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April 11, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 7Oakland,
CA
Bishop Cummins testifies at sex abuse trial
Abuse victims asked to answer survey
Bishop Cummins testifies at sex abuse trial
Retired Bishop John S. Cummins, taking the witness stand
in a Hayward courtroom, expressed sorrow that the Oakland Diocese had
failed to act more forcefully in response to early accusations of child
sexual abuse.
Testifying in the case of Bob and Tom Thatcher, who charge that they were
molested by Robert Ponciroli in the early 1980s when he was pastor of
St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch, Bishop Cummins said that when similar
cases came to his notice about that time he was unaware of the extent
of clergy sexual abuse.
“I did not expect sexual abuse by priests to be a frequent occurrence,”
he said, but he acknowledged that serious charges of abuse have now been
made against seven or eight priests in the Diocese of Oakland. Bishop
Cummins appeared as a witness for the plaintiffs on April 4, one week
after the trial began before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry
Sheppard.
When asked if he had sought out victims of former priest Stephen Kiesle,
who was arrested in 1978, Bishop Cummins said that he had not and added
quietly, “I’m sorry.”
The trial is to determine how much the diocese should pay in damages for
having failed to protect the Thatcher brothers. The diocese has admitted
liability and is willing to pay for compensation for the Thatchers’
ordeal but maintains that it should not pay punitive damages since it
has already admitted its responsibility.
In an effort to convince jurors to award punitive damages, attorneys for
the Thatchers have been trying to show that the diocese has had a pattern
of concealing sexual abuse claims, protecting abusers and neglecting victims.
Father Brian Joyce, pastor of Christ the King Parish in Pleasant Hill,
also testified that while he was chancellor of the diocese, he had received
complaints about Ponciroli’s behavior but was unaware that he was
abusing children.
He called Ponciroli into his office after hearing that he was tickling
children and intimidating them by indulging in fits of rage, Father Joyce
said, but he did not suspect that tickling was a sign of abuse.
“My focus was his anger and his intimidating young people,”
he said. “I was wrong.”
Plaintiff attorney Richard Simons displayed a 1975 memo written by former
Bishop Floyd Begin and placed in Ponciroli’s personnel file, which
showed that Bishop Begin was aware of abuse complaints against the priest.
Father Joyce said he first saw the memo six or seven months ago, and Bishop
Cummins said he learned of it about two years ago.
Both said they did not look into Ponciroli’s personnel file before
he was assigned as founding pastor of St. Ignatius in 1979. Father Joyce,
who was chairman of the personnel board as well as chancellor, said he
expected to find nothing informative in the file and only consulted these
files when priests came from outside the diocese.
Bishop Begin, who died in 1977, never informed him of abuse complaints
made against Ponciroli, Father Joyce said. “It was routine that
he would deal with some cases himself,” he said. “I think
it’s unfortunate that that was the practice.”
In questioning about an Easter homily Father Joyce delivered this year,
the priest said he had held up the issue of clergy sexual abuse as evidence
that the Church is a dysfunctional family.
In fact, he said on the stand, “I’m furious about it.”
Bishop Cummins testified that it was not until 1994 or 1995, when he was
summoned to the bedside of a man who was hospitalized, that he first learned
that Ponciroli had abused children. The man told him then that Ponciroli
had molested him.
When asked if he would have been suspicious to hear that Ponciroli had
tickled children, Bishop Cummins answered, “I don’t know if
we had the sense in those days to be suspicious.”
He also said that it was not the practice of the diocese to notify police
when abuse charges were brought against members of the clergy. And when
asked if the diocese reached out to find victims of abuse after learning
of charges against a priest, Bishop Cummins replied, “We did not
do that right away. That came some years later. I’m sorry.”
Bishop Allen Vigneron also took the stand and was asked if he had been
aggressive in eliminating the problem of clergy sex abuse. “I’ve
tried to do my duty,” he replied. Bishop Vigneron praised the work
of St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Barbara Flannery, diocesan chancellor,
who is victim assistance coordinator for cases of sex abuse by clergy.
“She’s splendid,” Bishop Vigneron said. “I consider
myself blessed to have her as a co-worker.”
The trial was expected to continue for at least one more week.
Abuse victims asked
to
answer survey
In an effort to improve the Church’s response
to the problem and prevention of clergy sexual abuse, the U.S. Bishops’
Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse is conducting a survey of survivors.
Attorney Mary A. Lentz, a Cleveland, Ohio-based child abuse prevention
consultant, is leading the survey.
It is currently available through May 4 on a website: www.victim-outreach.com.
It asks respondents about the abuse and its impact on the survivor, how
the survivor reported the abuse, how the Church responded when the abuse
was reported, and what the survivor believes should be done to prevent
abuse.
The survey is designed to make it impossible for anyone to determine the
identity of respondents. Individuals are asked not to identify themselves,
their abuser, the abuser’s diocese, eparchy or religious community.
Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee, said the survey
was set up to give survivors a voice in helping other survivors, to assist
dioceses and eparchies in developing appropriate responses to victims/
survivors, and to identify preventative measures of child sexual abuse.
Results of the project will be made available on the bishops’ web
site at: www.usccb.org.
