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Sex abuse study faults bishops Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8064707.htmhttp://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8064707.htm
Posted on Sat, Feb. 28, 2004
Sex-abuse study faults bishops
VICTIMS SAY SOME OFFENDERS ARE STILL PROTECTED BY CHURCH
By Brandon Bailey and Robin Evans
Mercury News
Advisers to the nation's Roman Catholic bishops issued two reports Friday that provide the most extensive portrait yet of the problem of clergy sexual abuse -- and lay much of the blame on church leaders themselves.
Echoing earlier complaints by victims' groups and outside critics, the bishops' own advisory panel concluded that some church leaders had been more concerned with shielding priests and avoiding scandal than with helping victims and weeding out abusers.
``Knowingly allowing evil to continue is cooperation with evil,'' said panel member and attorney Robert Bennett, who drafted one report for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He said the failures of some bishops is ``shameful'' and ``perhaps more troubling'' than the abuse itself.
A second study released Friday, also commissioned by the bishops, found that church leaders had received more than 10,600 complaints of child sexual abuse since 1950, involving about 4 percent, or 4,400, of all U.S. priests.
The president of the bishops' conference acknowledged the criticism and offered a broad apology for the problems outlined in both studies, while saying recent actions by church leaders show a commitment to preventing future abuse.
About 700 priests have been removed from ministry in the past two years, said Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., in a Washington, D.C., news conference carried live on the Internet. ``As far as it is humanly possible to know such things, I assure you that known offenders are not in ministry.''
Local Catholic leaders and longtime church observers said they were hopeful that the findings signal a commitment to change.
``The most important thing we can do is take a look at what we can take out of it as we move forward,'' said San Jose Bishop Patrick J. McGrath, ``to make sure we do everything in our power to make sure no one is hurt this way in the future.''
Some abuse victims complained, however, that most bishops have refused to identify abusive priests and that some accused priests remain in ministry.
``I tend to believe Bishop McGrath, but we don't have confidence in all the bishops as a whole,'' said Terrie Light of the support group called Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests.
While they are the most definitive to date, the reports released Friday are likely to provoke more debate. The authors said 30 percent of the 10,600 complaints were not substantiated, but were not disproved.
About 80 percent of the cases involved male victims, and half involved children ages 11 to 14. While the majority of cases involved priests abusing one child, a quarter of the accused priests were alleged to have two or three victims.
Some expect the findings will be used as ammunition by conservative Catholics who are concerned about gay priests, or by liberals who believe the priesthood should be open to married men.
Bennett, however, asserted that neither homosexuality nor celibacy caused the abuse. Instead, he said the church failed to conduct adequate screening, training and supervision of priests to make sure they could live in celibacy.
Church leaders say efforts to improve in those areas may explain why the number of complaints has declined since the 1980s. But criminologist Karen Terry, lead author of the statistical report, said some recent victims may not have come forward yet.
That may be true, said McGrath. The church will always have to be sensitive to the problem of sexual abuse, he added. ``This is part of who we are now.''
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Contact Brandon Bailey at bbailey@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5022.
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