LONG ISLAND (NY)
National
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
On March 19, I spoke at a Voice of the Faithful conference on Long Island, N.Y. Some 500 people showed up -- mostly, I'm sure, drawn by Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, the prophet who anticipated the American sexual abuse crisis back in the 1980s, and by the opportunity to network with one another.
I missed Doyle's presentation, because I had to come out to Long Island by the morning train. According to a Newsday report, however, he told the group that, "The issue is basically power," urging laity to "move from infancy to adulthood" in their attitudes toward church leaders.
The nation's bishops, he reportedly said, "are still putting a Band-Aid over a cancer."
Doyle today works as an addiction counselor in Maryland.
The on-going fallout of the crisis was clear at the gathering. The corridors outside the hotel ballroom, for example, were dominated by posters containing information on 39 priests accused of abuse who had either worked for, or in, the Rockville Centre diocese, the main ecclesiastical jurisdiction on Long Island. The posters were produced by BishopAccountability.org, a reform organization that has also posted data on the group's web site.
Posted by kshaw at March 28, 2005 02:32 PM