02/03/02
The Tablet
Harvard's Catholic professors call on Law to resign
Ten prominent Catholics on the faculty of Harvard University have called on the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, to resign over his handling of a child abuse scandal which is increasingly being seen as a crisis for the entire Catholic Church in the United States, writes Richard Major from Washington DC.
The letter to Cardinal Law, dated 25 January, was made available this week to The Tablet. It was signed by Professor Robert Kiely, a Harvard lecturer in English literature, and nine other prominent Catholics teaching at the university. Boston Catholics, said Professor Kiely, "feel scandalised and betrayed" by the archdiocese's failure to protect children over the past 20 years. "Some of us have become accustomed to being embarrassed by the actions and words of the hierarchy", the professor says, "but to be ashamed is too much to ask us to bear." The signatories accuse the cardinal of having given comfort "to those who despise the Church and see it as a fossilised institution of repression, secrecy and hypocrisy" and argue that resignation would be a fitting act of penance for pain inflicted on the Church, on the diocese's laity and clergy, and most of all on the children molested by priests.
Cardinal Law has apologised repeatedly for his archdiocese's failures in handling clerical abuse, most spectacularly over Fr John Geoghan, who was recently sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for molesting a boy in a swimming pool. Although he was convicted on that count alone, the judge took into consideration accusations against him from 130 other boys, some alleging rape.
What has convulsed Boston in recent weeks has been less the crimes than their cover-up. The trial of Geoghan, a particularly consistent molester of boys over decades, has coincided with an investigation by the Boston Globe of sealed court papers which showed that the Church had habitually settled out of court with minors claiming to have been abused by priests, paying heavy damages in return for silence (The Tablet, 9 and 23 February). Cardinal Law has so far resisted calls to resign over the scandal, insisting that it was ignorance of the compulsive nature of paedophilia, rather than bad faith, which lay behind what he now recognises as "tragically incorrect" judgements in his handling of paedophile priests.
But the Harvard signatories do not accept Cardinal Law's defence. "Was it not obvious in the 1980s that molesting little boys was a bad thing?" they ask. Cardinal Law should resign, they say, because, as the symbol of the Catholic Church in Boston, he is the only one able to perform "the symbolic act of repentance" for which the crisis calls.
Cardinal Law has responded to the furore by implementing the most radical, root-and-branch policy on clerical child abuse seen anywhere in the Church. His policy of handing over the names of priests suspected any time in the past of abuse has been increasingly adopted by other dioceses throughout the country, which one by one have begun to reverse decades of an approach which gave priority to averting scandal. Dioceses in New England, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, among others, have been reviewing their files for allegations, and have as a result suspended dozens of priests. They have also forwarded the names of accused perpetrators to prosecutors, although not always details or names of victims. Without such evidence, sometimes privileged by the sacrament of confession, criminal prosecutions leading to conviction can be extremely difficult.
But the Boston scandal has made the US Church highly sensitive to any imputation of a cover-up. In Maine, for example, two priests were accused of molesting teenaged boys 20 years ago; on that occasion, their diocese informed civil authorities, who chose not to prosecute. But last week the diocese published their names, because, as a spokeswoman, Sue Bernard, put it, "we felt under pressure to make sure we were disclosing everything we needed to disclose". Whether the two priests will be allowed to remain in their parishes will depend largely on the response of their congregations.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia also announced last week that a review of its archives had produced "credible evidence" stretching back over the last half century against 35 priests, many of whom had been routinely moved to new parishes. Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, has declared that any priest or deacon who is found to have sexually abused a minor "will not be reassigned" and should seek laicisation. "He will never return to active ministry", the cardinal promised.
But in Boston this policy has led to accusations of injustice. This week the tenth serving priest so far to be suspended - in this instance over a 30-year-old allegation - has been protesting his innocence. A spokeswoman for the archdiocese says that officials had held separate meetings with Fr George Spagnolia of St Patrick's, Lowell, a city north-west of Boston, and with his accuser. They had concluded that there was "reasonable cause" to believe that abuse of a then 14-year-old boy had occurred back in 1971. But "Fr Spag", as he is known to his parishioners, insists he has "done nothing". He is refusing to leave his parish until the charge against him is investigated, but says he will refrain from celebrating Mass in the meantime. He says the archdiocese's new "zero tolerance" policy has denied him due process of law.
