Three ways Catholics can fight sexual abuse in the church Last week's report detailing sexual abuse and cover up in the Catholic Church may have members worried, but they can act to protect children.

David Clohessy | Opinion contributor

Show Caption Hide Caption Victims, Catholics react to pope abuse statement Currently practicing Catholics, and those who were sexually abused by clergy as youths, are responding to the Pope's condemnation of child sex abuse and its cover up within the Catholic church. (Aug. 20)

Why do we keep suffering the painful drip, drip, drip of clergy sex scandals in our church? And what can we do to make this stop?

In the wake of last week's horrific news, more and more anguished Catholics are asking these questions. I'm referring to the nauseating 1,300 page grand jury report that says over 300 "predator priests" are credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 Pennsylvania children. It also found that “priests were raping little (kids) and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” using a “playbook for concealing the truth” that included euphemisms to minimize the crimes, holding biased internal "investigations" assigning priests untrained in sexual abuse cases to investigate their colleagues; and not informing the community of the real reasons behind removing an accused priest.

If this sounds familiar, it's because 10 other grand jury reports across the USA over the past 16 years reached nearly identical conclusions.

The church has a history of abuse in America

More than 30 years ago, in 1985, the church's crisis first attracted headlines across the US when an especially heinous Louisiana priest pled guilty to molesting dozens of boys. More than 16 years ago, in 2002, an unprecedented expose by The Boston Globe sparked hundreds of other news outlets to investigate US dioceses.

The result: a deluge of news accounts, victim disclosures and betrayed parishioners. Eventually church authorities were forced to admit that some 100,000 US kids have been victimized and some 6,721 priests are proven, admitted or credibly accused predators. (However, even now, bishops refuse to name 2,453 of these child molesting clerics, according to a research/archive group called BishopAccountability.org)

So Catholics are understandibly ever more irate that so much harm has been done to so many and that little seems to make their congregations healthier and safer.

In Pennsylvania, several parties contributed to the shocking report. For nearly two years, a score of unbiased jurors heard shocking testimony and read damning evidence. Dozens of law enforcement officials guided the investigation. And hundreds of victims courageously testified, many revealing their suffering to strangers for the first time.

Their noble work has reminded all of us that abuse and cover up is widespread in the church largely because bishops refuse to take meaningful prevention and healing moves.

So what's the next step? What will bring sorely-needed reforms?

There are 70 million Catholics across the country. Here's what they could do to help safeguard the vulnerable from harm, heal those already harmed and improve their church.

First, help expose more wrongdoers.

Every single Catholic should ask every other Catholic: "Have you ever seen, suspected or suffered clergy misdeeds, crimes or cover ups?" If the answer is YES, the response should be "Well, it's our Christian duty to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, deter future wrongdoing and help our church. So how can I help you report this to independent sources like police, prosecutors or journalists?"

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If hundreds of thousands of these conversations were to happen, imagine how many more predators and enablers would be exposed, prosecuted, sued and perhaps ousted from their jobs? Imagine how much more pressure bishops would feel to make real reforms?

(This question should especially be asked of church employees and members who've quit. They're most apt to have helpful information.)

An added benefit to this: the church, and our society, will be safer and healthier as secrecy diminishes, even if bishops do nothing or behave even worse. Police, prosecutors, parents and the public will know who the dangerous and irresponsible church figures are and avoid them.

Second, set up whistleblower reward funds.

Why don't more church insiders take action when they know of or suspect abuse or cover up? Largely because they fear losing their incomes or their parish communities. They worry they'll become unemployed or ostracized.

So Catholics should band together — at the diocesan or even parish level — and set up whistleblower reward funds. Not controlled by or even sanctioned by bishops. But for lay people by lay people.

They should pledge to financially help and emotionally support those who find the courage to call police, prosecutors or journalists about corruption and crimes. The message must go out in the pews "If you stick your neck out for kids's safety, we'll have your back."

These funds needn't be huge or detailed. They could be formal or informal. What matters most is simply that the seminarian, parishioner or church secretary begins to feel that "people like them care, are fighting the church's deeply-rooted culture of secrecy and will support me if I speak out."

Third, donate elsewhere.

People in the pews should give generously, but not to their bishops. Instead, they should donate to independent non-profits that fight against child sexual abuse. Or to quasi-independent agencies like Catholic Charities, which are largely controlled by lay boards of directors, not prelates.

Contributions to groups like these are more apt to help the truly needy. And they're less apt to be spent on high-priced diocesan defense lawyers and spin doctors, or for settlements to victims or salaries for those who commit or conceal abuse.

I suspect that Catholics who do this will sleep more soundly at night, knowing that their dollars are funding solutions and helping charities, not continuing to fund wrongdoers.

It's true that the church is a monarchy, not a democracy. Historically, in monarchies, those at the bottom can do little to impact those at the top.

But in this case, given the number of Catholics and their increasing dismay at this never-ending scandal, I believe the lowly church members can indeed make a difference. Especially if they carefully turn their outrage into action in ways that common sense tell us will work.

David Clohessy is the former national director and spokesman for the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).