COLUMBIA (MO)
Columbia Daily Tribune
November 5, 2018
By Roger McKinney
“God of justice and compassion, protect all children from abuse and deliver us from hate.”
That was part of the closing prayer delivered Monday by Shawn McKnight, bishop of the Jefferson City diocese, after a listening session at Our Lady of Lourdes Church about the Catholic sex abuse crisis.
There was raw emotion and thoughtful analysis among participants who spoke for more than an hour. McKnight will use the information he gathered Monday and at other listening sessions at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops next week.
“There are a lot of common themes,” McKnight said after the session. He said he thinks and feels the same as many of those who spoke.
“We’re all united in this one desire that this crisis would be solved as Christ would want us to,” McKnight said.
Steve Concannon, an attorney in Boonville, referred to a list of “reflection questions” in the program. One was: Do you think bishops should resign if it is found they are culpable in enabling sexual abuse?
“We talked about credibility earlier,” Concannon said. “Why is this even a question? It’s insulting that this is even a question.”
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