Dallas Charter Did Not End Priest Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church - It Remains a Culture

In 2002 the Catholic Church convened a conference in Dallas purportedly to tackle the priest sexual abuse scandal that was rocking the American Church at the time. In reality, the Church and the United States Conference of Bishops used it as a means to put up window dressing without addressing the cultural failures and problems within Church heirarchy that permitted rampant child sexual abuse to occur within the ranks of the clergy.

A lawsuit was recently filed involving priest sexual abuse in the post-Dallas Charter world in Aspen, Colorado. Until the lawsuit was filed, the priest remained active, but had been shifted to less-affluent parishes. This is, unfortunately, all too common a story that we see. Priest causes problems in an area where people notice and have the means and resources to make waves - priest gets moved to less-affluent parishes with more devout, often minority, parishioners and communities unlikely to have the time, energy, resources, and clout to make those same waves.

How many more children were needlessly abused and how many more lives were negatively thrown off course because, even after Dallas, the Church leadership did not act like adults in the room and showed more concern for avoiding scandal than avoiding harm to innocent children?

This remains a stain on the Church and a pox on our society. It is why we do what we do. Until the culture changes, we will be out here fighting back on behalf of survivors.

https://www.aspentimes.com/news/former-aspen-priest-accused-of-sexual-abuse-archdiocese-local-police-open-investigation/