AJC Home Edition
© The Atlanta Journal - Constitution
Friday, 06/14/2002
Section: News Letter: A Page: 1 Words: 979

U. S. BISHOPS CONFERENCE:
Bishops hear pain of victims

By GAYLE WHITE/Staff

Dallas --- A ballroom full of Catholic bishops listened in silence Thursday as they were battered with evidence of enduring damage caused by their failure to confront sexual abuse in the church.

Paula Gonzalez Rohrbasker, a petite mother of two, unflinchingly revealed graphic details of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of a seminarian --- and the emotional, sexual and spiritual fallout that continues.

"This crime has left deep scars in my soul," said Rohrbasker, who lives in Juneau, Alaska.

Michael Bland, a would-be priest who now is a psychological counselor, grieved aloud over the fact that reporting being abused as an adolescent cost him his vocation --- while his abuser is still in the ministry.

"I felt victimized again and again and again," said Bland, who lives in Chicago. "The sadness and hurt was in the sexual abuse. The anger is in the failure [of the church] to respond humanely or justly or pastorally."

Craig Martin of St. Cloud, Minn., broke down in tears several times as he described a history of depression, alcoholism and sexual aggression tied to his experiences with a priest.

The unprecedented testimony dominated the opening meeting of the semiannual gathering of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops --- devoted entirely to dealing with sexual misconduct in the church. The prelates are to vote today on a national policy to address a scandal that has cost the church four bishops, more than 200 priests, and millions of dollars in legal fees and settlements.

Notre Dame University scholar Scott Appleby laid the blame at the black-shod feet of the bishops and their "closed clerical culture." The group's president, Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., recited a list of confessions, apologies and appeals for forgiveness. He acknowledged that bishops have reassigned sexually abusive priests, declined to report criminal acts to civil authorities, worried more about scandal than the need for openness. and "at times, responded to victims and their families as adversaries and not as suffering members of the church."

Gregory called on any priests and bishops who are guilty of sexual abuse to confess.

Speaker after speaker --- including four victims, two Catholic scholars and an expert on sexual abuse --- urged the bishops to deal decisively with specific solutions, such as "zero tolerance" for past abusers, and with more general issues, such as greater involvement of the laity.

Atlanta Archbishop John Donoghue said the speakers changed his mind, convincing him that all priests guilty of sexual abuse --- even those with a single incident in the past --- should be expelled.

"I thought a priest who did this one time and led a good life with no other accusations against him should be maybe given another chance," he said. "Now I think we have to remove people like that from the priesthood."

The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the document that provides the framework for the bishops' discussion, calls for dismissal of any priest who commits an act of sexual abuse in the future or who has committed abuses in the past. It allows single incidents of past abuse to be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Two opinion polls this week --- one by ABC News, the other by Quinnipiac University --- indicated that more than 80 percent of American Catholics reject the idea of giving sexual abusers in the priesthood a second chance.

Bishop Kevin Boland of Savannah said a priest with a single case of past abuse should be removed. The question, he said, "is what do you do with him after that? Dump him beside the road? He's still a member of the church and must be taken care of in some way or another."

Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston, also in the province of Atlanta, said bishops needed clear understanding of the evidence required to remove a priest and how that would be done.

Anything the bishops decide would have to be approved by the Vatican. But even without Rome's stamp, American bishops can begin implementing policies in their own dioceses, said Jesuit scholar Thomas Reese, editor of the Catholic magazine America.

Blocks away from where the bishops were meeting, several advocacy groups held their own workshops and conferences.

Across the street, a few dozen protesters promoted their various causes under the eye of police. About 200 people from various Catholic causes staged an all-night vigil across the street from the hotel where most of the bishops were staying.

Janice Sevre-Duszynska of Lexington, Ky., displayed a poster of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" altered to include women.

Sevre-Duszynska, who was arrested for trespassing at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta during a February ordination service, said she was trying to keep alive the issue of women's ordination.

Nearby, Janet and Horace Patterson of Conway Springs, Kan., wore pendants featuring pictures of their deceased son, Eric. He shot himself in the head three years ago at 29 after years of troubled attempts to come to terms with abuse by a priest when he was 12.

Eric's picture was circulated throughout the bishops' meeting Thursday by Davic Clohessy, head of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Clohessy said he was molested by a priest over a four-year period from age 12 to 16. Standing in the hallway of the hotel afterward, Clohessy said he believed the bishops listened to him and the other speakers, but he refused to predict the outcome. Regardless of how the bishops vote, Catholics must keep watch in dioceses across the country, he said. "We've been down this road before," Clohessy said. "The road looks a little less hilly, a little less rocky. But the last thing we can afford to do is be complacent."

Graphic Type: Photo Caption: National victims group leader David Clohessy (top) of St. Louis holds a picture of Eric Patterson of Conway Springs, Kan., who committed suicide after allegedly being abused by a priest. / L.M. OTERO / Associated Press

Graphic Type: Photo Caption: Catholic bishops, gathered Thursday in Dallas for their annual meeting, heard victims of priestly sexual abuse describe their pain. / RICK WILKING / Associated Press

Graphic Type: Photo Caption: Betty Gudat of San Antonio (from left), Kenneth Fisher of Anaheim, Calif., and Sara Perez of Phoenix demonstrate Thursday across the street from the bishops' meeting in Dallas. / ERIC GAY / Associated Press

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