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DignityUSA
PO Box 376
Medford, MA
02155
tel: 800.877.8797
202.861.0017
fax: 781.397.0584
email:
info@dignityusa.org
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Feast of All Saints, November 1, 2002
A joint statement of member organizations of Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR) concerning the sexual abuse policy of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
A Church Worthy of Our Children
Forty years ago the Second Vatican Council opened the windows and doors of the Church and touched the heart of the world. Thirty years ago, reform organizations of Catholics in America came into being, seeking to keep alive the promise of that Council. Ten years ago, Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR) gathered reform groups into a national forum for dialogue and decision. This year, in the midst of the greatest scandal in American Catholic Church history, COR members issued a document in April as our contribution to the resolution of this crisis. It is attached to this statement.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has recently issued a charter for the protection of children. It is praiseworthy for its call for lay involvement and for its stern insistence that predators be removed from the priesthood and made to face criminal charges. The charter is disappointing in the immunity it allows bishops from accountability, in its maintenance of the system which fosters the abuse of power, and in its preservation of unrealistic statutes of limitations.
The formal Vatican response to the charter raises issues of abuse definition, secrecy, lay participation, due process and cooperation with civil authorities.
We are guided in this statement by the overarching need to protect children. A child assumes the world is trustworthy. When that trust is broken, especially by those who act in the name of God, the child seldom recovers completely.
With the hope of healing, we offer brief words on ten issues of urgent concern.
1. Definition of Sexual Abuse
The Vatican correctly indicts the inadequacy of the definition of sexual abuse in the U.S. charter. Such a definition is not helpful unless it is specific and detailed. We suggest the definition be drafted along the lines of contemporary civil jurisprudence.
2. Accountability of the Bishops
The anger and hurt of lay people at large in the American Church are centered on the bishops, whose incompetence, neglect, complicity, or well-intentioned misguidance have led to the exploitation of thousands of children. No bishop has been compelled to leave office because of cover-up, transfer of known predators to other pastoral assignments, or payment of Church money in exchange for secrecy and silence. This immunity of bishops from accountability is not the sign of a collegial church but of an aristocratic system.
3. Pontifical Secrecy
The Vatican must revoke its recent policy of insisting that all credible sexual abuse charges against priests be sent immediately by the bishop under pontifical secrecy to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. Pontifical secrecy is far more onerous than mere confidentiality. It guarantees that the Vatican will control the evidence. It is this very system of secrecy, the very lack of transparency, and the clerical assumption of superior knowledge that have fueled this crisis.
The U.S. charter speaks of credible allegations, but it does not adequately address the process by which they are adjudicated. Every victim and every priest must have due process. Since victims have so long been denied this, their concerns must be paramount in our deliberations. We note with regret that canon law elaborates due process for clergy but disempowers the laity at large. Canon law is flawed because it includes in the judicial process those who are parties to the dispute. When Church officers are accused, they themselves become the judges of the accusation. The Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have lost their credibility as agents of due process. Impartial and independent lay review boards with deliberative power and the imperative to report directly to civil authority itself are absolutely essential in resolving this crisis and restoring trust in the system.
5. Statutes of Limitations
Canon law and civil authority have diverse time periods for statutes of limitations. We believe all statutes of limitations should be eliminated in cases where the victim is a minor and the behavior is criminal.
6. Removal from Ordained Ministry
Forgiveness and reconciliation are essential to our life as disciples of Christ. We do not, however, believe that clearly defined, criminal sexual abuse of a minor, even once, even many years ago, should be so discounted that an ordained minister may continue to be identified as such and render service at that level. The possibility of repetition and the implication that we tolerate such dreadful actions call for the termination of formal ordained ministry in all its forms. We observe that the U.S. charter did not set in place an effective process for the review of older cases, and that this has led to idiosyncratic application of the new norms. In any instance, the dismissed priest deserves due process and should receive compassion from the community. He forfeits not the community's forgiveness, nor its gratitude for his good work, nor his further acts of reparation and service. He forfeits the right to lead the community and to function in it as a priest. He forfeits this not because of vindictiveness, but because the welfare of children and even his own capacity to be healed are better preserved by his lack of access to those who might easily become victims.
