A bishop accused
March 9, 2006, 1:15 am
Posted by Grant Gallicho
Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been accused by a woman of sexually abusing her over four decades ago, when she was under eighteen and he was in his late twenties. Skylstad denies all charges. Obviously, it’s too early to tell exactly what’s going on, but the AP story contains a curious bit of information about the accuser’s lawyer, Stephen Rubino:
Rubino represented a man who claimed in the early 1990s that he was sexually abused by the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. The case was dropped in 1994 when the man recanted.
Stay tuned.
Isn’t this getting to be a little too much?
What can be done after all this time? It can only be a case of one person’s word against another.
There really should be statutes of limitation on cases of this sort after such a long period of time.
There are statutes of limitations in most states concerning sexual assault against children—to the moral detriment of those state legislations. Perpetrators of sexual abuse often hold roles of power over the children they abuse, which makes it difficult for children to report what has happened. This is why many states have extended the statute of limitation concerning sexual assault against children because of the blatant power imbalance between the victim and the criminal.
Concerning Bishop Skylstad, he’s only been accused at this point, so much remains to be seen (and proven), but considering the state of American clergy right now, it’s good to open these cases up for investigation—to either give reparations long withheld from victims or to begin to restore (rebuild?) the public’s trust and faith in the clergy.
Megan: I know of two priests who were falsely accused.
They never recovered the trust of the people that was lost because of publicized accusations. They were never able to return to ministry.
Further, those making the false accusations have never been prosecuted. Why?
This blog seems to appear twice. The problem with the bishops not stepping down is that is what happens when a priest gets accused. It really is a double standard and if we are going to be honest we have to demand the same fairness to priests.