NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY
TIMOTHY DOLAN
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, October 6, 2016
When Pope Francis was in New York a year ago, he spoke eloquently of mercy, compassion, reconciliation, and invited all of us to be ambassadors of those touching virtues. Our Holy Father has also christened 2016 a Year of Mercy, and encouraged us bishops to reach out in a new, daring way to people who are hurting or feel cut off from the Church.
Inspired by his example, I decided, after a lot of consultation, to take the grace and challenge of this moment and establish an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program to, please God, promote healing for one group of members in the Church’s family who continue to suffer: the victim-survivors of abuse by clergy.
This one sin, one crime, one scandal has gravely wounded us in the Church. I continue to hear it wherever I go.
It is true that over the last two decades, the Catholic Church in the United States has made documented progress in dealing with this nauseating crime of sexual abuse, especially since the implementation of the landmark Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People nearly 15 years ago: zero tolerance for guilty clergy with removal from all ministry; full cooperation with law enforcement; public announcement of offenders; comprehensive child safety education, with ongoing monitoring of compliance of safe environment; background checks . . . on and on, leading Dr. Paul McHugh, a recognized expert at Johns Hopkins University in the abuse of children, to comment that the Church is today a leader and model in responding to a scourge that afflicts all our society and culture: the abuse of minors.
We have also engaged in pastoral and practical outreach to the victims.
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