Disclosures Bring Clergy Abuse Issue to Top of Bishop's Agenda

By Larry Parnass
Berkshire Eagle
January 7, 2019

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/Disclosures%20bring%20clergy%20abuse%20issue%20to%20top%20of%20bishop's%20agenda

Mounting revelations that Catholic leaders concealed or engaged in clergy sexual abuse around the world is bringing the issue back to the forefront in Berkshire County.

The Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, leader of the region's Catholics, is inviting parishioners to speak out about abuse at sessions across the diocese, including one Feb. 10 in Pittsfield.

This past week, Rozanski joined other U.S. bishops in a Chicago suburb for prayer and reflection about the clergy abuse crisis, at the urging of Pope Francis.

On Feb. 6, Rozanski will hold the first of four events billed as "listening and dialogue sessions."

The topic: the sex abuse crisis in the church, which gathered steam in 2018 with the fall of several cardinals, including Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, and actions by attorneys general in at least two states.

"These sessions will allow the faithful to make their concerns known, offer observations and ask questions of the Bishop and diocesan officials who will join him," the Springfield Diocese said in a post on its news website.