Catholic Bishop Thinks Sexual Assault Victims Are ‘Culpable’ For Their Mistreatment



When Pope Francis comes to the United States next week, one of many gifts he’ll be getting will be a petition from several victims of sexual assault at the hands of priests. They want the pope to boot out the spiritual leader of central New York’s Catholics for suggesting that victims of sexual assault are actually responsible for their own mistreatment.

Bishop Robert Cunningham
Bishop Robert Cunningham

Back in 2011, Robert Cunningham, the Bishop of Syracuse, gave a deposition in a federal lawsuit brought by Dennis Brennan, who claimed he’d been molested by Father Thomas Neary as a child. Read an excerpt here. Incredibly, Brennan was told that he was the one who had to confess to committing a sin. When one of Brennan’s lawyers, Raymond Schlather, asked Cunningham if the boy had indeed committed a sin, Cunnnigham replied, “The boy is culpable.”

As if that wasn’t outrageous enough, Cunningham said that in cases like this, you have to wonder, “did the boy encourage, go along with it in any way.” When a gobsmacked Schlather asked Cunningham if there was any chance that a teenager could be held responsible for mistreatment at the hands of a priest, Cunningham tried to unring the bell, saying that “obviously, what that priest did was wrong.”

Later, Cunningham said that Neary should not have taken Brennan’s confession because it is not appropriate for a priest to “absolve an accomplice in a sin such as this.” According to diocese spokeswoman Danielle Cummings, “accomplice” has a different meaning in canon law than it does in criminal or civil law. In canon law, Cummings said, “accomplice” means “involved without regard to one’s willingness or intent.”

When this outrageous testimony went public earlier this month, two survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of priests hit the ceiling. Kevin Braney and Charles Bailey demanded that Cunningham resign, and have started a petition on Change.org calling for Francis to fire Cunningham. As of Friday night, it has 1,076 signatures.

Bailey, who was also molested by Neary, said that he was reluctant to declare that Cunningham was “not fit to lead,” but is speaking up because he feels that the children of the diocese “are not safe because our leader is protecting pedophiles.” Braney was molested by a priest who threatened to kill him if he went public about his ordeal. He said that he was stunned that Cunningham could be aware of the mistreatment he suffered at this priest’s hands and say something so callous.

When Richard Sipe, a former priest who has written about sexuality in the church, is being rather kind when he called Cunningham’s testimony “absurd” and “prehistoric.” He said that it was no different from blaming a child who has been physically beaten for his own beating. Nancy Wright, a member of the Diocesan Review Board that handles allegations of pedophilia by priests, said that she would have been “very vocal in my objections” to such a statement had she known about it.

If what Bailey recalled about a conversation he had with Cunningham’s predecessor as bishop of Syracuse, James Moynihan, is any indication, this primitive and hurtful thinking has been swirling around in central New York for some time. Bailey told The (Syracuse) Post-Standard that in 2004, Moynihan told him to his face that he was partially responsible for his own ordeal since “the age of reason is 7.” How can anyone with even a shred of a conscience even say such a thing?

Cunningham wrote an open letter to his parishoners saying that he never intended for his testimony to “give the wrongful impression to victims” and their families. You’ll have to pardon me if I find that hard to believe, Father. What did you think anyone was supposed to think when you said, “The boy is culpable”? And why haven’t you spoken up to condemn your predecessor’s hurtful words to Bailey? Brennan certainly isn’t buying it. In a letter to the editor, he wondered why Cunningham didn’t amend his testimony 30 days after he initially gave it. From where Brennan is sitting, Cunningham’s epiphany is “four years too little, too late.”

I’m literally shaking with anger as I write this. Is it any wonder that victims of mistreatment at the hands of priests are scared to come forward? It’s a safe bet that those who wanted to speak out sooner were greeted with victim-shaming and victim-blaming. It’s clear that this mentality is still very much alive in the Diocese of Syracuse. Pope Francis needs to take a stand and clean this mentality out, root-and-branch–starting with the removal of Cunningham.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.