HONOLULU (HI)
Hawaii Catholic Herald
March 5, 2019
On Feb. 20, a joint Senate Committee of the Human Services and Judiciary passed Senate Resolution SR4 and Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR8: “urging the Hawaii State Department of the attorney general to conduct a statewide investigation of sexual abuse of minors in the state of Hawaii by clergy of the Roman Catholic Church.” Here is Bishop Larry Silva’s response:
To the Senators of the State of Hawaii
Subject: SR4-c and SCR8
Dear Senators,
Peace be with you!
I write on behalf of the Diocese of Honolulu and the thousands of dedicated men and women, clergy and lay, who unite together in service of the common good through the ministries of the Diocese. In our 66 parishes, 18 parochial schools, and dozens of other schools and agencies, we do what we can to care for the poor, educate children, heal the broken-hearted, and work towards solidarity with all in need. Thus, I was greatly disturbed to see that a Senate Committee is taking up a resolution premised on the awful canard and libel that the Diocese is some kind of criminal enterprise bent on destroying the very people she strives to serve. That anyone might actually take such a suggestion seriously is equally disturbing and offensive.
It is true that thousands of church ministers on the Mainland, in Hawaii, and elsewhere did abuse tens of thousands of children. Those horrific facts are well-documented in historical studies. Let me say at the outset that I make no excuses for the abuse of any child that occurred at the hands of any minister of this Diocese, ordained or lay, man or woman. That any abuse did occur is sinful in the eyes of God, and a crime in the eyes of the State. I am sorry that anyone was ever hurt physically, emotionally and spiritually. Abuse is wrong, and deserving of our condemnation whenever it occurs.
But the resolution, aimed as it is only at the Catholic Diocese, does not resolve any injury suffered by any child. It does not make any victims whole. It does not make all children safe. Rather it pretends that the pernicious evil that is the abuse of a child still lies in the heart of only one institution in Hawaii — the Catholic Diocese. It is that great lie that I protest here. If the Senate truly wants to have law enforcement look at the sources of abuse and misconduct in society, it needs to cast a much wider net.
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