MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY ALEXANDRA ALTER
aalter@herald.com
Monsignor John Gerard Noonan -- prankster priest, seminary rector and the next auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Miami -- seems more like your favorite uncle than a No. 2 man at the Archdiocese.
He cleans up the cafeteria alongside his students at St. John Vianney College Seminary, brings coffee to his secretary and often stashes his white plastic priest's collar in his shirt pocket, complaining it's too stuffy.
''He sweats the big stuff; he doesn't sweat the small stuff,'' said the Rev. José Alvarez, dean of students at St. John Vianney. ...
Q: What should the archdiocese do in the wake of the scandal to regain lay people's trust?
A: The biggest thing I can do right now is to make sure these young men are prepared to be good priests and to let them know the church can't tolerate anything like this anymore. . . . For a young man to come into the seminary, there's a whole barrage of psychological testing.
It's not that we have all the answers, but we have a lot more checks and balances, a lot more education. . . . We were probably very nave across the board. Things happened that should never have been allowed to happen.
Q: What has the archdiocese done to ensure that abuse gets reported and pedophile priests are removed?
A: All those guidelines come from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. We're evaluated on those things; we have no choice.