Facing Priest Abuses, Pope Initiates Healing The Pontiff Ends 6-Day Visit That Opened an Unexpected Dialogue on the Sex Scandal in the American Church, by Matthew Hay Brown, Baltimore Sun, April 21, 2008

Facing Priest Abuses, Pope Initiates Healing
The Pontiff Ends 6-Day Visit That Opened an Unexpected Dialogue on the Sex Scandal in the American Church

By Matthew Hay Brown
Baltimore Sun
April 21, 2008

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.pope21apr21001516,0,2527099.story

Pope Benedict XVI prays during his visit to Ground Zero, the World Trade Center site in New York, pleading with God to bring "peace to our violent world."
Photo by Todd Heisler, Associated Press / April 20, 2008

This was supposed to be an introduction. On his first papal visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI would celebrate a few Masses, give a speech at the United Nations, and let a nation that knew him by his reputation as the church's doctrinal enforcer experience his softer, warmer, more welcoming side.

Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, plans changed.

Shepherd One hadn't yet touched down at Andrews Air Force Base when Pope Benedict made his first comments on the sex abuse crisis that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church in America.

And he didn't stop there. The 81-year-old pontiff raised the issue again during Mass at Nationals Park in Washington. Then came the news that he had met privately with a group of abuse survivors from Boston, epicenter of the scandal. And, finally, word that the church is considering changes to the canon law that regulates its handling of abuse allegations.

Pope Benedict kept his appointments with the United Nations, the White House and the leaders of other religions. He celebrated Mass and met with bishops, Catholic educators and youth.

But he kept returning to the abuse issue, raising it on each of his first five days here, and in short order, a trip that began as a diplomatic tour became a pastoral visit.

Now, bishops and advocates for abuse victims are talking about new hope for reconciliation.

"All I can say is, thanks be to God," said Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, who joined Pope Benedict at the altar yesterday for the Mass at Yankee Stadium in New York. "It's something that he could have avoided or made excuses about, but it's the mark of the man that he saw how serious this has been for us."

A report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops counted more than 10,000 complaints of abuse involving more than 4,000 priests from 1950 to 2002. Dioceses in the United States have paid out more than $2 billion in civil settlements; six have sought bankruptcy protection.

But beyond those numbers, involving as they do only a small percentage of the nation's 67 million Catholics, the scandal has shaken the faith of many in their church's hierarchy. Some analysts have linked it to the rate at which Catholics are leaving the church in the United States, which is greater than in any other major American faith.

"We are encouraged by Pope Benedict's acknowledgment that the sexual abuse crisis was very poorly handled," said Dan Bartley, president of Voices of the Faithful. "This acknowledgment provides a fresh starting point for us to begin healing and transforming our church."

Bartley, whose group came together in Boston in the wake of the scandal to call for greater transparency and lay involvement, said American bishops should follow Pope Benedict's example in treating abuse victims "with the compassion and respect they deserve."

"And we still ask the question," Bartley said: "How can the Catholic Church be a moral beacon while the bishops that moved abusive priests from parish to parish remain in office?"

At the least, Pope Benedict showed those affected that they have his attention.

"Certainly, one of the criticisms of [Pope] John Paul II was that he didn't really understand the full nature of the problem," said Mathew Schmalz, a professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross. "I think what you can say now is that the pope gets it. This will, I think, give greater impetus to victims groups to approach the hierarchy for some kind of reconciliation."

That hierarchy has received its instructions. In Washington, Pope Benedict reminded American bishops of their "God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged."

"In saying that, he was admitting that the wounds are still open and that there's still work to be done," Schmalz said. "I know many members of victims groups have a kind of wait-and-see attitude now."

Visiting in the thick of a presidential campaign, Pope Benedict was careful to avoid statements that could suggest a papal endorsement of a particular candidate or platform. But he stressed that religious believers must be allowed to act on their faith in their public lives.

"The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship," he told the United Nations General Assembly. Rather, he said, it should include "the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order."

How the pontiff's call for Catholics to bring their faith into public life will affect American politics is another question. During the 2004 presidential election, some bishops said they would deny communion to politicians who supported abortion rights. That year, Catholic voters favored Republican President Bush, a Methodist, over Democrat John Kerry, a Catholic.

But the breadth of Catholic teaching does not fit comfortably with either major party. The church opposes abortion and embryonic stem cell research, as do most Republicans; but it stands against the death penalty and the war in Iraq, like most Democrats.

At the United Nations, where he spoke on human rights, Pope Benedict called for "a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation."

With Bush, the pope discussed what the Vatican and the White House described in a joint statement as "the need for a coordinated policy regarding immigration, especially their humane treatment and the well-being of their families." The leaders also "touched on the need to confront terrorism with appropriate means that respect the human person and his or her rights," according to the statement.

And during his homily yesterday at Yankee Stadium, Pope Benedict spoke of the "inalienable dignity and rights of each man, woman and child in our world - including the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child in the mother's womb."

Part of Pope Benedict's mission, as he made what might be his only papal visit to the United States, was to energize Catholics in their faith. At every stop, from the meeting with bishops in Washington to a rally for youth in New York, the soft-spoken former theology professor focused on encouragement.

For Sarah and Michael Gillman, Baltimoreans who attended the Mass at Nationals Park, the pope's appearance had the desired effect.

"It's such an amazing thing to be able to see the holy father in the United States," said Sarah Gillman, a medical student at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. "It's exciting just to be able to get together with so many Catholics, sharing the experience."

O'Brien called Pope Benedict's visit "a milestone for the Catholic Church in the United States." What lies ahead, he said, is a period of reflection.

"We're going to have to sort out all the messages and insights he has given us," O'Brien said. "It's going to take some time."

matthew.brown@baltsun.com