Bishop Returns from Meeting with Pope, by Clark Mason, Press Democrat, April 18, 2008

Bishop Returns from Meeting with Pope

By Clark Mason
Press Democrat
April 18, 2008

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080418/NEWS/165512759/1033/NEWS&template=kart

The bishop of the 150,000 member Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa said Friday he was not surprised by Pope Benedict XVI's focus on the clergy sex abuse scandal during his visit to the United States.

"That would be the elephant in the room," Bishop Daniel Walsh said of the numerous highly publicized cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members.

Bishop Daniel Walsh spoke to The Press Democrat on Friday, May 18, 2007.
Photo by John Burgess

"He spoke very directly on it."

Walsh flew back Friday to the Bay Area after spending two days with the pope in the nation's capitol, including a reception at the White House, a large outdoor Mass, and a meeting with U.S. bishops.

In his visit to Washington this week, the pope had an unprecedented private meeting with victims of clergy sex abuse and prayed with them.

The pontiff said that "great efforts have already been made to deal honestly and fairly with the tragic results of this situation," but he called on members of the church to reach out to victims of abuse and "do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation."

Walsh said that in a meeting with bishops Wednesday, the pope essentially complimented them for adopting safeguards in 2002 to deal with the problem.

Walsh said a number of measures were put in place, including fingerprinting of all employees and volunteers who have access to children, and reviewing personnel files to see if there were ever past indications of problems.

"We pledged ourselves to provide all the safety and precautions that we could humanly do, to prevent anything like this happening again," Walsh said of the charter adopted in 2002 by the bishops.

Asked if the pope's focus on the clergy abuse will put the issue to rest, Walsh said, "For the victims, it will never be put to rest. In the past they have been wounded. They need acceptance and healing. It takes time and each one takes its own course."

The clergy sex abuse problem involved 12,000 children and teens being violated by about 5,000 priests in Catholic parishes nationwide since 1950.

The church has paid out more than $2 billion in abuse settlements, mostly in the past six years.

On the North Coast, church officials have acknowledged payments of almost $25 million to dozens of victims of sex abuse by priests during the past four decades.