By The Seattle Times editorial board
Just when it appeared that justice was moving closer to being realized by victims of sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy in Washington, a King County Superior Court judge put the brakes on it, at least for now.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson launched an investigation last year into whether charitable donations to Catholic churches were used to conceal or facilitate sexual abuse.
After the Seattle Archdiocese refused access to certain church records regarding priests, citing the state’s Charitable Fund Act, Ferguson appealed to the courts. He asked King County Superior Court to allow his office access to records that he said could possibly provide evidence that church leaders in Seattle, Spokane and Yakima used charitable funds — church donations and offerings — to support clergy members who abused parishioners.
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Ferguson’s investigation is important and should move forward, and his office should appeal King County Superior Court Judge Michael Scott’s ruling to the state Supreme Court.
“The Charitable Trust Act contains an exemption for religious organizations, which is appropriate to protect religious activities. Our position is that it cannot be the case that the exemption is so broad that it protects a religious organization’s use of charitable dollars to cover up or even facilitate sexual abuse,” Ferguson said.
In 2021, the state Supreme Court issued a decision stating a religious exemption from a state law did not cover a church’s secular activities where that exemption would affect another person’s rights.
Sexual abuse survivors’ fight for justice has been long and arduous.
In 2016, bowing to public pressure, the Seattle Archdiocese posted the names of 77 priests and religious leaders who the church found had credible accusations against them. Nearly half of them were deceased and the church said it did not know some of the others’ whereabouts. But the list did not include all of the nuns, teachers and coaches who worked in Catholic schools and who had credible accusations filed against them. Many of the employees were moved from parish to parish after allegations surfaced. Some had criminal records involving abuse but were hired or remained as employees of the archdiocese. Since then, there have been numerous lawsuits against the archdiocese claiming sexual abuse of students, including at least three over the past year.
More recently the state Legislature twice failed to pass bills that would have made clergy members mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. Yet, this year it passed a much-needed bill that removes the statute of limitations for civil claims on child sexual abuse.
Just as no person should be above the law, neither should an organization be. Survivors of child sexual abuse often suffer for years from trauma, guilt, alcoholism or depression.
Obtaining justice through transparency can ease some of that pain. The Catholic Church should help make that happen for dozens of people whose lives have been negatively impacted by its negligence.
The Seattle Times editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Melissa Davis, Josh Farley, Alex Fryer, Claudia Rowe, Carlton Winfrey and William K. Blethen (emeritus).
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