David Clohessy Quotes (19 Quotes)

It's tragic that bishops and priests can evade responsibility by hiding behind legal technicalities. Because of this ruling, dozens of dangerous predators will not be disclosed and kids will be hurt. Kids are safe when molesters are exposed.

When can we understand that a man can be a wonderful mentor and a great teacher and still be a child molester If these guys had horns and tails, no child would want to be with them and no parents would trust them.

There's no state in the union where the bishop has been as hard- nosed and vicious as in Colorado. None. I wouldn't even be able to name the second-worst.

At best, it's a distraction at worst, it's damaging. It will feed the mistaken notion that the abuse scandal is about the behavior of priests and not the behavior of bishops. Gay seminarians didn't hire and transfer and cover for child-molesting priests. It was bishops who did that.

It's not about Jenkins or Appleby or even Notre Dame. It's about church leaders who choose to make it even harder for victims to report criminals.

I absolutely believe that church officials intentionally sent abusive priests to minor communities, transient communities, where kids may be less apt to tell and have less faith in the justice system.

The Catholic laity doesn't know what priests the Vatican is being asked to sanction. They don't know what the bishops are recommending. We don't know why some get no sanctions, some get minimal sanctions and some get removed from the priesthood. If sanctions are imposed, it is often months before it's announced. And there seems to be absolutely no monitoring of these prayer and penance guys.

This is an ancient, rigid, secretive, top-down, all-male monarchy. It always has been. It always will be. The answer is not to reform them, but to go around them and to contain them.

It's easy to see the Vatican is wildly inconsistent.

Even church officials acknowledge that very few of them claims prove to be false. Certainly, anything is possible.

Just because criminal charges have been filed doesn't mean we can get complacent and assume the molestation charges will get him locked up. We're sure the prosecutors will welcome any new witnesses.

We're grateful that kids will be safe for at least a few more weeks. We believe the burden is now on church officials ... to offer any information they might have on his crimes.

We suspect there are many more. We're convinced it's just a matter of time before it happens again.

Our goal is to help anyone that may have been victimized by him get support and to find any witnesses or information that might help in the criminal prosecution.

In all the years I've been doing victims' advocacy, I've never had a victim call me and say they were relieved and gratified that the man that sodomized them is supposed to pray more now.

These centers operate with no state oversight whatsoever. Church officials time and time again tell judges and prosecutors these facilities are secure, when they are not.

Bishops have tried to hide this for years, so there is no reason to believe all of a sudden they would change their ways. The only prudent thing to do is to assume this is not the entire truth. This is a survey, not a report or investigation.

Church officials will vehemently deny they still reassign these men. But the sad truth is that they do.

All the credit goes to these families who had the wisdom and courage to turn to law enforcement. It is very sad and frustrating when families even today turn first to church officials instead of criminal authorities.