CLEVELAND (OH)
Plain Dealer
Thursday, March 03, 2005
David Briggs
Plain Dealer Religion Reporter
People in the pews were kept in the dark for half a century.
Now it is up to average Catholics to hold their church accountable to protect children from sexual abuse, the former head of the national lay review board monitoring the church's response to the scandal said Wednesday.
"Raise some hell. . . . Be vigilant. Be outspoken. And demand transparency," Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke said in an impassioned speech at the St. Joseph Center in Cleveland. "No more passive Catholics. That is my mantra now."
Burke served on the lay review board appointed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from June 2002 until her term ended last November. She was interim chairwoman from July 2003 until she left the board. Her talk Wednesday was sponsored by FutureChurch, a national independent lay Catholic group based in Cleveland.
Burke said if she were to write a book about her experiences, it would be titled "Asleep at the Switch," or "Who's Running this Joint?"
Yet even after what she called the "cataclysmic failure" of bishops to protect children or care for abuse victims, there still are many church leaders who want to return to the way things were, she said.
Posted by kshaw at March 3, 2005 07:25 AM