BishopAccountability.org
	Your View: Abuse Is Crime, Not Just Illness By Ann M. Bruno South Coast Today June 25, 2009 http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090625/OPINION/906250329/-1/NEWSMAP I read with interest the opinion piece that Monsignor John Oliveira sent to The Standard-Times ("A year to support Catholic priests," June 16). Monsignor Oliveira speaks of priests who have not lived up to their commitment and have suffered the illness of pedophilia. Pedophilia is more than an illness; it is a crime. Priests found guilty in a court of law have been convicted and imprisoned. It upsets me when I hear the church call it an illness and a sin, as if we could give some magical medicine to the criminal to change him, or even worse, pray away this depravity. This crime should not have been covered up with hush money and signed papers forbidding further punitive action on the victim's part. Church hierarchy failed in their duty and oversight of these crimes. I don't know if, in my lifetime, I will ever be able to forget that glaring fact. Cardinal Bernard Law's answer in a legal deposition always shocked me when he claimed that priestly sexual abuse was never on his radar screen in the 1980s. During my formation as a woman, I realized at a very young age that violating a child was wrong. Why didn't Cardinal Law? Sexual abuse crimes have happened in New Bedford, Boston, Philadelphia, Arizona, Kentucky, Florida, Los Angeles, and (probably) every other diocese in the world. The recent shocking Ryan Report details abuse in Catholic educational institutions in Ireland from as early as 1914 through 2000. The effect of all these abuses has shattered the worldwide image of the Catholic Church. The laity in general supports our church and priests. We are a sacramental church and treasure good priests who celebrate daily Eucharist. I know many attendees at Mass compliment their priest on a good homily. The same attendees should be willing to share their thoughts on a homily that did not mirror Jesus' message, "Love one another as I have loved you." I often send thank-you notes to priests who go above and beyond the scope of their ministry. We all need to be appreciated for our efforts. It is my hope that tomorrow and all the tomorrows of this Year of the Priests will make us all more conscious of the dignity of the clergy and the laity in the Catholic Church. We are all called to be priest, king and prophet by virtue of our baptism. We are all on this journey together, and it would be wonderful if we could walk hand in hand.
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