November 11–14, 2002 The U.S. bishops met in Washington and adopted the Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons as revised by the mixed commission.
November 21, 2002 The National Catholic Reporter published the full text of the norms governing “grave delicts" including sexual abuse of minors decreed by Pope John Paul II’s May 18, 2001 motu proprio titled Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela. Previously these norms had been released by the Vatican only on a confidential, case-by-case basis. Canon lawyers able to examine the document for the first time concluded that it generally did not create conflicts with the norms adopted by the American bishops.
November 25, 2002 Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval of Bolivia, a Redemptorist, was in Rome for the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and spoke at a press conference. He was asked if he agreed with what his fellow Latin American cardinals had said about the American crisis. “I have of course heard the opinions of my fellow cardinals," Terrazas Sandoval replied. “I don’t know the situation well, but it does seem there is an institution in [U.S.] society that has as its goal to speak ill of the Church. In Bolivia, we hear there is a tendency [in the United States] to overgeneralize about the Church. There seems to be a morbid focus on bad news. I don’t know if this is an accurate impression, but some news reports certainly create doubts in those who read them. There seems to be an effort to demonize situations and movements."
November 30, 2002 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, addressed the American crisis during an appearance in Murcia, Spain. The occasion was the congress “Christ: Way, Truth and Life," over which the cardinal presided, at the Catholic University of St. Anthony. The cardinal was asked, “This past year has been difficult for Catholics, given the space dedicated by the media to scandals attributed to priests. There is talk of a campaign against the Church. What do you think?" His response: “In the Church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower. In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information or to the statistical objectivity of the facts. Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church." Ratzinger’s assertion concerning “less than 1 percent of priests" appears to have been based on an analysis by Philip Jenkins, which concluded that 3 percent of priests have engaged in sexual abuse and 0.3 percent are pedophiles. As noted above, other analysts have suggested slightly higher percentages on both points.
November 31, 2002 Representatives of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the American federation of men’s orders, voiced concern in Rome that the revised U.S. norms may compromise the autonomy traditionally enjoyed by religious communities. The objections came at an assembly of the Union of Superiors General, the worldwide umbrella group for men’s orders, and in Vatican meetings in early December. On December 1, the USG voted to give full backing to the position taken by the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. The top officers of the American federation, Conventual Franciscan Fr. Canice Connors, president, and Marist Fr. Ted Keating, executive director, came to Rome to present their objections. Worries included that diocesan bishops might try to compel superiors to divulge confidential information on priests, might seek to block even an internal assignment with the order, or try to revoke a priest’s authorization to say Mass within the community. Some bishops may also seek to prevent international members from entering the United States. In addition, since religious communities generally do not have canonical tribunals as dioceses do, it was not entirely clear how religious superiors were to proceed. Religious order priests were not covered by the norms adopted by the U.S. bishops in Dallas in June. However, when the norms were revised by the mixed commission, religious priests were included through a little-noticed change in the document’s first footnote. Leaders in religious life discovered the switch only on November 5, prompting urgent requests for dialogue with the U.S. bishops and an appeal to the Vatican. Meanwhile, Connors and Keating drew an appreciative response at the USG meeting for the general way religious orders had approached the problem. One superior general said he had been contacted by U.S. diocesan priests to express gratitude for the stand taken by the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in Philadelphia in August, when it was decided that priest abusers would be removed from public ministry but not necessarily from their communities.
December 4, 2002 Respected Vatican affairs writer Orazio Petrosillo addressed the conference of the International Catholic Union of the Press (UCIP). During a roundtable discussion, Petrosillo, who writes for the Rome daily II Messagero and who teaches journalism at the Center for Interdisciplinary Communication Studies at the Gregorian University, responded to the question, “Why has the mass media mounted this campaign against the Church?" Though Petrosillo is Italian, he spoke in French. Petrosillo indicated three groups in the United States that may have inspired such a campaign: “Masonic lodges," “Jewish lobbies," and “groups of free thought and free morals" such as gays. As for the Jews, Petrosillo specified that their motive would be “to punish the Catholic Church for its defense of the right of the Palestinians to have a country." Petrosillo said he was only giving voice to what “everyone thinks," while acknowledging that one can’t make conclusive judgments on the basis of circumstantial evidence.
