The Catholic New World: Church hurting… but healing

By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

National Review Board leader Anne M. Burke painted a picture of a church in the midst of a horrific crisis, but with the possibility of emerging stronger, when she visited DePaul University in Chicago nearly a week after the release of studies on the extent of clerical sexual abuse of children in the U.S. Catholic Church and the causes and context of the crisis.

Burke, who has served as the interim chair of the national review board, shared her impressions of the situation—and the way church leaders have reacted to it—with about two dozen faculty, staff and students at her alma mater on a rainy afternoon.

“We are a people who believe in the ongoing mystery of grace, that is, the life of God at work in human living,” said Burke, an Illinois Appellate Court justice. “In spite of the long litany of horror that has befallen the Catholic Church, we believe that grace will transform the terror of the present, not by magic, but by our willingness to engage the truth. For ultimately, what the church has been engaged in these past 20 months is the embrace of truth, the often frightening reality of what humans are capable of creating for themselves.”

The John Jay College of Criminal Law of the City University of New York did the statistical study, mandated by the U.S. bishops’ 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth. It showed that 4,392 clergy—rationally about 4 percent of the priests who served from 1950 to 2002—had been the subject of sexual abuse allegations involving 10,667 victims. Eight out of 10 victims were boys, most between the ages of 11 and 14. (See Page 6.)

The prevalence of abuse was fairly constant in all areas of the country and in large and small dioceses. However, it was lower for priests who were members of religious orders, with about 2.7 percent of them accused of sexually abusing minors.

Until the report was released Feb. 27, that was information that no one—not law enforcement, not the church hierarchy, not Catholics in the pews—had, Burke said.