{"id":27220,"date":"2026-11-12T02:55:40","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T20:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/?p=27220"},"modified":"2026-11-12T02:55:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T20:25:41","slug":"warnings-institutions-who-is-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/warnings-institutions-who-is-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuando las advertencias cruzan instituciones, \u00bfqui\u00e9n debe rendir cuentas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

En enero de 1978, un funcionario de la Di\u00f3cesis de Springfield, Illinois, redact\u00f3 un memorando dirigido al obispo Joseph McNicholas<\/a>. A senior Army chaplain had telephoned to report that a retiring chaplain seeking a post in the diocese, Father Alvin Campbell, “has a moral problem with boys\/young men.” Less than a month later, the bishop named Campbell pastor of a parish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00bfQui\u00e9n rinde cuentas cuando una instituci\u00f3n recibe la noticia de un peligro y procede como si no la hubiera recibido? La rendici\u00f3n de cuentas institucional comienza el d\u00eda en que una advertencia entra en una instituci\u00f3n. Desde ese d\u00eda, la oficina que posee la informaci\u00f3n asume un deber del que no la liberan el traslado, el silencio ni la confianza en el optimismo de los expertos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Una advertencia que cruz\u00f3 instituciones<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Campbell sirvi\u00f3 como capell\u00e1n del Ej\u00e9rcito de 1963 a 1977. Los registros diocesanos indican que se retir\u00f3 a fines de 1977 y solicit\u00f3 un destino en Springfield. El capell\u00e1n del Ej\u00e9rcito que llam\u00f3 a la di\u00f3cesis dijo que el asunto se hab\u00eda tratado de forma confidencial dentro de la instituci\u00f3n militar, sin publicidad, y que Campbell hab\u00eda renunciado cuando sali\u00f3 a la luz. El memorando terminaba se\u00f1alando que seguir\u00eda un informe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNicholas lo nombr\u00f3 p\u00e1rroco de Saint Jude, en Rochester, en cuesti\u00f3n de semanas y, en 1979, p\u00e1rroco en la localidad de Assumption. Los registros muestran que los abusos en Assumption comenzaron casi de inmediato y que la di\u00f3cesis ten\u00eda noticia de ellos en enero de 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 1981, a family told the bishop about Campbell’s conduct with their daughter. Campbell admitted it to the bishop and soon afterward resigned as pastor, citing health reasons. Within months he received another parish. Each step followed the last within months, and none of them removed him from contact with children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Saint Maurice in Morrisonville, from 1982 to 1985, diocesan records indicate he abused 26 children. The same record counts 33 children abused in the diocese, all after the Army’s warning; those figures are reports drawn from files, not findings adjudicated child by child. The court record is firm on the rest: in 1985 Campbell was indicted for molesting boys aged 11 to 15, pleaded guilty but mentally ill, and received a 14-year sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Un bufete de abogados que tramita demandas por abusos del clero en Illinois publica un resumen sobre el sacerdote de la di\u00f3cesis de Springfield Alvin L. Campbell y las demandas en su contra<\/a>, a partir de ese registro p\u00fablico. El proceso penal abord\u00f3 lo que hizo Campbell. Lo que la instituci\u00f3n deb\u00eda una vez advertida es una cuesti\u00f3n de rendici\u00f3n de cuentas institucional, y exige un conjunto distinto de herramientas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Las instituciones necesitan un foro para rendir cuentas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

El acad\u00e9mico de la Universidad de Utrecht Mark Bovens define la rendici\u00f3n de cuentas como una relaci\u00f3n entre un actor y un foro<\/a>. El actor debe explicar y justificar su conducta, el foro puede interrogarlo y emitir un juicio, y el actor puede enfrentar consecuencias. Sin un foro capaz de exigir una respuesta, un fallo produce arrepentimiento y no rendici\u00f3n de cuentas. Los tribunales funcionan como foros en otros \u00e1mbitos, como el litigio clim\u00e1tico<\/a>, donde gobiernos y empresas deben justificar lo que no hicieron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campbell’s case ran through several forums, and each stopped at its own boundary. He had been reprimanded as an Army chaplain and left the service, according to un reportaje de Associated Press<\/a>. A criminal court judged the man in 1985. The church’s own legal system moved slowly: Bishop Daniel Ryan waited about four years after Campbell’s imprisonment before asking Rome to remove him from the priesthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La rendici\u00f3n de cuentas institucional comienza el d\u00eda en que una advertencia entra en una instituci\u00f3n.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In his request to Rome, Ryan noted that Campbell’s crimes and another priest’s had cost the diocese $1.5 million in damages and legal fees. Consequences form one element of institutional accountability as defined above, and money paid to claimants satisfies it in part. Payment leaves open the other elements: who decided what, on what information, and who must explain it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 1989, the Vatican office then led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger refused, because the petition lacked Campbell’s own request, and told the bishop to hold a church trial, following church law at the time. After his release in 1992, following about seven years in prison, Campbell was persuaded to accept removal, and Rome granted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C\u00f3mo el secreto y la demora anulan la rendici\u00f3n de cuentas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Army’s confidential handling