7. Lay Review Boards
Lay review boards monitor implementation of the charter and diocesan policy regarding sex abuse of minors. They are the voice of God's People and a sign of hope and healing for the victims. They must be given deliberative authority and must be an impartial, independent panel for priests and victims. The review boards may prove especially helpful in the review of old cases and in caring for priests and victims. Review boards should be staffed by professionals competent in these matters and should include a victim or a representative whom victims trust to speak for them. No member of the lay review boards should be employed by the Church. Members should be chosen in a process that is not limited to the bishop and his staff. The boards should send charges of credible and criminal sexual abuse of a minor to the bishop and the civil authorities simultaneously.
8. Cooperation with Civil Authorities
Civil authorities are essential agents in the restoration of credibility in the Catholic Church. This is both ironic and yet somehow in keeping with the Second Vatican Council's trust of secular life. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has lost its capacity to lead in this instance. All charges of clearly defined, criminal sexual abuse of a minor must be reported to civil authorities. This policy will not diminish the relationship of bishops and priests with each other, if bishops are truly pastoral and fair, and if the priests they ordain are clearly healthy and dedicated to Christ's message.
9. Clericalism
We find it deplorable that substantial reform of the clerical system and the priesthood is not cited in official Church statements on this crisis. There is a call to manage the crisis, to study the candidates in the seminary, their training, and their sexual maturity. One would have thought all this was in place from the very beginning. Official Church documents seek to maintain the clerical system. They do not show any intent to make the ordained ministry more inclusive and more accountable. Indeed, there is an indictment of homosexuals as the cause of the problem. We see abuse of power as the cause. Blaming homosexuals for a difficulty rooted in a dysfunctional Church system is an attempt to preserve the system and deny the problem. We do not need more apologies. We need change, reform, renewal, and collegiality.
10. Joint Commission
The recent Vatican joint commission of bishops summoned to revise the U.S. charter is a sign that the dimensions of this crisis are still not perceived in Rome. If an ecumenical council and a birth control commission could include laity, women, and even Christians of other churches, why was this not an appropriate constituency for the Vatican commission? The exclusion of victim representation on the commission is part and parcel of a Vatican process of deciding issues with no representation from the concerned groups.
The violation of children amounts to a new slaughter of the innocents, to a crucifixion of God's People by an abusive power system. Christ told us that if we shatter the heart of a child, we lose the Gospel. The consequences are dire. The summons could not be more urgent.
COR organizational signatures follow.
Assn. For Rights of Catholics in the Church
John F. Sheehan
413-527-9929
ARCC Office
P.O. Box 85
Southhampton, MA 01073
arccangel@charter.net
Call to Action USA
Don Wedd
773-404-0004 x 270
Linda Pieczynski (eves)
630-323-6924
2135 W. Roscoe
Chicago, IL 60618
don@cta-usa.org
Call to Action of Northern Virginia
Sharon Danner
703-680-0860
PO Box 5617
Arlington, VA 22205
ctanva@comcast.net
Catholics Speak Out/Quixote Center
Rea Howarth
301-699-0042
PO Box 5206
Hyattsville, MD 20786
www.quixote.org/cso
cso@quixote.org
Catholics for a Free Choice
Frances Kissling
202-986-6093
1436 U Street NW Suite 301
Washington DC 20009
cffc@catholicsforchoice.org
www.catholicsforchoice.org
Catholics for a Free Choice Canada
Kathleen Howes, LL B
416-463-0948
P.O Box 65179
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4K 3Z2
http://www.cath4choice-canada.ca/
Catholics for the Spirit of Vatican II
Thomas J. Kerwin, Acting Director
303-221-7622
4980 E. Quincy Ave.
Englewood, CO 80110
tjkerwin@aol.com
CORPUS
Anthony Padovano
973-539-8732
9 Millstone Dr.
Morris Plains, NJ 07950
tpadovan@optonline.net
CORPUS/Baltimore
John O'Brien
410-453-0401
mjjob@aol.com
DignityUSA
Patrick T. McArron, President
800-877-8797
1500 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 11
Washington, DC 20005
info@dignityusa.org
www.dignityusa.org
Federation of Christian Ministries
Sr. Bridget Mary Meehan, President
703-379-2487
5856 Glen Forest Dr.
Falls Church, VA 22041
sofiabmm@aol.com
Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity
Lena Woltering
618-234-4073
FOSIL, P.O. Box 31
Belleville, Illinois 62222.
