Priests address grand jury report: 'We can and must deal with anger'

By Anya Sostek
Post-Gazette
August 17, 2018

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/faith-religion/2018/08/17/grand-jury-report-Pennsylvania-priests-twitter-homily/stories/201808210133

After months of delay, the grand jury report on child sex abuse among Pennsylvania clergy is out. And for some area priests, the process of consoling a stunned congregation is well underway.

In the days since the release of the report, priests have been addressing it in person, in bulletins and even on Twitter.

The Rev. Lou Vallone, pastor of St. John of God Parish in McKees Rocks and St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Crescent, said that he isn’t sure whether he will address the grand jury report in his Sunday homily. But he’s spent much of the week hearing from “devastated” members of his parishes.

“To be honest, our people are moving beyond anger into rage over this,” he said. “We can and must deal with anger, especially when it’s justified. When people ask me and talk to me, if somebody is enraged and just going over the top, I just absorb it. When they’re enraged, I just stand and absorb it.”

On Sunday, parishes will distribute a letter from Bishop David Zubik, said the Rev. Nick Vaskov, a spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The first paragraph of the letter reads, in part, “Today, we are all wounded in some way by the heartbreaking accounts in the Grand Jury report. I understand your shock upon learning about what victims have suffered at the hands of men who were ordained to be the image of Christ. We cannot minimize the harm done.”

Priests will decide on their own how they choose to address the grand jury report with their parishioners, said Father Vaskov, but he assumes that most of them will bring it up in some manner. “I don’t know if they’ll address it in their homily, don’t know if they’ll address it after Communion,” he said. “My sense is they’ll address it at some point during the Mass because it is on the hearts and minds of their people.”

At his own parish, Downtown’s St. Mary of Mercy, Father Vaskov was pleased to see that the church was full for the Feast of the Assumption on Wednesday. “I know, myself, I was just worried about how people would react to it,” he said. While his parishioners showed different emotions, including anger and frustration, “there was a lot of support for me personally and I guess a lot of people praying for the church, for victims, for their priests.”

While Father Vallone did not address the issue of the grand jury report in his weekly bulletin, other parishes did. At All Saints Parish in Etna, Sunday’s bulletin posted online from the Rev. James Gretz begins with “So the Grand Jury saga continues. Why do we have to keep hearing about this horrific chapter in our history? As I’ve said before, the reason for the crisis continuing is that we need to remember to be able to reconcile and not do it again.”

The bulletin later signals a desire to move on. “Please, do not suffer any longer with the guilt or the hurt. I want all of us to find healing. That’s the only way this will come to an end,” he said, then changing the subject to priests on Twitter: “Can we talk about something fun instead?”

At least two younger priests in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the Rev. Alek Schrenk and the Rev. Anthony Sciarappa, took to Twitter to discuss their feelings about the report. “This is devastating. Save your people, Lord,” tweeted Father Sciarappa the day the report was released. The next day, Father Schrenk tweeted an eight-point thread with his reactions to the report. “The actual crimes described are far, far more repulsive than I could have ever imagined,” he began. “But I am, I suppose, grateful to know what actually lies beneath the journalistic and diocesan euphemisms. If that's what the victims suffered, we should know.”

In the Greensburg Diocese, priests are reading a letter from Bishop Edward C. Malesic at all Masses this weekend. It reads in part:

“I know that some of the priests named in the Grand Jury Report may have shocked those of you who knew them, worked with them, even loved them. Many of these priests are now dead. None of them are in active ministry. Their gravely sinful behavior has caused unspeakable harm to the survivors of their abuse and to the survivors’ families. The pain which they caused affects all of us. We pray for the Lord’s justice, compassion and strength in the face of this tragedy.

“Each diocese must answer for itself. But I answer for Greensburg. Personally, I am ashamed by what some of our priests did in the past. At the same time, I am proud of those priests who are faithful and remain true to their calling. I am proud of those priests who here and now, work tirelessly for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults. I ask you to support our good priests who serve us faithfully every day in ministry. This is a difficult time for them too.”

The bishop’s letter, released in advance, goes on to detail how allegations against priests are immediately dealt with and discusses the safeguards and background checks for seminarians, teachers and volunteers that have been put in place. And he acknowledges how the scandal has affected not just the clergy but the laity and the way parishes have traditionally operated: 

“I sometimes get letters from elderly volunteers who ask why they must pass a background check before they can volunteer at the parish festival or make pierogies in the kitchen. The answer is clear. Every person who works for or volunteers on behalf of the Catholic Church in our diocese should be cleared to work with children and become aware of the signs of child abuse. We must all strive to be the best that we can be.”

While the content of the grand jury report is new, the scandal itself is something that priests have been addressing for some time, said Father Vallone.

Every day for the past several months, he has referenced the scandal during the Prayer of the Faithful. Interviewed by phone Thursday, Father Vallone was in the process of typing out that daily prayer: “For the victims and their families, that our true contrition and purpose of amendment may bring them some solace in healing. For the abusers, that God may touch their hearts for true repentance for their crimes and that in wisdom dispense mercy. For those in authority who enabled the horrors to continue by their cowardly and selfish cover-ups, that God may loosen their stiff neck abuse of their power as he did the pharaoh and affect in them a metanoia and radical conversion to humility and justice. And for all of us in the severely wounded body of Christ, that faith hope and love that the gate of Hell will not prevail against the holy Church, but rather we commit with courage to take the actions so that justice and mercy will somehow meet in this crisis.”