By Susan Harding
KATU
April 4, 2010
http://www.katu.com/news/local/89883842.html
PORTLAND (OR) -- Sunday was the holiest day of the year for Catholics but the latest sex abuse scandal threatened to overshadow the church's message.
Portland Archbishop John Vlazny is not staying silent about the issue.
"There's a moment when the father of a family just has to speak up when he feels they're getting beaten up, and I felt like we were getting beaten up," he said.
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It's a sentiment that was shared by some worshippers at Sunday's Easter services, yet other Catholics are demanding answers after documents show the Vatican did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys. Other documents show the former Archbishop in Oregon, Cardinal William Levada, restored an accused priest to duty without warning parishioners.
Vlazny said he wants people to remember that Catholics are ordinary people who make mistakes.
"What religion is about is not us loving God, it's God loving us, even though we mess up. That's the real message of Christianity," he said.
Vlazny said if the church has to experience this public humiliation to eliminate child sex abuse, then it is suffering that is worth enduring. He said locally the church has put together programs to reach out to victims of child sex abuse and to protect them.
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