the learning curve

By ( articles ) | May 25, 2004

The newly-released personnel file of Davenport priest James Janssen has been studied by the Des Moines Register and organized into a timeline of successive revelations, admonishments, and reassignments that almost defies belief. Father Robert Silva warns us that the "bishops' actions should be placed in the cultural context of the United States at the time," and insists "The trauma caused by child sexual abuse was not known," but this is blowing smoke. In terms of protecting children, everything that was necessary to know about Janssens was known when Leviticus was written.

One of the ironies of the story is that, in the course of Janssens's priestly career, both the YMCA and the Boy Scouts banned him because of his misbehavior with youth. Why did they -- who were part of the same "cultural context" that Silva mentions -- manage to exhibit concern for children that the Diocese did not?

It's both sad and touching to learn how many people -- parishioners, therapists, brother priests and seminary staff -- clearly saw Janssen as a disturbed man and urged that he be defrocked and given help. The Church had a large reservoir of good will to work with. And then that eerie vacuum at the center ...