February 19, 2004
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Last week I told you about the steps this diocese is taking to combat sexual abuse of minors by clergy and to promote healing of those who have been abused. Today I will tell you about a dramatic new step, which the bishops took on the national level, whose results will be revealed next Friday.
In the "Charter For the Protection of the Children and Young People," the bishops set up a review board, now called the National Review Board and made up entirely of lay people. The bishops asked the Board to commission a study on the nature and scope of the problem of sexual abuse of minors by clergy with in the Catholic Church in the United States. The Board selected the John Jay College for Criminal Justice in New York to do the study.
This study will contain information about how many clergy are alleged to haves perpetrated sexual abuse of minors, how many victims there have been, and the financial costs of compensating victims, of providing psychological treatment for both victims and offenders, and of defending dioceses in litigation in the years between 1950 and 2002.
This Diocese ha already shared information about its own information, with statistics published in the December Issue of the North Coast Catholic which was mailed to all registered parishioners.
In addition to these statistics' the study describes, in a composite way, many aspects of the personalities of abusers and of the abuse that was perpetrated.
This study is unprecedented. There is no comparable study of any other profession. As such, it represents a risk of another shadow being cast over the whole priesthood in the public mind. Few professions could easily absorb the revelation of 50 years of the worst misconduct by some of it members. However, the bishops took this risk to be sure that the steps that each diocese is taking which I described to you last week - are truly addressing this scourge and overcoming it. We have to know the nature and the scope of the problem, as it existed in the past, to have that certainty.
Sadly, we cannot change history, but we can make sure that we do not repeat it. We priests, and in particular the bishops, are sorrowfully aware that the misconduct detailed in this report next Friday is a complete contradiction of what the priest is meant to be and what the Catholic people have a right to expect of each priest.
Whatever the study reports about the number of victims and the number of abusers - out of the tens of thousands of priests of the last 50 years, all the bishops, priests and deacons join the Catholic people in the unswerving conviction that one abuser and one victim are a!ready one too many.
Ordination does not by itself prevent sin or even criminal misconduct, or cure the compulsions that can grip disturbed men. But we can make sure that our screening of men for holy orders will eliminate, to the extent humanly possible these who would harm children and young people.
My fellow bishops and I have chosen, through the steps taken in the "Charter" - including this difficult and challenging study - to do all in our power to cleanse the Church in this country or this terrible problem, to restore trust, and to open a new era in the protection of children and young people.
Be assured of my continued prayers for all of you, and I ask you to keep me in yours. I am
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