Catholics & Catholicism

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Article by Archbishop William J. Levada,  San Francisco SF Chronicle     Tuesday     June 11, 2002 The Roman Catholic Church in America is experiencing a crisis without precedent in its history — a crisis that is the result of sexual abuse of minors by priests and bishops, and also the result of the failure of some bishops and church officials to deal effectively with these serious matters.  These actions have caused tremendous pain and suffering to victims and their families and brought shame and confusion to Catholics throughout the nation. We are suffering for the sins of priests and bishops who preferred their own pleasure to the safety and protection of children entrusted to their care.  And we are suffering for the mistakes of bishops and administrators who placed their desire to protect the reputation and service of priests, who had proven themselves unfaithful in their duties, above the future protection of innocent children. U.S. Catholic bishops will focus at their annual spring meeting in Dallas this week on the proposed "charter for the protection of children and young people."  This charter is a comprehensive framework for candid discussion and decisive action aimed at restoring trust and confidence in the Catholic Church in America. The U.S. bishops’ meeting will start with a broad recognition of the devastating and long-lasting damage caused by sexual abuse.  The bishops reach out to those who suffer and apologize to them for what we as bishops have done and for what we have failed to do. I acknowledge this apology may sound hollow if it cannot be based on the promise of amendment.  I call upon such persons, especially the priests guilty of sexual abuse of minors, to make amends and to convey to their victims that they truly repent of their crimes. The charter calls for measures to ensure a safe environment for children and youth, healing and reconciliation of clergy abuse victims, prompt and effective response to all allegations, reporting of suspected abuse and cooperation with civil authorities, removal of offenders, establishment of mandatory lay review boards in all dioceses and the creation of a national office to oversee the accountability of church officials. Importantly, U.S. bishops will seek to formulate a uniform national policy so that throughout the United States the Catholic Church will address the sexual abuse of minors in a consistent and comprehensive manner. The draft charter calls for dioceses to report to civil authorities any accusation of sexual abuse of a person who is a minor and to cooperate in any investigation.  The civil requirement complements the new practice determined last year by the Holy See which requires any instance of sexual abuse of minors by clergy to be reported to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This new Vatican policy places sexual abuse of children in the category of extraordinarily grave crimes against faith and morals, such as desecration of the Eucharist and breaking of the seal of confession. It is my personal hope that U.S. bishops will commission an independent study by experts to ascertain the root causes of such criminal behavior by even a few priests. We need to know why these men would give themselves permission — in the face of God’s commandments and their own vows — to abuse these innocent members of the flock whom Christ himself had entrusted to their care. Many reasons for such behavior have been offered by a variety of commentators, somestimes reflecting a personal idiology rather than reality or a true understanding of Catholic teaching on sexuality. But we need to know why the sexual abuse of children by priests over the past several decades could amount to even 1 percent of Catholic clergy. In sum, we must achieve a new openess in speaking out against the abuse of children.  We must commit ourselves to act quickly to ensure that civil authorities are notified of any suspected abuse of a minor and to remove any offender from ministry for appropriate evaluation and treatment.  We must also take the necessary steps to guarantee that this tragic cycle of abuse will not happen again.  Indeed, we should work with abuse survivors and others in educating the general public about issues of sexual abuse. We should also make sure that present admissions policies for our priestly and diaconate formation programs do their best to screen out persons at risk for sexual misconduct with minors, and persons who show any indications of sexual immaturity.  Finally, I believe that we bishops will also have to address how to deal with the misconduct of bishops, and present our conclusions and recommendation to our Holy Father. Much is at stake.  The Dallas meetings signal a sea change and the beginning of an (sic) continuing, multistep process designed to fully address the serious issues involved.  The moral position of the Catholic Church must be reasserted. Restoring trust and confidence, of course, is important for the 63 million U.S. Catholics who have been traumatized by the crisis. Effective change also will be welcomed by the many friends and colleagues of Catholics.  Society at large also is an interested party given the role of the Catholic Church and Catholics in building this nation and our communities, and our contributions too in the education of youth, in justice and labor issues and health, poverty and immigration concerns. We welcome the prayers fo people of faith and the encouragement of all our fellow  citizens in our efforts.

