Sex abuse survivors ask Vatican to investigate Seattle Archdiocese as Washington's lawsuit fails
Gustavo Sagrero Álvarez | KUOW | July 12th, 2024
On Friday, officials at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., and in Rome received a letter from Seattle area survivors of child sexual abuse and their advocates. They’re asking top officials to investigate leadership at the Archdiocese of Seattle for withholding documents related to sexual abuse allegations against its clergy members.
The letter follows a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson in May, an effort to compel the Seattle Archdiocese to turn over documents related to those sexual abuse allegations for a state investigation.
RELATED: Washington state sues Seattle Archdiocese over child sex abuse investigation records
"The Church has more information than is shared with the public," Ferguson said at a press conference about the lawsuit. "It has released names, but has not released its files on these abusive priests. No one has read files. The purpose of our investigation is to uncover whether the Church has misused charitable trust funds to cover up systemic sexual abuse and shield abuse of priests."
But a King County Superior Court judge sided with the Archdiocese on Friday, ruling that the Attorney General’s Office did not have the jurisdiction to subpoena those records. Judge Michael Scott cited the Church’s religious exemption from state charitable trust laws — the core argument made by Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne and Archdiocese attorneys.
"This case is about requiring our elected officials to respect the limitations on their authority that are imposed by law. And that limitation is present in the religious exemption from charitable trusts,” said Archdiocese attorney Theresa DeMonte during the hearing.
Kristin Beneski, First Assistant Attorney General, argued that the Church is using the law to hide behind accountability.
“They say they have complete and total immunity, but … our [state] Constitution does not allow religious organizations to claim legal immunity for secular conduct,” she said. “That violates the law."
The letter sent to the Catholic Church’s top brass on Friday was signed by members of the Catholic Accountability Project, a consortium of advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse. At a press conference Thursday, advocates said they want full transparency from Church leadership.
“We want to know our stories, we need to know our stories,” said 84-year-old Mary Dispenza, a survivor of abuse in California.
“I grew up in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and they ultimately did the right thing,” she continued. “They have freed the stories. And it made a difference to me just as a survivor to see my stories and also to understand the cover ups of the Church. It's given me the energy I bring today, to fight for this to happen.”
The Seattle Archdiocese has answered to multiple child sexual abuse claims, paying tens of millions of dollars to settle allegations involving hundreds of victims. In 2016, the Seattle Archdiocese released the names of 77 Catholic clergy or religious order members accused of sexually abusing children. Those on the list served or lived in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008.
RELATED: Seattle Archdiocese names priests who abused kids
In 2019, the Seattle Archdiocese implemented its own measure meant to hold accountable clergy participating in and covering up child sexual abuse. That procedure, the Archdiocese said, is meant to align with Catholic Church canon law, and involves a third-party complaint intake process.
This week, the Catholic Accountability Project handed off to the Attorney General’s Office thousands of whistleblower documents connected to statewide clergy sexual abuse allegations. Those documents, advocates say, are the kind of files Church leaders across the state have failed to turn over to the Attorney General’s Office.
81-year-old Reverend James Connell, a retired Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, helped pen the letter sent to the Vatican Friday. He said the Seattle Archdiocese is getting in the way of justice for survivors by not cooperating with the Attorney General's investigation.
RELATED: Seattle Archdiocese to pay $3 million to settle multiple sex abuse cases
“I am very much concerned that the Church has been [putting this off for] so many years, so long, so long, so long, and this doesn't get resolved,” Connell said.
In the worst case scenario, he said, Vatican politics, bureaucracy, and secrecy could get in the way of advocates’ request for an administrative investigation.
“The issue needs to be really focused in the civil courts, not the Church court. And obstruction of justice is the issue," he said.
Ferguson's office said they plan to file a motion to appeal Judge Scott's decision.
Update notice: This story has been updated to include new information surrounding the Washington State Attorney General's lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Seattle.