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The Survivor Support Working Group of Voice of the Faithful agrees with Ms. Teresa Kettelkamp's recent statement on the current sexual abuse crisis that "the church is not yet where it needs to be in addressing this crisis." It is important to note that Ms. Kettelkamp is an employee of the Executive Director of the Office of Child & Youth Protection (OCYP) which comes under the oversight of Austin Bishop Gregory M. Aymond, Chairman of the Bishops' Protection of Children and Young People' Committee. On child sexual abuse: Does the pope really get it? Yes By Teresa Kettelkamp, Published in the LA Archdiocesan weekly newspaper The-Tidings. While we applaud the efforts of Ms. Kettelkamp and her office, we must point out that despite her assertion that the pope gets "it," (note that "it" remains conveniently undefined), we challenge the bishops to "get it," too. In truth: --- Bishops have failed to restore trust in their leadership and in the words of the Pope "badly handled" the sexual abuse crisis. It should be noted that an April 14th Washington Post ABC poll showed that 73% of Catholics opposed the way the church was handling the sex abuse scandal. --- Members of the National Review Board have no authority. They are merely an advisory group. --- Victims' assistance and safe environment coordinator positions are typically filled with diocesan employees answerable only to the bishop. There is a little or no independence with regard to executing their duties. --- Many bishops' reporting policies require that victims contact the diocese or archdiocese, instead of first reporting to the local police, for crimes of abuse. Examples include archdioceses of Boston, St. Paul - Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle, Oklahoma, Portland, OR, Anchorage, Santa Fe, Louisville, Hartford, Atlanta, San Antonia, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Newark, and NY. --- Diocesan review boards are frequently populated with individuals appointed by the bishop and answerable only to him. --- Most bishops refuse to identify the names and locations of priests under their supervision who have been credibly accused of abuse, exposing additional children to potential risk of crimes by these men. Boston based WBZ I-Team exposed this issue last night with Cardinal O'Malley refusing to answer the interviewers question. View the video --- Numerous bishops and their lobbying arms, the Catholic Conferences, have fought to keep state legislatures from removing statutes of limitation and enacting look back windows for past cases of clergy sexual abuse. Examples include the bishop(s) of Maryland, Washington D.C., Colorado, Ohio, Portland, ME, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Maryland, Ohio, New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin. --- Recently bishops have attempted to return priests to ministry who have one or more credible allegations against them. Cardinal George of Chicago, and now Cardinal O'Malley in Boston are just two examples of bishops looking the other way, not warning parishioners, ignoring the Dallas Charter and returning priests to ministry. --- Bishops have refused to publish SNAP ads in their diocesan newsletters and parish bulletins despite the pope's promise to do "everything possible to heal this wound." We agree, "the church is not yet where it needs to be in addressing this crisis." In fact, it's a very, very long way from where it needs to be. |