THE US: Apologising profusely to victims of abuse, their families, the laity, and priests, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Wilton Gregory, yesterday bluntly told his fellow bishops that responsibility for the crisis the church faced lay squarely at their door.
The crisis, he told them as they gathered in Dallas, was not one of faith, which was very much intact, but "of faith in our leadership", "not a breakdown in belief, but a rupture in our relations with the faithful." They had to acknowledge "what we have done and failed to do" and that "we did not go far enough to ensure every child was safe". "Rightfully, the faithful are questioning why we failed to take the necessary steps."
"Only by truthful confession, by heartfelt contrition, and firm purpose of amendment" would they restore the trust of the laity, he added. His 288 brother bishops, including eight cardinals, gave him a standing ovation, but the stony faces seen on TV betrayed some of the discomfort they felt. Some 189 dioceses are represented at the two-day conference, which is due to adopt a major national policy statement on protecting children.
Bishop Gregory, who is highly regarded for his work in cleaning up his own diocese of Belleville, Illinois, in a remarkably candid speech that is likely to go some way to reassure lay Catholics, said they had chosen not to report cases because the law did not require them to do so and they had treated victims as "adversaries" instead of suffering members of the church.
"We are the ones who worried more about the possibility of scandal than in bringing about the kind of openness that helps prevent abuse."
And although he did not call for the resignation of any of his brother bishops, he came close to it, in lambasting those bishops who had sullied the name of the church by failing to implement guidelines agreed in 1992.
"The vast majority of bishops embraced these principles, made them the standard for policies on sexual abuse in their dioceses and, therefore, contributed effectively to the protection of children in the church. These policies, however, were not implemented effectively in every diocese across this country. In a matter of a few months, this has become painfully clear. The very solid and good work that has been accomplished by the majority of bishops in their dioceses has been completely overshadowed by the imprudent decisions of a small number of bishops during the past 10 years."
He concluded by urging victims who have not yet reported their abuse to come forward to their local bishop and, significantly, to the civil authorities. And he called on priests and bishops who have abused to come clean "and you will be able to live honestly with your own conscience".
His speech was followed by one from Dr Scott Appleby of Notre Dame University, speaking for the laity, and who called for the bishops to go beyond apologising for the error of cover-up by accepting that the protection of abusing priests is "a sin born of the arrogance of power."
Three victims of abuse also testified to their experience. Mr Craig Martin, a Texas businessman, 35 years on, spoke through tears of the destruction of his relationship with parents and family, and of his rage, depression and alcoholism, brought on by abuse.
