The AP was the first media outlet to conclude that review boards across the country, hailed by the Catholic Church as a key reform, were routinely failing victims of sex abuse.
In addressing its clergy sex abuse crisis, the Catholic church has touted a key reform: independent review boards with lay people.
But an exhaustive investigation by the AP team of Reese Dunklin, Dallas; Matt Sedensky, New York; and Mitch Weiss, Charlotte, N.C., methodically discredited that claim.
They checked all the roughly 180 dioceses in the U.S. for information, reviewed thousands of pages of church and court records, and interviewed more than 75 abuse survivors, board members and others. The team found and documented how bishops held the reins of power at every stage, from picking board members, to screening the evidence they saw, to choosing whether to accept the boards’ recommendations.
In one of their most important findings, the reporters unearthed dozens of cases nationwide in which review boards rejected complaints from survivors, only to have them later validated by secular authorities. They also found that bishops stacked the boards with their own aides and attorneys. In a few cases, board members were themselves clergy accused of sexual misconduct.
The rock-solid reporting was brought alive by the storytelling, with great details down to the pink sweater one board member was knitting while listening to a survivor’s story of abuse. Dunklin, Sedensky and Weiss handled the cases with great sensitivity, given the difficult subject.
The story received impressive play, landing on Axios’ top 10 for the day and averaging more than two minutes of reader engagement.
David Lasher stands for a portrait at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., Oct. 4, 2019. When Lasher reported sexual abuse by a priest to an independent review board, the board ruled against him. “It’s a fraud. It’s a sham. It’s a cover-up,” said Lasher, 56, the owner of a furniture design company. He told the review board in St. Petersburg, Florida, in April about his sexual abuse by a priest. “There’s no one on the board that cares for the victim ... it’s all about protecting the church.”
AP Photo / Gregory Bull
David Lasher, 56, at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., Oct. 4, 2019. When Lasher reported sexual abuse by a priest to an independent review board, the board ruled against him.
AP PHOTO / GREGORY BULL
David Lasher poses for a portrait at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., Oct. 4, 2019.
AP PHOTO / GREGORY BULL
Katie Bowman, right, shown in a 1968 family photo, prays in her room in Waterloo, Iowa. Bowman’s parents welcomed into their religious home three priests who molested her, she said, starting when she was around 4, a few months after this photo was made.
Courtesy Katie Bowman via AP
Katie Bowman, who reported abuse by clergy to the Davenport, Iowa, diocese, looks through a box of family photos at her home in Ankeny, Iowa, Sept. 2, 2019. While a court-appointed arbitrator found a “preponderance of evidence” that Bowman was abused, the diocesan review board still ruled against her. Bowman’s case exemplifies how a secular review can draw a different conclusion from the same facts.
AP Photo / Matt Sedensky
Dr. Jim Richter, a member of the review board in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest, walks outside his home in Minneapolis, Sept. 21, 2019. Richter praises the work of the review board he serves on, but says others are full of “unqualified, well-meaning but ultimately incompetent” members.
AP Photo / Matt Sedensky
Riley Kinn visits St. Wendelin Catholic High School in Fostoria, Ohio, Sept. 11, 2019. Kinn reported abuse by a priest at the high school and although assured by the Diocese of Toledo that he'd have the chance to share his story with a review board, was never given that opportunity.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Riley Kinn, who reported abuse by a priest at his Ohio high school, stands outside the St. Wendelin Catholic Church rectory in Fostoria, Ohio, Sept. 11, 2019. Kinn was interviewed by a retired police detective who took names of others who could corroborate the abuse claims, but Kinn learned by letter that the diocese review board had found his allegations “unsubstantiated.”
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Riley Kinn reacts during an interview in Fostoria, Ohio, Sept. 11, 2019. Kinn reported abuse by a priest at his Ohio high school and was assured by the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, that he’d have the chance to share his story with a review board, but was never given that opportunity. A diocese spokeswoman said the review board doesn’t promise victims they can testify, but examines each case in turn.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Riley Kinn walks to his house in Fostoria, Ohio, Sept. 11, 2019. Although Kinn was assured by the Diocese of Toledo that he’d have the chance to share his story with an independent review board, he never got that opportunity. Kinn learned by letter that the board had found his allegations “unsubstantiated.”
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
One day after the story was published, SNAP, the preeminent group for clergy abuse survivors, held a news conference in Kansas City, Missouri, pushing for changes by both the Catholic church and state lawmakers. That conference was addressed in part to Kansas City’s bishop, the just-chosen head of the church’s U.S. national abuse board.
Sedensky also heard from a survivor, Katie Bowman, who said, “Thank you and the entire team! Well done! You helped in the healing process, you and the entire team should be proud.”
For their comprehensive investigation into the Catholic church’s deeply flawed system for addressing claims of abuse, Dunklin, Sedensky and Weiss earn this week’s Best of the States award.