Gathered in parish meeting halls and basement schoolrooms Tuesday night, thousands of Chicago’s Roman Catholics voiced their suggestions, concerns and, in many cases, their anger over the church’s sex abuse scandal.
The 38 forums in Lake and Cook Counties were meant as a chance for parishioners to convey their impressions to Cardinal Francis George as he prepares for a meeting next month at which U.S. Catholic bishops plan to address the sex abuse scandal and weigh changes in policy.
In their allotted five minutes, some speakers called for a strict zero-tolerance policy to expel any priest responsible for a single act of abuse of a child. Others demanded that law enforcement authorities–not the church–handle abuse allegations. Still others expressed fear that innocent priests were being unfairly tainted in the frenzy of recent allegations.
The mood in many of the meetings was polite and cordial. But the words, at times, grew fierce.
“When the bishops meet in Dallas in June, they must clean house,” Thomas P. Smith, a 70-year-old retired lawyer from Glenview, told the standing-room-only crowd in the cafeteria of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wilmette. “They must assure us everything will be done to protect our beloved church and our beloved children.”
As with all the speakers at the forums, Smith’s words were being tape-recorded and transcribed by a court reporter to be part of a massive report compiled in the next two weeks for Cardinal George. The cardinal did not attend any of the three-hour sessions–by design, according to his spokesman. George did not want anyone to feel “inhibited from speaking freely” with the presence of church officials, said spokesman James Dwyer. Organized by a group of Catholic lawyers, the Catholic Lawyers Guild, the sessions were moderated by volunteer lawyers.
Attending an awards dinner for teachers in Elk Grove Village, George said he hopes a consensus arises from the thousands of comments. “I am really grateful to all those who are participating in this because it’s not an easy thing to talk about,” George said. “What we want to get is some policies that the laypeople will be comfortable with and this is one way of doing it.”
In anticipation of the bishops meeting next month, some other dioceses also have met with parishioners seeking input, but the Chicago forums were seen as being among the broadest such efforts.
Speaking at the forum at Holy Name Cathedral, Joe Murray aimed his proposals directly at the bishops meeting–on a policy question that arose again and again at the forums.
“I hope you will consider zero-tolerance, one-strike-and-you’re-out policy,” he said. “There should be no ambiguity to our purity on this matter.”
And, said Murray, “As part of a sign of healing, I think some of our cardinals need to place their resignations before the Holy Father.” Like many others, Murray said bishops who have protected or relocated abusive priests, in particular, needed to step aside.
“The bishops should address themselves to ending the abuse of children and the coverup of that,” he said. “This should not be taken as a forum on celibacy and/or married clergy, nor should it be a forum of scapegoating.”
Still, other speakers did address more general issues, including homosexuality in the clergy and celibacy. At least one speaker called for a study of sexuality in the priesthood.
Groups representing victims of abuse had mixed feelings about the forums.
Leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said they discouraged victims from participating in the forums.
Rick Springer, of Linkup, said he was impressed by the idea that the public would have a chance to have a say but disappointed that the focus of the forums’ suggested topics seemed to be centered on treatment of priests and bishops instead of on victims. “It’s a good thing to have people come speak, but they’re asking the wrong questions.”
Inside many of the forums, there were also words of caution from some speakers. Some said that all priests should not be judged by the acts of a few. Others stressed that even strict new policies must also aim to be fair to the clergy. And a few talked about allegations that turned out to be false.
At St. Thomas the Apostle in Hyde Park, a speaker said she worried, too, that priests not be removed from the ministry just for an accusation. “If it’s a criminal charge, they should go to prison for it,” said Ellen Credille. “But you’ve got to be able to forgive people and give them a chance again. This is their line of work, so you ought to let them do it if they can do it faithfully.”
At least two people who described themselves as victims of abuse by the clergy spoke at the forums.
A carpenter from the South Side said a priest at the West Side school he attended as a child in the 1950s had abused him. He said that although he has spoken of the abuse to others, his speech at the forum was the first time he had spoken publicly.
“I always admired the Catholic Church until this happened to me in grade school,” he said. He said he left the church because of what happened.
Many of the strongest criticisms were reserved not for individual priests or parishes, but for the highest leaders of the church.
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“The hierarchy has consistently placed allegiance to priests over allegiance to the victims,” said James Marren, 72, at St. Joseph Church in Wilmette. “The mishandling of this from diocese to diocese smacks of a coverup.”
“The church is not concerned with protecting my children,” said Ernie Majarucon at the forum at Queen of All Saints Basilica on the North Side. “The church is concerned with protecting the church.”
In addition to the tape-recorded comments by speakers, the guild will include in its report to Cardinal George a set of questionnaires that people answer at the forums and on their Web site. Those who wish to answer the questionnaire–at www.clgc.org–should complete it by the end of the day Wednesday, Hartigan said.
Before the meeting in June, the bishops are certain to get many more suggestions from many more sources.
University of Notre Dame president Rev. Edward A. Malloy has asked scholars and theologians at the school to submit their policy recommendations to him. Malloy said he would send the recommendations to the bishops before they meet.
In a meeting with Tribune editors, Malloy also said he expects there to be changes in some of the leadership positions in the American Catholic Church. “That would be good for the church,” Malloy said.