Voice of the Faithful of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut
St. Paul the Apostle Church, New York, N.Y.

“And Justice for All”
Remarks by Pamela Hayes, Esq.
Member, National Review Board
May 22, 2004

When I was asked to serve on the National Review Board, I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity, which would enable me to help our church through the biggest crisis in modern times. I literally jumped at the chance, but in all my willingness to help, I still had one reservation…which I expressed to a very dear friend.

What would happen if I or if the group found out the real unadulterated truth? What would happen if we uncovered a scandal that was so devastating that it could shake the very foundation of the institution we call the Catholic Church? Suppose the child abuse scandal was only the outward sign of what was really wrong with our church? After all, isn’t child abuse symptomatic of an even bigger problem?

Where would my allegiance fall as an American Catholic? To whom is my allegiance owed if and when it is determined that there is something worse than we thought? Would we tell our leaders that there is something wrong? Do we soften the blow so they don’t look worse than they really do? And most importantly, how would we inform the laity?

Well, fortunately the board is a lay board that decided to tell the truth with all its embarrassing imperfections and findings. We found, in addition to addressing our mandate concerning the abuse of children and young people, several other issues that were not incorporated within our mandate, but which needed to be addressed by members of the laity like you.

As I have worked on our Board for nearly two years, I’ve concluded that our Church is entitled to justice. The Church as you know includes all factions, the child victims, the child victims who are now adults and have had their spiritual development arrested because their abuse was not addressed properly.

And there are the perpetrators, who have to be prosecuted and dealt with, whether in a civil justice system or by canon law processes. The perpetrators of these ungodly acts must face a justice that exacts from them exactly what they took away from our children, our community, and the credibility of the Catholic Church around the world.

Justice must include the laity and the priests who have remained faithful to the Church. As well as the Church leadership who have failed us in many instances, while others have stepped up to the plate and have tried to move forward. As it would seem that includes all members of the body that we call Church, but does it really?

What about those priests who have been falsely accused? What about those priests who have remained faithful to their vows, who have given everything to us and our Church, and now someone has accused, wrongfully accused them, of doing one of the more horrific acts that the world has known, but yet they are innocent? Do they not deserve justice? These are men who have never swayed from the principles and teaching of the Church, their vows and the laws of a civil society--what about them? Doesn’t justice require that they receive justice and be treated fairly also, or is it okay for them to fall between the cracks?

To be defamed because it is convenient, or to be swept up in a hysteria comparable only to a Salem witch trial, where we hold them under a sea of allegations and wait for them to drown, under a sea of falsehoods before we realize they are dead, and realize we made a mistake. Is this the lifetime achievement that they deserve? And most importantly, will the laity allow this to happen? Since the hierarchy isn’t doing anything about it?

What justice do you think they deserve? What about the misguided individuals who lie and blackmail, for whatever reason?

That is your job. We the laity have to step forward and do the work that has to be done. The National Review Board was created by the bishops to oversee the sex abuse crisis. The other issues that we now find out are still viable but are not included in our mandate, are your marching orders. The laity has to decide: What is happening with the other issues which have been unearthed, that only the laity can deal with? It is not the role of the National Review Board to go beyond its mandate. It is the role of responsible Catholic laity to address the issues that the Review Board found, which have to be dealt with.

The laity are no longer like serfs, wedded to the land of the First Estate. We are no longer an immigrant church that takes everything the hierarchy says as gospel. We are a free-willed, intelligent laity that can no longer languish under Church sanctions without process. This, we now have to decide. We have to talk with our bishops, our priests, and with each other, and participate in a real Church that speaks the truth with power.

You cannot sit idly by and wait for the other shoe to drop. You cannot wait. It’s time to take action by participating in your church. It’s time for you to lift your voices and take action. It’s time that we remain more faithful, as Jesus would want us to be.

The resignation of some Board members isn’t going to change the task of responsible lay Catholics. The task of sorting out the issues of a modern-day Catholic Church, is what is going to determine exactly where we go from here. We have to determine our fate. We have to decide, and the way we do that is to call to task our leaders, and work with them to forge a more perfect union, which will enable us all to remain true to our beloved Church.

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