MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News
By Alan Burke
Staff writer
At the depths of the scandal, the news could not have been worse for Catholic Charities. Priests were guilty of abusing children, and Cardinal Bernard Law, the region's spiritual father, had known about it and done little to stop it.
The outrage touched many churchgoers. And it threatened to taint anything connected to the church, including Catholic Charities, an organization that serves the needy regardless of their religion, while relying on the donations of ordinary people here on the North Shore to cover a vital 13 to 15 percent of its local expenses.
Today, as a new Christmas season begins, Virginia Doocy, the agency's North Shore director, says the collection plate still is not as full as it was before the scandal.
So far this year, donations to Catholic Charities North are $50,000 short of what they were in 2001, the year before the priest abuse scandal exploded.