By Chris Hubbuch
Lacrosse Tribune
May 19, 2011
http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_cc1efc5e-81d3-11e0-bfb7-001cc4c002e0.html
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| Bishop William Patrick Callahan delivers the Homily during his installation in this Aug. 11, 2010 file photo. |
The Most Rev. William Callahan welcomed the public release Wednesday of a report commissioned by U.S. Catholic bishops to determine the causes of the church's child sex abuse crisis.
Neither forced celibacy nor homosexuality were to blame, the study concluded; instead researchers blamed inadequate training that left priests ill-equipped for the social changes of the 1960s and '70s.
Church critics dismissed the study, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and funded largely by the church, as a whitewash, but Callahan defended its integrity.
"John Jay is not a church institution," the bishop said. "I don't think they came through trying to be nice to the church. Their people were genuine and honest."
Callahan noted that no other institution has undertaken a self-study of this magnitude.
"This is unprecedented," he said. "The fact that the church was willing to have this done expresses our sincere desire to help victims, our sincere concerns to make sure this never happens again."
In the past decade, there have been no allegations of child sexual abuse brought against a clergy member in the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse, said Jim Birnbaum, the diocese's attorney.
Eleven priests have been accused since 2003 by adults who said they were abused as children. Of those allegations, Birnbaum said, 10 were against priests who had died or were no longer in the ministry, and the diocese could not sufficiently confirm the other case.
"We don't have contemporary allegations," Birnbaum said. "Those are all handed over to the cops."
Though not accused of abusing children, the Rev. Patrick Umberger, pastor of St. Patrick's Church in Onalaska, was charged in July with possession of child pornography. Umberger died Nov. 30 with his legal case pending.
The diocese is also the subject of a civil suit by a Plover, Wis., woman who claims she was abused as a young girl in 1968 by a now-deceased priest who was later removed from the ministry over sex abuse allegations.
The Rev. James Connell, a priest in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, last year accused the diocese of refusing to change a policy that he said puts an abnormally high burden of proof on those alleging sexual abuse by priests.
Callahan said Wednesday that he plans to announce changes to diocese policies, but reiterated that Connell's concerns "in no way limited or in any way endangered" children.
"It did not limit my ability as bishop - or my predecessor - from protecting children."
Contact: chubbuch@lacrossetribune.com
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