19/04/02
Vatican Meeting on Abuse Issue Is Set to Confront Thorny Topics
April 19, 2002
By MELINDA HENNEBERGER with JAMES STERNGOLD
ROME, April 18 - A top Vatican official said today that
next week's meetings with American cardinals about the
sexual abuse scandals in the church would cover
controversial issues like celibacy, the screening of gay
candidates for the priesthood and the role of women in the
church.
The official, Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, an American who
heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Laity, gave a
preview of the agenda as cardinals in the United States
prepared to travel to Rome for what experts say is an
extraordinary meeting reflecting the Vatican's realization
of the crisis in the American church.
Another American cardinal, Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles,
said in an interview today that he would be pushing Pope
John Paul II and other top church officials to consider
changing centuries of church doctrine to permit priests to
marry and women to be ordained.
Cardinal Mahony stopped short of endorsing the changes,
saying only that he felt the time was ripe for an open
discussion of the issues at the highest levels of the
church.
"It's not a panacea that you have married clergy or women
clergy," he said. "At this point, I'm a proponent of the
discussion. I want to hear a lot more."
The pope summoned his American cardinals here, for meetings
on Tuesday and Wednesday, after a contingent of American
bishops who met with him last week convinced him that the
problem was grave - and specifically asked for the
Vatican's guidance, Cardinal Stafford said.
"The American bishops indicated it would be helpful to have
the wisdom of the Holy Father," he said. "So the response
was, `Let's have a conversation.' "
They want the Vatican to clarify what changes the pope
would favor before a June meeting in which American bishops
intend to come up with national protocols to prevent sexual
abuse by priests.
Asked if how gay candidates for the priesthood are screened
would be a particular focus, Cardinal Stafford said,
"Without question, it does have to be looked at." He added,
"We'll definitely be talking about that."
The meetings will be led by Cardinal Dario Castrillon
Hoyos, who leads the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy. But
the marathon, 14-hour sessions bear the earmarks of an
American-style affair, including plans for daily and
perhaps twice-daily press briefings that are certainly not
the norm at the Vatican.
Now that the Vatican has been convinced of the severity of
the problem, it seems to be trying to respond with the kind
of openness that American Catholics have been calling for.
"We're dealing with an American phenomenon that requires
an American response," said Cardinal Stafford, the former
archbishop of Denver, who was among the first American
church officials to formally tackle the sexual abuse issue
when he issued a handbook spelling out policies for his
archdiocese in 1991.
Of course, the Vatican understands the power of symbolism
and grasps that the gesture of calling the meetings will
begin to answer critics who have said it has been
indifferent to the crisis in the American church and to the
issue in general.
"It's in part a P.R. exercise, a dramatic way to say to
critics, `The pope gets it now,' " said John Allen, who
covers the Vatican for The National Catholic Reporter and
wrote a biography of one of the officials who will be
leading the meetings, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, director
of the Vatican's doctrinal office.
But an overarching reason for the meeting, Cardinal
Stafford said, is to address the cultural differences
between American church leaders and Vatican officials, who
have struggled to grasp the impact of the scandals and the
way they have been handled.
For one thing, American tort law makes liability much more
of an issue and has driven the response in a way that has
been difficult for Europeans to understand. In addition,
while American church leaders have been criticized for a
lack of openness back home, they seem altogether too open
to some in the Vatican.
"These are men who've lived in a much different tradition,"
Cardinal Stafford said.
Church leaders cannot hope to hash out so many complicated
issues in two days. Still, Cardinal Stafford said they
would at least begin an important discussion about the role
and the roots of priestly celibacy.
"If it's something that developed simply in the 12th
century for unworthy motives like inheritance," he said,
"then it's difficult for me to see it being sustained."
Celibacy rules enabled the church to hold on to property,
rather than allowing priests to pass it on to children.
"But if celibacy is of apostolic origins and has important
connections" with church tradition, Cardinal Stafford went
on, "then this experience in the U.S. is not going to
undermine that." He said "the formation of seminarians
should involve a more in-depth understanding" of celibate
life.
