Bishop Gregory Calls Crisis Rallying Point For Unity

By AGOSTINO BONO, CNS

Published: November 20, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNS) —The clergy sexual abuse crisis should be a “rallying point” for Catholics to work together to make the church and all of society safe for children, said Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The crisis also requires a major effort in the often difficult process of reconciliation with victims of abuse, he said at the opening session of the U.S. bishops’ Nov. 10-13 fall general meeting in Washington.

Preventing further abuse “must be accompanied by a healing and reconciliation with those who were abused,” he said.

“All of us want to keep children safe and the clergy and all church personnel free of predators,” he said in the annual presidential address at the meeting.

Bishops, priests, religious and laity “need to act decisively” to see that the sex abuse policies and norms adopted in 2002 are implemented in each diocese and parish, he said.

“Diocesan administration alone will not achieve the goal,” said Bishop Gregory.

“If the scourge of sexual abuse is to be effectively eliminated, then the energy of the whole church needs to be directed to this end,” he said.

The pain “over the harm done to children in our midst must be transformed into a united commitment to the well-being of all children in our midst,” he said.

Bishop Gregory urged finding “more effective ways to foster and to nurture successful participation and dialogue” among bishops, clergy and laity through such existing structures as priests councils and diocesan pastoral councils.

Bishops must be “models of and catalysts for a discourse that builds up rather than fractures or divides our communion,” he said.

Regarding victims of clergy sex abuse, Bishop Gregory said that “some of us did not act like good shepherds when they came to us.”

Victims are often reluctant to seek reconciliation, he said.

This reluctance “does not release us from our responsibility to continue to seek reconciliation with them,” he added.

Victims must “find the strength in their hearts to forgive us for what they have suffered,” he said.

In fostering communion within the church, “bishops need to reflect on our own need to accept just criticism, to apologize, and to forgive, not only in our relationships with the faithful, but in our commerce with one another,” he said.