The meeting was called with three goals in mind:
On the part of the American Bishops, to inform the Holy See about the difficulties which they have faced in recent months,
On the part of the Roman Dicasteries, to hear directly from the American Cardinals and the chief officials of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a general evaluation of the situation,
And together to develop ways to move forward in addressing these issues.
As is known, the Holy Father received the working group in his private library late in the morning of Tuesday, April 23, and gave a programmatic address. Today, at the end of the morning session, His Holiness invited the American cardinals and bishops to lunch, to continue their discussion of some of the themes raised at the meeting. The participants first of all wish to express their unanimous gratitude to the Holy Father for his clear indications of direction and commitment for the future. In communion with the Pope they reaffirm certain basic principles:
The sexual abuse of minors is rightly considered a crime by society and is an appalling sin in the eyes of God, above all when it is perpetrated by priests and religious whose vocation is to help persons to lead holy lives before God and men.
There is a need to convey to the victims and their families a profound sense of solidarity and to provide appropriate assistance in recovering faith and receiving pastoral care.
Even if the cases of true pedophilia on the part of priests and religious are few, all the participants recognized the gravity of the problem. In the meeting, the quantitative terms of the problem were discussed, since the statistics are not very clear in this regard. Attention was drawn to the fact that almost all the cases involved adolescents and therefore were not cases of true pedophilia.
Together with the fact that a link between celibacy and pedophilia cannot be scientifically maintained, the meeting reaffirmed the value of priestly celibacy as a gift of God to the Church.
Given the doctrinal issues underlying the deplorable behavior in question, certain lines of response have been proposed:
the Pastors of the Church need clearly to promote the correct moral teaching of the Church and publicly to reprimand individuals who spread dissent and groups which advance ambiguous approaches to pastoral care;
a new and serious Apostolic Visitation of seminaries and other institutes of formation must be made without delay, with particular emphasis on the need for fidelity to the Church’s teaching, especially in the area of morality, and the need for a deeper study of the criteria of suitability of candidates to the priesthood;
it would be fitting for the Bishops of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to ask the faithful to join them in observing a national day of prayer and penance, in reparation for the offenses perpetrated and in prayer to God for the conversion of sinners and the reconciliation of victims.
All the participants have seen this time as a call to a greater fidelity to the mystery of the Church. Consequently they see the present time as a moment of grace. While recognizing that practical criteria of conduct are indispensable and urgently needed, we cannot underestimate, in the words of the Holy Father, “the power of Christian conversion, that radical decision to turn away from sin and back to God, which reaches the depths of a person’s soul and can work extraordinary change." At the same time, as His Holiness also stated, “People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young. They must know that bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life." Again in the Holy Father’s words, “Neither should we forget the immense spiritual, human and social good that the vast majority of priests and religious in the United States have done and are still doing. The Catholic Church in your country has always promoted human and Christian values with great vigor and generosity, in a way that has helped to consolidate all that is noble in the American people. A great work of art may be blemished, but its beauty remains; and this is a truth which any intellectually honest critic will recognize. To the Catholic communities in the United States, to their pastors and members, to the men and women religious, to teachers in Catholic universities and schools, to American missionaries in all parts of the world, go the wholehearted thanks of the entire Catholic Church and the personal thanks of the Bishop of Rome."
For this reason, the cardinals and bishops present at the meeting today sent a message to all the priests of the United States, their coworkers in the pastoral ministry.
As part of the preparation for the June meeting of the American bishops, the United States participants in the Rome meeting presented to the Prefects of the Roman Congregations the following proposals:
We propose to send the respective congregations of the Holy See a set of national standards which the Holy See will properly review ( recognitio), in which essential elements for policies dealing with the sexual abuse of minors in dioceses and religious institutes in the United States are set forth.
We will propose that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recommend a special process for the dismissal from the clerical state of a priest who has become notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors.
While recognizing that the Code of Canon Law already contains a judicial process for the dismissal of priests guilty of sexually abusing minors, we will also propose a special process for cases which are not notorious but where the diocesan bishop considers the priest a threat for the protection of children and young people, in order to avoid grave scandal in the future and to safeguard the common good of the Church.
We will propose an Apostolic Visitation of seminaries and religious houses of formation, giving special attention to their admission requirements and the need for them to teach Catholic moral doctrine in its integrity.
We will propose that the bishops of the United States make every effort to implement the challenge of the Holy Father that the present crisis “must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church" by calling for deeper holiness in the Church in the United States, including ourselves as bishops, the clergy, the religious, and the faithful.
We propose that the bishops of the United States set aside a day for prayer and penance throughout the Church in the United States, in order to implore reconciliation and the renewal of ecclesial life.
Though neither document mentioned an expanded role for laypeople in reviewing and implementing policies on sexual abuse, McCarrick said in response to an NCR question at a concluding press conference that this was an editing oversight. Stafford said there were “constant references" inside the summit to the need to bring laity into the process, “both from the Curia and from the U.S." The news conference was broadcast live on CNN and other press outlets in the United States.
