TYPES OF PRESENTATION TO THE DIOCESES
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The most common way that it is made known to the Ordinary that a cleric
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may have a sexual disorder such as pedophilia is for a parent of a
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child to go to their local Pastor, Chancery official or the Bishop
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himself and express concern or make an accusation against a cleric
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for sexually touching or molesting their child. To date, this kind
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of presentation has been the most helpful one for us all since usually
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the parent is Roman Catholic and confused, concerned about the child
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and also confused and concerned about the priest or cleric.
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Another presentation may be simply an attorney calling the Chancery
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and informing the Bishop that a criminal action has been filed or
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a civil suit has been filed against one of his clerics. This is a
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most distasteful and dangerous way in which the information can come
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to the attention of the Ordinary. In general, and please make sure
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you understand me here, it has been my experience that such presentations
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come only when the Ordinary has already been aware of sexual misbehaviors
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before and no action has been taken in the past except perhaps to
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move the cleric to a new assignment.
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The least common, but most helpful, presentation is when the cleric
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himself comes to his Ordinary and admits that he has sexual difficulties
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that could endanger himself legally as well as jeopardize the Diocese
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as an entity. We have only seen this in the recent past where Ordinaries
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have done workshops in their Dioceses educating their clerics and
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administrators or schools abou the disease of pedophilia, incest,
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physical child abuse. Clerics have come forward after such compassionate
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presentations. and asked for help. It is for this reason, and many
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others, that I would advise that every Diocese in the U.S. in the
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next year have such a presentation done by an attorney, a psychiatrist
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who is familiar with this disease (very few psychiatrists know anything
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about pedophilia), and the Ordinary himself.
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