December 13, 2002 Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in Rome. He remains, however, a member of the College of Cardinals in good standing. As a cardinal, Law continues to be a member of several congregations, the key decision-making organs of the Vatican, which handle matters related to the sexual abuse crisis. They include: the Congregation for Bishops, which recommends new bishops to the Pope and oversees the performance of bishops and bishops’ conferences; the Congregation for Clergy, which handles clerical discipline and oversees the financial management of dioceses, including the prospect of bankruptcy; the Congregation for Consecrated Life, which has the same responsibility for religious orders; the Congregation for Catholic Education, which oversees seminaries and priestly formation; and the Congregation for Divine Worship, which handles cases of laicization of priests. Law’s membership means that, at least theoretically, he could still be involved in setting Vatican policy on these issues. Law also remains the Holy See’s ecclesiastical delegate, overseeing the pastoral provision in the United States for priests and laity from the Episcopal Church seeking communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In this capacity he oversees the ordination of married Episcopal priests as Roman Catholic priests, and the establishment of personal parishes for faithful who wish to maintain Episcopalian liturgical traditions. This function is under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
December 16, 2002 The Congregation for Bishops granted the recognitio, or formal legal approval, to the American sexual abuse norms as approved by the November meeting of the U.S. bishops in Washington, D.C. The decree is published in Latin and dated December 8. Because the U.S. bishops established that after two years of application the norms would be reexamined, the Vatican recognitio is valid for a period of two years. The clock started running from the effective date of March 2003, meaning the norms expire in March 2005. The decision is announced in the form of a letter from Re to Gregory. The text of the letter:
With your letter dated November 15, 2002, you requested the recognitio for the Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons, approved by the Episcopal Conference at the Plenary Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which took place in
Dallas on June 13–15, and revised in the recent General Meeting held in Washington on November 11–14. I am pleased now to send you the Decree of recognitio for the “Essential Norms" and wish to express renewed and sincere appreciation for the pastoral concern and resolve with which the bishops of the United States have addressed the distressing situation caused by such aberrant crimes.
The Holy See is fully supportive of the bishops’ efforts to combat and to prevent such evil. The universal law of the Church has always recognized this crime as one of the most serious offenses which sacred ministers can commit, and has determined that they be punished with the most severe penalties, not excluding—if the case so requires—dismissal from the clerical state (cf. Canon 1395 § 2). Moreover, the Holy Father in the year 2001 already had determined that this crime should be included among the most serious delicts (graviora delicta) of clerics, to underscore the Holy See’s aversion to this betrayal of the trust which the faithful rightly place in Christ’s ministers, and to ensure that the guilty will be appropriately punished. He therefore gave to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith a special competence in this matter, applicable for the whole Church, establishing a particular procedure to be followed (cfr. Motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela of May 18, 2001).
As the Holy Father has affirmed on various occasions, the Holy See is spiritually united to the victims of abuse and to their families, and encourages particular concern for them on the part of the bishops, priests, and the whole Catholic community. This closeness is now once again confirmed through the approval of the present “Essential Norms," which will help to restore, wherever necessary, the trust of the faithful in their pastors, assuring at the same time the defense of the innocent and the just punishment of the guilty. The “Essential Norms" in their present formulation are intended to give effective protection to minors and to establish a rigorous and precise procedure to punish in a just way those who are guilty of such abominable offenses because, as the Holy Father has said, “there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young." At the same time, by ensuring that the true facts are ascertained, the approved Norms protect inviolable human rights—including the right to defend oneself—and guarantee respect for the dignity of all those involved, beginning with the victims. Moreover, they uphold the principle, fundamental in all just systems of law, that a person is considered innocent until either a regular process or his own spontaneous admission proves him guilty.
The genuine ecclesial communion between the Episcopal Conference and the Apostolic See, demonstrated once again in these painful circumstances, prompts us all to pray earnestly to God that from the present crisis might emerge, as the Holy Father has stated: “a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church" (cf. L’Osservatore Romano, 24 April 2002). In this way, the bonds of communion which unite the bishops with their priests and deacons, and the faithful with their pastors, will be further strengthened. The Holy See, moreover, together with the bishops of the United States, feels duty-bound in justice and in gratitude to reaffirm and defend the good name of the overwhelming majority of priests and deacons who are and have always been exemplary in their fidelity to the demands of their vocation but have been offended or unjustly slandered by association. As the Holy Father has said, we cannot 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." Indeed, it appears necessary to devote every available resource to restoring the public image of the Catholic priesthood as a worthy and noble vocation of generous and often sacrificial service to the People of God.
As regards religious priests and deacons I would ask the representatives of the Episcopal Conference to continue to meet with the representatives of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men to examine more closely the various aspects of their particular situation, and to forward to the Holy See whatever agreements they may reach.
