Opinion: Church in crisis

Pope John Paul II missed an opportunity to use the Lenten spirit of atonement to confront the sex scandal facing the Roman Catholic Church. His pre-Easter message to priests, delivered last week, fell short of addressing the moral and legal dimensions of the church's protection of pedophile priests, leaving American bishops, who are struggling themselves, to resolve a crisis growing in scope and severity. A strong response from Rome could have emboldened the bishops to act. It also could have provided comfort to rank-and-file Catholics, which would have been especially helpful at the start of Holy Week, when Catholics are taught to renew their faith.

That John Paul chose instead to mystify what in many cases are criminal acts showed a moral equivocation from a pontiff who, on other issues, has used bluntness and strength for positive change. The issues at hand are not liturgical. Nor are they explained by an "environment of pansexuality" that a top Vatican official said was unique to the American church. The issue is how the church handles the behavior of its priests -- whether sex crimes are reported in a timely fashion; whether due process for accused priests is balanced with victims' rights; and whether the hierarchy is accountable enough for trust to flourish in the church's pastoral work.

The church's penchant for secrecy and its practice of moving priests around make it possible that few of America's 195 dioceses will go untouched by the scandal. That makes a speedy and national response by the bishops all the more important. Many dioceses have, in recent weeks, strengthened their protocols for handling problem priests, but patchwork policies won't correct problems that are both human and institutional. Last week, a former seminary student who says he was molested filed suit, charging that all U.S. bishops conspired to cover up abuse and citing racketeering laws meant to destroy the mob. This is hardly a legacy John Paul could want to leave the American church.

The absence of papal leadership and the slow engagement by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops means that Americans will have to assess the allegations as they come, case by case. In St. Petersburg last week, the Catholic diocese acknowledged it paid a former aide to Bishop Robert Lynch $100,000 after the employee complained the bishop sexually harassed him; a priest at St. Petersburg Catholic High School, meanwhile, resigned after a female student complained he gave her a hug and a kiss. These cases are far different from those in Palm Beach, Boston and elsewhere. Lynch has denied he harassed a former spokesman, Bill Urbanski, 42. No bishop, it should be noted, has been more direct and open in dealing with problem pedophile priests than Lynch.

Conservative and liberal Catholics may share some blame for the bishops' hesitation, for both are using the sex scandal to advance side agendas. Conservatives are using the sex scandal to bolster their attacks on homosexuality, while liberals are seizing the opportunity to call into question the priestly vow of celibacy. The bishops may have a success story to tell, if the reforms that some made in recent years could at least prevent some of these 30-year-old abuse cases from happening again.

At the very least, the Conference of Bishops, which meets this spring, has a special obligation to take steps to reassure parents that their children are safe around priests. Not only the priestly vows were betrayed; so was the public trust. The first step toward change is for the church to acknowledge that this crisis is as much about institutional failures as it is about human weakness.

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