Laity must unite to heal sex abuse wounds, says review board head

Published: 2004-05-25

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Catholics have "been mauled" by the clergy sex abuse crisis, but the harm done to the church should unite the laity in healing the wounds, said the interim head of the bishops' National Review Board. "We are not only united by a shared faith and doctrinal loyalty, we are bound to one another by a shared skepticism, given the repeated failures within our leadership to make their words match their actions," said Justice Anne M. Burke of the Illinois Appellate Court. "Catholic believers cradle deep wounds and betrayals that cannot be erased by episcopal edict or even episcopal good will," she said. The two main elements of the crisis have been "the misconduct of the clergy and the misgovernance of some of the bishops," she added. Burke spoke May 22 in New York at a meeting of Voice of the Faithful, an independent lay group formed in the wake of the sex abuse crisis to call for changes in the church. She said it was the fifth time in recent weeks she has spoken at a Voice of the Faithful gathering. In some dioceses the group has been banned from holding meetings under parish or diocesan auspices. The May 22 meeting was held at the Paulist-run St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan.

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