Priest calls for truth on abuse

Thank God for this fine priest. And I suspect there are many many more. Let's hope he brings them out of the shadows where our bishops hide. What must Law, Dolan, George, Rode all be thinking?

Come on priests! Don't leave your brother out on a limb. Stand up for truth. Small sacrifces now, great rewards later.

Right on!

I am really surprised this article was actually in the Distorter. Why--because most of the problems in this diocese occurred under the watch of NCR and liberal saint Rembert Weakland--who not only covered up crimes and intimidated victims, but was also a sexual abuser and embezzler himself! And yet he is still well-loved by the fishwrap crowd!

God bless Fr. James Connell for his courage, sense of justice and decency.

Wow! I wonder how many will come forward with the truth?
Certainly not the bishops, cardinals, or the pope,
their mission seems to be to protect the magical hysterium.

I remember in attending the 2002 bishops meeting in Dallas the editor of the local Catholic newspaper wrote a stirring call for the bishops to be open and transparent. "Truth is cleaning," the editorial said. Major reforms were also urged.

There have been repeated voices calling for the truth, but the bishops continue to seek secrecy and non-transparency. They are a morally corrupt lot. Most of their priests remain dutifully silent.

Thanks be for the few courageous Catholic voices.

I work for a Catholic school. Everyone in the diocese who works with children is required to undergo training using the Virtus program. This program is entitled "Protecting God's Children". For several years, I have been required to read articles online and answer questions regarding the material. A colleague recently noted that in the parish offices the pastors have asked the secretaries to read these monthly bulletins for them and answer the questions as well. So here's the summary:
1. Priests molested children.
2. Bishops moved molesting priests from parish to parish.
3. Scandal broke.
4. Priests were arrested, charged, etc.
5. Bishops/cardinals were given honor in the Vatican (Cardinal Law), or retired.
6. All priests, parish workers, teachers, adult volunteers must undergo Virtus training.
7. Priests skip the training and pass it on to their staff members.

It is enough to make the most "Pollyanna" among us bitter and cynical.

Why is it so hard for bishops and priests to just tell the simple truth?

Kudos to Fr. Connell. Time will tell whether we have more priests with his moral courage. There are two additional steps necessary to resolve the issue of accountability. Priests and bishops both must give up the very aspect of their authority that they abused and misused. That is, priests must give up mandatory celibacy and bishops must give up their exclusive authority to choose candidates to the priesthood and the assignment of priests. Anything short of those two steps and this crisis will only go underground but never reach the resolution stage.

What does the phrase "the complete truth" mean? As time goes on we can expect dozens of books to be written about the sexual abuse crisis, each looking at the matter differently. This is a story people will be telling and retelling for a century. So I think there's something too pat, something false and disingenuous, about Fr. Connell's demand to know "the complete truth." Anyone who has ever sat on a jury in court knows how difficult it is to ascertain the complete truth about even a minor event, let alone a situation with profound historical repercussions.

Bravo, Fr. James Connell! This is a first step for the clergy to come to come to understand their problems. No Bishop and certainly not this Pope have made even this first step!

In reading the above comment by "Anonymous" that the priests and bishops skip the training program Virtus which is meant to protect God's children, it confirms what I have learned elsewhere.

It seems to me that the priests, bishops, cardinals, and even the Pope do not want to admit their personal role and lack of accountability in the clergy sex abuse scandal, especially of innocent and defenseless children.

As a family physician, I believe that mandatory celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church has created a dehumanization of many men in the celibate priesthood. Fr. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer and a chaplain and a defender of victims of clergy sex abuse, has written that many men in the priesthood are immature.

I believe that celibacy has arrested the psychosexual development in many priests, bishops, cardinals, and even in the Pope. These men live in a bubble and are shielded from normal life experiences. This is not a healthy training for servant leaders. I believe that clerical training creates "little princes" rather than "servant leaders".

To me, it is amazing that I have met many good priests in my lifetime, because their experience and training in the Christian life is so unbalanced. Celibacy did not come from Jesus. It was a creation of the RCC in the eleventh century, in order for the RCC to gain more power and control over the lives of the clergy.

If priests were given the freedom to marry, I believe that they would become more responsible and protective of women and children. Marriage, whether in seminary, or as a priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope, should no longer be an impediment to becoming a Roman Catholic priest.

If Pope Benedict XVI is serious about wanting to correct the way of living of the Christian life for clergy, a major step would be to give the men the freedom to marry at any stage of their lives, if they wish to do so. Marriage and having children would certainly help to mature and humanize these men.

At present, in the celibate priesthood, loyalty to one another is more important than protecting the innocence of children. This is sadly true from the top-down. Pope Benedict XVI even reversed the resignations of two bishops in Ireland who were known to be complicit in the priest sex abuse scandals in Ireland.

