| Mahony faxes positive spin
By ARTHUR JONES
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, in an Oct. 8 fax to his
priests, has assured them he “listened deeply to their concerns”
regarding the closing of archdiocesan ministries to prisons, campuses and
ethnic communities during the previous day’s annual presbyteral meeting.
But, said Mahony, despite pleas from some priests for a moratorium
on the cutbacks until there had been broader consultation, “the funds
simply are not there to return to ‘business as usual.’ ”
In a fax that put a positive spin on an event that drew, at best,
mixed reviews from the priests (NCR Oct. 18), the cardinal wondered if
“it was God’s Providence that the archdiocesan management team did
not carry out adequate consultation with you, the priests, and with other
leadership and consultative groups across the archdiocese”
He wrote: “I accept full responsibility for that lack of
proper consultation, but I also feel that this mistake created a positive
reaction -- and brought about a collective concern for the essential mission of
the church in our midst.”
He told the priests, more than half of whom had been present at
the presbyteral meeting, “Your enthusiastic commitment to our essential
apostolates and ministries must be shared broadly at each of your regional
synod assemblies. Allow our synod participants to catch the same spirit and
fire!
“While I cannot simply reverse the decision to balance our
archdiocesan budget,” Mahony said, “I can engage you, the regional
bishops, and secretariat directors to look at all possible options, and
together search for a phased-in solution consistent with available resources,
pastoral priorities and the work of the synod. However, given the wonderful and
committed voices of so many of you, I wish to add many of you to that process.
I experience a new and special bond among us, one that I deeply wish to
continue forward.”
If some priests were deeply disturbed by the financial cutbacks,
some have been equally bothered by having to present themselves over the past
months at [pastoral regional offices and parish sites] to be
fingerprinted.
The bishops of California’s 12 dioceses last year made that
decision to comply with a state law that requires all professionals who come
into regular contact with minors to be fingerprinted. Though not all priests
fit precisely into the category -- not all parishes, for example, have schools
-- the bishops, according to state Catholic conference officials, decided the
easiest route was that all priests submit.
Said one priest, later, “a lay friend of mine was almost in
tears as a car pulled up carrying a load of old priests who looked like they
were all over 90 and all looked duly humiliated, but seemed not quite sure what
was happening to them. A priest friend of mine remarked that the old
monsignori, now dead, would have swallowed poison rather than submit to the
indignity.”
To spare its priests the public humiliation, the San Diego diocese
contracted with a private “live scan” agency that brought its
equipment to the priests’ annual convocation. The agency then sent the
prints to both the FBI and the California Department of Justice.
Other California priests took the fingerprinting in stride.
The remarks of Fr. James Murphy in Sacramento, who was in the last
group of priests there to be fingerprinted, was typical of comments from
several dioceses when he said, “There’s a sense of sadness there but
there’s a realization that we have to do what we have to do. I’ve not
heard any grumbling, it’s just part of the new era were living in right
now. We have to be so careful in the schoolyard any more with
children.”
San Francisco archdiocesan spokesperson Maurice Healy said of the
process now nearing completion, “Most priests understand it’s a bit
of a bother and bureaucratic, but that we’re doing everything we can to
create a safe environment.”
Next year may bring to these same California dioceses a challenge
of another sort.
The California legislature has passed legislation, signed by the
governor in July, that lifts the statute of limitations on claims against
employers accused of failing to take reasonable steps to prevent child sexual
abuse by their employees or volunteers.
While the legislation does not mention the Catholic church
specifically, California Senate president John Burton told the Los Angeles
Times, it was aimed at “deep pockets” defendants such as the
Catholic church. Jack Smith, writing in Catholic San Francisco, earlier
this year, said the bill was sponsored by “trial lawyers specializing in
cases against the Catholic church, and by advocates for victims of sexual abuse
by priests.”
The provision gives plaintiffs a full calendar year, from Jan. 1
to Dec. 31, 2003, to bring their suits.
NCR checked with Catholic conferences in two other large
states, Massachusetts and Texas. In Massachusetts there is no similar
legislation mandating widespread fingerprinting, said executive director Gerald
D’Avolio, and no parallel legislation to lift the statute of limitations.
The conference did cooperate with other interfaith groups and the Massachusetts
Council of Churches, he said, on the wording of the state’s clergy abuse
reporting legislation.
In Texas, Holy Cross Br. Richard Daly, the Catholic
conference’s executive director, said the state legislature meets only
every other year and has not been in session since 2001. “All this [sex
abuse] turmoil has taken place in the interim,” he said. The sessions
resume in January, and he has heard, he said, “that there may be some
activity around the statute of limitations on precisely that issue.”
Arthur Jones is NCR editor at large. His e-mail address
is arthurjones@attbi.com
National Catholic Reporter, October 25, 2002
[corrected 11/29/2002]
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