Posted on 10/21/2002 9:27:40 PM PDT by Coleus
Taking issue with the Vatican Monday, October 21, 2002
By JOHN CHADWICK Staff Writer
As he left church Sunday, parishioner Peter Melchiano said Catholics should consider sending a simple but powerful message to the Vatican about its handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. "I think it comes down to either zero tolerance, or zero donations," Melchiano said.
A schoolteacher in Paterson, Melchiano said he's outraged over Rome's rejection last week of the American church's tough new rules for priests who abuse children. The rules, which called for removing any priest for a single instance of sexual abuse, are in limbo until American and Vatican churchmen agree on revisions.
While Melchiano remains devoted to his own parish, St. Mary's in Pompton Lakes, he suggested that Catholics nationwide think twice when the collection plate is passed every Sunday.
"It's a very effective way for Catholics to tell the Vatican, 'Hey, we're concerned about this,''' Melchiano said on the steps of St. Mary's. "The church has to get rid of all the bad priests."
As news of the Vatican's decision filtered down to Catholic communities nationwide, some parishioners expressed anger; a national victims group distributed leaflets at major churches in 16 cities; and a Morris County priest invited his congregation to attend the next meeting of Voice of the Faithful, a lay reform group that banded together in response to the crisis.
At St. Mary's, the largest church in the Paterson Diocese and a parish known for supporting progressive causes, several parishioners said they strongly disagreed with the Vatican and called for a clear policy of zero tolerance.
"I think [the Vatican] is wrong," said Lisa Custode, also a teacher in Paterson and a Lincoln Park resident. "Why not zero tolerance? It would be that way for anyone else."
But Jim Henry said he feared the policy left priests with few rights in the face of accusations that in some cases go back decades. "As far as applying it to all cases from here on in, I absolutely support it," said Henry, a retired executive who lives in Wayne. "But when someone comes forward after 20 years, and we assume the priest is guilty - I have a big problem with that."
American bishops approved the sexual abuse policy in June, at the height of the scandal. The five-page document, the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, sets a uniform standard for handling abusive priests, and applies penalties to all past, present, and future cases.
Without citing specifics, the Vatican responded last week that the document conflicts with church law and needs to be changed. A committee of four American bishops and four Vatican officials is expected to meet in the coming weeks to make the changes.
Critics of the policy say it fails to provide adequate due process rights for the accused. For example, they say the charter lacks an appeals process, a statute of limitations, and a precise definition of sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, a prominent victims group spent Sunday distributing leaflets of protest to parishioners in Dallas, San Francisco, Cleveland, and other cities.
David Clohessy, national director of SurvivorsNetwork of Those Abused by Priests, said parishioners responded favorably to their actions.
"I don't think we saw a single person crumpling up our leaflets," said Clohessy, of St. Louis, "People who five years ago, 10 years ago, might have scowled at us were coming up to us and saying, 'It's terrible what the Vatican did, and we appreciate you being here.'"
And in a Morris County parish, the scene of one of the worst abuse cases in the history of the Paterson Diocese, the Rev. Kenneth Lasch invited his parishioners to attend Thursday's meeting of Voice of the Faithful.
The group has been banned by some bishops who fear members are pushing measures at odds with the hierarchy, such as allowing priests to marry. Newark Archbishop John Myers had prohibited the group from meeting on church property in his archdiocese.
Lasch, who replaced an abusive priest and was one of the first to speak out for the victims, said Catholics should attend the meeting and make up their own minds.
"I'm encouraging people to get involved," Lasch said. "I'm a centrist and I support a dialogue and intelligent approach. I want to hear truth from both sides of the aisle."
John Chadwick's e-mail address is chadwick@northjersey.com
Zzzz. Thanks for playing, Johnny. The group's been banned by some bishops who know members are pushing ideas in conflict with the Catholic Faith. The sentence as Johnny wrote it creates the impression that some bishops are trying to protect themselves rather than the faithful.
It is passed time to dismantle that useless USCCB,they have done nothing but create confusion and chaos among catholiics and Catholics. Until that reprehensible group of Jean Jadot appointments go to their grave there is no point at all in the laity sponsoring their treks to conferences where the only thing they do is schmooze each other,or worse.
It is passed time to dismantle that useless USCCB,they have done nothing but create confusion and chaos among catholiics and Catholics. Until that reprehensible group of Jean Jadot appointments go to their grave there is no point at all in the laity sponsoring their treks to conferences where the only thing they do is schmooze each other,or worse.
I agree. Their whole agenda has been to create a separate Church within the Church - replete with various apostasies, the promotion of sexual deviance, and the shredding of Catholic tradition.
I agree, but there is no way to do this. The bishops built the USCCB, and if it comes down, they will have to be the ones to do it, and I don't see this happening at all.
I'm am there with you! That whole thing in July was media driven. For crying out loud, the bishops don't need a charter - they just need to enforce existing canon and civil law, address the root causes and address their own failings as human beings and succcessors of the apostles.
Since this article makes mention of "Voice of the Faithful," I thought I'd tell you that today there is some information coming out about how they started and who started them up. The "Boston Priest's Forum" started a couple of months before the scandal broke. The story is that Cardinal Law was starting to crack down on the dissenting priests within the Archdiocese of Boston (and we have a lion's share of them) and the priests being disciplined weren't happy about this. So they organized and recruited a few high placed secular friends and the secular friends organized and jumpstarted "Voice of the Faithful" which is really an umbrella group newly named for "Call to Action," "Corpus," "We are Church," etc. What role they all played in breaking the scandal story in the Boston Globe is not clear. But you have to wonder at the timing of all of this (since the Globe knew about the abuse long before they finally "outed" the story), you have to wonder why "VOTF" does not address the "H" word, neither does the Boston Globe and neither does the Boston Priest's Forum. VOTF is trying to wrest financial control of the Chancery here...
I know the person who posts the "blogspot" where the begining of this information is trickling out and I can vouch for her integrity and honesty and orthodoxy. The blogspot is "Magisterial Fidelity"
Colleen,thanks for the post,I am going to be out most of the day so I'll cut short before I start on a "train" I can't finish.Talk to you later and thanks again.
Can anyone explain the fascination with everything Mexican and/or Hispanic on the part of the religious "liberals"/"leftists"?
I have nothing against it. It's just the unnatural fascination of the left that fascinates me. And they are not so nice to other ethnic groups.
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