Asked to name other important themes the meetings would
address, he said: "The issue of privacy is worth
discussing, as is the role of women in the church and their
greater involvement. I would strongly be in favor of that."
The ordination of women, however, is definitely not on the
table, he said. "Rome can't be open to changing the faith,"
he said. "That's clearly a part of the faith and we can't,
we don't have the power to change it even if we'd like to."
Cardinal Mahony, whose Los Angeles archdiocese is the
largest in the United States and who is considered one of
the more liberal church leaders, differed with Cardinal
Stafford on the need for discussion of that issue and of
celibacy.
Cardinal Mahony noted approvingly that, in its early
centuries, the church permitted priests to be married and
that in some circumstances the Eastern Orthodox Church
ordains married men.
Cardinal Mahony made his comments in interviews today with
several Los Angeles television stations. A few newspaper
reporters were permitted to sit in on the interviews, which
were part of what appears to be a concerted effort by
senior church officials across the United States to take
the initiative in communicating their views to the public
and to create a sense of a church more open to change.
In recent days, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of
Washington and Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago have
also talked extensively with the news media about their
expectations for the Vatican meetings.
Cardinal Mahony has publicly commented before that he felt
the church ought to debate allowing priests to be married,
but now, he said, he will take his message directly to the
Vatican.
In fact, he said he intended to argue that many fundamental
changes had to be considered, and not just in the United
States. He said he would push to use this crisis to create
a larger role for the laity, to make the church's decision
making more transparent and to create "a church that's more
humble."
He added that he hoped to bring these messages to the pope
himself.
"He's also going to learn that this is not a United States
problem," the cardinal said, referring to the cases of
sexual abuse.
Cardinal Mahony said he would specifically ask Vatican
officials to shorten the process for removing from the
priesthood those found guilty of sexual abuse. He
implicitly conceded that the church had made mistakes in
its handling of pedophile priests and others involved in
sexual misconduct.
He said the procedures set up years ago by his archdiocese
to deal with such cases were based on an outdated notion
that the priests suffered from moral lapses rather than
more deep-seated and intractable psychological problems.
But he said he now supported a zero-tolerance policy, where
priests found guilty of sexual offenses are removed
promptly without the prospect of a second chance. That is
the policy in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. He also said he
supported handing information over quickly to the police
for possible criminal prosecution.
Cardinal Stafford suggested that discussions next week on
screening prospective priests would be complicated.
"The term `homosexuality' is a relatively recent
terminology in Western culture," he said, "and we're still
coming to grips with sexuality in terms of modern science.
We need a more profound understanding of how one's identity
as a man or woman is formed."
The role that homosexuality may be playing in the current
scandal is already a common topic in church circles here.
The pope's American biographer, George Weigel, said today:
"They have to talk about homosexuality next week. It's
clear this problem of clerical sexual abuse has multiple
parts. One is pedophilia, which is the most revolting, then
there are problems of heterosexual misconduct.
"But the largest portion of what's come to light in the
last few months is a pattern of homosexual clergy not
living their celibate promises."
The Rev. Keith Pecklers, a Jesuit who teaches at the
Pontifical Liturgical Institute, disagreed, saying: "It's
very unfortunate they're bringing homosexuality into this.
The church has always distinguished between orientation and
acting out. What does need to happen in seminaries is that
they have to learn to deal with people maturely."
Some of those who will participate in next week's meetings
fear that expectations may be unrealistically high.
Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose meetings here last
week with the pope and others led to the Vatican's decision
to call in the cardinals, also emphasized that it was still
up to the American church to solve its problems.
Bishop Gregory said that although the meetings would be
important, any new policies for the American church still
had to be set in June at a meeting of the United States
Conference of Bishops in Dallas.
