PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
March 4, 2019
By Peter Smith
Bishop David Zubik is pledging to provide additional support for victims of sexual abuse by priests, to put more eyes on how the Diocese of Pittsburgh handles abuse allegations and to provide a full accounting of how much it has paid to victims, lawyers and accused priests.
Those are some of the highlights of a pastoral letter released Monday by Bishop Zubik in response to “listening sessions” held late last year at various Roman Catholic parishes in response to a 2018 grand jury report into the history of sexual abuse in the diocese.
“Our wounds are still open,” Bishop Zubik said in the letter, dated March 6 for Ash Wednesday, the start of penitential season of Lent. “It is impossible to undo the heinous actions committed in the past. So we must turn to God and, with His divine love and guidance, do everything possible to foster healing and to restore trust.”
In his letter, Bishop Zubik is pledging that by July, the diocese will publish the total sum of payments made to victims of sexual abuse since 1991, without naming the recipients. Bishop Zubik said that’s the earliest date of such a settlement.
He also pledged to account for legal fees related to abuse as well as the subsistence salaries and other compensation the diocese has paid, as dictated by church law, to priests removed from ministry due to abuse.
By 2020, the diocese will also account for a current, ongoing round of compensation payments.
Bishop Zubik, who held four listening sessions around the diocese, acknowledged the anguished and angry statements by many, which included some calls for his resignation and others for him to stay and “continue to lead with a pastoral heart”. While he did not directly respond to such calls in the letter, Bishop Zubik said in an interview he has prayed about the matter and is staying on the job.
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