Two firings bother Catholics
By JOHN BLAKE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/07/04
Some Atlantans were disturbed — even horrified — by the news this week that their archdiocese has dismissed two people holding positions required by clergy sex abuse reforms.
Ann Price, the former coordinator of the archdiocese's victims assistance program, and Sally Horan, a child sex abuse specialist, said they were dismissed for criticizing archdiocesan reform efforts.
The dismissals leave Atlanta's archdiocese without any qualified personnel to handle child sex abuse claims and training — an apparent violation of reforms mandated by U.S. bishops.
"It's like the city of Atlanta deciding that they're not going to have a police chief," said Richard Higgins of St. Thomas Aquinas in Alpharetta. "It's just horrendous. These are children we're talking about."
Atlanta Archbishop John Donoghue declined to comment on the dismissals.
Grace Whitmore, a Duluth Catholic, said she was angered after hearing that the archdiocese had rejected a proposed daylong sensitivity workshop for priests because officials said it would take too long.
"For the past three years, the church has supposedly been dealing with this issue and for [the church] to say a daylong workshop is too much says to me, 'I don't care,' " Whitmore said.
The reaction comes as reforms on the national level have seemed to stall. Leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently postponed adopting an annual independent audit to monitor compliance by dioceses.
The Washington Post reported that Catholic leaders decided to defer a decision on holding the audits until November. Bishops previously had said that they would hold reform audits each year.
Barbara Blaine, president of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the bishops' decision demonstrates that they already are backing away from recent reforms. "In reality, every bishop is like a king," she said. "He has the right to do anything and he isn't accountable to anyone except the pope."