The courage of Fr. James Connell in Wisconsin and the courage of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in Dublin, Ireland give witness to what mature leaders do in ending the crisis of clergy sex abuse, even when not given proper support from the Pope and their fellow priests and bishops.

These two men are to be praised for breaking from the strong peer pressure of loyalty to brother priests, whether right or wrong, to concern for the victims of clergy sex abuse.

I pray that more priests will become empowered and stand with those who have been abused by their fellow priests.

Also, the Roman Catholic Church needs a new leader as Pope, a leader whose vision is for the 21st century and not for the Middle Ages.

Sincerely, Dr. Rosemary Eileen McHugh,M.D., Illinois, USA

The truth must come out!

Thank you so much Father Connell for taking this stand. I have heard of no other priests taking this kind of stand and we need ALL of them too. Actions and efforts on the part of priests like you for the good of the whole church give me the faith I need to stay a part of it.

I think bishops and dioceses should go through the records and also make public the names of the lay psychologists who recommended these priests be returned to ministry to the victims can get their pound of flesh from them as well!

Absolutely; let's here about what really happened under the leadership of Weakland and Sklba.

I commend Fr. James Connell, the pastor in Sheboygan and the vice chancellor of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, for writing his Open Letter to U.S. Priests urging them to take a stand in supporting the victim-survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It has taken him some time to come round but the manner of his public stance is outstanding. Would that more priests would do something similiar.

God bless you James.

The bishops have operated largely under their own definitions of Accountability & Transparency since 2002 and it has had very little connection with Truth or Justice.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

IT's heartening to see a priest go after the Ur Enabler and abuser, Abp Rembert Weakland.

THE TIDE IS TURNING...like that basic physics experiment where a solution is supersaturated and cooled. One drop and kaboom the precipitate falls like snow out of the solution. Just one molecule, one courageous priest.

We have to give credit where it is due;
Instead of shifting the blame to secular society and homosexuals, the media and in particular children, as did one previous bishop from his diocese, this fellow appears to have been touched by the Spirit.
And thank you to Dr Rosemary McHugh;
It seems that the voice of a now deceased Sister of Charity Fabian, is finally breaking through.
She was left with the aftermath of many a mother and baby whose fathers were diocesan priests in Australia, after being approached by the Archbishop of the day, the legendary as he was often referred as, Daniel Mannix.
It's a pity she has been forgotten this side of heaven, even by that Spiritual State of perpetuity, where her messages to concecutive popes were loud and clear.
As for me I haven't forgotten, I have the memory of an elephant even if out of respect, who it is claimed never forgets, if not for myself for others.

God bless him! He has just destroyed his hopes for any advancement in the ecclesiastical old boy's club.

Fr. Connell and Dr. McHugh have both contributed a very clear picture of the problems from within faced by the Church today with some rather specific suggestions for their solution.
Speaking out may be the first step but knowledge without change is useless. We need alternatives. We know that war is wrong but we have yet to find an alternative that is both effective and acceptable. Dr. McHugh offerred a solution that was mooted by Cardinal Suenens during Vatican II. He suggested that the Pope be elected by the bishops and the bishops by the priests and possibly the people as well. A further step that might help would involve the validation of a candidate's vocation to the priesthood by his classmates, his fellow parishioners and priests who know him, not just by his seminary staff.
I would also thank Dr. McHugh for the various thoughtful comments I have previously read from her in the NCR which have been clear, to the point and without any personal animosity.

The seed of scandal was planted with the ordination of homosexual priests. If you're gay, the priesthood is not for you. Being a disordered lifestyle in the first place, it is little wonder men hid behind celibacy to escape the normal questions as to why they did not date and marry, but abused their roles as priests to molest young men. Satan used these priests to infect the Church and only by drumming homosexuals out of the priesthood -- and never ordaining more -- will this terrible scandal be put to rest. The priesthood is for real men, not figure skaters.

Thank you, Fr. Connell for having the integrity to do the right thing. A priest in Lowell, MA recently called survivors "cowards" from the pulpit. I cannot comprehend how the Church does not educate priests in how to deal with this scandal.
I commend you fom the bottom of my heart!!!!

dear fr. James I want to summarize in one word the reason for not finding openness from the Bishops: Accountability. If the bishops are to be open and truthful, many of them would ended up in jail for most of them are responsible for the cover up and the ignoring of the innocent victims and the only thing we hear is that "abuse" is only synonym of priests and deacons. I pray for you not to be oust or silenced by those who don't want to be accountable to victims.

On one website I ran across a figure that was suppose to be the total world wide estimate of abuse victims. It was in excess of 400,000. Reading this forum and testimony of victims who never report it, I wonder what the real number would be if it could be known.
I also would like to know ... but probably can never know ... how much the average Catholic priest knew about this behind the scenes but kept quiet. I am suspicious that most had some idea but said nothing.
And still it is considered a better solution to continue the down this road then to have women or married priest. What does this say about the church's attitude toward women?