'We know it’s not going to be pleasant': Priests ponder when, how to prepare parishioners for report

By Peter Smith
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 02, 2018

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At a recent weekday Mass, the Rev. Lou Vallone dealt directly with the looming grand jury report on sexual abuse in Pittsburgh’s and five other Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses.

“We know it’s coming, we know it’s not going to be pleasant, but we know it’s necessary,” said Father Vallone, pastor of St. John of God Parish in McKees Rocks and St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Crescent. As the church teaches about its sacrament of penance or confession, he said, “the sinner has to go in and say, ‘I did this,’ or he’s never going to be on the path of reconciliation.”

As the Pennsylvania Supreme Court considers whether and when to authorize the release of the voluminous grand jury report, some priests are raising the issue with parishioners, but others are waiting until the report comes out to respond to it.

Several priests didn’t respond to phone messages on the subject from the Post-Gazette, and some who did said they would address the report once it comes out, if it does.

No doubt the priests are busy these days for reasons unrelated to the grand jury.

In April, Bishop David Zubik announced the most sweeping parish reorganization in a generation. Virtually every parish in the diocese is on track to merge with at least one other within the next five years. Most priests are preparing to take on new assignments in new parish groupings in October, when Mass schedules also will change.

The Rev. Richard Infante, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish in Scott, said he has informed staff members of the grand jury report, but he is holding off on talking about it to parishioners while it remains sealed pending Supreme Court review. He and parishioners of Our Lady have been busy in recent weeks working with their counterparts at St. Bernard Parish in neighboring Mt. Lebanon to prepare for their eventual merger.

At least one priest discussed the grand jury in a column in the parish bulletin. The Rev. James Torquato, pastor of All Saints Parish in Aspinwall, sought to assure his parishioners that the grand jury would contain largely old news.

“While this report may once again shake the faith of some Catholic Christians, it will primarily contain information that has been known for decades now — including information on cases which date back to nearly 75 years ago,” Father Torquato wrote in his parish’s June 24 weekly bulletin.

He did not indicate what he based that prediction on. The report remains sealed, although the Diocese of Pittsburgh and other dioceses obtained copies of the report weeks ago so they could prepare formal responses to it. Father Torquato wrote that the Catholic Church has led “the way since 2001 in protecting and reporting cases of child abuse” and in screening clergy, staff and volunteers.

There are indications from other dioceses that there could be significant new revelations about Pittsburgh from this report.

A 2016 grand jury report on the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown identified several previously unidentified allegations of abuse by priests and others.

And the Diocese of Erie, conducting its own review in tandem with the most recent grand jury, has identified 57 priests and others associated with the church who have faced credible accusations over the past several decades, a significantly higher total than previously known.

In addition to Pittsburgh and Erie, the recent grand jury also probed the dioceses of Greensburg, Harrisburg, Allentown and Scranton.

Saturday night, the Greensburg diocese announced that a priest was removed from his assignment Friday. The diocese said it received a child abuse allegation on Thursday against the Rev. James W. Clark that dates to events five decades ago, prior to his entrance into the seminary.

Father Clark was parochial vicar of St. Mary (Nativity), St. John the Evangelist, St. Therese, Little Flower of Jesus, and St. Joseph parishes, all in Uniontown, and chaplain of Uniontown Hospital.

The grand jury isn’t the only thing making 2018 an especially momentous year in the history of a global scandal of sexual abuse and cover-up that began publicly in 1984 and peaked in 2002.

Retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., was barred from ministry June 20 over allegations of past sexual abuse. High-ranking clerics in Australia and Chile have been implicated in cover-ups.

And two Franciscan supervisors in pleaded guilty in Blair County, Pa., in May on one charge each of failing to protect children from an abusive friar. In the history of the scandal in the United States, theirs was a rare case of convictions of supervisors of alleged abusers rather than of abusers themselves.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office, which prosecuted that case, also oversaw a nearly two-year grand jury probe into the six dioceses. Release of the report is delayed while the Supreme Court considers legal challenges by what it said were “many individuals” named in the report.

The Rev. Nicholas Vaskov, diocesan director of communications in Pittsburgh, said that since pastors are the closest to the parishioners, the diocese has confidence in them to use their discretion on whether and how to communicate about the looming report.

Bishop Zubik cited the sobering climate surrounding the grand jury and busy preparations for parish reorganizations as reasons to postpone a Mass that had been scheduled later in July to celebrate the diocese’s 175th anniversary.

Father Vallone, in his recent homily, alluded to Pope Francis’ response to allegations of cover-up among high-ranking church officials in Chile. After the pope initially defended the hierarchy, he has launched an investigation and removed bishops. At the same time, Francis has been speaking publicly about the historical examples of Jesuit leaders from the 18th century, at a time when the Vatican temporarily suspended their religious order.

Rather than blame others or withdraw into defensive isolation, the Jesuits underwent “self-accusation” to see discern and confess their own wrongs, the pope said.

In the same way, the church’s history of covering up abuse by priests has to be confronted, Father Vallone said. “We have to admit what’s our fault,” he said.

Father Vallone said parishioners are “anxious about the report.”

“We’re at the stage now where it’s become personal for people,” he said. “People all have an idea of how bad it is. What most people are anxious about is, ‘Please Lord, don’t let it have been my pastor.’ “

But he added: “I believe those of good will are reconciled to saying this is necessary, we’ve got to pull the Band-Aid off,” just as a cut needs air to heal.