When I was a minor, I was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. I brought that priest to justice years later when I won a court jury trial against him in 2006. That trial proved to be vindication for me, in spite of the fact that the priest was not excommunicated, “laicized”, or defrocked by the church. This behavior by the Catholic church is an insult, but I have that court decision for validation, and I embrace it. But many other victims of clergy abuse do not have validation.

When a priest is removed by the church from his clerical state, it is known as laicization, and/or defrocking. This removal is a punishment that is done by church hierarchy for “grave reasons”, such as crimes, and serious offenses.

I was vindicated, but thousands of other victims of clergy abuse will never see a day in court, as the statute of limitations has run out for them. Most victims will not receive acknowledgment by the church or the clergy predator for causing horrific experiences, pain, suffering, and collateral affects of child abuse. In the majority of those cases, the priests who molested children for decades were not punished, convicted, removed, defrocked, or laicized.

Many Catholic Dioceses across the USA have recently released the names of clergy that were “credibly accused of child sex abuse.”

A large proportion of those names of credibly accused clergy are now deceased.

Those priests should have been laicized as punishment, but most of them were not. They will be remembered as clergy who have passed on, with their title as “Priest” “Father” “Reverend” or “Bishop” intact, as though they had led an unblemished holy life.

The churches' holy tribute to those deceased clergy abusers, many of them serial rapists, and sex offenders, is an insult to their victims, and a testament of denial by the church who enabled those predators. It isn't too late for accountability and admission by the church.

It is for this reason, I would like to demand that the Catholic Hierarchy, and the Vatican, finally acknowledge the wrongdoing and sex abuse crimes committed by these deceased clergy.

Please sign this petition to demand that the Catholic Church Hierarchy acknowledge child sex abuse victims by posthumously laicizing and defrocking known rapist and molester priests who were honored undeservingly.