"The media has hyped this as though next week the problem
will be solved," Bishop Gregory said. "In some sense,
there's such anticipation generated over this meeting that
we have to be careful. We're not going to be there in June
simply to say `yes' to something the Holy See has already
determined."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/national/19VATI.html?ex=1020294167&ei=1&en=b5c1a2fff3888961
Vatican Meeting on Abuse Issue Is Set to Confront Thorny Topics
April 19, 2002
By MELINDA HENNEBERGER with JAMES STERNGOLD
ROME, April 18 - A top Vatican official said today that
next week's meetings with American cardinals about the
sexual abuse scandals in the church would cover
controversial issues like celibacy, the screening of gay
candidates for the priesthood and the role of women in the
church.
The official, Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, an American who
heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Laity, gave a
preview of the agenda as cardinals in the United States
prepared to travel to Rome for what experts say is an
extraordinary meeting reflecting the Vatican's realization
of the crisis in the American church.
Another American cardinal, Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles,
said in an interview today that he would be pushing Pope
John Paul II and other top church officials to consider
changing centuries of church doctrine to permit priests to
marry and women to be ordained.
Cardinal Mahony stopped short of endorsing the changes,
saying only that he felt the time was ripe for an open
discussion of the issues at the highest levels of the
church.
"It's not a panacea that you have married clergy or women
clergy," he said. "At this point, I'm a proponent of the
discussion. I want to hear a lot more."
The pope summoned his American cardinals here, for meetings
on Tuesday and Wednesday, after a contingent of American
bishops who met with him last week convinced him that the
problem was grave - and specifically asked for the
Vatican's guidance, Cardinal Stafford said.
"The American bishops indicated it would be helpful to have
the wisdom of the Holy Father," he said. "So the response
was, `Let's have a conversation.' "
They want the Vatican to clarify what changes the pope
would favor before a June meeting in which American bishops
intend to come up with national protocols to prevent sexual
abuse by priests.
Asked if how gay candidates for the priesthood are screened
would be a particular focus, Cardinal Stafford said,
"Without question, it does have to be looked at." He added,
"We'll definitely be talking about that."
The meetings will be led by Cardinal Dario Castrillon
Hoyos, who leads the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy. But
the marathon, 14-hour sessions bear the earmarks of an
American-style affair, including plans for daily and
perhaps twice-daily press briefings that are certainly not
the norm at the Vatican.
Now that the Vatican has been convinced of the severity of
the problem, it seems to be trying to respond with the kind
of openness that American Catholics have been calling for.
"We're dealing with an American phenomenon that requires
an American response," said Cardinal Stafford, the former
archbishop of Denver, who was among the first American
church officials to formally tackle the sexual abuse issue
when he issued a handbook spelling out policies for his
archdiocese in 1991.
Of course, the Vatican understands the power of symbolism
and grasps that the gesture of calling the meetings will
begin to answer critics who have said it has been
indifferent to the crisis in the American church and to the
issue in general.
"It's in part a P.R. exercise, a dramatic way to say to
critics, `The pope gets it now,' " said John Allen, who
covers the Vatican for The National Catholic Reporter and
wrote a biography of one of the officials who will be
leading the meetings, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, director
of the Vatican's doctrinal office.
But an overarching reason for the meeting, Cardinal
Stafford said, is to address the cultural differences
between American church leaders and Vatican officials, who
have struggled to grasp the impact of the scandals and the
way they have been handled.
For one thing, American tort law makes liability much more
of an issue and has driven the response in a way that has
been difficult for Europeans to understand. In addition,
while American church leaders have been criticized for a
lack of openness back home, they seem altogether too open
to some in the Vatican.
"These are men who've lived in a much different tradition,"
Cardinal Stafford said.
Church leaders cannot hope to hash out so many complicated
issues in two days. Still, Cardinal Stafford said they
would at least begin an important discussion about the role
and the roots of priestly celibacy.
"If it's something that developed simply in the 12th
century for unworthy motives like inheritance," he said,
"then it's difficult for me to see it being sustained."
Celibacy rules enabled the church to hold on to property,
rather than allowing priests to pass it on to children.
"But if celibacy is of apostolic origins and has important
connections" with church tradition, Cardinal Stafford went
on, "then this experience in the U.S. is not going to
undermine that." He said "the formation of seminarians
should involve a more in-depth understanding" of celibate
life.
