06/20/2002

BEND — Just returned from one of the most-watched meetings of the nation’s Catholic prelates, Baker Bishop Robert Vasa says he hopes the grueling public purification of the church will help address child abuse in general.

“Last year 949 children were sexually abused in Oregon. As far as I know, none of those were by members of the Catholic clergy. That certainly makes it less newsworthy, but does it make it any less heinous?” Bishop Vasa told the Sentinel. “I am pleased to see that the Catholic Church has been singled out to lead the campaign to eliminate child sexual abuse from society beginning with its own house.”

The American bishops’ 3,600-word “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” adopted June 14, says no priest or deacon can return to any form of ordained ministry if he has ever sexually abused a minor.

The charter was approved by a vote of 239-13 after six hours of closed-door discussions and five hours of open debate.

As a sign of public interest in the issue, there were three times as many reporters as bishops in Dallas.

The charter requires every diocese to form a mostly lay review board to assess sexual abuse allegations.

“We have taken a major step forward in this campaign, but it is just the very first step,” Bishop Vasa said.

“I hope we can galvanize our Catholic and Christian people and all citizens of good will to storm our government agencies with the same kind of energy and enthusiasm with which the Church has been regaled over the past six months. If that same kind of concern for children can be created in every county and in every newspaper in our state, then we will really be able to impact in a serious way on the ongoing and horrible crime of child abuse and child sexual abuse.”

State records show that almost 95 percent of child abuse in Oregon is perpetrated by family members.

“We are rightfully shocked at the several hundred cases of child sexual abuse reported in Boston over a period of thirty to forty years because that abuse was perpetrated by clergy but we also need to be shocked by the number, last year, of innocent children in Oregon subjected to sexual abuse,” the bishop writes in his Sentinel column this week. “I am suggesting that increased vigilance over Catholic clergy will reduce even further any incidence of clergy child sexual abuse but it will not dramatically impact on the prevalence of such abuse in our society.”

The bishop says he does not intend to shift the focus from the Catholic Church.

“Keep us in the spotlight — we need it, and we will respond to it,” he says. “Allow, however, a little of that light to shine on the 949 children who were sexually abused in Oregon in 2001 and who have had precious little light shined on them. If they had been abused by clergy they would be front page news but because they were abused in their homes by family members or friends they seem to be unimportant. I hope our work in Dallas helps them. If it does then it will have been worth the work and effort.”

Society would be best served, the bishop argues, if it focuses as much energy on root causes of abuse as it has on punishing priest abusers. The bishops’ charter calls for cooperation with other churches and other social organizations and institutions to address the issue of sexual abuse of minors throughout society.

Along with the hopes for addressing the broad issue of child sex abuse, Bishop Vasa wants to make sure that merely accused clergy and church workers are not treated as if they were already convicted.

“The solutions to the problems seem to be very easy if one does away with the need for proof, the right to due process and any regard for equity,” the bishop said from his Bend office. “The plan we have enacted certainly is desirable if we can implement it without trampling wholesale on the rights of accused persons. I have every sympathy for the plight of the abused and will do all in my power to prevent and punish abuse but punishing an accused (and not convicted) person may not be the best form of true justice.”

The bishops’ charter says all diocesan policies nationwide will provide “that for even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor — past, present or future — the offending priest or deacon will not remain in ministry and will not receive a future assignment.”

In a voice vote, the bishops nixed an amendment that would have permitted the possibility of reinstating a priest to ministry in some limited cases.

Bishop Vasa says he will implement the new charter in its entirety. He plans first to designate a “Diocesan Abuse Committee” made up mostly of laity. That group will review abuse policy established in 1995 and add policy set forth in the new charter.

The scandal has highlighted the concern for stronger moral leadership from the hierarchy, Bishop Vasa contends.

“There is some concern, very little printed, that the present crisis in the Church has to do with a lack of moral leadership by the bishops,” he writes.

“This may be true. Perhaps our laxity in not more strongly proclaiming and enforcing the teachings of the church about the necessity of chastity before marriage, the sinfulness of contraception within marriage, the evil of adultery, the evil of homosexual acts, the horror of abortion and the necessity of Sunday Mass has been an abdication of leadership.”

For more information, see the U.S. Catholic bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People