Experts say efforts to heal from sexual abuse crisis just beginning

Published: 2004-05-18

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (CNS) -- A member of the U.S. bishops' National Review Board on clergy sexual abuse said May 14 that if the bishops do not proceed this year with a second diocesan audit on sexual abuse "it will be clearly seen all across the country as an additional sign of retreat that will seriously undermine their effort to restore trust." Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff to President Clinton, said in an address at Santa Clara University that the board is concerned about the recent move by more than two dozen bishops to postpone the planned 2004 audits and to reconsider other aspects of the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People." The clergy sex abuse crisis "is not a legal crisis, not a media crisis, not a personnel crisis," he said. "It is truly a crisis of trust and faith. If it persists and if bishops basically try to push this aside and hope the problem will go away by itself, then ultimately trust in our faith will continue to be eroded." Panetta was among two dozen experts on clergy sexual abuse -- theologians, psychologists, abuse victims, journalists and clergy -- who convened for a conference titled "Sins Against the Innocents: Sexual Abuse by Priests and the Role of the Catholic Church."

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