Asked to name other important themes the meetings would
address, he said: "The issue of privacy is worth
discussing, as is the role of women in the church and their
greater involvement. I would strongly be in favor of that."
The ordination of women, however, is definitely not on the
table, he said. "Rome can't be open to changing the faith,"
he said. "That's clearly a part of the faith and we can't,
we don't have the power to change it even if we'd like to."
Cardinal Mahony, whose Los Angeles archdiocese is the
largest in the United States and who is considered one of
the more liberal church leaders, differed with Cardinal
Stafford on the need for discussion of that issue and of
celibacy.
Cardinal Mahony noted approvingly that, in its early
centuries, the church permitted priests to be married and
that in some circumstances the Eastern Orthodox Church
ordains married men.
Cardinal Mahony made his comments in interviews today with
several Los Angeles television stations. A few newspaper
reporters were permitted to sit in on the interviews, which
were part of what appears to be a concerted effort by
senior church officials across the United States to take
the initiative in communicating their views to the public
and to create a sense of a church more open to change.
In recent days, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of
Washington and Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago have
also talked extensively with the news media about their
expectations for the Vatican meetings.
Cardinal Mahony has publicly commented before that he felt
the church ought to debate allowing priests to be married,
but now, he said, he will take his message directly to the
Vatican.
In fact, he said he intended to argue that many fundamental
changes had to be considered, and not just in the United
States. He said he would push to use this crisis to create
a larger role for the laity, to make the church's decision
making more transparent and to create "a church that's more
humble."
He added that he hoped to bring these messages to the pope
himself.
"He's also going to learn that this is not a United States
problem," the cardinal said, referring to the cases of
sexual abuse.
Cardinal Mahony said he would specifically ask Vatican
officials to shorten the process for removing from the
priesthood those found guilty of sexual abuse. He
implicitly conceded that the church had made mistakes in
its handling of pedophile priests and others involved in
sexual misconduct.
He said the procedures set up years ago by his archdiocese
to deal with such cases were based on an outdated notion
that the priests suffered from moral lapses rather than
more deep-seated and intractable psychological problems.
But he said he now supported a zero-tolerance policy, where
priests found guilty of sexual offenses are removed
promptly without the prospect of a second chance. That is
the policy in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. He also said he
supported handing information over quickly to the police
for possible criminal prosecution.
Cardinal Stafford suggested that discussions next week on
screening prospective priests would be complicated.
"The term `homosexuality' is a relatively recent
terminology in Western culture," he said, "and we're still
coming to grips with sexuality in terms of modern science.
We need a more profound understanding of how one's identity
as a man or woman is formed."
The role that homosexuality may be playing in the current
scandal is already a common topic in church circles here.
The pope's American biographer, George Weigel, said today:
"They have to talk about homosexuality next week. It's
clear this problem of clerical sexual abuse has multiple
parts. One is pedophilia, which is the most revolting, then
there are problems of heterosexual misconduct.
"But the largest portion of what's come to light in the
last few months is a pattern of homosexual clergy not
living their celibate promises."
The Rev. Keith Pecklers, a Jesuit who teaches at the
Pontifical Liturgical Institute, disagreed, saying: "It's
very unfortunate they're bringing homosexuality into this.
The church has always distinguished between orientation and
acting out. What does need to happen in seminaries is that
they have to learn to deal with people maturely."
Some of those who will participate in next week's meetings
fear that expectations may be unrealistically high.
Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose meetings here last
week with the pope and others led to the Vatican's decision
to call in the cardinals, also emphasized that it was still
up to the American church to solve its problems.
Bishop Gregory said that although the meetings would be
important, any new policies for the American church still
had to be set in June at a meeting of the United States
Conference of Bishops in Dallas.
"The media has hyped this as though next week the problem
will be solved," Bishop Gregory said. "In some sense,
there's such anticipation generated over this meeting that
we have to be careful. We're not going to be there in June
simply to say `yes' to something the Holy See has already
determined."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/national/19VATI.html?ex=1020294167&ei=1&en=b5c1a2fff3888961