U.S. Bishops Apologize for Scandal

Confessing failure, the leader of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops opened a national meeting on priestly sex abuse Thursday by offering “the most profound apology” for derelict leadership, begged forgiveness and pledged to do penance by enacting tough reform measures.

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, admitted that too often bishops were more worried about scandal than preventing abuse and too often had treated victims as “adversaries and not as suffering members of the church.”

Gregory called on all victims of clergy abuse to report crimes committed against them, pledging the church’s love and help in seeking justice. He also urged all abusive priests and bishops to step forward and confess their own crimes.

“This crisis is not about a lack of faith in God,” Gregory said. “The crisis, in truth, is about a profound loss of confidence by the faithful in our leadership as shepherds.... Only by truthful confession, heartfelt contrition and firm purpose of amendment can we hope to receive the generous mercy of God and the forgiveness of our brothers and sisters.”

Gregory’s address, which drew a sustained standing ovation, set the tone for an opening session that featured testimony from sex-abuse victims and the strongest criticism of the elite body ever permitted at its national conference. The gathering, which many bishops described as the most morose and humiliating they had ever experienced, is devoted to the single issue of crafting what would be the American church’s first mandatory national policy aimed at preventing clergy sex abuse against minors.

Father Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America, called the day’s events “absolutely unique and historic.” In the two decades he has attended the bishops’ conferences, he said, “I’ve never seen the bishops be so forthright in admitting what they did was wrong. Instead of sidestepping and legalese ... [Gregory] confessed the sins of the bishops publicly and promised he would make sure they would never do this again.”

In the day’s most emotional moments, four victims of priestly abuse tearfully shared their experiences and lasting scars to the full body of about 300 bishops--the first time victims had spoken to a full conference.

Craig Martin of Minnesota described the alcoholism, shattered self-esteem and aberrant sexual behavior that his abuse at 11 by his parish priest had triggered 35 years ago. Paula Gonzales Rohrbacher of Alaska, who was assaulted by a seminary student as a child, spoke of a nervous breakdown, suicidal thoughts and near divorce. Michael Bland of Chicago chronicled how abuse drove him out of the priesthood, even as the perpetrator is scheduled to teach at an unnamed national Catholic university.

And David Clohessy, the director of a national victims’ advocacy group that has become the leading moral force for change, asked bishops to pass around a photo of a victim who committed suicide, Eric Patterson of Kansas, and offer prayers. Clohessy and other victims’ groups have demanded the ouster of all priests who abuse children, the removal of bishops who reassign rather than dismiss perpetrators, and the opening of all financial and personnel records to scrutiny by law enforcement.

“Don’t settle for cheap talk, grave expressions of concern, eloquent apologies, for pledges to do better,” said Clohessy of the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests. “Hold out for the real thing. That’s what our children deserve.”

The bishops, appearing somber and spellbound, were dressed down by two lay leaders for their arrogance, lack of accountability and failure of moral authority.

Scott Appleby of the University of Notre Dame told the leaders that their negligence had placed at risk the church’s moral and pastoral mission and sent tens of thousands of good priests reeling in shame and pain. He challenged bishops to “name the protection of abusive priests for what it is: a sin, born of the arrogance of power,” and called on them to empower the laity, particularly women, with greater decision-making roles.

Several bishops said the powerful testimonies Thursday--along with the media glare of more than 700 reporters--appeared to be solidifying support for a “zero tolerance” policy that would oust from the priesthood any perpetrator of sexual abuse, past or present.

Last week, a committee of the bishops’ conference issued a draft proposal to defrock any priest guilty of sexually abusing minors after the new policy takes effect. In a widely criticized loophole, however, the committee proposed that priests guilty of a single incident of abuse could be returned to ministry if they had sought psychological counseling, were found not to be pedophiles, and had the backing of a lay-dominated sexual-abuse committee.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, one of the conference’s most outspoken proponents of tough reform, predicted that the loophole would be deleted from the draft proposal by the time the bishops vote today.

Although passage of the policy will require a two-thirds vote, Mahony said he was pushing for unanimous backing to send the measure to the Vatican, whose approval is required to make it binding on all 194 U.S. dioceses.

Mahony said he plans to make a full public accounting of how much the Los Angeles Archdiocese has spent in settling sexual-abuse cases after completing research now underway. Mahony said that a recent spot check of 60 parishes showed no decline in Mass attendance or contributions, and that the archdiocese had not been forced to sell property holdings or other assets to cover legal claims.

Addressing the rising clamor for penalties against church leaders who cover up sexual abuse, Mahony said that any bishop who aids and abets misconduct by reassigning rather than dismissing priests should find it “impossible to remain in office.”

Under canon law, however, only the pope can remove a bishop, and Bishop Anthony Bosco of Pennsylvania predicted that the draft proposal will not include any new measures to discipline bishops.

Even without concrete measures, Reese, the Jesuit magazine editor, said the creation of lay-dominated review boards will “hold the bishops’ feet to the fire” by monitoring each diocese’s performance and making public those bishops who fail to aggressively implement the reform proposals

The leader most responsible for sparking the current crisis--Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston--was not granting interviews. But some bishops were reported to have privately asked for and received apologies from him for his malfeasance in reassigning priests who allegedly abused up to 100 children.

