Listening sessions end with lingering questions

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Catholic SF

October 28, 2018

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone talking to people after the listening session held Oct. 28 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Belmont. The Archdiocese of San Francisco organized five listening sessions in the wake of the most recent clergy abuse scandals. (Photo by Nicholas Wolfram Smith/Catholic San Francisco)

November 1, 2018
Nicholas Wolfram Smith

Closing out a monthlong series of town hall-style discussions about clergy sex abuse, the Archdiocese of San Francisco held its final listening session Oct. 28 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Belmont. More than 100 people gathered to hear Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone review archdiocesan policies to safeguard children and talk to him about the abuse scandals inundating the church.

The concerns brought to the session, from homosexuality in the clergy to bishop accountability, highlighted local Catholics’ desire to avoid a repeat of the scandals affecting them now. Existential questions for the church, such as how to trust a hierarchy that has seemed to place institutional preservation over pastoral care, were also foremost on several people’s minds.

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