Lies and cover-ups: Catholic church in Pennsylvania had 'playbook' to keep priest abuse secret, FBI said

Mike Argento | York Daily Record

Show Caption Hide Caption How Pennsylvania came to release a list of 300 Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse The attorney general's report comes after years of state and local law enforcement uncovering cases of sexual abuse within the Catholic church.

On July 17, 1990, Father Thomas Smith wrote to his bishop, Donald Trautman, thanking him for meeting with him and expressing appreciation for the bishop’s faith in him and his quest to return to the active ministry.

At the time, Smith, who had served at a number of churches in the Erie Diocese in northwestern Pennsylvania, was on leave of absence, his third such leave since being ordained as a Catholic priest in 1967.

His absences were termed, in diocese records, as “health leaves.”

The reality: Each of the leaves occurred after the church received reports that Smith had raped children, and the diocese responded by sending Smith to a church-run treatment facility, according to this week's Pennsylvania grand jury report on the Catholic child sex scandal.

► Aug. 16: After 2 days of silence, Vatican condemns priest sex abuse

► Aug. 16: 40 Pennsylvania priests confessed their crimes; little was done afterward

► Aug. 15: 'Men of God' kept it secret as priests systematically abused kids

While in treatment, Smith told counselors he had raped 15 young boys, some as young as 7, threatening them with violence if they told and invoking the name of God to justify his actions.

He first had been treated in 1984 and then again in 1986 and 1987. Counselors at the treatment facility reported to the diocese that Smith had a “’driven, compulsive and long-standing' obsession with sexually assaulting children,” according to the grand jury report. The counselors noted that Smith had continued to rape children even after his first stint in treatment.

Smith was in treatment again when he met with Trautman and expressed his desire to return to a parish. In a letter previously, he had described his “gifts and accomplishments” in “working with young people,” the report noted.

Trautman wrote in a memo that he was impressed with Smith’s “candor and sincerity” and suggested he would wait another year and a half before considering a new assignment for the priest.

In his note to Trautman, Smith expressed relief.

“So why did I worry?” he wrote.

Why indeed.

Smith returned to the ministry and became active in a program called Isaiah 43.

Isaiah 43 is a ministry for Catholic children.

Yes, why did he worry?

The church had his back.

Smith's tale is not unique. The grand jury report contains numerous stories about priests accused of committing terrible crimes against children with the church repeatedly protecting them from the consequences of their actions.

► Aug. 15: Priest recommended for Disney World job after sexual abuse allegations

► Aug. 15: Victims hope Pennsylvania is 'wake up call' other dioceses need

When an allegation was raised at one church, some priests were transferred to other parishes. In other cases, instead of reporting abuse to law enforcement, the church sent priests for psychiatric treatment at church-run facilities. In yet other cases, the church attempted to discredit victims or blame victims for the crimes committed against them.

The grand jury found 301 priests who had committed such crimes and more than 1,000 victims, noting that there were certainly more, numbers that raise the question: How did the church keep such widespread criminal activity quiet for so many decades?

Keeping a lid on child abuse

If you consider the culture of the Roman Catholic church – a culture of secrecy and deception embedded in its history – it's not surprising that it was able to keep a lid on widespread child abuse, said Kristen Houser, chief public affairs officer with the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.

In that way, what the Catholic church has done is not that much different than how Penn State responded to charges that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had molested and raped numerous children.

► Aug. 15: Priests used gold crosses to ID kids as abuse targets

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“The initial impulse is to protect the institution, whether that institution is a church or a university or a football program,” Houser said.

Both cases have an element of authority. Parishioners have absolute faith and trust in the leadership of the church, just as Penn State football fans had absolute loyalty and trust in Joe Paterno and the university’s leadership.

But in the case of the church, the men are God’s representatives on earth, Houser said. To question them is to question God.

► Aug. 15: Catholic reaction to priest abuse report varies between strong and silent

► Aug. 14: Church protected more than 300 'predator priests,' grand jury says

"We saw Catholic priests weaponizing their faith, using their faith as a tool of the abuse, and all the while the bishops, the monsignors, the cardinals covered it up," state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference.

The grand jury report described the church’s massive cover-up of these crimes. While each case differed slightly in the details, they all contained similar elements “as if there was a script.”

“While each church district had its idiosyncrasies, the pattern was pretty much the same," the grand jury reported. "The main thing was not to help children but to avoid ‘scandal.’ That is not our word but theirs.”

DC archbishop: Need 'to be there' for survivors Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, faulted in a Pennsylvania grand jury report over his handling of sexually abusive priests as Pittsburgh's bishop, is asking parishioners not to lose confidence in the church and to help victims.

Playbook for concealment

The FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime – the division within the bureau that provides profiles of violent criminals, among other things – reviewed much of the evidence the grand jury received and concluded that its analysis of the material revealed something akin to “a playbook for concealing the truth.”

First, the church employed euphemisms for sexual assault, referring to the crime not as rape, but as “inappropriate contact” or “boundary issues,” center investigators said. In one case, the grand jury reported a priest’s repeated and violent sexual assaults of children were referred to as “his difficulties.”

► Aug. 14: Clergy abuse report puts spotlight on state's statute of limitations

► Aug. 14: Names, details of 301 Pennsylvania priest sex abuse allegations

Then the church did not conduct genuine investigations, often limiting actions to asking suspected abusers a few questions and accepting what they said as gospel.

And if a priest had to be removed from his church, church officials were directed to announce it as “sick leave” or to not say anything at all. For appearance sake, they were to send the priest for “evaluation” at a church-run psychiatric facility that, more often than not, concluded that the offender was not a pedophile and could return to ministering the faithful.

If it became known in the community that a priest was a “problem,” they were to transfer him to another parish where nobody knew he was a child molester. That happened frequently, the grand jury reported.

One priest was transferred from Allentown to New Mexico and west Texas after accusations of abuse came to light. He was later arrested in Briscoe County, Texas, for molesting a boy, one of numerous victims he found in his new location.

And, finally, church officials were told: Don’t call the cops.

“Handle it like a personnel matter, ‘in house,’ ” the grand jury reported.

The grand jury told of several instances in which victims or their parents reported sexual abuse to local police or prosecutors. Few of those cases wound up being prosecuted.

In one instance, a police officer wrote a letter to the church, suggesting that it do something about a certain priest before violence occurred. In another, Robert Masters, former Beaver County district attorney, wrote a letter to the bishop of Pittsburgh’s diocese to report that he would not be investigating accusations against a priest “in order to prevent unfavorable publicity.”

And when all else fails, lie.

In Smith's case, he did have something to worry about.

Boston Globe investigation

After The Boston Globe’s groundbreaking reports on the abuse scandal were published in 2002, the families of some of Smith’s victims sued him and the church, making the accusations that Smith had raped children and that the church helped cover it up.

On March 15, 2002, in response to a query from the press, the bishop said, “We have no priest or deacon or layperson that I know of that has, in any way, a pedophile background.”

► Aug. 14: Pennsylvania priest-abuse grand jury report: Read the full document

► Aug. 11: Some priests named in clergy sex abuse report remain in ministry

In November 2004, responding to public pressure, Trautman wrote to the Vatican to ask that Smith be removed from the priesthood, which the Vatican did in 2006.

The announcement of Smith’s removal from the priesthood was simple.

“Dismissed from the clerical state on June 10, 2006, by Pope Benedict XVI,” it said. “Nothing else need be noted.”

Follow Mike Argento on Twitter: @FnMikeArgento