ABUSE

Bishop apologizes; asks Mary's help to restore Church

By BISHOP HOWARD J. HUBBARD

It is fitting that this day of repentance and prayer on my part and that of my brother bishops take place on this Feast of Our Lady, under the title of her Assumption into heaven, because Mary is the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, the Patroness for our country and our Diocese, and the Model par excellence for Christian discipleship.

At a time when our family of faith is suffering so painfully and tragically as a result of the sins and crimes of a small percentage of our priests, and the manner in which bishops have dealt with these failures, we ask Mary -- our mother and refuge in time of trouble -- to help us weather this unprecedented crisis, and to intercede with her Son to bring healing and reconciliation to our Church.

Make no mistake about it: The focus of these days of prayer and penance is not to sugar-coat the problem or deflect blame for this scandal onto the media or those both within and without the Church who have been critical of priests and bishops, or who seek to employ this scandal to advance agendas unrelated to the problem at hand. Indeed, the media did not create the problem but exposed it, and the damage has been inflicted not by critics of the Church but by the failure of some priests and bishops.

Thus, the focus of these days of prayer and penance is for bishops like myself to acknowledge that terrible harm has been done to children and young adults by the sexual misconduct of some priests, and by the failure of Church authorities to deal with this misconduct in the most appropriate way, because of ignorance, fear or the misguided attempt to protect the Church from scandal, which ineptitude now has become the scandal.

So let me acknowledge my complicity in this scandal by failing to act in this matter with the forthrightness and transparency which the new "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young Adults" now calls for and, more significantly, by failing to appreciate some of the tragic effects of sexual abuse on victims and their families, and the corresponding need of the Church to be more proactive in bringing healing into their lives. For this, I apologize profusely.

I also apologize for the harm this breach of sacred trust and my handling of sexual misconduct has brought to the vast majority of priests who have never offended, but who have been tainted by this scandal, and to our Catholic faithful who have had to endure the shame of this scandal, and whose trust and confidence in the leadership of the Church have been shattered or shaken severely because the protection of the Church's image was given greater priority than the protection of children.

In other contexts, I have tried to offer insights as to why this horrendous scandal developed, how it was dealt with and what is being done to rectify past failures. Today, however, I simply want to acknowledge these failures candidly, to ask forgiveness for my role in this terrible nightmare and to pledge to do all in my power to insure that the reforms enacted in Dallas be implemented fully in our Diocese.

To that end, I have appointed an implementation committee, charged with reviewing each of the 17 articles in the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young Adults," and with developing a specific plan of action to give flesh and blood to every aspect of the Charter. Hopefully, this action will serve to prevent any further sexual abuse by priests or other representatives of the Church, offer relief to victims, and, over time, restore credibility to Church leadership.

I realize full well that the healing which needs to take place in our Church cannot be achieved instantaneously. Too much anger, outrage, bitterness, disappointment, mistrust and a sense of betrayal have been generated. But a journey of a thousand miles must begin with first steps.

The adoption of the Charter by us bishops in June; these days of prayer, fasting and repentance; and the development of specific initiatives to implement the Charter, are, I believe, important first steps.

Further significant steps must include, among many, the creation of greater structures of accountability within the Church, fuller lay participation in Church decision-making and more attentiveness to the grass-roots, lived experiences of all within the Church -- clergy, religious and laity alike.

I believe that Mary, whom we honor today, can help us on this journey of healing and reconciliation:

* It was Mary who responded to the announcement of the Angel Gabriel that she would bear a child conceived by the Holy Spirit and to be called Emmanuel, that is, "God with us."

* It was Mary who brought forth her newborn son in a foul-smelling barnyard stable and who endured the frightening insecurity of the refugees' plight during the enforced exile of the Holy Family in Egypt.

* It was Mary who watched with puzzlement and perplexity during her son's adolescence when Jesus insisted that He had to be "about His father's business," which assertion the Scriptures tell us Mary did not understand or comprehend, but pondered in her heart.

* It was Mary who was seemingly ignored or shunned during Christ's public ministry, and who witnessed the betrayal of His friends and the condemnation of His enemies.

* And it was Mary who held Jesus' broken body in her arms at the foot of the cross and who later became, as today's feast reminds us, the first fruit of Christ's Resurrection, being taken up body and spirit to reign with her son in the heavenly kingdom.

Thus, Mary is in a superb position to help us -- the Church, the Body of Christ in today's world -- to deal with the hurt, pain, anger, confusion, incomprehension, discouragement and disillusionment which this scandal of clergy sexual abuse has created, and to understand that these heavy crosses we have been asked to bear can lead, as they did in her life and that of her beloved Son, to victory and triumph over the insidious forces of sin and evil which plague us.

I am confident that through Mary's intercession and the unfailing assurance of her son that "I am with you always," we can perdure in the face of this current crisis and emerge from it a more humbled, purified, renewed, prayerful and spirit-filled faith community.

May that be our hope and prayer on this great feast of Mary's Assumption into heaven.