David Clohessy Quotations

We're seeing more and more hardball tactics and low-ball offers and a retrenchment across the board.

We're grateful that kids will be safe for at least a few more weeks. We believe the burden is now on church officials ... to offer any information they might have on his crimes.

We suspect there are many more. We're convinced it's just a matter of time before it happens again.

Our goal is to help anyone that may have been victimized by him get support and to find any witnesses or information that might help in the criminal prosecution.

Just because criminal charges have been filed doesn't mean we can get complacent and assume the molestation charges will get him locked up. We're sure the prosecutors will welcome any new witnesses.

Thousands of victims haven't reported and dozens of bishops aren't telling all they know. They have no incentive to.

Tremendous secrecy is still the norm. Any external peek into how it works is very rare and very valuable.

When can we understand that a man can be a wonderful mentor and a great teacher and still be a child molester? If these guys had horns and tails, no child would want to be with them and no parents would trust them.

Bishops have tried to hide this for years, so there is no reason to believe all of a sudden they would change their ways. The only prudent thing to do is to assume this is not the entire truth. This is a survey, not a report or investigation.

There's no state in the union where the bishop has been as hard- nosed and vicious as in Colorado. None. I wouldn't even be able to name the second-worst.

These centers operate with no state oversight whatsoever. Church officials time and time again tell judges and prosecutors these facilities are secure, when they are not.

So much for their promises to be more transparent.

This is an ancient, rigid, secretive, top-down, all-male monarchy. It always has been. It always will be. The answer is not to reform them, but to go around them and to contain them.

It's easy to see the Vatican is wildly inconsistent.

It's not about Jenkins or Appleby or even Notre Dame. It's about church leaders who choose to make it even harder for victims to report criminals.

In all the years I've been doing victims' advocacy, I've never had a victim call me and say they were relieved and gratified that the man that sodomized them is supposed to pray more now.

Church officials will vehemently deny they still reassign these men. But the sad truth is that they do.

He's made such hurtful and misguided comments about the crisis. He's had ample opportunity to correct them, and hasn't.

All the credit goes to these families who had the wisdom and courage to turn to law enforcement. It is very sad and frustrating when families even today turn first to church officials instead of criminal authorities.