The head of American Catholic bishops defended the integrity of US Catholic institutions today, saying recent child sex scandals that have rocked the Church to its foundations were tragic but isolated.
Bishop Wilton Gregory told a news conference that Pope John Paul was deeply touched by the pain that paedophilia had caused victims but was solidly behind the US bishops.
Bishop Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he felt the scandal would not be a permanent wound but would take many years for the harm to pass.
Catholic institutions are among the safest in either the public or private sector but unfortunately a few horrible examples have caused people to doubt the truth of the safety of our churches, our parishes, our schools and our academies, he said.
"Children are cared for with love and fidelity and gentleness of spirit in Catholic institutions. A few, tragically, have been harmed. But the overwhelming number of students are not only cared for well but they are encouraged to grow and develop all of their God-given gifts," he said.
The mushrooming paedophilia scandal in the United States has been concentrated on Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law said yesterday he has no plans to quit despite growing calls for him to step down for the good of the church.
Cardinal Law, 70, who heads the fourth-largest Catholic US diocese, stands accused of transferring priests known to have sexually abused children from parish to parish in the Boston area instead of defrocking them.
Bishop Gregory said the Pope was touched by the anguish and anxiety that the Church in the United States was experiencing.
"He (the Pope) told me to tell the bishops in the United States and the Church in the United States that the Pope was solidly behind them," Bishop Gregory said.
The scandal, the worst ever to befall the US Roman Catholic Church, started with the trial of former Boston area priest John Geoghan.
Now serving a prison sentence for molesting a child, he is accused by more than 130 people of molesting them in 30 years.
Documents released in connection with Geoghan's trial showed Bishop Law and five other bishops knew about Geoghan's sexual problems but continued to shuttle him from parish to parish without alerting parishioners.
Since Geoghan's trial, priests in Maine, New York, California, Pennsylvania and Florida have been removed.