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	Keeping Priests on Track By Patrick McIlheran Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [Milwaukee WI] April 24, 2005 First, new rules from the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee came out. Then, last week, the archbishop put them on hold. Meanwhile, of course, everyone's attention is focused on whether they'll be serving better bratwurst at the Vatican lunchroom. Still, something important is happening here in Milwaukee, important throughout the church and to anyone else revolted by the sexual abuse of children by clergy. It merits attention and certainly more than a reflexive rejection. Archbishop Timothy Dolan's rules were presented as part of an effort to salvage troubled vocations. The rules would place heavy restrictions - such as unannounced home inspections, travel with chaperons, so on - on priests and deacons suspected of misconduct. The rules seemed to strike many priests as oppressive, however, and priests appeared surprised by the rules rather than consulted about them. Uproar ensued. More surprising, however, was reaction from some groups that have most sternly denounced the church's handling of the abuse crisis. "The Patriot Act of the Milwaukee archdiocese," said an activist with Voice of the Faithful. One would think a clampdown on suspected abusers would be welcome. Peter Isely says the clampdown aims at the wrong target. Isely, a Milwaukee activist with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, contends that at least as bad as pedophile priests were bishops who didn't stop them. Hemming in men suspected of abuse does nothing to bring bishops to account or to subject them to outside oversight. A fair point, sharpened by its limits: Isely and his group expressly disavow positions on married priests, on ordaining women, on abortion. Many other critics, however, do not, saying the solution on pedophilia is to embrace their other agendas. If only the church would relax about gay marriage, the thinking goes, little boys would be safer. Such thinking has surfaced in reformists' manifestos and in popular culture. This linkage is hindering Catholics' response to the crisis. To say doctrinal tumult is the way to a church free of pedophilia immediately tells the faithful majority of Catholics they're not welcome in the cause. "Some of these groups need to keep their eye on the ball," says Isely. >From his standpoint, that's ending abuse, not pushing for married priests. "I just don't think the evidence is there . . . to link celibacy to pedophilia." What is linked to pedophilia is sin. The American bishops, post-crisis, have whole sets of guidelines on psychological treatment, but a church true to its principles also sees pedophilia as a violation of its belief that sex belongs inside marriage, not rampaging in the rectory. Dolan's rules seemed to get at this: All the strictures added up to "Avoid the occasions of sin." This is consistent. In 2000, Dolan published "Priests for the Third Millennium," a distillation of what he'd been telling men at the prominent Rome seminary he led for seven years. The book's message: Live right. This is key because Dolan has enormous influence over the future priesthood, not only through his seminary duty but now as head of the bishops' committee on priestly life. Said Isely, "What you're seeing here is the priesthood for the 21st century." What are we seeing? Dolan's chapters bear titles like "faith" or "prudence." His ideas are counterculturally antique: "Nowhere is the urge to conform ourselves to the ways of the world stronger than in the area of sexuality." In kitchen-table ebullience, he quotes saints for theory and then offers practical tips as valid now as in 1805 - such as daily prayer. For a church that believes in eternal truths, this seems fitting. What is the alternative? The modern spirit that sees chastity or obedience as hopelessly medieval has brought about, besides undoubtedly good things, a society ridden with divorce and depression. It has given us a popular culture that insists man cannot live without sex - a snickering assumption that, combined with the real wickedness of pedophiles and their superiors, has made suspects of all priests, even the faultless majority. Even if you object to the rules as too great an intrusion by an employer into employees' lives - though a key Dolan point is that priests are not mere employees - the spirit that animates the rules is that of a shepherd, not a prosecutor. I don't know that I support the rules as they were issued. But I'm fairly confident that what Dolan and his priests work out will be a step forward. Dolan's view seems to outline a priesthood that is again obedient - to Jesus and to the service of his people. This is the way out, Dolan seems to be saying: a return to belief, lest an unbelieving, unworthy church be torn apart by its own sin and this world's angry retribution.
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