February 7, 2003 John Paul II signed a set of revisions to Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela designed to speed up trials of accused priests and to make it easier to remove guilty priests from the clerical state. The changes allow deacons and laypeople to serve on criminal tribunals in the Catholic Church, even as judges. The changes cite canon 1421, which stipulates that on a three-judge panel, one judge may be a layperson. Under the May 18 motu proprio, those roles had been restricted to priests. The changes also drop the requirement that tribunal members must have a doctorate in canon law, insisting only that they hold the lesser degree of a licentiate and have worked in tribunals for “a reasonable time." Both moves should expand the pool of judges and lawyers and make it easier to form tribunals. The changes also give the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the power in “clear and grave" situations to dismiss someone from the priesthood without a trial. That administrative power had belonged only to the Pope himself. The congregation also acquired the power to “sanate," meaning clean up, procedural irregularities in the acts of a local tribunal. That means that if a case comes to Rome on appeal on procedural grounds, the problem can be resolved without remanding the case for a new trial. The changes permit a recourse, or appeal, against decisions of the congregation only to the regular Wednesday assembly of cardinal members of the congregation. All other appeals are excluded, meaning that the congregation’s decisions are final.
March 26, 2003 In a personal message to three Boston-area men who said they are victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, John Paul II vowed that he “realizes the seriousness of the problem" and “will see that this doesn’t happen again." Monsignor James Green, a senior official in the Secretariat of State, carried the Pope’s message to the men, who had arrived in Rome on March 23 seeking a meeting with John Paul. The three were Gary Bergeron and Bernie McDade, who claim to have been abused by the same priest, and Joseph Bergeron, Gary’s father, who said he was abused as an altar boy by another priest. Green visited the men at their hotel ten minutes from the Vatican at 6:30 P.M. Green opened the meeting by praying an Our Father. He then presented the Pope’s message. “The Holy Father realizes the seriousness of this problem, and is doing all he can," Bergeron said Green told them, saying they were free to share the message with other victims. “[The Pope] will continue to do all he can to heal the Church and to pray for the victims. He will see that this doesn’t happen again."
Bergeron said Green then said that John Paul had instructed him to ask if the men had any message for the Pope. Joseph Bergeron spoke first. “The Holy Father needs to make sure that this never, ever, ever happens to another child," he said. McDade followed. “The Holy Father needs to heal the Church, not just the survivors but the Church itself. He needs to realize how the Church in the United States is hurting." Gary Bergeron concluded. “The Holy Father needs to put a face with the problem, meaning he needs to meet with us," he said. “If not me, meet with my father. If not him, then some victim he can associate with the problem. Only then will he understand the depth of the wound." Bergeron said the session was “very intense, very emotional," but that he would continue to press for a personal meeting with John Paul.
April 2–5, 2003 The Holy See sponsored a unique four-day, closed-door symposium on pedophilia. An April 5 Vatican statement said the meeting featured eight of “the most qualified experts on the theme." There were four Germans, three Canadians, and an American. All eight, in what planners described as a coincidence, were non-Catholic. The chief organizer of the symposium was Dr. Manfred Lütz, a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and a psychiatrist from Germany. The idea, according to participants, was to expose Vatican officials to “state-of-the-art information" from a scientific point of view. Participants included officials from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Secretariat of State, as well as from the Vatican congregations for clergy, religious, and Catholic education. The lone American expert was Dr. Martin P. Kafka of the Harvard Medical School, whose field is sexual impulsivity disorders.
During question and answer periods, discussion touched upon not merely pedophilia but the broader phenomenon of sexual abuse. On the question of a possible connection between homosexuality and the abuse of adolescent males, Vatican officials were told that homosexuality is a risk factor, but not the cause, of this behavior. In other words, while homosexuality is statistically associated with a higher incidence of sexual contact with teenage boys, so are other factors, such as being within five years of having been ordained. The experts asserted that there is no causal link between being homosexual and abuse. One Vatican official said that this message came through “loud and clear" and predicted that it might help delay, or even derail, a document on the admission of homosexuals to Catholic seminaries. Vatican observers were also struck by criticism of zero tolerance policies, suggesting that it may lead to guidelines about support of priests after they are removed from ministry.
Kafka told the National Catholic Reporter afterward that homosexuality was not the main focus of the meeting, though there was interest in the subject. “A risk factor is not a cause," he said. “The great predominance of homosexual males are in no way sexual abusers," Kafka said. “We don’t really know in a scientific way what the factors are" that cause abuse, Kafka said. “We don’t have the evidence." Other topics, Kafka said, included whether more effective screening could filter out potential abusers, and what promise rehabilitation programs might hold. Kafka said the experts were not optimistic about a “magic bullet" screening program. Presenters also stressed the need for open discussion of sexuality among young priests, and improving the ongoing supervision of priests. “As a non-Catholic, I was impressed with the deep, genuine concern about the issue, the willingness to be open and listen, and the proactive approach to doing the right thing," Kafka said. “I was very encouraged by this meeting."
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