April 29, 2002 Spanish Archbishop Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts and a participant in the summit, addressed the American crisis in a speech in Milan. Herranz called large Church payouts for clerical misconduct “unwarranted," and criticized a climate of “exaggeration, financial exploitation and nervousness" in the United States. Herranz also complained of a “tenacious scandalistic style" in the American press. Certain media outlets, he suggested, seek to “sully the image of the Church and the Catholic priesthood, and to weaken the moral credibility of the magisterium." Herranz referred to pedophilia as a “concrete form of homosexuality." He underscored the need to protect the due process rights of all parties, including the accused priest, referring both to canon law and to the 2001 motu proprio centralizing juridical responsibility for sexual abuse of a minor in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “To ignore these processes," Herranz said, “or other penal or disciplinary measures that must be taken in order to prohibit or limit the pastoral activity of those priests about whom the
re are serious indications of behaviors of this sort, would denote a lack of the most fundamental sense of justice." He called the demand for bishops to report priests to civil authorities an “unwarranted simplification." He said, “When ecclesiastical authorities deal with these delicate problems, they not only must respect the presumption of innocence, they also have to honor the rapport of trust, and the consequent secrecy of the office, inherent in relations between a bishop and his priest collaborators. Not to honor these exigencies would bring damages of great seriousness for the Church."
May 1, 2002 In an interview with the Italian Catholic magazine 30 Giorni, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, widely seen as a leading candidate to be the next Pope, addressed the American crisis. He blamed the American press for “persecution" of the Church. “We all know that Ted Turner is openly anti-Catholic, and he is the owner not just of CNN but also Time-Warner," Rodriguez said. “This is to say nothing of dailies such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, protagonists of what I do not hesitate to call a persecution against the Church." Rodriguez suggested this persecution served political ends. “In a moment in which the attention of the mass media was focused on what was happening in the Middle East, the injustices directed against the Palestinian people, the TV and the newspapers in the United States became obsessed with sexual scandals that happened forty years ago, thirty years ago. Why? I think it has to do with these motives: What Church has received Arafat the most and has called for the creation of a Palestinian state the most? What Church has never accepted that Jerusalem should be the indivisible capital of the state of Israel, but must be the capital of the three great monotheistic religions? What Church opposes abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty? What Church does not accept projects for the family that are not in keeping with God’s plan? It’s the Catholic Church," Rodriguez said. “It is the only one, to put it this way, that stands in the way of a dehumanizing political program. Only in this fashion can I explain the ferocity that reminds me of the times of Nero and Diocletian, and more recently, of Stalin and Hitler."
Rodriguez called for a tempered approach to sexual abuse. “If there are priests, or also bishops, who are stained by grave sins they must be punished with the appropriate canonical penalties, and if necessary, must also face civil justice," Rodriguez said. But this must happen, he said, without a “witch hunt" inside the Church. “We bishops must not forget that we are merciful pastors and not agents of the FBI or CIA. We must always ask how Jesus would conduct himself. Pedophilia is an illness, and it is just that whoever has it should leave the priesthood. But the accusations must always be proved with a just process, and without persecution from the civil authorities, which is what is actually happening."
In this context, Rodriguez came to the defense of Cardinal Bernard Law. “I know him well," Rodriguez said. “He is a man who has done much good for us in Latin America, and now we suffer for him and we suffer for the injustice of what is defined as justice. I heard that the judge who is conducting the case is one who supports all the feminist movements," Rodriguez said, in an apparent reference to Judge Constance M. Sweeney of the Massachusetts Superior Court, who had been assigned responsibility for the sex abuse complaints filed against the Boston archdiocese. “Thus it happened," Rodriguez said, “that despite the fact that cases in the United States take a long time, Cardinal Law was quickly subjected to interrogation using methods that recall the most dark times of Stalinist processes against churchmen in Eastern Europe. Then transcripts from these interrogations were put into circulation on the Internet and published with great emphasis by all the big dailies. I don’t agree with this theatrical form of justice. This is not justice, I repeat, this is persecution."
May 2, 2002 Ratzinger called on the American bishops to perform a public day of penance connected to the sexual abuse scandal. The former cardinal had not been available to the press during the April 23–24 summit. He spoke on this occasion at a May 2 Vatican news conference concerning a new apostolic letter on the sacrament of reconciliation. In his prepared remarks, he spoke of the need for “purification and pardon." He was asked by reporters if that idea might apply to the American bishops committing a public act of penance for their mishandling of cases of sexual abuse by priests. Vatican press officer Joaquin Navarro-Valls attempted to deflect the question, saying that there were two press sessions dedicated to the American situation last week. Ratzinger, however, said he would respond.
“The American bishops have already decided on a day of expiation, which will probably be the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus," Ratzinger said. The feast fell on Friday, June 7. “It will be an act of purification which can promote the idea of expiation in the daily life of Christians. Such a public act takes note of the reality of sin and invites us to think about sin and mercy. Above all, it can promote a praxis of penitence, focusing on both education and prevention against these human failings. It can renew our sense of the sacrament [of reconciliation] that the Lord offers us." Later in the news conference, Ratzinger described the two-day summit with the Americans as “very opportune, very fraternal." He said it offered an opportunity for “understanding points of view that are somewhat diverse. We understand the situation better, the roots of the situation, and the responses to give to it. The American bishops are now working on a national standard which will have to receive the formal approval of the Holy See."
