WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Reporter
February 13, 2019
By Heidi Schlumpf
After the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report last summer, Thomas Mengler, president of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, sat down and wrote his archbishop a letter, in effect saying, “You need to get ahead of this.”
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Mengler recommended a lay commission to audit the archdiocese’s efforts addressing the issue and to suggest ways to improve. This would be separate and in addition to the archdiocesan review board that evaluates individual allegations — and this new commission’s members would not be appointed by the archbishop.
San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller listened. A well-respected retired appeals court chief justice, Catherine Stone (herself a survivor of sexual abuse, though not by a clergy member), was tapped to head the commission, which issued its report on Jan. 31, the same day the Texas bishops released names of priests accused of sexual abuse.
Six of the seven members of that commission were affiliated in some way with St. Mary’s University; five were alumni, including Stone, whose law degree is from the Marianist school. The commission is one example of how Catholic colleges and universities are stepping up to the plate to assist the church with the crisis of sexual abuse and cover-up.
“I think Catholic universities have a responsibility to help the church,” Mengler said. Mengler told the story of the commission as part of a workshop — ominously titled “Multiple Paths of Securing Money in a Hostile Environment” — as part of the annual meeting Feb. 2-4 of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C.
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