The Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg has outlined principles for priesthood and wants the Church to do what it can to heal souls and move forward.

By ROBERT N. LYNCH
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 19, 2002

As Catholic bishops throughout the nation gather in Dallas next month, American Catholics will focus intensely on the discussions, debate and actions taken. Every bishop attending the semi-annual meeting will arrive with certain knowledge of what our Catholic people are asking and what they expect as an outcome. What seems obvious to me going into this meeting is the following:

Dioceses and religious orders must be forthcoming in seeing that no child is knowingly placed in harm's way by either a priest or any employee. The safety and protection of children must hold the primacy of place in the administration of all dioceses and religious communities.

Priesthood is a privilege and never a right. When a priest abuses a minor, he loses the privilege of priestly ministry. The days of reassignment ended two decades ago in this diocese, and one would hope that they have ended elsewhere.

All church personnel must have knowledge of the reporting statutes of their own state and follow them assiduously.

Bishops and religious superiors throughout the country must implement a consistent and uniform approach that hopefully will become particular law for the Church in the United States after review by the Vatican. Those who ignore the standards or act otherwise need to be held strictly accountable.

The screening that now accompanies admission and continuation into our seminaries must be strengthened, and also it must be applied to any priest transferring into service in a local diocese from other places in the nation and world.

I am confident that there will be nearly unanimous agreement on the five principles I just outlined. What will be troubling to the bishops and to the larger Church is what kind of relief a diocesan bishop or religious superior can expect from the Holy See when it is apparent that an offender needs to be removed from the priesthood altogether. While priesthood is indeed a privilege and not a right, priests do have rights according to the law of the church. We have not succeeded in convincing the Holy Father and his Curial staff that there are occasions when a local diocese or religious order must act swiftly and decisively but justly in removing men from the priesthood altogether, not just from the exercise of priestly ministry. This process is often called "defrocking" in the media and elsewhere, but it is very difficult to accomplish.

The matter of requiring a report to civil authorities of all new (and some would argue old) cases will also be an issue. In recent weeks, I have been made aware by the local media that certain local police departments have been examining some accusations brought against priests who have served here in the past. More often than not, the police close the investigation with an acknowledgment that the statute of limitations clock has expired and nothing can be done. Even the police acknowledge that when victims desire to remain anonymous, unwanted publicity often brings a sense of re-victimization.

My hope is that victims will start with law enforcement and if they are unable to gain satisfaction that they will then come to the church for pastoral assistance and response. In this way, even the appearance of covering-up would be eliminated. Making them do that, however, will in my judgment guarantee that some whom we might be able to help will forever remain in the shadows of their own trauma, never getting any assistance to deal with what has been done to them. That is tragic and also wrong. We need to find a way for those who have suffered abuse to be able to report to authorities without the glare of unwanted publicity.

The St. Petersburg diocese recently has had to deal with two allegations that I believe to have been unfounded. As a pastor to all, including priests, deacons and religious, I must also take care to separate the genuine, credible allegation from those which cannot be substantiated or the allegation found to be false. In 6 1/2 years, no priest about whom a credible allegation has been brought has denied it. They admit their wrongdoing, and appropriate action is taken according to our diocesan and Florida Catholic Conference Guidelines. However, church employees falsely accused, even when cleared and returned to ministry, have to live with the reality that the complaint will always hang like a dark cloud over them.

To assist me in judging the credibility of accusations, I have assembled a first-rate group of women and men, lay and ordained. They take their work seriously and they will from time to time review my work as bishop and report to me and to the whole church their findings as to how we process allegations of sexual misconduct with minors. I believe every diocese needs such a panel and I hope this will be yet another recommendation growing out of our Dallas meeting. The membership of this panel and who appoints the members is a matter about which I remain very open.

Less then 2 percent of all priests abuse children. Ninety-eight percent are working their hearts out on behalf of God's people. The current crisis is drawn from the horror and tragedy of those 2 percent who have both sinned and committed a crime and the mistakes of some bishops and religious superiors in not properly dealing with them in the past. I renew my call to anyone in the five counties of the Diocese of St. Petersburg to come forward if you have a credible complaint involving a misconduct with a minor against any employee of the Diocese so that the Church, locally and nationally, can put this dark and difficult moment behind it and move forward with honesty and integrity doing the good things for which we are known.

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Robert Lynch is the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg.

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