Voice of the Faithful's Newsletter
August 16, 2007 

 

Voice of the Faithful Focus – A brief update highlighting both a problem in our church and some progress being made as we work together to Keep the Faith, Change the Church.

Progress
St. Ambrose University “get’s it”

The Board of Directors of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa has decided to remove the name of former Davenport Bishop, Gerald O’Keefe from the school’s library “because of the bishop’s failure to take the necessary precautions to protect children from clergy sexual abuse that occurred during his tenure as bishop of the Davenport Diocese.” The statement went on to say: “While a very difficult decision, the board felt it was the right thing to do for the university, as well as a step taken in the spirit of promoting healing within the diocese and, in a larger sense, for all victims of abuse.”

  • VOTF Vice President, Sally Vance Trembath is an alumna of St Ambrose. Click here to read Sally's statement.
  • Click here to read the statement of St Ambrose’s Board of Directors.

Problem
Vatican Secretary of State doesn’t “get it”

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State at the Vatican was honored by the Knights of Columbus with its Gaudium and Spes Award at the Knights annual Convention in Nashville. Speaking at a news conference the Cardinal showed great insensitivity and lack of awareness of the clergy abuse crisis in this country stating that the Church has “faced this trial with great dignity and courage” and went on to say that he hoped that “other institutions and social agencies will face this same problem with their members, with an equal degree of courage and realism as the Catholic Church has done; if they have taken care of the victims and those who are guilty.”

It is incredible that such a high ranking official at the Vatican would believe that the hierarchy in the U.S. has behaved with dignity and courage in a scandal that they have known about for over 50 years. Until the public outcry forced them to acknowledge the crisis five years ago, their constant modus operandi was to cover up the problem by paying “hush money” to survivors while transferring abusive priests from parish to parish so they could abuse again. Let me quote from the Philadelphia Grand Jury, just one of several grand juries that made similar findings.

“The evidence before us established that archdiocese officials at the highest levels received reports of abuse,” the report said. The diocese, according to report, “chose not to conduct any meaningful investigation of those reports” and “left dangerous priests in place or transferred them to different parishes as a means of concealment. ... They chose to protect themselves from scandal and liability rather than protect children from the priests’ crimes.”

The report noted the behavior of archdiocesan officials who oversaw the priests was: “not as lurid” as that of the sex abusers, “but in its callous calculating manner, the archdiocese’s handling of the abuse scandal was at least as immoral as the abuse itself.”

  • For more about the Philadelphia Grand Jury as well as similar reports from Boston, New York, Rockville Center NY, Manchester NH, Portland ME and elsewhere click here.
  • Click here to read the transcript of the cardinal’s press conference.
  • Click here to read SNAP’s response.

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