Falsely Accused Priests
August 7, 2022
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
I was a seminarian in 2002 when the priest sex abuse scandal broke. I’ve spent the past 20 years dealing with the results. Abusing people, especially children, is a grave evil. Jesus says “that he who abuses one of these little ones, it would be better to tie a mill stone around his neck and cast him into the sea.” (Mt 18:6; Mk 9:42; Lk 17:2) Furthermore, most of the priests who have been accused of abusing a child have in fact abused a child. So there is very good reason to seek a zero tolerance policy for this behavior, hear out any accuser, and investigate no matter how long ago the abuse was supposed to have happened. And finally, it is critical to give victims the love and support they need to heal as much as they can in this life.
At the same time, good priests have to deal with the results of this evil. Just last June, the guest speaker for the annual gathering of priests for the Archdiocese of Seattle was a professional in the field of priestly abuse of children. Was there something new? Was there another Pennsylvania grand jury bombshell? Nope, just making sure we priests never forget that we are not to abuse a minor. As dispiriting as this subject matter is to good priests, we all concede that we’ll always be treated as suspect and have this drummed into us for the rest of our lives.
I bring up this unpleasant topic (at least for me) because a friend of mine was recently restored to his priestly faculties after a verdict of no evidence was found in his accuser’s case. The priest, who many of you know, is Fr. Harris, the former pastor of the Proto-Cathedral of St. James in Vancouver. Two weeks ago Archbishop Etienne cleared his good name and restored his faculties. An untold story from the priest abuse scandal is that of innocent priests who are falsely accused. Imagine being a good priest, giving everything that you gave up to serve the people of God, to be rewarded with a calumny of this magnitude. It happens more than you would know.
The most famous case of a falsely accused priest was Archbishop Cardinal Pell of Australia. His accuser said that the crime happened 25 years ago in the sacristy after the Archbishop’s installation Mass as the new Archbishop of Melbourne Australia. For the record, I don’t remember ever being alone in a sacristy after a Mass, what with the altar servers, sacristans and whoever else popping in. Imagine being an Archbishop at your installation Mass, the sacristy would be a beehive! The accuser got wrong how the Archbishop removed his vestments (over the head not down the middle). And finally the accuser said the Archbishop committed the crime with him and another boy: the other boy (now deceased) denied the whole thing happened; and as choir boys (not altar boys) they were never in the sacristy. In spite of all this information coming to light, Cardinal Pell was convicted anyway! He spent 18 months in a maximum security prison before the Australian Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision, threw the case out. How could this have happened? You can read his story here https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/08/my-time-in-prison
There are as many enemies of Christ today as there were when Jesus walked the earth 2000 years ago. Those enemies know that to discredit God they must discredit His Church, and there is no more effective way to discredit God’s Church than to smear the pastors: “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter” – Jesus (Mt 26:31, Mk 14:27). That statement is an important reminder for all of us to be careful when we are speaking about a priest, and not to assume guilt or innocence when you hear of an accusation against one, but to pray for everyone, especially for those who will lose their faith.
May God Bless You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
