Did N.Y. diocese deceive victims? (signs of the times).

"Please do not identify me as an attorney," reads a 1993 memo from a member of the so-called intervention team of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York. The attorney, who is also a priest, wrote the internal memo to other diocesan officials regarding the referral of clergy sex-abuse victims to his office in an apparent effort to manipulate victims and their course of action against the diocese.

According to the grand jury of Suffolk County, the diocese used a team of priest-attorneys to "defeat and discourage lawsuits" claiming clergy sex abuse with "aggressive legal strategies." The team met with victims and their families, ostensibly to offer support. This is just one of many findings released in an 180-page report detailing misconduct by the diocese, including the active protection of 58 abusive priests since 1957. The report is the result of a nine-month inquiry by the grand jury that heard testimony from 97 witnesses and found that, of all the cases brought to the attention of the diocese, only one priest was defrocked--because he had an affair with an adult woman.

Bishop William Murphy became the ordinary of the diocese just last year, so the cases referred to in the grand jury report did not happen during his tenure. However, on the day the report was released, Murphy was in Boston where he testified before a grand jury regarding sex-abuse cases he handled there while serving as Cardinal Bernard Law's top deputy. Murphy is named in approximately one third of the clergy sex-abuse cases pending in Boston, according to the New York Times.

A statement from the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which is the sixth largest in the U.S. and home to 1.3 million Catholics, says, "The diocese unequivocally rejects the characterization of its actions given by the report ... it details incidents that were dealt with many years ago. While sexual abuse of minors is always a grave sin and a crime, the ways of dealing with it have developed over time." The statement also notes that Murphy has implemented many policy changes since his installment.

While it is impossible for the grand jury to indict the diocese due to a five-year statute of limitations, its report calls for revised legislation on sex-abuse claims that would eliminate these limitations and open the door to criminal charges against the diocese.

In many other states, such as Washington, Kentucky, Iowa, Virginia, and Maryland, bills to reform sex-abuse reporting laws and litigation have either failed or been delayed. Washington State Representative Al O'Brien told the Associated Press, "Initially, there was a lot of excitement over this, but now it's gotten buried in minutiae."