FOSILize@aol.com
Good Tidings Ministry
Cait Finnegan
570-595-2705
PO Box 283
Canadensis, PA 18325
goodtidings@aol.com
http://www.marriedpriests.org/GoodTidings.htm
Pax Christi - Maine
William Slavick
207-773-6562
242 Ludlow St.
Portland, ME 04102
william.slavick@maine.edu
Save Our Sacrament:
Reform of Annulment & Respondent Support
Janice P. Leary, Ph.D.
Box 5119
Cochituate, MA 01778
saveoursac@aol.com
Spiritus Christi Catholic Church
Rev. Jim Callan
716-325-1180
60 Bittner St.
Rochester, NY 14604
716-325-1180
www.spirituschristi.org
Southeastern Pa. Women's Ordination Conference
Regina Bannan
215-545-9649
323 South 17th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
http://www.sepawoc.org
rbannan@vm.temple.edu
Women’s Ordination Conference
Genevieve Chavez
505-525-2358
P.O. Box 2693
Fairfax, VA 22030
www.womensordiantion.org
gdchavez@zianet.com
Liaison Organizations
CITI Ministries, Inc.
(Celibacy Is the Issue)
Louise Haggett
508-872-4644
Ron Ingalls
Cellphone: 508-277-1523
ringalls44@attbi.com
P.O. Box 2850
Framingham, MA 01703-2850
www.rentapriest.com
rentapriest@aol.com
Priests for Equality/Quixote Center
Mark Buckley
301-699-0042
P.O. Box 5206
Hyattsville, MD 20782
markb@quixote.org
Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)
Mary Hunt
301-589-2509
8035 13th St.
Silver Spring, MD 20910
mhunt@hers.com
Young Feminists' Network
Joy Barnes
703-352-1006
P.O. Box 2693
Fairfax, VA 22031
grassroots@womensordination.org
April 26, 2002
A Statement by Members of Catholic Organizations for Renewal
Healing and Hope: Analysis of a Crisis
The fuel that lit the fires now burning in the Catholic Church is the desire to preserve the childhood of our children. No one should have to choose the safety of a child over allegiance to a church. A reformed and renewed church will not oblige us to decide between the church we love and the children we cherish.
In the voiceless victimization of our children, we have found our voice. In their suffering, we have found the wounded places in our own lives and in our church. We have been led to a land more promising than the bondage in which we lived too long a time. We shall never return to where we once were.
We believe that the root cause of all the evils of these latter days is the abuse of power. We know that Jesus condemned severely such abuse in the religious leaders of his time.
We are all too flawed to flourish in an environment where no accountability is required, where people are made passive before authority, where pretension to infallibility and wisdom is not justified or tested. In such a system, children are the early victims, but sooner or later, all of us, even those in power, are damaged and destroyed.
When abuse of power is uprooted, a tree of life will grow in the church again and we shall find safety in its branches. We believe that abuse of power bears evil fruit, poisoning all of us. We demand that this fruit never again be offered to God's people.
1. We demand justice for the victims of sexual abuse by clergy. Women and children have been sexually abused in numbers we can no longer calculate. Since church leaders have not effectively restrained the perpetrators of such violence, we demand that they be brought to justice in full compliance with civil law. Victims do not need reconciliation with the church; it is the church which must be reconciled to them. The church must be ready with the spiritual, emotional, and financial resources to help the healing process whenever victims are ready. There are no statutes of limitation on healing. Moreover good priests do not abuse others. Too often they also are abused by a church system which oppresses and silences them. We celebrate good priests and we invite them to join us in our demands.
2. We demand structural reform and renewal. A collegial church is the only cure for the pathology and secrecy, patriarchy and privilege that have made us ill. Monarchy and aristocracy are not evangelical values. The church of Christ has been starved in all of its ministries for too long a time, malnourished by the exclusion of all women and married men from the priesthood and decision-making. It is clear that were the baptized given voice in the church, an inclusive priesthood would be overwhelmingly endorsed. Structural reform will deny a haven to abusers of sex or power, to those who require secrecy for their actions and immunity for their crimes.
3. We demand a community of God's people. The fires of Pentecost do not burn for a few but for all of us. We were not summoned to a church where some have titles and deference and privilege at the expense of the community's very life and spirit. The church is God's people, not a corporation of executive officers or a medieval fiefdom. Only a church out of touch with the Gospel could boast that there is no democracy in its structures. A church that puts power and privilege before social justice betrays the Gospel.
