by Michael Vuolo
NARRATION: According to a report issued in February and commissioned by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, four percent of priests between 1950 and 2002 were accused of sexually abusing minors. Critics of the study argue that these numbers are dramatically underreported ... but whatever the actual figures, the questions now are ONE: How could this have happened? and TWO: What should be done to ensure it doesn't happen again? David Powell studied for the priesthood in the late 1960s ... a time when the incidence of abuse among clergy began to spike. On a recent Sunday, he was at the St. Boniface Oratory Church in downtown Brooklyn.
TAPE: POWELL: In 1960 or so, seminary was a way of withdrawing from the world ... and I think that that was part of the problem ... I don't think that any of us were prepared enough to realize that when you go back out into the world ... your whole sexuality was gonna be tested.
NARRATION: Powell says that many priests and seminarians were emotionally immature, a sentiment echoed strongly in the report and attributed to a lack of psychological testing at the time. As to the second question ... what can be done now? ... Powell believes the Voice of the Faithful, is part of the solution.
TAPE: POWELL: It's allowing the ordinary Catholic in the pew ... a chance to articulate their discontent with this medieval feudal clerical system ... and say we want accountability ... we are loyal Catholics ... we love the Roman Courier ... but we are mad.
TAPE: WILSON: It's time for lay people to assert themselves a lot more than they have over the past.
NARRATION: Ed Wilson is a life-long Catholic and Brooklyn coordinator for Voice of the Faithful. He spoke over lunch in Brooklyn Heights, where he lives.
TAPE: WILSON: We do know that unless we change this culture ... unless the bishops start being held responsible for what they do ... then as this fades from the headlines over the years, it will sprout up again.
NARRATION: With the exception of Boston's Cardinal Law, there has been little or no consequence for decades of shuffling around abusive priests. And so Voice of the Faithful wants greater accountability and greater lay involvement in the hierarchy of the Church. But talk of 'structural change,' a phrase used by the VOTF, makes local bishops nervous. Many Voice of the Faithful groups across the country have been banned from meeting on church property ... including, originally, the Brooklyn chapter. Until the Spring of 2003, when auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Catanello met with the group.
TAPE: CATANELLO: We wanted to make sure there was no moving away from the teachings of the church ... there was no compromising of any of the things we believed and they kind of reassured us that there would be none of that at all.
NARRATION: Again, Ed Wilson.
TAPE: WILSON: Ever since Bishop Daly lifted the ban almost a year ago ... and pronounced that our beliefs were in accordance with Catholic teaching ... we've gotten pretty good cooperation from middle-level people in the diocese of Brooklyn ... and we're hoping that'll become a model for other diocese.
NARRATION: Brooklyn Bishops have given names of accused priests to local prosecutors and set up committees and educational programs to protect children. Unfortunately, this cooperation hasn't always filtered down to the parish level. Mary Kiernan, a resident of Rockaway Beach, approached her local pastors about Voice of the Faithful.
TAPE: KIERNAN: You can sort of see an invisible shield going up. They don't know what to do with us. Are they afraid, are they ashamed? We don't really know. They won't talk about it. There's silence.
NARRATION: To heal the wounds of the last half-century, committed lay Catholics will continue to talk about transparency and accountability and structural change ... even if some in the Church, says Kiernan, will only begrudgingly ... talk back. For Columbia Radio News, I'm Michael Vuolo.
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