Upon completing the additional formation asked of him, Fr. Silva was given permission to return to active ministry in July and has been assisting at parishes around the diocese. Father is a fine priest, and I am confident that he will serve his parish community very well," the Bishop said in a statement released by the Diocese. "Father has done everything we have asked him to do, I trust him completely, and it’s time for him to get back to work.”

The assertion that Catholic priests are more likely to be abusers because the practice of celibacy attracts pedophiles in the first place is based on a false premise. It ignores the reality that abusers are often sexually active with adults, including spouses, even while they target, groom, and abuse minors, and it clouds the conversation about how to protect young people. The urgent goal of fulfilling that commitment and building institutions that are ever safer for children is not served by the lazy conflation of clerical celibacy with sexual predation.

“Come on, why are there these accusations?” the priest says. “I am wondering what’s the motive?” He is referring to the allegations from six who say he sexually abused them as children while working as a missionary. He says it never happened. None of the charges against him have been tested or proven. “The press is terrible,” he says, tapping his finger on the computer desk. “They can launch anything. “…Things get released into the press and the press only retains the information that, ‘Oh, he’s accused.’”

The Vatican official said, “Pope Francis has called for zero tolerance, meaning no accusation goes uninvestigated and no abusive priest remains in ministry. If the civil structures are inadequate, then let the Church structures make sure that justice is done. But more than justice, the Church can be a powerful instrument of prevention so that abuse is not allowed to thrive in the first place. And it can be there boldly and honestly, seeking forgiveness and healing for those harmed by its clergy."

The number of clerics accused of sexual abuse of a minor during the audit period 2021 totaled 1,914. Accused priests of the audit period totaled 1,707. Of this total, 1,396 were dioc- esan priests, 252 belonged to a religious order, and 59 were incardinated elsewhere. There were 23 dea- cons accused during the audit period. Of this total, 19 were diocesan deacons, and 4 were religious order deacons. Allegations brought against “unknown” clerics totaled 184.

The staggering figure of 330,000 cases of abuse of minors, announced alongside the publication of the 2,500-page document, left the entire local Catholic flock in a state of shock and allowed little room for critical and dispassionate analysis at the time. “I was stunned by the multitude of approximations and methodological errors present in this poll, and I drew the general conclusion that it lacked credibility,” World-renowned statistician Paul Deheuvels says.

“Please remember this well: Zero tolerance on abuse against children or disabled persons; zero tolerance,” he said. The pope also called on priests and brothers to “not be ashamed to denounce” one of their confreres if an abuse is known because they must “protect the others.” “Please, I ask of you this: zero tolerance. You cannot solve this with a transfer (and say), ‘Ah, I’ll move him from this continent to the other continent.’ No!” the pope said.

There remains a sizable gap between the Vatican’s vision of best practice and how U.S. dioceses process allegations. This is especially true of the first stages of handling an accusation, in which dioceses often issue definitive-sounding statements before the full facts of the case are known, and before accused clergy are allowed to mount any kind of canonical defense. The results can lead to a denial of due process for accused clergy, and premature, sometimes irreparable, damage to their public reputations.

"On the basis of a single accusation from thirty or forty years ago, priests are suspended from ministry with their reputations destroyed and their lives in tatters. They must forever wear the scarlet letter of abuse pinned to their garb. Do bishops realize that such actions veer closely toward rash judgment, calumny, and slander, all condemned by the eighth commandment? This entire process has had a devastating impact on priests — who know that they do not have the support of their ecclesiastical superiors and realize they can be deprived of their ministries, their reputations, and their livelihoods in the blink of an eye." Guarino wrote.

As far as the review board is concerned, they make sure that we are removing from ministry anybody who’s been credibly accused of abuse, and they help us assess the credibility of allegations and suitability of ministry of those who have been accused. We rely on them to give us advice and ask questions to make sure that we’re asking all the questions that need to be asked and that no stone goes unturned that could help us understand what happened, often, in situations that allegedly occurred years ago.

“During his leave from active ministry, Monsignor engaged in a sincere and prayerful effort to strengthen his priestly vows and has favorably responded to every request made by me and by the Diocese. Let me state unequivocally that the Diocese has received no allegations of illegal misconduct of any kind by Monsignor, and that I have every confidence in returning Monsignor to active ministry and in his ability to accompany the people of God of this great parish as together you journey toward a deeper, more meaningful relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ." The bishop said.

It established a one-and-done policy which saw clergymen against whom abuse allegations were substantiated being removed permanently from public ministry. Since its adoption and subsequent Vatican approval, the charter has been revised three times, most recently in 2018. Plans called for the next update to occur by 2025, but work has already begun by the bishops' Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.

At least 13 U.S. states and the District of Columbia make it a crime for pastoral ministers to engage in sexual conduct with their spiritual directees or others who recieve from them pastoral counseling. The bill would establish “that a person is legally incapable of consenting to sexual conduct when they are a member or adherent of a church or religious group and the actor is a member of the clergy or minister providing the person with pastoral counseling services.”

It’s open season on priests, and there seems to be no end in sight. It is very difficult for a priest accused today to get a fair hearing. A priest is considered guilty until proven innocent even by the church. I know several long-time priests with otherwise unblemished records accused last November. Their priesthoods are effectively over. The hierarchy allows this injustice to continue.

"No defense is possible for accused priests. Once a civil suit has been filed, the policy in certain dioceses is to remove priests from ministry—even if the charges are decades old and lack any evidence. Cases are not even submitted to a review board prior to suspension. The filing of a civil suit is enough for a priest to lose his ministry and have his reputation as a man and a priest reduced to tatters."

Publishing the names of the accused before they are found guilty in some kind of judicial or even extrajudicial process is a horrible abuse and causes irreparable damage. If there is a single fruit of my research and publication, I hope it is the removal of those so-called “credible defendants” lists.

“Sexual abuse has always been wrong, for sure,” O’Malley said. “But how pastors have dealt with these accusations, while inadequate in some cases, should not be seen through the lens of what we know today.”

"It is immaturity—sexual and emotional immaturity—that leads to this kind of sexual abuse, because these guys are stunted, and their psycho-sexual development hits a plateau. They can’t identify with anybody beyond adolescent age, which is why they associate with them. And, in some cases, molest them. That’s the God’s honest truth.

The alleged victim has asked the Diocese of Yakima to remove Father's remains from the priests’ circle. The episcopal vicar for the diocese, said his request has been considered and will be denied. “It has been our practice to celebrate with a minimum of ceremony the funeral Masses of priests accused of abuse. However, burying the dead is one of the corporal works of mercy. These works are central to our response to the gift of the faith, and in our carrying out the mission of the Church.

The term “boundary violation” does not have a clear definition or universal meaning. There is no legal definition, in civil or canon law, of what a boundary violation could be. Because “boundary violation” is an ambiguous term, it could be used for something quite serious, or it could be meant to signify something akin to excessive swearing at someone — that could be a boundary violation. It’s not necessarily clear that all boundary violations are inherently physical, or that they are inherently sexual, either. They are not a category of crime.