More Casualties of a Forgone Background Check Surface Years Later

So, the State of Washington has outed another wolf in sheep's clothing: Father Pat O'Donnell. The good father admitted to molesting over 30 young boys during the course of more than 30 years. How did it come out? Two of his victims, now grown men, have come forward and accused him of condemning them to a lifetime of emotional trauma. They claim to have been sexually abused by the priest back in 1976, when both were just twelve-year-old boys.

The surprising twist of this story is the victims are suing the Seattle Catholic Archdiocese, blaming it for dropping the ball when they hired Father O'Donnell. Why? Here's where the plot thickens. Turns out, O'Donnell is originally from Spokane and was kicked out of there in 1976 for abusing the son of a local cop. What's worse, the Spokane incident was kept hush-hush. With no one the wiser, O'Donnell fled Spokane, and as we now know, went on to molest Seattle boys that same year.

The crux of the lawsuit charges lies in one loaded question: why didn't the Seattle Archdiocese conduct a background check prior to hiring O'Donnell? Of course, Seattle is pointing a finger at Spokane for burying the scandal and not informing Seattle. This is definitely a valid argument, but it doesn't change the fact that the burden was on Seattle to watch its back and prevent the sexual predator from infiltrating the organization, thus inadvertently causing severe damages to trusting parishioners.

There is but one extenuating factor that may soften the impact on the Seattle Archdiocese: those were different times. In those days, our cultural practices differed significantly from what's considered the norm today. We have since learned the hard way. A routine background check has only recently become a prerequisite for employment. Yet, even today, religious institutions experience a certain discomfort when confronted with the need to routinely background check all priests. They are still resistant to the idea, fearing that the holy men may misconstrue it as irreverence to their stature.

The problem is, as we have seen over and over again, not every man of the cloth is automatically holy. Most are, but if there is no way to tell the difference, they gotta do what they gotta do. The Church's first responsibility is to parishioners who entrust their innocent children to what they believe to be the wise, gentle guidance of a respected community leader, and have the right not to have them victimized by dangerous perverts instead.

Like it or not, nowadays background checks should be mandatory for every institution that administers care and services to children, regardless of whether it's state-run or church-owned. The Seattle Archdiocese may not be able to rectify the old damages, but there is a lot more they can do to prevent future child molesters from victimizing more children in the name of the lord.

The above account is based on a true story. Background Checks protect peaceful citizens from being deceived and/or harmed by a cunning criminal.