A number of Fr Spagnolia's parishioners have come to his defence. They accuse Cardinal Law of leading a witch-hunt as a means of deflecting criticism from his own guilt over protecting paedophile priests. A number of lay people as well as priests have reminded the Archbishop of Boston and journalists that accusations can be false. They cite the case of Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, the late Archbishop of Chicago. In 1993 a former seminarian accused Cardinal Bernardin of molesting him but later retracted the charge.
The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop Wilton Gregory, last week offered an apology "as a pastor and a teacher of faith and morals, to the victims and to their parents for this failure in our pastoral responsibilities". Bishop Gregory, who was one of Cardinal Bernadin's suffragan bishops in Chicago, described the damage to the US Church caused by the crisis as "immeasurable".
But he said the Church had "tried to reach out pastorally and sensitively to victims of this outrageous behaviour". He also said he had been "heartened by the professionals who work with both victims and abusers, who tell us there is not another institution in the United States that is doing more to understand and address the horror of sexual abuse of minors". Very few of "the more than 40,000 wonderful priests in our country" were involved in such crimes. "We bishops intend to maintain careful watch," he said.
How that watch is kept varies widely across the country's 194 dioceses and archdioceses. Since 1985 most American dioceses have had to deal with of accusations of clerical paedophilia, paying out a total of some $500 million to settle cases against more than 100 priests. The USCCB's 1992 guidelines on sexual abuse, "The Five Principles", urged that alleged offenders be quickly removed from ministry, with their names being passed to the civil authorities where the law requires it. Yet dioceses are under no obligation to adopt these principles, and their implementation has been until now inconsistent.
Statistics released this week show that the Catholic Church in the United States is big, rich, and growing. There are now almost 64 million Catholic Americans - 23 per cent of the US population, more than six per cent of the world's Catholics - served by 46,000 priests.
The Tablet
Harvard's Catholic professors call on Law to resign
Ten prominent Catholics on the faculty of Harvard University have called on the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, to resign over his handling of a child abuse scandal which is increasingly being seen as a crisis for the entire Catholic Church in the United States, writes Richard Major from Washington DC.
The letter to Cardinal Law, dated 25 January, was made available this week to The Tablet. It was signed by Professor Robert Kiely, a Harvard lecturer in English literature, and nine other prominent Catholics teaching at the university. Boston Catholics, said Professor Kiely, "feel scandalised and betrayed" by the archdiocese's failure to protect children over the past 20 years. "Some of us have become accustomed to being embarrassed by the actions and words of the hierarchy", the professor says, "but to be ashamed is too much to ask us to bear." The signatories accuse the cardinal of having given comfort "to those who despise the Church and see it as a fossilised institution of repression, secrecy and hypocrisy" and argue that resignation would be a fitting act of penance for pain inflicted on the Church, on the diocese's laity and clergy, and most of all on the children molested by priests.
Cardinal Law has apologised repeatedly for his archdiocese's failures in handling clerical abuse, most spectacularly over Fr John Geoghan, who was recently sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for molesting a boy in a swimming pool. Although he was convicted on that count alone, the judge took into consideration accusations against him from 130 other boys, some alleging rape.
What has convulsed Boston in recent weeks has been less the crimes than their cover-up. The trial of Geoghan, a particularly consistent molester of boys over decades, has coincided with an investigation by the Boston Globe of sealed court papers which showed that the Church had habitually settled out of court with minors claiming to have been abused by priests, paying heavy damages in return for silence (The Tablet, 9 and 23 February). Cardinal Law has so far resisted calls to resign over the scandal, insisting that it was ignorance of the compulsive nature of paedophilia, rather than bad faith, which lay behind what he now recognises as "tragically incorrect" judgements in his handling of paedophile priests.
