and, unfortunately, conduct by church officials and church lawyers that re-traumatizes the victims. These are unfortunate tactics. We have taken different measures to prevent these tactics both before and after litigation begins. The immense mental and emotional harm – often PTSD — has already been done by the sexual abuse. More harm cannot be allowed to occur, especially by those who profess to be holy and wanting to make things right with abuse victims.
Contact Crowe Arnold & Majors, LLP For Help
If you, one of your children, a loved one or a friend has been raped, molested or sexually abused by a church official or clergy – Catholic Church, or any other denomination — promptly contact the police where the incident(s) happened and report it. This cannot be stressed enough. These are serious criminal acts. Then, contact the Dallas clergy sexual abuse lawyers at Crowe Arnold & Majors, LLP.
Our main office is in Dallas, Texas, but we handle these types of cases throughout Texas. If you are the victim of clergy sex abuse or rape, regardless of age, or know of a victim and you are trying to help, immediate legal representation is needed due to statute of limitations issues, the need to preserve evidence, and, again, to make sure law enforcement is immediately involved. Do not wait!
