Bill Tries to Stop 'Bad Priest' Recycling
Michael W. Freeman, Herald News Staff Reporter
Originally published in The Herald News, July 31, 2001
FALL RIVER—It was nearly a decade ago when this city was rocked by the first reports that a former priest in the Diocese of Fall River had been accused by 99 people of molesting them when they were children.
James Porter had been a priest at three Bristol County churches—including Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River—during that era. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to 41 counts of sexual assault against 28 children, and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison.
A measure now moving through the Legislature is not exactly being called the "Jim Porter bill," but it very well could be.
Today, the House Committee on Human Services and Elderly Affairs will take up the controversial bill, which would require the heads of churches and ministerial organizations to report any criminal activity by its employees or clergy.
Three area lawmakers who serve on the committee plan to strongly support the bill.
"It's basically one that would make administrators or the head of church personnel mandated reporters if they become aware of criminal activities such as someone within their ranks being a sexual predator," said state Rep. David B. Sullivan, D-Fall River. "They'd become a mandated reporter and be obligated to notify authorities if something was going on."
"The cardinals of this world could no longer switch their people around from one parish to another," said state Rep. Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset. "They would have to own up to the fact that they have unpleasant people in their employ."
State Rep. Antonio Cabral, D-New Bedford, the chairman of the committee, said it's possible the bill could be approved by the committee today.
"I think what's at stake here is making sure that the crimes against children are reported," Cabral said. "I think it's important to protect the children of the commonwealth, regardless of what setting those crimes might have occurred in."
While the Porter case has faded from the headlines, the Catholic Church has been embarrassed recently by another high-profile case. In June, Cardinal Bernard Law published a column in the archdiocese newspaper, The Pilot, publicly defending his handling of clergy sex abuse allegations.
Prior to that, critics have said Law reassigned the Rev. John Geoghan, who is scheduled to go on trial in September on child molestation charges, to a different parish when he knew about child molestation accusations being made against him.
Law denied that. Geoghan is accused of molesting at least 70 children between 1962 and 1995 while a priest at six parishes. He was defrocked in 1998 at Law's urging and has pleaded innocent to the charges.
State Sen. James P. Jajuga, D-Methuen, has filed two bills in this area. One would encourage—but not require—churches to report criminal activities to state authorities.
The second bill, filed at the request of a constituent, would mandate it.
Cabral said the bill approved by his committee would be substantially rewritten.
"It would be taking that concept, but most likely if it does get reported out, it would not be the same bill," he said. "It would add to the present law, that individuals would have to report crimes against children, especially child abuse. The redraft would include church leaders, if you will, and lay persons that might have some kind of a role within any church or faith or religious society."
Sullivan and Haddad said they support making it mandatory, as long as it exempts priests who learn about criminal activity through the confessional. Because of the separation of church and state, the communication between a priest and parishioner is considered privileged.
"I'm comfortable with this legislation, since it protects privileged communication," Sullivan said. "I personally think that considering the history of the problems that have gone on, I think this is a good thing."
"There has always been the seal of confession," Haddad said. "But there have been terrible cases. Father Porter is one of them. Father Geoghan in Boston is another. It has gone beyond being a small church thing. Father Geoghan was transferred from place to place. Father Porter was transferred from place to place."
In August 1993, the Diocese of Fall River agreed to pay $1,550,000 in an out-of-court settlement with a group of Porter's victims. The case was the first major test for Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, who become the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Fall River in June 1992, shortly before the Porter case broke into the news.
Haddad said that since the Porter case unfolded in the early 1990s, it's possible that the heads of churches today are more sensitive to the dangers of child sexual abuse and would never consider withholding that information from authorities.
But she added, "We won't know unless some other case surfaces. We always hope they learn from their mistakes, and Bishop O'Malley is more diligent. But we won't know until something happens."
The bill places clergy among the list of individuals required to report to the Department of Social Services if they have reasonable cause to believe that a child under the age of 18 is suffering physical or emotional injury from acts that include sexual abuse or neglect.
It would not apply just to the Catholic Church, but to a priest, rabbi or ordained or licensed minister of any church, or an accredited Christian Science practitioner.
Sullivan and Haddad said this bill strikes a good balance between preserving the church's autonomy from the state, while also protecting public safety.
"I think it is necessary to make this part of the state statutes," Haddad said. "We're not asking any more or less of the churches than we ask of anyone else."
"You can balance separation of church and state with public safety," Sullivan said. "When you're looking at individuals at risk, we'd be coming down on the public safety side of it. Perpetrators in the church order have been able to move from place to place without being accountable for their actions."
Still, Haddad acknowledged that the bill would be difficult to pass, even just within the 11-member Human Services Committee.
"It is going to be controversial," she said. "It's been in front of the committee before, and it was held up for a rewrite. But I am thinking there is going to be some movement on it this time. I think it is important. Yes, it's very difficult to point the finger, and unfortunately a lot of cases have been Catholic priests. But I think the hierarchy of any ministerial organization has the same obligations as anyone else."