The likelihood of real discipline for Bishops and priests that aided and abetted the pedophilia cover-up is probably close to zero.  Getting real change and discipline approved by Rome won’t happen.   Real discipline is that they, and abuser priests, are forced out of the priesthood altogether. By giving aid, comfort and reassignment to pedophiles they are as guilty as the pedophiles.  Such a wholesale cleansing is unlikely as the institutional RCC will attempt to get by with as little substantive change as it is possible to get away with. Anyone, even pedophiles, can be forgiven by the Lord.  Forgiveness is freely given by the Lord, assuming real contrition, but the consequences of the sin remain-ask King David or Nebuchadnezer about that.  Then there is the millstone factor for those who have caused "little ones" to fall away.

Response:

Article by Archbishop William J. Levada,  San Francisco SF Chronicle     Tuesday     June 11, 2002 The Roman Catholic Church in America is experiencing a crisis without precedent in its history — a crisis that is the result of sexual abuse of minors by priests and bishops, and also the result of the failure of some bishops and church officials to deal effectively with these serious matters.  These actions have caused tremendous pain and suffering to victims and their families and brought shame and confusion to Catholics throughout the nation. We are suffering for the sins of priests and bishops who preferred their own pleasure to the safety and protection of children entrusted to their care.  And we are suffering for the mistakes of bishops and administrators who placed their desire to protect the reputation and service of priests, who had proven themselves unfaithful in their duties, above the future protection of innocent children. U.S. Catholic bishops will focus at their annual spring meeting in Dallas this week on the proposed "charter for the protection of children and young people."  This charter is a comprehensive framework for candid discussion and decisive action aimed at restoring trust and confidence in the Catholic Church in America. The U.S. bishops’ meeting will start with a broad recognition of the devastating and long-lasting damage caused by sexual abuse.  The bishops reach out to those who suffer and apologize to them for what we as bishops have done and for what we have failed to do. I acknowledge this apology may sound hollow if it cannot be based on the promise of amendment.  I call upon such persons, especially the priests guilty of sexual abuse of minors, to make amends and to convey to their victims that they truly repent of their crimes. The charter calls for measures to ensure a safe environment for children and youth, healing and reconciliation of clergy abuse victims, prompt and effective response to all allegations, reporting of suspected abuse and cooperation with civil authorities, removal of offenders, establishment of mandatory lay review boards in all dioceses and the creation of a national office to oversee the accountability of church officials. Importantly, U.S. bishops will seek to formulate a uniform national policy so that throughout the United States the Catholic Church will address the sexual abuse of minors in a consistent and comprehensive manner. The draft charter calls for dioceses to report to civil authorities any accusation of sexual abuse of a person who is a minor and to cooperate in any investigation.  The civil requirement complements the new practice determined last year by the Holy See which requires any instance of sexual abuse of minors by clergy to be reported to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This new Vatican policy places sexual abuse of children in the category of extraordinarily grave crimes against faith and morals, such as desecration of the Eucharist and breaking of the seal of confession. It is my personal hope that U.S. bishops will commission an independent study by experts to ascertain the root causes of such criminal behavior by even a few priests. We need to know why these men would give themselves permission — in the face of God’s commandments and their own vows — to abuse these innocent members of the flock whom Christ himself had entrusted to their care. Many reasons for such behavior have been offered by a variety of commentators, somestimes reflecting a personal idiology rather than reality or a true understanding of Catholic teaching on sexuality.  But we need to know why the sexual abuse of children by priests over the past several decades could amount to even 1 percent of Catholic clergy. In sum, we must achieve a new openess in speaking out against the abuse of children.  We must commit ourselves to act quickly to ensure that civil authorities are notified of any suspected abuse of a minor and to remove any offender from ministry for appropriate evaluation and treatment.  We must also take the necessary steps to guarantee that this tragic cycle of abuse will not happen again.  Indeed, we should work with abuse survivors and others in educating the general public about issues of sexual abuse. We should also make sure that present admissions policies for our priestly and diaconate formation programs do their best to screen out persons at risk for sexual misconduct with minors, and persons who show any indications of sexual immaturity.  Finally, I believe that we bishops will also have to address how to deal with the misconduct of bishops, and present our conclusions and recommendation to our Holy Father. Much is at stake.  The Dallas meetings signal a sea change and the beginning of an (sic) continuing, multistep process designed to fully address the serious issues involved.  The moral position of the Catholic Church must be reasserted. Restoring trust and confidence, of course, is important for the 63 million U.S. Catholics who have been traumatized by the crisis.  Effective change also will be welcomed by the many friends and colleagues of Catholics.  Society at large also is an interested party given the role of the Catholic Church and Catholics in building this nation and our communities, and our contributions too in the education of youth, in justice and labor issues and health, poverty and immigration concerns. We welcome the prayers fo people of faith and the encouragement of all our fellow  citizens in our efforts.

Response: