Rye Community Reacts to Crisis in Roman Catholic Church
Recent incidents concerning clerical sexual abuse are raising questions that could change the Roman Catholic Church.
Rye's Church of the Resurrection, a Roman Catholic Church, is home to thousands of parishioners. Peacefully quiet grounds surround the formidable church, and while thousands of miles from Rome, Italy, the church isn't immune from the shockwaves of new allegations involving clerical sex abuse.
Former and current members of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as those outside of the church, are asking questions about religious leaders and celibacy.
The nature of these questions: should women be ordained, should the Roman Catholic Church forgo the celibacy requirements, and how much did Pope John Paul II know, could change the course of one of the world's oldest religions.
"Children should be protected at all costs," said Resurrection's Reverend Monsignor Patrick J. Boyle.
While Boyle said he is not sure if the Church of the Resurrection's priests have addressed the scandal in Mass, he said he addressed it during a sermon on Good Friday. Boyle said that at that time he was very supportive of Pope Benedict XVI, who has since been embroiled in controversy concerning his handling of a 1970s incident involving a priest accused of sexual abuse in Germany.
"People forget that nobody knew what was happening," Boyle said. "Pedophiles were treated differently then."
Boyle said that in light of the scandal, discussions about ordaining women and the vow of celibacy among the Church of the Resurrection's parishioners and members outside of the church are to be expected.
John Lane is one of those parishioners. While making it clear that he doesn't speak for the church and was only speaking for himself, he said he would be in favor of some changes.
"I would ordain women and married men today," Lane said.
Neighboring churches in Rye have not been subject to the same kind of crises currently engulfing the Catholic Church. Christ's Church, an Episcopal Church not far from Resurrection, has about a thousand parishioners. The Episcopal Church ordains women and does not require a vow of celibacy of its ordained clergy. Reverend Canon Susan Harriss says they have not had any formal discussions about the issues in the Roman Catholic Church.
"While I'm sure it's a topic of conversation among many, there had been no official statement [from the Episcopal Church] that I know of," Harriss said.
Harriss said she prays the Roman Catholic Church finds a way to deal with its current situation.
Just this month, the Senate Codes Committee of the New York State Legislature defeated a bill known as the Child Victims Act. While the bill has been defeated every year since it was first introduced in 2006, if passed it would suspend the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases, which could allow victims of sexual abuse that occurred decades ago to bring their cases to court.
"To me it doesn't seem right," Boyle said about the bill. "Why are we signaled out when some religious and educational institutions are not?"
This year the bill was amended to include some educational institutions, but prior versions of the bill had only applied to some religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church.
New York is not alone in its stance. Only California and Delaware have passed similar bills.
Despite its legislative defeat in New York, Lane, the parishioner at Resurrection, said he is in favor of the bill.
"It's a sin against all people and it's against the law," he said of clerical sexual abuse.
Kevin
6:58 am on Tuesday, June 29, 2010
As one who was molested by my parish priest from 1968 to 1970 and have come forward in the last ten years only to find little has changed as far as the church putting their needs ahead of the victims. Rev Boyle's statement about people forgetting nobody knew what was happening back than has been shown to be a proven lie told over and over by the church in order to devert responsibility away from them. Fact, it has been shown the church's hierachy knew what was going on they knew and had been told over and over by people inside the church responsible for dealing with attempted rehabilitation of these predators that these priests were vile unrepentant. Google Fr Fitzgerald he ran a retreat for troubled priests in new mexico he made it abundantly clear stating in the late 1950's the nature of these pedophole priests. He was ignored from Rome to the American conference of Bishops. Rev Boyle's use of this old lie is an insult to victims especially since it has been shown in court to be one of the means the church used to aviod responsibility for its action. They knew and they don't care as long as it wont cost them anything out of their budget.
Kevin
7:19 am on Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Excerp from National Catholic Reporter
Bishops were warned of abusive priests
1957 letter: "These men, Your Excellency, are devils, the wrath of God is upon them
Mar. 30, 2009
By Tom Roberts
Google full article
The Servants of the Paraclete complex in Jemez Springs, N.M., in 1993 (Jeffrey D. Scott)
As early as the mid-1950s, decades before the clergy sexual-abuse crisis broke publicly across the U.S. Catholic landscape, the founder of a religious order that dealt regularly with priest sex abusers was so convinced of their inability to change that he searched for an island to purchase with the intent of using it as a place to isolate such offenders, according to documents recently obtained by NCR.
Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, founder of the Servants of the Paracletes, an order established in 1947 to deal with problem priests, wrote regularly to bishops in the United States and to Vatican officials, including the pope, of his opinion that many sexual abusers in the priesthood should be laicized immediately.
Fitzgerald was a prolific correspondent who wrote regularly of his frustration with and disdain for priests "who have seduced or attempted to seduce little boys or girls." His views are contained in letters and other correspondence that had previously been under court seal and were made available to NCR by a California law firm in February.
letters Fitzgerald exchanged with U.S. bishops and one pope.
Kevin
12:59 pm on Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Rev Boyle states "To me it doesn't seem right," Boyle said about the bill. "Why are we signaled out when some religious and educational institutions are not?"
Pardon me for pointing out but the Catholic church is not singled out. As far as this legislation is concerned when legislators addresses the main complaints voiced by the
Catholic Bishops and amended the legislation the church opposition did not change one bit. Rev Boyle instead of complaining why are we the only ones being held accountable how about just being accountable and looking out for those so damaged. The vast majority of priests are good God serving men who are victims of the church callous dealings with victims of clergy abuse as well.
The reasons priests are promoted to Bishops and Cardinals has NOTHING to do with how pius or holy they are but how well they are as administrators of their dioceses. I have yet met a bishop who has shown any real concern beyond his concern for the financial problem this may create for him. Its the actions of the catholic church toward victims of abuse which has high lighted the need for changes to the statue of limitation laws. The murder of a childs innocense should not have a statue of limitation.