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WASHINGTON (CNS) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he was “eager for an audience” with Pope Francis to gain his support for the bishops’ plan to respond to the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
In an Aug. 27 statement, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston also said the questions raised by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former nuncio to the United States, in a letter published by two Catholic media outlets “deserve answers that are conclusive and based on evidence.”
“Without those answers, innocent men may be tainted by false accusations and the guilty may be left to repeat the sins of the past,” the cardinal said.
In his 11-page letter, published Aug. 26, Archbishop Vigano accused church officials, including Pope Francis, of failing to act on accusations of abuse by now-Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick. Archbishop Vigano claimed he told Pope Francis about Cardinal McCarrick in 2013.
Archbishop Vigano wrote that he was compelled to write his knowledge of Archbishop McCarrick’s misdeeds because “corruption has reached the very top of the church’s hierarchy.”
In his statement, Cardinal DiNardo reiterated an Aug. 16 call for an apostolic visitation, working with a national lay commission granted independent authority, to investigate the “many questions surround Archbishop McCarrick.”
He also said he convened members of the USCCB Executive Committee Aug. 26 and they “reaffirmed the call for a prompt and thorough examination into how the grave moral failings of a brother bishop could have been tolerated for so long and proven no impediment to his advancement.”
The plan outlined by Cardinal DiNardo also called for detailed proposals to make reporting of abuse and misconduct by bishops easier and improve procedures for resolving complaints against bishops.
Cardinal DiNardo again apologized to abuse survivors and their families. “You are no longer alone,” he said.
The statement explained how since 2002, professionally trained staff have worked with the U.S. church to support survivors and prevent future abuse. He pointed to the steps the church has put in place in response to abuse including the zero-tolerance policy regarding clergy abuse: safe environment training in diocesan offices, parishes and schools, background checks for church workers and volunteers working around children, victim assistance coordinators, prompt reporting to civil authorities and diocesan lay review boards.
“In other ways, we have failed you. This is especially true for adults being sexually harassed by those in positions of power, and for any abuse or harassment perpetuated by a bishop,” Cardinal DiNardo said. “We will do better. The more she is buffeted by storms, the more I am reminded that the church’s firm foundation is Jesus Christ. The failures of men cannot diminish the light of the Gospel.”
Bishops across the United States have been offering apologies to victims, and renewed resolve to Catholics, in the wake of the Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed claims of sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children over 70 years in six dioceses in the state. Other bishops have called for special prayer services, fasts and days of repentance.
Bishop Milan Lach, SJ, of Parma spoke about the sex abuse crisis in his homily Aug. 19 and, in a letter to all the faithful of Parma, he renewed the eparchy’s commitment to “ensure that no child or young person who is entrusted to the care of the eparchy’s clergy, teachers and other collaborators will suffer harm by reason of any inappropriate sexual behavior by any person.”
Caption: Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is seen June 13 at the opening of the bishops' annual spring assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Photo: CNS Photo/Bob Roller)
As published in Horizons, Aug. 26, 2018.
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