4. We demand that sexuality be celebrated by the church as a source of life. The demonization of sexuality, its repression and renunciation, is an abuse of life. The focus of church teaching on sexual conduct and its relative neglect of abuse of power distort the Gospel. A church in which male celibacy is a precondition for authority and all other sexual choices are marginalized is a church that has lost not only the Gospel but also common sense. Abuse of women, abuse of children, and mandatory celibacy are different forms of sexual abuse, each reinforcing the other in a dance of death.
5. We demand financial accountability. Just wages and financial fairness must prevail in the house of the church. We must overturn the tables that block the way to full financial disclosure. The coins of the poor must not be bartered for the comfort of church leaders. We must know why there was money for cathedrals but not for those working in church institutions, for hierarchical excess but not for pensions, for papal visits and even cover-up compensation but not for teachers and ministers.
6. We demand the end of discrimination in the church. The present attempt to scapegoat homosexuals is symptomatic of a system that blames everyone except those in power. The list of those denounced as a source of evil in the church is a sign of the dysfunctionality of the system: married priests; all the divorced and remarried; homosexuals; those who call for a collegial church; indeed, the contemporary world in which we live. The suffering of those most in pain is intensified by excommunication for abortion, denial of Eucharist for remarriage, prohibition of lay ministries to married priests, and legal harassment of sexual abuse victims. Discrimination exists in the church; it is racial and sexual at different times. At the moment, it is focused on sexual orientation. It also is class and caste-driven, preserving from blame and granting immunity from resignation those with clerical privilege.
Let this analysis stand as our sense of why we are now in crisis. Let it be known that we Catholic reform organizations from North America join in the calls for a Continental Congress of Catholics. Let this document be received as our contribution to the agenda of such an assembly. Let it come quickly.
It is time, long past due, to make the church a community of healing and hope for all of us. Only such a church dares to call itself the church of Christ.
It was not power over one another Jesus encouraged. The church is meant for love. Jesus abused no one, least of all those whose trust he sought.
Endorsing Organizations & Contact Information
Members of COR
Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC),
Southampton, MA
John F. Sheehan - 413.527.9929
Mary Lou Hartman - 609.921.9134
Call to Action USA, Chicago, IL
Contact: Don Wedd - 773-404-0004 X 270
Call to Action/Baltimore
Contact: Fred Ruof - 410.889.5996
Call to Action of Northern Virginia
Jim Webster - 703.525.4013
Catholics for a Free Choice
Jon O'Brien - 202.986.6093
Catholics for a Free Choice/Canada
Joanna Manning - 416.599.1244
Catholics for the Spirit of Vatican II, Denver
Thomas J. Kerwin - 303-221-7622
Catholics Speak Out/Quixote Center Brentwood, MD
Rea Howarth - 301.699.0042 or 703.527.3501
CORPUS, Morris Plains, NJ
Anthony Padovano - 973-539-8732
Russ Ditzel - 908.638.6877
DignityUSA - Washington, DC
Mary Louise Cervone
Marianne Duddy, 617-361-9512
Federation of Christian Ministries
Sr. Bridget Mary Meehan, SFCC - 703.379.2487
or 703.967.6736
Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity
Lena Woltering - 618.234.4073
Good Tidings, Canadensis, PA
Cait Finnegan - 717.595.2750
National Coalition of American Nuns
Jeannine Gramick, SL - 301.864.3604
Mary Ann Cunningham, SL - 303.936.5904
New Ways Ministry, Mt. Rainier, MD
Frank DeBernardo - 301.277.5674
Pax Christi Maine
Bill Slavick - 207.773.6562
Save Our Sacrament: Reform of Annulment & Respondent Support,
Cochituate, MA
Janice P. Leary - saveoursacrament@aol.com
Women's Ordination Conference, Fairfax, VA
Erin Hanley - 703.352.1006
Liaison Groups
A Critical Mass
BVM Network for Women's Issues
Grail Women Taskforce
Greater Cincinnati Women–Church
Loretto Women's Network
Priests for Equality/Quixote Center
Mark Buckley - 310.699.0042
San Francisco Bay Area Women-Church
Sisters Against Sexism
Southeastern Pennsylvania Women's Ordination Conference
Regina Bannan - 215.545.9649 or 215.204.7351
Women Church of Northern Virginia
Sr. Bridget Mary Meehan, SFCC - 703.379.2487 or 703.967.6736
Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)
Mary Hunt or Diann Neu - 301.589.2509
Women Church Convergence
Ruth Fitzpatrick - 703.938.0746
Young Feminists Network
Joy Barnes - 703.352.1006