A spokesman for San Bernardino’s Bishop Gerald Barnes said Law apologized to Barnes on Thursday for transferring the Rev. Paul Shanley--one of several priests at the center of the national scandal--to California in 1990 despite a history of sexual misconduct allegations.

Barnes accepted the cardinal’s apology as “heartfelt and sincere,” his spokesman said. “This has dissipated some of his anger.”

In a related development, a Southern California man Thursday accused Shanley of abusing him as a child, church officials said. The allegation--the only one brought against Shanley in California--was made by an unidentified man to a church employee, Barnes’ spokesman said.

Gregory, without naming names, admitted in his morning remarks that many bishops were angered by their irresponsible colleagues. Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, a former conference president, said there had been “some talk” about encouraging resignations.

“The very solid and good work that has been accomplished by the majority of bishops in their dioceses has been completely overshadowed by the imprudent decisions of a small number of bishops during the past 10 years,” Gregory said.

“It is as if the fabric of good work that has been accomplished had never existed or had completely unraveled. The anger over this is very real and very understandable.”

After the bishops spent three hours in closed executive session Thursday, Gregory said they “spoke very frankly about their angers, their fears, their disappointments.” He said some unnamed bishops “expressed regret” for their actions.

Pilarczyk called the meeting “the most somber and the most difficult I’ve ever been to.”

Bosco said it was the “worst time I’ve ever had as a priest.”

“People are depressed, hurt, angry shamed, sorry,” Pilarczyk said. “This is not an old-boys gathering. This is a hard-working group of guys trying to do the right thing.”

Despite the gloom, Gregory vowed to move forward. He commended the victims’ courage for sharing their painful tales and said the bishops would move to end what he called the “cornerstone of sexual abuse”--secrecy.

“They not only shared their stories but more importantly, they shared their tears, and we felt their agony,” Gregory said. “We cannot restore [their] innocent childhoods that were robbed, but we can prevent the robbery of other children’s’ childhoods. This is what we pledged to do.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Bishops’ Words and Actions on Sexual Abuse

Court Actions

1984: The first case of priestly sexual abuse becomes public in Louisiana when a jury awards a family $1.25 million after their son was sexually abused by then-Father Gilbert Gauthe. Previous settlements involving Gauthe were kept secret.

September 1992: A Massachusetts grand jury indicts Father James Porter on 46 counts of assault, battery, sodomy and unnatural acts after years of complaints by sexual abuse victims.

March 1998: The Diocese of Dallas is ordered to pay $7.5 million to 11 plaintiffs who charged they were sexually abused over the years by then-priest Rudolph “Rudy” Kos. A jury earlier had awarded them a record $119.6 million, finding the diocese guilty of gross negligence, fraud and reckless disregard for the safety of others.

Public Response

January 2002: The Boston Globe and other papers begin publishing stories of priests who were continuing to abuse children because their bishops moved them from parish to parish without alerting parishioners to their record.

Church Words and Actions

June 1985: Bishops meet and receive a confidential report on the sexual abuse of minors, which warns of future victims, scandal, and expensive legal settlements.

June 1992: The president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops proposes five principles to follow when there is an allegation of sexual abuse, including promptly relieving the priest of his ministerial duties, a medical evaluation, reporting the case to civil authorities and reaching out to victims and families.

November 1992: Bishops endorse the conference president’s five principles.

February 1993: A subcommittee convenes a think tank of experts in St. Louis on clergy sexual abuse.

May-June 1993: Pope John Paul II condemns child abuse and announces formation of a Joint Study Commission about canonical problems in dealing with priest abusers.

June 1993: U.S. bishops establish Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, chaired by a bishop. Gives it go-ahead to address issues of dealing with offending priests, assisting victims, improved screening of priesthood candidates.

August 1993: John Paul at World Youth Day in Denver says sexual abuse by priests brings “suffering and scandal.”

April 1994: John Paul approves temporary exceptions to church law for the U.S. They extend the church’s statue of limitations to the victim’s 28th birthday, and allow for penalties for crimes against all minors, not just those under age 16.

November 1994: Committee issues first volume of “Restoring Trust,” which reviews 157 diocesan sexual abuse prevention policies. Updates are issued in 1995 and 1996.

June 1998: Symposium for bishops on working with victims and healing.

1999: The Vatican extends for another 10 years temporary changes in church law first approved in April 1994, making it easier to remove offending priests.

2000: Reconstitution of Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, with focus on education, prevention, review of diocesan policies for child-safe environments.

February 2002: Responding to the burgeoning scandal, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the bishops conference, publicly apologizes and says bishops regret “the pain of all of those who have been affected by this horror more than these words can convey.”

April 2002: U.S. cardinals are summoned to the Vatican by John Paul for an extraordinary meeting on the sexual abuse crisis in the U.S. The pope declares that sexual abuse is a civil crime and an “appalling sin in the eyes of God.” He says, “there is no place in the priesthood or religious life for those who would harm the young.”

June 13-15 2002: U.S. bishops meet in Dallas to adopt strict new anti-sexual abuse policies. *