shows how secrecy defeats accountability, a pattern that recurs in las instituciones de seguridad<\/a>. Una advertencia transmitida en confianza, por un canal que ning\u00fan foro externo puede inspeccionar, no crea ning\u00fan deber que alguien pueda exigir. La rendici\u00f3n de cuentas institucional requiere canales que un foro externo pueda examinar. Ning\u00fan foro de esta secuencia ten\u00eda el encargo de responder por la secuencia en su conjunto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El foro p\u00fablico lleg\u00f3 el \u00faltimo. Antes de que investigara el fiscal general de Illinois, las seis di\u00f3cesis de Illinois hab\u00edan publicly listed 103 substantiated abusers; the investigation’s report names 451 clerics who abused at least 1,997 children<\/a>. Las d\u00e9cadas transcurridas entre los abusos y ese recuento fueron a\u00f1os en los que ning\u00fan foro con poder sobre la instituci\u00f3n dispon\u00eda de los hechos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwame Raoul, el fiscal general, afirm\u00f3 que d\u00e9cadas de decisiones y pol\u00edticas del liderazgo cat\u00f3lico<\/a> allowed “known child sex abusers to hide, often in plain sight.” The statement locates the failure in leadership decisions and policies, the level at which offices operate. A forum that convenes decades later can name failures. It cannot prevent them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El acceso a la justicia agrava la demora. Hasta una ley de 2017, Illinois daba a las v\u00edctimas de abuso sexual infantil 20 a\u00f1os desde su decimoctavo cumplea\u00f1os para actuar, y muchos sobrevivientes de abusos del clero, como se\u00f1al\u00f3 la cobertura del anuncio, nunca ver\u00e1n justicia en sentido jur\u00eddico. Un tribunal que se cierra antes de que un sobreviviente pueda hablar es un foro solo de nombre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Por qu\u00e9 el problema de las muchas manos no se aplica aqu\u00ed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

El fil\u00f3sofo pol\u00edtico Dennis Thompson formul\u00f3 el problema de las muchas manos<\/a>: cuando muchos funcionarios contribuyen a una decisi\u00f3n, resulta dif\u00edcil decir qui\u00e9n es moralmente responsable del resultado. Sostuvo que dos remedios habituales, culpar a quien est\u00e1 en la cima y culpar al colectivo, distorsionan la idea de responsabilidad. Propuso la responsabilidad personal, evaluada con criterios causales y volitivos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is the standard objection to institutional accountability: responsibility that dissolves into the collective leaves no one to answer. The 1978 record shows no such dissolution. One chaplain made one call. One memo went to one bishop. The same bishop made the appointment less than a month later. On the diocese’s own records, the causal link and the choice, the two criteria Thompson uses, sit in a single office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Un funcionario que recibi\u00f3 una advertencia por escrito no puede alegar que la informaci\u00f3n estaba dispersa fuera de su alcance. Las muchas manos aparecen despu\u00e9s. En las d\u00e9cadas posteriores a la condena de 1985, sucesivos obispos, personal diocesano, abogados de la Iglesia y oficinas romanas poseyeron cada uno una parte del conocimiento y una parte de la autoridad. Aqu\u00ed la rendici\u00f3n de cuentas institucional depende del dise\u00f1o: qui\u00e9n debe registrar, qui\u00e9n debe divulgar y qui\u00e9n debe responder por toda la secuencia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Una di\u00f3cesis sabe lo que dicen sus archivos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Christian List y Philip Pettit sostienen en Group Agency<\/em> that churches, companies, and states are agents in their own right, distinct from their members, with attitudes formed through the procedures that aggregate their members’ judgments. If that account holds, “the diocese knew” is a literal description. The memo and the family’s complaint were information held by the institution and available to every later officeholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Succession then settles a question that the many-hands problem leaves open. A bishop who inherits the files inherits the information, so he cannot treat a predecessor’s choice as someone else’s. Institutional accountability attaches to the office and travels with it. Each holder answers for what the file told him and for what he did next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reading also answers Thompson’s worry about the collective. Responsibility does not dissolve into the diocese as a whole, because the diocese acts through offices, and each office has a holder at each date. The bishop in 1978, the bishop in 1984, and the official who wrote the memo each stand in a particular relation to particular information. The institution’s agency makes the question answerable, and the roster of officeholders makes the answer personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El traslado merece una descripci\u00f3n precisa. Mover a un sacerdote que el expediente se\u00f1ala como riesgo a una nueva parroquia es un acto con destinatarios identificables: las familias de esa parroquia, que carecen de la informaci\u00f3n que posee la oficina. Llamarlo omisi\u00f3n oculta la decisi\u00f3n dentro del silencio. Tras la queja de 1981, los registros muestran exactamente esta secuencia: admisi\u00f3n, renuncia y una nueva parroquia en cuesti\u00f3n de meses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La objeci\u00f3n de la retrospectiva<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

