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	Bishop Offers Apology to Sex Assault Victims By Mary Beth Smetzer The News-Miner [Fairbanks] June 9, 2007 http://newsminer.com/2007/06/09/7389 In a dramatic ceremony prior to a healing Mass on Friday, Bishop Donald Kettler apologized and asked for forgiveness from those hurt by sexual abuse throughout the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese. "I stand before all of you this evening to say that I, we, and all of us in the Church, past and present, are deeply sorry," Kettler said. "Words are often cheap, especially when many are without much meaning. I promise that mine will be few, but please note that they are spoken from the heart." The leader of the far-flung diocese, which stretches north from the Alaska Range to the Arctic Ocean, bounded on the east by the Canadian border and on the west by the Bering Sea, said his remarks were especially directed to Alaska's first people. He made them a pledge. "I promise that I will do all that is in my power to heal the wounds of clergy sexual abuse and restore the innocence of the lost," he said. A wooden pole was broken during the ceremony and later lashed together in the form of a cross as an act of reconciliation. The healing liturgy is part of a continuing effort by the diocese to restore trust in the Alaska mission church, which has been overwhelmed with approximately 140 lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by clerical staff over the last half century. The Society of Jesus, which supplied the majority of priests to many of the remote, Bush communities is also named in most of the civil cases. According to Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa, who is representing the majority of plaintiffs, litigation has been ongoing since August 2002 and the first lawsuit against the Fairbanks diocese was filed in 2003. Since then the complainants have snowballed. The bulk of the 140 cases have been filed in the last two years. Roosa said he is still getting calls from alleged clerical victims, including two in the past week. "It's slowed down to a trickle," Roosa said Friday. "I think there are a lot more victims out there, but most who are going to call have called." Roosa calculates that 24 victims of clerical sexual abuse have committed suicide. "These suicides have been corroborated by numerous (other) victims," he said. To date, the diocese has settled only a handful of the civil cases out of court. Friday's turnout at the Holy Family Chapel at Monroe Catholic Schools was small. Diocesan counselors were on hand to talk to anyone interested in talking, and a communal meal followed the service. This is the first time the public process of contrition has been held in Fairbanks, said Robert Hannon, special assistant to Kettler, in an interview before the ceremony. Hannon said it wouldn't be the last. "Even people who know people who have been victims, feel betrayed as well," Hannon said. "We are committed to making sure that this won't happen again. We all want to heal." Healing services have been held in Holy Cross and St. Marys and listening sessions in about a dozen other communities. In an interview Thursday, Kettler said the church's first focus has been to establish a safe environment for children throughout the large, diverse diocese, to prevent abuse from happening again. Kettler said that in his travels around the half-million-square mile diocese, it is obvious that there is still a need for healing of the past by those abused and everyone else affected by the secrecy and denial of abuse by the church. Kettler said he hears from local pastors and Fairbanks area Catholics about how they have been negatively affected by the revelations of clerical abuse of children. Mistrust of the church and particularly toward the bishops, whether or not they were responsible for moving offenders around or not taking complaints seriously, are commonly expressed, Kettler said. "That is why it is important to do this. This is not the last one (healing service). This is a beginning and it is just a step." At Friday's service, Kettler noted that Catholic missionaries arrived in Alaska more than a century ago, and came with the best of intentions and the fire of God's love burning in their hearts, but lost their way. "We reached out to you in faith and you reached back in trust. We stepped out of boats and you helped us ashore. "You helped us and we took away your language, your culture, your land, your innocence. You trusted us and we broke your trust. "Now the time has come to say how very, very sorry we are, and to ask for your forgiveness. But I believe things can be made better. "For all of us together, all the people of the promise, can be remade in the image and light of God, but only if the truth is told." Contact staff writer Mary Beth Smetzer at 459-7546 or msmetzer@newsminer.com.
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