Law professor looks at victims, media and future of Church

Law professor looks at victims, media and future of Church

Patrick J. Schiltz, St. Thomas More Chair in Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, has wide experience in the issue of clergy abuse. In the following interview, The Evangelist asked him to discuss the issue in depth.

Q. Describe your background in this issue.

Prof. Schiltz: I have been advising and representing churches in clergy sexual misconduct cases since 1987. I have been involved in one capacity or another in over 500 cases, in almost all 50 states, on behalf of every major Christian denomination. I know the reality of clergy sexual misconduct, and I know that the media are doing an awful job communicating that reality.

Q. You have spent hundreds of hours talking to victims. What have you learned from them? How can they find healing?

Prof. Schiltz: I have talked to victims in many capacities, from answering phone calls from victims who want me to represent them (which I cannot do, because of my work on behalf of churches) to working with victims to prepare them to testify against accused pastors in church disciplinary proceedings to taking the depositions of victims who have sued my clients.

One of the most important things that I have learned is that victims are as diverse as humanity itself, and that one has to use great caution in describing how "victims" feel and what "victims" want. I sometimes fail to remember this myself.

I have also learned that few events in life can cause harm more devastating than being sexually abused by a pastor. Words cannot describe the damage that abusive pastors have done to the lives of some of their victims.

As far as "healing," I guess three things stick in my mind. First, healing is possible. Second, the Church speeds healing when it is open and honest -- not just with the victim, but with everyone -- even though that can cause short-term pain. Third, a victim who merely waits for someone else to do something to "heal" him or her will wait forever. Outsiders can help or hinder healing; but, at the end of the day, victims do not seem to heal unless they take some responsibility for their own healing.

Q. Psychologists and other healthcare professionals advised the bishops that child abusers could be treated and returned to ministry. But only the bishops have been criticized for doing so. Why do psychologists get a pass from the media and public about their role in the scandal? Why haven't they stepped forward to admit their errors?

Prof. Schiltz: The second question is easier to answer than the first. Counselors haven't stepped forward because it is hard for all of us to admit that we were wrong, because counselors don't want to get sued, and because counselors want to continue to work as counselors -- which might be more difficult if they admitted that they gave atrocious advice to bishops in the past.

I have no idea why the media have largely given the mental health profession a "pass" for the significant role that the profession played in creating the clergy sexual misconduct problem. I have pointed many reporters to the issue, but none has seemed interested in pursuing it.

Q. In what ways have the media misreported this story over the past year -- and what led them to do so?

Prof. Schiltz: Again, it's easier for me to describe what the media have done than why the media have done it. The media have completely missed the most important story of all: that churches devoted heroic efforts to combating sexual abuse in the last decade and, on the whole, churches had remarkable success.

The media have given little attention to the secondary victims of abuse -- to the people in the pews and the people served by churches, who must bear the cost of verdicts and settlements, even though they are entirely innocent of wrongdoing, and even though they were put at risk by the very wrongdoing for which they now have to pay.

And the media have been extremely unfair to churches on some discrete issues, such as on the alleged use of "hard ball" tactics against victims and on the use of so-called "secret settlements."

Q. What is your guess about the future of this issue? Where will the Church, bishops, victims and society be a year from now?

Prof. Schiltz: Increasingly, the focus will shift from the non-legal world to the legal world. Most churches are doing an excellent job handling clergy sexual misconduct, and most churches have been doing an excellent job since at least the mid-1990s. Abuse has almost disappeared within the Church. Humans being humans, there will always be some abuse, but it will be rare.

(6/19/03) [[In-content Ad]]