La objeci\u00f3n m\u00e1s fuerte sostiene que los obispos actuaron seg\u00fan el mejor asesoramiento profesional de su \u00e9poca. En una reuni\u00f3n de los obispos de Estados Unidos, el obispo John Ricard de Pensacola-Tallahassee record\u00f3 que a los obispos se les dec\u00eda con frecuencia que<\/a> the problem “can be treated by conventional psychotherapy,” and that they followed that advice. The objection has force. Judging 1978 by the knowledge of today would be anachronism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objection fits a treated priest’s return to ministry. It does not reach the Campbell record. The January 1978 memo relayed a warning from a senior Army chaplain, not a clinical prognosis, and the appointment followed within weeks. After the 1981 complaint and Campbell’s own admission, the reassignment came within months. Institutional accountability needs no hindsight here: ignorance fails as an excuse when the official’s own files recorded the facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reliance on expertise also has limits that research later documented. The John Jay College study commissioned by the bishops’ conference no encontr\u00f3 una causa ni un predictor \u00fanico<\/a> of abuse by Catholic clergy. That finding gives little ground for certainty about any individual priest, and an institution that leans on a clinician’s assurance owns the risk it takes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Una segunda objeci\u00f3n viene de Iris Marion Young. En Responsibility for Justice<\/em>, contrapone un modelo de culpabilidad, que atribuye la falta por actos pasados, a un modelo de conexi\u00f3n social, en el que todos los que contribuyen a una estructura que produce injusticia comparten un deber, orientado al futuro, de cambiarla. El reproche, observ\u00f3, genera actitudes defensivas. Aun as\u00ed, Young consideraba apropiado el modelo de culpabilidad en muchos contextos, y el nombramiento de 1978 pertenece a uno de ellos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La rendici\u00f3n de cuentas institucional parte de tres deberes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Young’s model gives institutional accountability what liability alone cannot supply: a present duty. After Campbell, every institution that employs chaplains, pastors, coaches, and teachers shares a duty to change the procedures that carried a warning from one desk to the next without effect. That duty binds the Army and the dioceses as they exist now, whatever the guilt of the men in office in 1978.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Las psic\u00f3logas Carly Smith y Jennifer Freyd lo llaman traici\u00f3n institucional<\/a> when trusted institutions, including churches, schools, and the military, harm people who depend on them for safety. Betrayal, they argue, includes omission and commission. The Campbell record contains omission in the Army’s private handling and commission in the diocese’s appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De ah\u00ed se derivan tres deberes para toda instituci\u00f3n que recibe una advertencia. Primero, registrarla de una forma que sobreviva al titular del cargo. Segundo, separar a la persona de quienes podr\u00eda da\u00f1ar hasta que se resuelva la acusaci\u00f3n. Tercero, comunicar la advertencia a las personas en riesgo y a las autoridades. Cada deber entra en vigor cuando llega la advertencia, pues la prueba llega despu\u00e9s, por lo general en un tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case proof came in 1985, after the diocese had received three separate signals: the Army’s call, the notice of abuse in Assumption, and the family’s complaint. Triggering duties before proof carries a cost, since an unfounded warning can damage an innocent person who deserves due process. Graduated duties answer that cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recording costs the accused nothing. Separation from contact with children can be temporary and carry no finding of guilt, as with suspension on full pay. Disclosure to the authorities hands the question to bodies equipped to test it, and public naming can wait for substantiation. The diocese’s records show a different order: reassignment at each stage, and a criminal process only in 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuando las advertencias cruzan instituciones<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Entre instituciones rige una cuarta regla: el receptor debe responder por escrito y el remitente debe confirmar que lo hizo. En Springfield, la advertencia lleg\u00f3 por tel\u00e9fono y qued\u00f3 registrada en un memorando redactado por la di\u00f3cesis receptora, y ese memorando se\u00f1alaba que seguir\u00eda un informe. La protecci\u00f3n de la infancia adolece de the gap between children’s rights on paper and in practice<\/a>, y una cadena escrita de respuestas la reduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La rendici\u00f3n de cuentas institucional que empieza con el esc\u00e1ndalo llega demasiado tarde para los ni\u00f1os a quienes concierne. El est\u00e1ndar que los protege se fija antes, en el escritorio donde aterriza la primera advertencia, y plantea una sola pregunta a quien se sienta all\u00ed: \u00bfqu\u00e9 har\u00e1 esta oficina con lo que ahora sabe? Esa pregunta se aplica por igual a di\u00f3cesis, ej\u00e9rcitos, escuelas y organismos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In January 1978, an official of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, wrote a memo to Bishop Joseph McNicholas. A senior Army chaplain had telephoned to report that a retiring chaplain seeking a post in the diocese…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[1164],"tags":[735],"ppma_author":[230],"class_list":["post-27220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-thinking-line","tag-law"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","authors":[{"term_id":230,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"prr","display_name":"P&RR","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Untitled-design.png","url2x":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Untitled-design.png"},"avatar_alt":"","avatar_decorative":"","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27226,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220\/revisions\/27226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27220"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=27220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}