Clergy sexual abuse survivors have fought to be heard for decades.

Then, they spent decades fighting for the right to use the civil courts to expose their abusers, get accountability for child sex crimes, and help ensure what happened to them doesn’t happen to another child.

But the Diocese of Oakland had other plans.

To stop childhood sexual abuse trials from moving forward, the Diocese of Oakland (like more than 40 other dioceses across the country) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2023, effectively stopping the civil legal proceedings that would have exposed child sex crimes and cover-ups across the East Bay.

Now, the survivors are fighting to be heard again, this time in federal bankruptcy court. That is no place where survivors should ever have to fight for justice.

Recently, 15 clergy sexual abuse survivors (from the more than 350 who have come forward to obtain justice in the Diocese of Oakland) had an opportunity to share their truths in front of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Lafferty. During those two proceedings, according to the San Jose Mercury News, survivors “described in searing detail how they were groomed, raped and ‘terrorized’ for decades by Catholic priests across the East Bay.”

Many of the survivors gave their testimony while staring directly at Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber. Attorneys representing survivors are claiming that Bp. Barber is trying to push a plan on them that is nothing more than a “sham and a scam.”

Survivors did not hold back in their accounts of their abuse:

A woman, who later in life was diagnosed with breast cancer and was uncomfortable with having to disrobe in front of a physician because of her past childhood sexual abuse, said: “The reality is my life expectancy is diminished.”

Another, who was raped as a young boy, said he “stopped at that young age learning how to dream”. Physical wounds from that encounter “cause medical issues for him all these decades later.”

Bp. Barber, in response, read from a prepared statement that advocates say obfuscated the truth and shifted blame. According to the Mercury News:

“‘He shifted the blame almost completely on the abusers, and said nothing about the guilt of the enablers,’ said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the website BishopAccountability.org.”

Survivors and advocates believe the only way for justice to be served and healing to begin is for Bp. Barber — and all church officials in the Diocese of Oakland — to take full responsibility for the scope and scale of abuse in the Diocese.

From The Mercury News:

“‘This is not some historical problem we can just pass off and sweep under the rug,’ added Rick Simons, co-liaison counsel for the clergy abuse cases in Northern California. ‘Actions, not words, are what we need. And Bishop Barber’s actions are directly contradictory to his crafted words.’”