Bishops' Response Disappoints Abuse Victims
By Michael Conlon
ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - A victims' group held out little hope on Friday that U.S. Roman Catholic bishops, meeting behind closed doors, would confront the Church's sexual abuse scandal in any new or dramatic way.
"I think the bishops are anxious to go home," said Mark Serrano, a board member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
Serrano made the comment in an interview at a park across from the hotel where the bishops are holding their three-day meeting. They spent the day in what was listed as "prayerful reflection" on the scandal and other issues.
The Church leadership has claimed progress in battling abuse, but the 18-month scandal has cost the largest U.S. religious denomination dearly in terms of money and in trust.
"In the year since our Dallas meeting the charge for the protection of children and young people has been implemented nationally and locally in dioceses," Bishop Wilton Gregory said on Thursday. "We have in place the means to assure our people that their children are safe from abuse by clergy."
Gregory heads the diocese of Belleville, Illinois and is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
But Serrano said his group would like to see the bishops make a binding agreement to release all records of abuse by priests requested by prosecutors, or name a new leader to head the scandal clean-up effort begun a year ago at a meeting in Dallas.
He said the job should go to Bishop Paul Bootkoski, head of the Metuchen Diocese in New Jersey. Serrano said the bishop had been open to settling lawsuits beyond the statute of limitations; had named members of abuse support groups to a review panel; had apologized to victims and refused to let a priest convicted of abuse wear his Roman collar in court.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago told reporters he did not expect "anything radically new coming out of this meeting" but the abuse issue was weighing heavily on the bishops.
He said there had been informal discussions about new responses ranging from a reaffirmation of priestly celibacy to "listening sessions" to hear the concerns of the faithful, a special synod of bishops and perhaps a plenary council.
A plenary council is an extraordinary gathering of clergy not seen in the United States since 1884 when attendees agreed to publish the Baltimore Catechism, a book used for generations to drill Catholic schoolchildren on the basics of their faith.
George, however, said the bishops felt they needed more information on the costs, structure and working of such a council before proceeding.
The bishops were to hear a report on abuse at their final meeting on Saturday. A year ago, they pledged to remove priests who had abused children and to create a common policy nationwide on how to deal with such cases.
Critics have accused the prelates of moving too slowly. The chairman of a lay review panel overseeing the effort, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, resigned this week, saying some bishops were behaving like the Mafia to protect their own. |
