April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
LAY INVOLVEMENT

What Bishop offered in Dallas to amend new document on abuse


By JAMES BREIG- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

When the U.S. bishops met in Dallas last week to hammer out a national policy on how to deal with the sexual abuse of children by clergy, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard offered an amendment to resolve the complex issue of what to do with a priest who had abused a minor 25 or 30 years ago, but then underwent successful treatment, never re-offended and became an effective minister.

The Bishop proposed that such instances be dealt with on a case-by-case basis through a lay review panel representing parents, victims, the therapeutic community, law enforcement and others. The panel would have had the option to determine if the priest had been redeemed and deserved to continue in ministry, or if he should be removed.

The Bishop said that in the Albany Diocese, such a policy would have affected only one or two priests.

Some support

The Bishop was supported in his amendment by several other bishops, including Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile, Alabama. Also speaking in his favor was Cardinal Avery Dulles, an internationally respected theologian who teaches at Fordham University.

"About one-third of the bishops were in favor of it," Bishop Hubbard said of his amendment, but it failed on a voice vote.

The new policy requires that such priests be removed from ministry with no consideration given of each one's individual circumstances.

Principle

Even though "I knew it would fail," Bishop Hubbard pursued his proposal as a matter of principle. "It was a matter of conscience for me, a matter of integrity," he explained. "If I didn't say it, I wouldn't be a man of conscience."

Reflecting on his 25 years as a bishop, he said that "I have seen people restored to ministry who have worked hard on therapy, who have rendered fine service to the Church and who have not re-offended. To keep them under the Church's supervision protects children more than to send them into the community without supervision."

Speaking at the Dallas meeting, he said that "at a time when lay involvement in the Church is more important than ever, a policy of case-by-case review of sexual misconduct by a lay panel is a most appropriate way to advance and benefit from such lay input."

Rockefeller laws

Bishop Hubbard told his fellow bishops that "having listened over the years to the heart-breaking stories of victims, I could argue that -- given the harm done to victims in the past by priest abusers, and given the loss of trust and credibility in bishops for the way in which we have handled or mishandled these situations -- the common good demands a policy of removing every past offender....However, I would argue that such a policy...is not consistent with the nature of who we are as a faith community which proclaims the central importance of conversion, repentance, forgiveness, compassion and reconciliation."

He compared the new policy to the Rockefeller drug laws, passed in New York State in the 1970s. Thousands of people who needed treatment for drug abuse were instead imprisoned for long periods for minor infractions due to mandatory sentencing guidelines, he noted.

"The results have been catastrophic," he said, with prison populations soaring and drug trafficking continuing. "Now the very people who spearheaded the legislation 30 years ago are in the forefront of advocating its reform or outright repeal."

(06-20-02) [[In-content Ad]]


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