Print Issue: June 20, 2002

Province Bishops React To Charter

By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

DALLAS - Archbishop John F. Donoghue said that he supports the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People, but is also aware that it will disappoint some victims who believe it is not enforceable and it may unsettle good priests who have to minister in an atmosphere of suspicion.

"I think there is going to be tension after this meeting," he said. "There are going to be some people who feel the bishops did not go far enough no matter what they do" and who ask "how are they going to be held accountable?"

"Our priests are going to feel we are on kind of a witch hunt now," he said. "They could be accused and they are out. I can see why good priests would be fearful."

Still, he said, the charter sets a clear direction that bishops will implement as they return to their own dioceses. "What we have to do is go back and tell those priests (who abuse minors) - you're out."

He is strongly in favor of the local review board called for in the charter, which is to be staffed primarily by lay people, not employees of the diocese, who will assist the bishop in evaluating cases, help determine fitness for ministry, and advise on the kinds of responses needed.

The testimony of four people who spoke to the bishops about their lifelong suffering after being abused by clerics helped him grasp why there is such outrage among Catholics.

"You listen to them and you can see why they are so disturbed-and why our Catholic people are so disturbed-that we (the bishops) didn't get it," Archbishop Donoghue said. "I think it was an eye-opener to realize how insensitive we were to the hurts of these people."

While the U.S. bishops did have a clear policy for handling clergy sex abuse 10 years ago, the policy was not implemented in an estimated 17 to 20 dioceses. When notorious cases in the Boston Archdiocese became public in 2002, it opened a floodgate of information, primarily past instances of priest sexual abuse that had never before been public knowledge, as well as some new cases.

Four bishops have since resigned and an estimated 177 priests have been removed from ministry.

The apology by Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "for our failures and those of our priests . . . was very moving," Archbishop Donoghue said. "I think he is the right man for this job at this time."

Although he supported the document, Archbishop Donoghue did not cast a ballot because he returned to Atlanta a few hours prior, to ordain three priests June 15. The bishops of Savannah, Charleston, S.C., and Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., who make up the rest of the Atlanta Province, all voted in favor of the charter.

The province had agreed on a "zero tolerance" policy April 30 and urged that the policy be adopted on a national level.

Bishop William G. Curlin of Charlotte said as the four victim-survivors spoke to 284 bishops June 13, "you felt moved to tears. You could hear a pin drop in the room. I couldn't imagine a bishop not being moved."

While a "zero tolerance" policy may be inflexible, "can the church afford to risk a child being hurt again?" he asked. "I don't think we can."

"There is no easy solution to this heartache and tragedy. You've got to make a beginning and send out a clear message to God's people that we have heard them."

Bishop Curlin said the Charlotte Diocese, which had had an ad hoc committee, several months ago established a permanent, regularly constituted lay committee to advise him on cases of pedophilia, to interview victims and to assist in determining the response the diocese should give. "I do respect their judgment," Bishop Curlin said.

Bishop F. Joseph Gossman of the Raleigh Diocese cited the failure of the Catholic Church to implement directives of the Second Vatican Council regarding the laity as a backdrop for the crisis. This point was made in two presentations to the bishops given by Scott Appleby of the University of Notre Dame and Margaret O'Brien Steinfels of Commonweal magazine.

"If we had had the laity involved, we would not have gotten to this level (with sexual abuse) because they wouldn't have let it," Bishop Gossman said. While the present structure of the church implies otherwise, the document Lumen Gentium makes it clear that "baptism is more important than the hierarchy."

"The call that came from Vatican II to the laity really never jelled in the way Vatican II wanted it to jell," he said.

"We really should be more accountable to the laity" and not act as if "they are a lower form of life."

A "zero tolerance" policy was clearly what people who called him and wrote him prior to the bishops' meeting were seeking, Bishop Gossman said. He thinks the church and the priesthood will be stronger because once the charter is implemented Catholics can be assured "there is nobody in the ranks of the priesthood with this in their background."

Savannah Bishop J. Kevin Boland said that the bishops will seek the formal approval of the Vatican for the norms that accompany the charter, but the charter stands on its own. "The establishment of a national review board is how we have made ourselves accountable," Bishop Boland said.

Savannah has had a review board in place since 1995, but may have to reconstitute it in order to conform with the specific membership criteria outlined in the charter. Key to effectiveness, he said, is independence from the bishop.

"I am going to do my best to enhance our board with people who are expert in that field (of child sexual abuse) and, at the same time, include a priest for the pastoral dimension and maybe a mother of a victim or a victim."

The greatest challenge facing the Savannah Diocese, he said, will be "implementing a policy of diocesan education for all staff, all priests, all deacons, all volunteers" that will be extensive and effective regarding sexual abuse.

"I think we have a substantially good program for screening seminarians," Bishop Boland said.

He found the testimony of victim-survivors "gut-wrenching . . . Their whole lives have been affected by child abuse."

"The greatest tragedy of this meeting would have been to have come out with no document or without a strong consensus," he said.

"In six months, because of various factors, something that should have been handled right gradually got out of control. It became a frenzied aspect in the life of the church in the United States. That is what drove the spring meeting of bishops."

The meeting was "the most intense I've attended and the most significant for the laity. The expectations were so high we were all fearful we couldn't meet them."

The leadership of the bishops' conference and the ad hoc committee working on the document helped to keep the bishops as a whole focused on the one goal of protecting children, while many other aspects of the crisis swirled around them.

In passing the charter and norms, "we did everything humanly possible to protect the children from future abuse. We didn't leave any serious loopholes."

Bishop Robert J. Baker of Charleston said, "I think it is the best possible foundation we could come up with," one the bishops of the province had already decided was the best course.

While the meeting was "neuralgic," the bishops were not pointing a finger of responsibility at any one bishop, he said, but felt a "sense of collective guilt."

"This is our time of watch and we will be judged by how we handle that responsibility."

While bishops in the Catholic Church are in a line of authority as successors to the apostles, Bishop Baker said he accepts the role of the laity. "I always felt I was answerable to my people."

The Charleston Diocese has a lay review board, but will have to modify its membership in light of the charter, he said. Currently the diocese is getting a call concerning sexual abuse allegations every 10 to 12 days, he said, and is looking into the credibility of the allegations, which are being made against both retired and active priests. He said he has not put a priest back in ministry following a credible sexual abuse allegation, as was reported in the Dallas Morning News June 12, which he characterized as "half-truths." He said the diocese went to the victim's family to seek their input about the priest's future assignment, which "shows our commitment to the family."

Passage of the charter is "a turning point, a juncture in the journey for the church dealing with our past failures," Bishop Baker said. "It is a process of conversion."