{"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\/fr\/warnings-institutions-who-is-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"Quand les avertissements traversent les institutions, qui doit rendre des comptes ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

En janvier 1978, un responsable du dioc\u00e8se de Springfield, dans l\u2019Illinois, r\u00e9digea une note \u00e0 l\u2019intention de l\u2019\u00e9v\u00eaque 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

Qui est redevable lorsqu\u2019une institution est avertie d\u2019un danger et agit comme si elle ne l\u2019avait pas \u00e9t\u00e9 ? La redevabilit\u00e9 institutionnelle commence le jour o\u00f9 un avertissement parvient \u00e0 une institution. D\u00e8s ce jour, le bureau qui d\u00e9tient l\u2019information porte un devoir dont ne le lib\u00e8rent ni la r\u00e9affectation, ni le silence, ni la confiance dans l\u2019optimisme des experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Un avertissement qui a travers\u00e9 les institutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Campbell servit comme aum\u00f4nier de l\u2019arm\u00e9e de 1963 \u00e0 1977. Les archives dioc\u00e9saines indiquent qu\u2019il prit sa retraite \u00e0 la fin de 1977 et sollicita une affectation \u00e0 Springfield. L\u2019aum\u00f4nier de l\u2019arm\u00e9e qui avait t\u00e9l\u00e9phon\u00e9 au dioc\u00e8se d\u00e9clara que l\u2019affaire avait \u00e9t\u00e9 trait\u00e9e de mani\u00e8re confidentielle par la voie militaire, sans publicit\u00e9, et que Campbell avait d\u00e9missionn\u00e9 lorsqu\u2019elle avait \u00e9clat\u00e9. La note se terminait en pr\u00e9cisant qu\u2019un rapport suivrait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNicholas le nomma cur\u00e9 de Saint Jude, \u00e0 Rochester, en l\u2019espace de quelques semaines, puis, en 1979, cur\u00e9 dans la ville d\u2019Assumption. Les archives montrent que les abus \u00e0 Assumption commenc\u00e8rent presque aussit\u00f4t et que le dioc\u00e8se en avait connaissance en janvier 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 cabinet d\u2019avocats qui traite les plaintes pour abus commis par des membres du clerg\u00e9 en Illinois publie une synth\u00e8se sur le pr\u00eatre du dioc\u00e8se de Springfield Alvin L. Campbell et les plaintes d\u00e9pos\u00e9es contre lui<\/a>, \u00e0 partir de ce dossier public. Le proc\u00e8s p\u00e9nal a port\u00e9 sur ce que Campbell avait fait. Ce que l\u2019institution devait une fois avertie rel\u00e8ve de la redevabilit\u00e9 institutionnelle, et appelle d\u2019autres outils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les institutions ont besoin d\u2019un forum pour rendre des comptes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mark Bovens, chercheur \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e9 d\u2019Utrecht, d\u00e9finit la redevabilit\u00e9 comme une relation entre un acteur et un forum<\/a>. L\u2019acteur doit expliquer et justifier sa conduite, le forum peut l\u2019interroger et porter un jugement, et l\u2019acteur peut en subir les cons\u00e9quences. Sans forum capable d\u2019exiger une r\u00e9ponse, un \u00e9chec n\u2019engendre que du regret, sans redevabilit\u00e9. Les tribunaux servent de forums dans d\u2019autres domaines, tels que le contentieux climatique<\/a>, o\u00f9 gouvernements et entreprises doivent justifier ce qu\u2019ils n\u2019ont pas fait.<\/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 article de l\u2019Associated 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 redevabilit\u00e9 institutionnelle commence le jour o\u00f9 un avertissement entre dans une institution.<\/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

Comment le secret et le retard font \u00e9chouer la redevabilit\u00e9<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Army’s confidential handling shows how secrecy defeats accountability, a pattern that recurs in les institutions de s\u00e9curit\u00e9<\/a>. Un avertissement transmis sous le sceau de la confidence, par un canal qu\u2019aucun forum ext\u00e9rieur ne peut inspecter, ne cr\u00e9e aucun devoir que quiconque puisse faire respecter. La redevabilit\u00e9 institutionnelle exige des canaux qu\u2019un forum ext\u00e9rieur peut examiner. Aucun forum de cette s\u00e9quence n\u2019avait pour mission de r\u00e9pondre de la s\u00e9quence dans son ensemble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le forum public est arriv\u00e9 en dernier. Avant l\u2019enqu\u00eate du procureur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de l\u2019Illinois, les six dioc\u00e8ses de l\u2019Illinois avaient publicly listed 103 substantiated abusers; the investigation’s report names 451 clerics who abused at least 1,997 children<\/a>. Les d\u00e9cennies \u00e9coul\u00e9es entre les abus et ce bilan furent des ann\u00e9es durant lesquelles aucun forum dot\u00e9 d\u2019un pouvoir sur l\u2019institution ne disposait des faits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwame Raoul, le procureur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, a d\u00e9clar\u00e9 que des d\u00e9cennies de d\u00e9cisions et de politiques de la direction catholique<\/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

L\u2019acc\u00e8s \u00e0 la justice aggrave le retard. Jusqu\u2019\u00e0 une loi de 2017, l\u2019Illinois accordait aux victimes d\u2019abus sexuels sur mineurs 20 ans \u00e0 compter de leur dix-huiti\u00e8me anniversaire pour agir, et de nombreux survivants d\u2019abus commis par le clerg\u00e9, comme l\u2019a relev\u00e9 la couverture m\u00e9diatique de l\u2019annonce, ne verront jamais la justice au sens juridique. Un tribunal qui se ferme avant qu\u2019un survivant ait pu s\u2019exprimer n\u2019est un forum que de nom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pourquoi le probl\u00e8me des mains multiples ne tient pas ici<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Le philosophe politique Dennis Thompson a formul\u00e9 le probl\u00e8me des mains multiples<\/a>: lorsque de nombreux responsables contribuent \u00e0 une d\u00e9cision, il devient difficile de dire qui est moralement responsable du r\u00e9sultat. Il soutenait que deux rem\u00e8des courants, bl\u00e2mer celui qui se trouve au sommet et bl\u00e2mer le collectif, d\u00e9forment l\u2019id\u00e9e de responsabilit\u00e9. Il proposait la responsabilit\u00e9 personnelle, \u00e9valu\u00e9e selon des crit\u00e8res causaux et volitifs.<\/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 responsable qui a re\u00e7u un avertissement \u00e9crit ne peut pr\u00e9tendre que l\u2019information \u00e9tait dispers\u00e9e hors de sa port\u00e9e. Les mains multiples n\u2019apparaissent qu\u2019ensuite. Dans les d\u00e9cennies qui ont suivi la condamnation de 1985, des \u00e9v\u00eaques successifs, le personnel dioc\u00e9sain, des avocats de l\u2019\u00c9glise et des offices romains ont chacun d\u00e9tenu une part du savoir et une part de l\u2019autorit\u00e9. Ici, la redevabilit\u00e9 institutionnelle d\u00e9pend de la conception : qui doit consigner, qui doit divulguer et qui doit r\u00e9pondre de l\u2019ensemble de la s\u00e9quence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Un dioc\u00e8se sait ce que consignent ses dossiers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Christian List et Philip Pettit soutiennent dans 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

La r\u00e9affectation m\u00e9rite une description pr\u00e9cise. Envoyer dans une nouvelle paroisse un pr\u00eatre que le dossier d\u00e9signe comme un risque est un acte qui a des destinataires identifiables : les familles de cette paroisse, qui ne disposent pas de l\u2019information que d\u00e9tient le bureau. Parler d\u2019omission cache la d\u00e9cision dans le silence. Apr\u00e8s la plainte de 1981, les archives montrent exactement cette s\u00e9quence : aveu, d\u00e9mission et nouvelle paroisse en l\u2019espace de quelques mois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u2019objection du regard r\u00e9trospectif<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

L\u2019objection la plus forte soutient que les \u00e9v\u00eaques ont suivi les meilleurs conseils professionnels de leur temps. Lors d\u2019une r\u00e9union des \u00e9v\u00eaques am\u00e9ricains, l\u2019\u00e9v\u00eaque John Ricard de Pensacola-Tallahassee a rappel\u00e9 qu\u2019on disait souvent aux \u00e9v\u00eaques 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 n\u2019a trouv\u00e9 ni cause unique ni facteur pr\u00e9dictif unique<\/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

Une deuxi\u00e8me objection vient d\u2019Iris Marion Young. Dans Responsibility for Justice<\/em>, elle oppose un mod\u00e8le de la faute, qui attribue la faute pour des actes pass\u00e9s, \u00e0 un mod\u00e8le du lien social, selon lequel tous ceux qui contribuent \u00e0 une structure productrice d\u2019injustice partagent un devoir, tourn\u00e9 vers l\u2019avenir, de la changer. Le bl\u00e2me, observait-elle, engendre l\u2019esprit de d\u00e9fense. Young tenait n\u00e9anmoins le mod\u00e8le de la faute pour appropri\u00e9 dans de nombreux contextes, et la nomination de 1978 rel\u00e8ve de l\u2019un d\u2019eux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La redevabilit\u00e9 institutionnelle repose sur trois devoirs<\/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

Les psychologues Carly Smith et Jennifer Freyd parlent de trahison institutionnelle<\/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

Trois devoirs en d\u00e9coulent pour toute institution qui re\u00e7oit un avertissement. Premi\u00e8rement, le consigner sous une forme qui survive \u00e0 son titulaire. Deuxi\u00e8mement, s\u00e9parer la personne de ceux auxquels elle pourrait nuire jusqu\u2019\u00e0 ce que l\u2019all\u00e9gation soit tranch\u00e9e. Troisi\u00e8mement, communiquer l\u2019avertissement aux personnes expos\u00e9es et aux autorit\u00e9s. Chaque devoir prend effet d\u00e8s l\u2019arriv\u00e9e de l\u2019avertissement, puisque la preuve vient plus tard, le plus souvent devant 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

Quand les avertissements traversent les institutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Entre institutions, une quatri\u00e8me r\u00e8gle s\u2019applique : le destinataire doit r\u00e9pondre par \u00e9crit, et l\u2019exp\u00e9diteur doit confirmer qu\u2019il l\u2019a fait. \u00c0 Springfield, l\u2019avertissement est arriv\u00e9 par t\u00e9l\u00e9phone et a \u00e9t\u00e9 consign\u00e9 dans une note r\u00e9dig\u00e9e par le dioc\u00e8se destinataire, et cette note pr\u00e9cisait qu\u2019un rapport suivrait. La protection de l\u2019enfance souffre de the gap between children’s rights on paper and in practice<\/a>, et une cha\u00eene \u00e9crite de r\u00e9ponses le r\u00e9duit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La redevabilit\u00e9 institutionnelle qui commence avec le scandale arrive trop tard pour les enfants qu\u2019elle concerne. La norme qui les prot\u00e8ge se fixe plus t\u00f4t, au bureau o\u00f9 atterrit le premier avertissement, et elle pose une seule question \u00e0 celui qui y si\u00e8ge : que fera ce bureau de ce qu\u2019il sait d\u00e9sormais ? Cette question vaut pour les dioc\u00e8ses, les arm\u00e9es, les \u00e9coles et les agences, sans distinction.<\/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\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27226,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220\/revisions\/27226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27220"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicsrights.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=27220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}