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	John Patrick Grace: Catholic Church Takes Step to Counter Abuse The Herald-Dispatch August 9, 2010 http://www.herald-dispatch.com/opinions/x1358799108/Catholic-church-takes-step-to-counter-abuse Shock. Hurt. Disappointment. These, typically, are the first reactions from people affected by the uncovering of pedophile abuse in their midst, whether it be in a church, a school or a home. Two cases recently come to light involve, once again, priests from my faith community, the Roman Catholic Church. One priest, the Rev. Patrick Umberger -- or "Father Pat" to most of his parishioners in Onalaska, Wis., in the LaCrosse Diocese -- has been suspended pending investigations into a complaint that he'd been harboring sexually graphic images of children on his computer. The other case hits closer to home. A priest named The Rev. Felix C. Oswino, Ph.D., who arrived in Wheeling last year from Africa to teach philosophy at Wheeling Jesuit University, is being held without bond in Fairfax, Va., on charges of aggravated sexual battery of a minor. Meanwhile, the Vatican is tightening up disciplinary measures and encouraging more rapid investigation of clergy -- or laypeople -- accused of any kind of sexual abuse of minors. And for the first time the Vatican has defined possession of child pornography as one form of such abuse. For the parishioners of St. Patrick's Church in Onalaska, the question seems to be: "Why didn't the diocese do something about this sooner? How much did they know? And when did they know it?" Father Umberger had been arrested but released some months before the pornography was discovered in his possession, when he was seen following boys into a restroom at a local water park. Police decided then that there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. Clearly, the great volume of such cases involving Catholic priests now lies in the past, in the decades of the '70s, '80s and '90s. In those times a number of bishops almost routinely seemed to move priests from one parish to another when charges of abuse were raised, and rarely turned matters over to civil authorities. There were exceptions, including, happily, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. The diocese had relatively few cases of abuse, and virtually all of them were brought to light and dealt with firmly -- suspension of priestly faculties and usually civil prosecution. Since the late 1990s the Catholic church in America has had in place a program of screening and training called VIRTUS designed to qualify clergy and laypeople for contact with children and adolescents. I recently had occasion to be put through the VIRTUS program myself in order to serve on the team for a youth retreat. The program consists of a background check and the filling out by the candidate of a questionnaire relating to previous history of contact with children, and the viewing of two 20-minute DVDs on sexual abuse. The DVDs contain interviews with both abusers who have served time for their crimes and victims of abuse. I do think that the DVDs could be tougher. For instance, I saw a clip on Pat Robertson's 700 Club that went much more deeply into the question and also showed more wrenching effects (including the victims becoming suicidal) than the VIRTUS DVDs did. Also, the abusers who confessed on the VIRTUS DVDs were laymen; no convicted priest abuser appeared. Moreover, only one victim of sexual abuse by a priest was highlighted. The other victims featured in the DVD had been abused by laypeople. Still in all, I find it excellent that the VIRTUS program now exists and that the church has tightened up screening of all individuals who have contact with children. John Patrick Grace is a former seminarian for the Catholic priesthood. Later he covered the Vatican for The Associated Press and served as religion editor for The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record. He is currently a book editor and publisher based in Huntington.
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