May 16, 2002 Rodriguez was in Rome to receive an honorary doctorate from the Pontifical Salesian University (he is a member of the Salesian religious order). Rodriguez, fifty-nine, appeared at a May 16 press conference and spoke again about the crisis.
“I have my doubts about the motivation behind some of these scandals," said Rodriguez, who has lived and studied in the United States. “Obviously, someone who has the sickness of pedophilia should not be in the priesthood. But why bring up these things now from 40 or 30 years ago? [The U.S.] is a society that has such compartmentalized information, such closed information. Often when you watch TV news, so many of the themes are local, there’s very little international coverage. Why in this moment of terrible conflict in the Middle East do these scandals surface, creating a polarization in the media that is almost obsessive? I have said in other places, and I’m not afraid to say it, that obsession is a mental illness that causes us to get blocked on one theme and to keep moving around it forever. Why is it that they bring these skeletons out of the closet?
“We know well that every time money mixes with justice it becomes unjust," Rodriguez said. “When I was in the United States in the 1970s, there was a fashion when one slipped on a sidewalk to sue the owner of the house for millions. This became a kind of industry. I remember that people used to put on a neck brace and go find a lawyer. Eventually this was prevented by putting up signs saying, ‘Sidewalk is wet.’ So why now is there such interest in taking up these cases from the past? Because there is money in play. But we know that money doesn’t heal any wound. Only psychological and spiritual accompaniment can help. If it were up to me, I would give the money neither to the lawyers nor even to the victims, but to a fund to help accompany people in a spiritual and psychological way, to help to heal them. This would be a real healing. That’s the reality.
“Pedophilia is a sickness, and those with this sickness must leave the priesthood," Rodriguez said. “But we must not move from this to remedies that are non-Christian. I think the world should reflect. We must ask, where is Jesus in all this? For me it would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop. We are totally different, and I’d be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests. I say this with great clarity." Rodriguez added that he feels the Church will exit from the crisis “more humble and more strong," with “a new pastoral approach" that is “closer to the people, which always does us good."
Speaking of calls for bishops to report accusations against priests to the civil authorities, Rodriguez said, “We must not forget that we are pastors, not agen
ts of the FBI or CIA. Our attitude must be that people can change, that this can happen every day of our life, and that to the very end our goal is to save people. I don’t know the situation of 40 years ago, but we can imagine what was the basic level of sexual education in the seminaries when they could not talk about this because it was perceived as something wrong. Today there is a different type of education, and we can speak about it with much greater clarity. Many of the psychological implications were not known at that time. At times they even thought the seminary was a kind of tube where you enter on one side and exit ordained. This kind of thinking no longer exists. Some of these priests, and I say it with much respect, did not have the opportunity of psychological consultation, and therefore they can also be victims. As far as judging is concerned, that is very difficult. We can judge the exterior facts, but not the interior life of the person. We must always have a pastoral, Christian attitude."
May 18, 2002 Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, dean of the canon law department at Rome’s Gregorian University, published an article in Civiltà Cattolica on the issue of sex abuse by clergy. Civiltà Cattolica is a twice-monthly Jesuit-edited journal considered a semiofficial Vatican organ because it is reviewed by the Secretariat of State prior to publication. Ghirlanda wrote that if bishops decide to reassign a priest who had previously committed an act of sex abuse but who the bishop believes will not reoffend, the bishop should not tell the priest’s new congregation about his past. He argued that a priest whose abuse was revealed “would be totally discredited in front of his parochial community and in fact would be blocked from any effective pastoral action." Ghirlanda also denied that bishops or religious superiors are responsible for abuse by priests. “From a canon law perspective, the bishop and the superior are neither morally nor judicially responsible for the acts committed by one of their clergy," he wrote. In an apparent reference to civil suits, Ghirlanda wrote that the relationship between bishops or superiors and priests is not comparable to that of an employer and employee. “The cleric doesn’t ‘work’ for the bishop or for the superior, but is at the service of God," Ghirlanda wrote. He also said Church leaders confronted with accusations of abuse should first attempt to resolve the problem informally. “Only if these methods prove useless, the bishop and the superior may move ahead with the judicial process," Ghirlanda said. He added, “The cleric’s right of good name must be protected by the bishop and superior. Therefore any act that has public repercussions, undertaken by the bishop or superior in dealing with one of his clerics, is legitimate only if the good of the community requires it and if the bishop and superior have reached moral certainty." Ghirlanda also wrote that priests should not be forced to take psychological tests to assess the likelihood of their committing abuse. “To our thinking, it’s not admissible that the incriminated cleric be forced to undergo a psychological investigation to determine if his personality is inclined to commit the crimes in question," the article said.
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