Contact:
Carolyn Disco 603-424-3120
Cell 603-582-9084
James Farrell 603-692-7927

Priest supports calls for bishops' resignations

NH - VOTF - May 16, 2003 – Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a Dominican priest and major in the United States Air Force serving in Iraq, has written a letter of support to members of New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful (NH-VOTF) and New Hampshire Catholics for Moral Leadership (NHCML) for calling for the resignations recently of Bishop John McCormack and Bishop Francis Christian.

Rev. Doyle is a longtime advocate for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, and the only priest to testify in court in over 200 cases as to the legal liability of the Church, all decided in favor of the survivors. He is the co-author of the famed Doyle/Mouton Report sent to all bishops in 1985, which spelled out clearly the nature of sexual abuse as a compulsive psychological disorder. Titled, The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy: Meeting the Problem in a Comprehensive and Responsible Manner, he warned that sexual abuse has debilitating long-lasting effects on victims; that the church must never step out of character as a sensitive, caring and responsible entity, including in the actions of its legal counsel; and that failure to report abuse allegations is the most common error of the hierarchy. His estimate of a $1 billion cost to the Church is prophetically accurate 18 years later.

Rev. Doyle’s connection to New Hampshire is marked by his speaking at the Solidarity March last January at St. Joseph Cathedral in Manchester. In addition, he serves as an expert witness for Peter Hutchins, an attorney who has settled 79 cases with the Diocese of Manchester, and is currently in litigation with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, who run Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua. Rev. Doyle received the first Priest of Integrity Award from the national Voice of the Faithful last summer in Boston.

In his letter “To all of my friends and fellow Catholics in NH Voice of the Faithful and NH Catholics for Moral Leadership,” Rev. Doyle notes the erosion of trust in Bishop McCormack and Bishop Christian, both of whom hold major responsibility in their respective dioceses for the course of the sexual abuse crisis over the last several decades. He writes that in the scriptures, leadership is ordered to service, which may require risky and radical action. Instead, these bishops failed “to respond in a compassionate and caring manner to those whose bodies and souls have been so grievously wounded by the clergy. Together, we have demanded accountability, justice and compassion of our bishops. We have not found it…This reality demands action, not the hypocrisy of smooth though empty words of apology and regret.”

Carolyn Disco, chairman of survivor support for the NH-VOTF statewide steering committee, expressed deep appreciation on behalf of the entire committee for Rev. Doyle’s support. “His words as a priest give us comfort that our actions are in keeping with our obligations as faithful Catholics to speak out against injustice,” she said. Likewise, James Farrell, author of the NHCML declaration on the group’s website, www.nhcatholics.org, which has been signed by over 800 Catholics calling for the bishops’ resignations, welcomed Rev. Doyle’s powerful witness. “Here is a priest of enormous courage who is saying to all of us, stand up and be counted. We accept his challenge with grateful hearts,” he said.

The full text of Rev. Doyle’s letter reads:

“I want to offer my support to you in your efforts in urging Bishop McCormack and Bishop Christian to resign. I do so reluctantly because it saddens me to have been a witness, with all of you, of the erosion of trust in your bishops in New Hampshire. It saddens me because I have waited for eighteen years to see courageous leadership demonstrated from among the bishops of our country and instead we find ourselves calling for the resignations of those who chose to support their careers and their positions rather than step forward to end the nightmare we have been in for so long.

We are all members of the body of Christ. Leadership, we are told in the scriptures, is ordered to service in the community. If these words are to be real, then risky and radical action is often required of the members. The victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse have risen up and spoken to the entire Catholic community. Many others who are not victims have seen this terrible disaster for what it really is; not a passing annoyance nor an exaggerated creature of the media, but a massive failure of our leadership to respond in a compassionate and caring manner to those whose bodies and souls have been so grievously wounded by the clergy. Together we have demanded accountability, justice and compassion of our bishops. We have not found it.

Risky and radical action is now required of the bishops of New Hampshire. John McCormack and Francis Christian have failed to recognize the victims and survivors as the most important people in our church because they are the ones most in need of our care. They each have a legacy of pain and soul destruction because of their actions in regard to the perpetrators who ravaged so many. The only way they can effectively show the people of God and especially the victims and survivors that they really mean the words of concern that they speak is by resigning. By remaining, they stand as an ever-present symbol of victimization and re-victimization. The victims and survivors demand accountability and they surely deserve the most preferential treatment the church can extend. For too long the clergy and hierarchy have allowed this vicious travesty to unfold in the midst of our church. Now that it has been revealed to all, too many of our brothers and sisters among the clergy and laity remain in denial, unwilling to believe the breadth of the destruction. We must all wake up and accept the reality that has happened, painful though it may be. This reality demands action, not the hypocrisy of smooth though empty words of apology and regret.”

###

New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful (NH-VOTF) is the state affiliate of the national Voice of the Faithful in Boston, MA. Its three goals are support for the survivors of clergy sexual abuse, support for priests of integrity, and the shaping of structural change in the institutional Church. It was formed a year ago in response to the sexual abuse crisis with the motto, Keep the Faith, Change the Church. Its mission statement is to provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church.