Clerics Take 2 Approaches to Clergy Scandal

In a candid Palm Sunday sermon, Bishop of Orange Tod D. Brown said it is especially important during Easter week for the Catholic Church to accept responsibility for “terrible, terrible crimes” committed by priests against children and to seek forgiveness for wayward clergymen.

While Brown’s remarks at an Orange County church struck a chord that was resonating at Catholic churches across the country, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony chose not to tackle the issue during a Mass in Ventura County and afterward was confronted by banner-waving protesters who told him he had ignored the problem for too long and had not been forthcoming enough.

Brown, in a short but direct homily at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, made his strongest public comments to date, characterizing the scandal as a cross the church and its people must bear in order to heal.

Brown said his sermon gave him the first chance to acknowledge the sexual abuse scandal from the pulpit, ask for prayers and to explain that the Catholic Church must move through “this period of passion, pain and suffering.”

“We know now of the terrible trauma our church has been experiencing since the events in Boston earlier this year,” Brown told parishioners. “We know ... that 2.8 million children in this country, our country, the United States, have suffered some kind of emotional, psychological, physical and or sexual abuse each year.

“We know that, unfortunately, some among us, even members of our clergy, infinitesimal in numbers, but nevertheless real, have been perpetrators of terrible, terrible crimes, throughout the country, in our state, in our own county,” the bishop said.

The church must seek forgiveness and pray for strength to “carry the cross of suffering that God has given to us” to “emerge into a new era of Easter a stronger, holier, more complete church,” Brown concluded.

Palm Sunday commemorates the day Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem, where worshipers placed palms before him. It marks the first day of Holy Week, the most solemn observation of the Christian calendar.

Clergy across the country Sunday addressed the growing scandal that has overshadowed the six-week observance of Lent, which retraces the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

“There’s always trouble in the world, there’s always evil,” the Rev. Fergus Healey told parishioners at St. Anthony Shrine in Boston, the city where the scandal emerged earlier this year. “But we should face our current situation with a sense of hope, because evil’s not supposed to have the last say.”

Mahony, on the other hand, did not tackle the issue during services at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Camarillo. A spokesman for the Los Angeles diocese said the cardinal did not see the occasion as appropriate for addressing the issue.

Mahony also made no public statements to about two dozen protesters who came with banners and leaflets, asking the archdiocese to release the names of several recently ousted priests.

The Roman Catholic Dioceses of Orange and Los Angeles faced scandal long before the Boston Archdiocese disclosed in January that a priest who allegedly molested more than 130 boys had been transferred from parish to parish.

In August, the two dioceses paid $5.2 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Msgr. Michael “Father Hollywood” Harris, a prominent Orange County priest, had molested a student. A zero-tolerance policy adopted as part of that settlement has since resulted in the dismissal of two more priests in Orange County, and several in Los Angeles. In the most recent Orange County case, Brown drew praise and criticism for taking a number of rare steps, including allowing the priest, Michael Pecharich, to say goodbye to his Rancho Santa Margarita parishioners at a final Mass.

After services at Holy Family on Sunday, parishioners thanked Brown for being so open about the sex scandal during his sermon.

“This is our voice, our conscience, of the diocese,” said parishioner Charles Drees. “What he’s feeling is what we’re feeling. It’s so powerful.”

Mahony was not so popular. Protesters gave St. Mary Magdalen parishioners leaflets asking them to pray for the victims and to stop contributing money until the church is more forthcoming. The archdiocese recently dismissed between six and 12 priests, according to church sources, but has refused to release their names.

“The cardinal needs to release the names of all the perpetrators so they cannot move on and abuse children elsewhere,” said Ray Higgins, whose says his son was sexually abused in Santa Barbara by two priests.