But the Harvard signatories do not accept Cardinal Law's defence. "Was it not obvious in the 1980s that molesting little boys was a bad thing?" they ask. Cardinal Law should resign, they say, because, as the symbol of the Catholic Church in Boston, he is the only one able to perform "the symbolic act of repentance" for which the crisis calls.
Cardinal Law has responded to the furore by implementing the most radical, root-and-branch policy on clerical child abuse seen anywhere in the Church. His policy of handing over the names of priests suspected any time in the past of abuse has been increasingly adopted by other dioceses throughout the country, which one by one have begun to reverse decades of an approach which gave priority to averting scandal. Dioceses in New England, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, among others, have been reviewing their files for allegations, and have as a result suspended dozens of priests. They have also forwarded the names of accused perpetrators to prosecutors, although not always details or names of victims. Without such evidence, sometimes privileged by the sacrament of confession, criminal prosecutions leading to conviction can be extremely difficult.
But the Boston scandal has made the US Church highly sensitive to any imputation of a cover-up. In Maine, for example, two priests were accused of molesting teenaged boys 20 years ago; on that occasion, their diocese informed civil authorities, who chose not to prosecute. But last week the diocese published their names, because, as a spokeswoman, Sue Bernard, put it, "we felt under pressure to make sure we were disclosing everything we needed to disclose". Whether the two priests will be allowed to remain in their parishes will depend largely on the response of their congregations.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia also announced last week that a review of its archives had produced "credible evidence" stretching back over the last half century against 35 priests, many of whom had been routinely moved to new parishes. Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, has declared that any priest or deacon who is found to have sexually abused a minor "will not be reassigned" and should seek laicisation. "He will never return to active ministry", the cardinal promised.
But in Boston this policy has led to accusations of injustice. This week the tenth serving priest so far to be suspended - in this instance over a 30-year-old allegation - has been protesting his innocence. A spokeswoman for the archdiocese says that officials had held separate meetings with Fr George Spagnolia of St Patrick's, Lowell, a city north-west of Boston, and with his accuser. They had concluded that there was "reasonable cause" to believe that abuse of a then 14-year-old boy had occurred back in 1971. But "Fr Spag", as he is known to his parishioners, insists he has "done nothing". He is refusing to leave his parish until the charge against him is investigated, but says he will refrain from celebrating Mass in the meantime. He says the archdiocese's new "zero tolerance" policy has denied him due process of law.
A number of Fr Spagnolia's parishioners have come to his defence. They accuse Cardinal Law of leading a witch-hunt as a means of deflecting criticism from his own guilt over protecting paedophile priests. A number of lay people as well as priests have reminded the Archbishop of Boston and journalists that accusations can be false. They cite the case of Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, the late Archbishop of Chicago. In 1993 a former seminarian accused Cardinal Bernardin of molesting him but later retracted the charge.
The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop Wilton Gregory, last week offered an apology "as a pastor and a teacher of faith and morals, to the victims and to their parents for this failure in our pastoral responsibilities". Bishop Gregory, who was one of Cardinal Bernadin's suffragan bishops in Chicago, described the damage to the US Church caused by the crisis as "immeasurable".
But he said the Church had "tried to reach out pastorally and sensitively to victims of this outrageous behaviour". He also said he had been "heartened by the professionals who work with both victims and abusers, who tell us there is not another institution in the United States that is doing more to understand and address the horror of sexual abuse of minors". Very few of "the more than 40,000 wonderful priests in our country" were involved in such crimes. "We bishops intend to maintain careful watch," he said.
How that watch is kept varies widely across the country's 194 dioceses and archdioceses. Since 1985 most American dioceses have had to deal with of accusations of clerical paedophilia, paying out a total of some $500 million to settle cases against more than 100 priests. The USCCB's 1992 guidelines on sexual abuse, "The Five Principles", urged that alleged offenders be quickly removed from ministry, with their names being passed to the civil authorities where the law requires it. Yet dioceses are under no obligation to adopt these principles, and their implementation has been until now inconsistent.
Statistics released this week show that the Catholic Church in the United States is big, rich, and growing. There are now almost 64 million Catholic Americans - 23 per cent of the US population, more than six per cent of the world's Catholics - served by 46,000 priests.