Investigate hidden scandals at Notre Dame
John Michael Vore
class of 1986, 1993
On Oct. 14, when the "Restoring Trust" conference on the sexual abuse crisis in the Church convenes at Notre Dame, its lead speaker will be University President Father Edward Malloy. I have been surprised to see him in the news over the past six months.
I first wrote to Father Malloy about priest sexual abuse at Notre Dame in June of 1991. He never replied to my letter, he refused to meet with me and he avoided me when I tried to talk with him in a public forum. I wrote to him about a priest who had been the University Provost and Chair of the Theology Department in the 1970s, and later a "spiritual advisor" with an apartment in the back of Holy Cross Hall. When the stories broke about Father Burtchaell in the National Catholic Reporter, The Observer and Common Sense (December 1991), his defenders, including Notre Dame's Dennis Moore (now a vice president) came as close to calling me a liar and my allegations lies as anyone did.
Nevertheless, Burtchaell reluctantly admitted the harm he caused to many of those he had advised (I'm told our numbers could fill a bus) and he resigned from the faculty. Notre Dame and Holy Cross officials said at the time that Burtchaell had essentially been a bad apple and that they acted as soon as they could.
A decade later, the times have changed and now I am the one that can say that Malloy and Moore were probably the liars. Malloy is the closest person you'll find to Bernard Law on campus.
I wrote about this in my Masters thesis at Notre Dame, called "Tell Me What Home is Like" (1993); it's in the Hesburgh Library and was published last year (www.firetrap.com). To believe Malloy did not know of Burtchaell's 15-plus year history of abuse, nor of the abuse of the many other Holy Cross priests and brothers, seems, well, unbelievable.
The questions that anyone who cares about this issue need ask are simple: Father Malloy, what did you know? And when did you know it? How many sexually abusive priests and brothers have you hidden? And for how long?
An answer from him would be a welcome surprise; an honest one might qualify as a miracle. In the meantime, do a Google search on Notre Dame and priest sexual abuse. You'll find out more about this University and the order that runs it than you probably care to know. The knowledge still turns my stomach. Ten years ago we called for an independent investigation into the Burtchaell Matter. Malloy and company ignored that call.
Now that it is standard practice in most parishes around the country, perhaps Notre Dame can stop leading with words it doesn't intend on following and show leadership through action. The real problem, I imagine, is that if you root out all of those in the Holy Cross order who are guilty, the next president of Notre Dame will be the first not from the order.
John Michael Vore
class of 1986, 1993
New York City
Oct. 6
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, October 7, 2002
