OpEd: Catholic Church should lead the charge against sex abuse

By Lynn Saternow
SharHerald
August 11, 2018

https://bit.ly/2AXVTAl

AS A former altar boy at Notre Dame Parish in Hermitage, I await the release of the church scandal report with great anticipation.

My brother Paul and I were part of the first altar-boy class at the parish, when church services were conducted in the recently built school gym. It was the Catholic policy to build the parochial schools first, then the church.

Those were the days of the Latin masses. So we didn’t have it as easy as many kids do today; and the late Msgr. Robert Schriefer was a stern taskmaster in the early days of his long tenure. 

But we were blessed to always be around great priests and nuns and there was never a mention of any kind of improprieties at that time. As I grew older, I realized that scandals were occurring elsewhere and were being covered up.

However, it was no different in public schools in the 1950s and ‘60s. Reportedly, in some districts, if a teacher was caught having indecent contact with a student, the teacher was quietly allowed to resign to avoid bad publicity for the school district.

Of course, that only allowed the teacher to move on to a different district, and put others in jeopardy.

I have been friends with priests and nuns who eventually left their callings to date or to marry. But that was totally understandable. And — mea culpa — just possibly some of the tales I related to them of my single days might have inspired the move.

But maybe if the church would allow dating and marriage, there would be a lot more people seeking and remaining in those positions.

Then again, my altar boy miscues would have driven Father Schriefer away just as well. Luckily it didn’t.

One Easter Vigil service — a long, long affair in those days — part of the ceremony was burning palms in a charcoal grill. Father told me to put on some charcoal lighter prior to the service. Having never done it before, I figured I had better really douse it ... and douse it ... and douse it. Thank goodness, he only gave me one can.

When Father went to light it, the flames shot up to the high ceiling and singed the hair on his arms. Relax, his eyebrows eventually grew back.

There were other incidents that probably drove him to swear under his breath as well.

But we trusted him implicitly, and unlike some of the people who are about to be mentioned in the soon-to-be-released church-scandal report, he and others like him never betrayed that trust.

We are all aware that the church is not the only place where improprieties involving adults and children have occurred. But the church can be a leader in pushing for schools, colleges and other social agencies to root out the problems when they surface and deal with them accordingly.

The children are our future, but it’s up to adults to make sure the present is a happy one for them.