IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller
By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — After the first allegations of abuse against Archbishop Theodore E.
McCarrick were publicized in mid-June, employees at the U.S. bishops’
conference headquarters in Washington were bracing for calls from Catholics
confused, outraged or anything in between regarding the emerging scandal.
The big
surprise: More Catholics were calling in — and kept calling — to ask how they
could be foster parents to immigrant children who had been separated from their
parents by the U.S. government at the U.S.-Mexico border.
That
didn’t last long, though.
The
foster-parent calls receded and the abuse-related phone calls picked up in
volume and intensity, according to Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director
of the Secretariat for the Protection of Children and Young People at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Deacon
Nojadera said he doesn’t know exactly why people call his office. He suggested
it may be that callers expect that the office can issue reprimands to any suspected
cleric: “What are you going to do about it?”
But
that’s not the case, he told Catholic News Service in an Aug. 13 interview. Priests accused of abuse are subject to the discipline of their diocesan bishop or
religious superior; if found guilty of misconduct, priests may be laicized by the Vatican. Accused bishops, though, are subject
first to the Vatican.
Parents
who call sound worried, the deacon added: “How do I know my child’s going to be
safe if he’s in formation or if he’s in seminary?”
The three most notable cases
this summer involve Archbishop McCarrick, who is facing a credible allegation of abusing a minor and is believed to have harassed and
abused seminarians even after they were ordained to the priesthood; the Diocese
of Lincoln, Nebraska, where a vocations director who died in 2008 has recently been
accused of harassment; and the Archdiocese of Boston, where Cardinal Sean P.
O’Malley ordered an investigation of the archdiocesan seminary after abuse
reports surfaced in early August.
“Our
first job is to listen, to be empathetic,” Deacon Nojadera said. Some of the
callers, he acknowledged, are angry. “Well, I’m angry, too,” he told CNS.
Without prayer, he added, “I can’t do what I’m doing,”
Both
the National Review Board and the bishops’ Committee on the Protection of
Children and Young People are scheduled to meet in September. Deacon Nojadera
said his office hopes to be able to give each body guidance on strengthening
the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” approved by the
bishops in 2002.
“In
2002, we were responding to a very specific situation: the abuse of children by
priests,” Deacon Nojadera said. “I still hold it’s a very good document. It’s
better than nothing. It has its strengths, it has its weaknesses.” He added,
“We need to have a very serous discussion on what we can do to improve what’s
mandated by the charter.”
The
charter, amended in 2011 and again earlier this year. did not take into account
the possibility that bishops could be abusers, or that abuse victims could be
adults, much less seminarians and priests whose path to — and following —
ordination could be stymied by bishop-abusers.
The
increased call volume experienced by Deacon Nojadera and his staff has not been
experienced in two dioceses contacted by CNS.
“We’ve
all spent time processing among staff and clergy, because this is another level
of concern and another level of distress for all Catholics,” said Beth Heidt
Kozisek, victim assistance coordinator for the Diocese of Grand Island,
Nebraska, in a phone interview with CNS. “But we really haven’t had an increase
in the number of calls from parishioners or general members of the community.”
The
allegations against Archbishop McCarrick, a former cardinal, weren’t published in either the Omaha
World-Herald, Nebraska’s largest newspaper, or the local daily, The Grand
Island Independent, Kozisek said. “I found it online but I didn’t see any
comments online,” she added. “Is that a sign of our rural culture — nobody’s reading
the news? They’re busy farming and other activities?”
“Baton
Rouge has not experienced an increase in allegations or calls in the last month
due to the Cardinal McCarrick story,” said an email to CNS from Amy Cordon,
victim assistance coordinator for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“My
colleagues and I do not see our ministry to victims of clergy abuse as a job. We
are ministers,” Cordon said of herself and her fellow victim assistance coordinators. “And
our boss, Jesus Christ, never disappoints.
“This
is why you are not seeing a mass exodus of victim assistance coordinators when
these stories continue to break 10-plus years after the charter was written,”
she added. “Most of us work under truly holy men of God and are very
fortunate to have good bishops who care for those who have been harmed. I can
certainly say that is the case in Baton Rouge.”
Deacon
Nojadera recalled the instance of one caller, who had worked with the resigned
cardinal, first weeping with anguish over the phone and then voicing anger over
the situation. “First, I have to listen,” he said.
But the
moment, he said, may signify the need for “a spiritual cleansing in the church.”
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