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	Healing the Church Austin Bishop to Speak in Washington on Anniversary of Abuse Scandal By Eileen E. Flynn American-Statesman [Austin TX] March 19, 2007 http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/19/19aymond.html Five years after revelations of widespread sex abuse and cover-up rocked the Catholic Church, Austin Bishop Gregory Aymond will report on the church's progress and challenges Tuesday at Georgetown University in Washington. Aymond leads the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and has become known for his progressive approach to weeding out problem priests, observers say. "What we thought were safe environments were not always safe," Aymond said. "In the Catholic Church, it's not enough to have a safe environment; we have to have a faith environment where we really are like the arms of Jesus, who says to the children, 'Come unto me.' " The Boston Globe newspaper exposed the scope of the clergy sex abuse and the cover-up by church leaders in January 2002. Church officials later commissioned a study that found that about 4,000 priests, about 4 percent of the total number of priests, abused more than 10,000 children from 1950 to 2002. In June 2002, bishops met in Dallas, where they developed a charter to protect youths from abusers. During that meeting, they also created the National Review Board, a group of laypeople who work with and advise bishops on abuse policies. Aymond is the bishop liaison to the board. The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown's Woodstock Theological Center, will moderate the talk Tuesday. Reese, a former editor of the Catholic magazine America, said bishops have made progress in the past five years. "I think it's helpful for people to know the number of sex abuse cases since the Dallas charter went into effect has been very low and the bishops have responded quickly to accusations, reporting them to the police," Reese said. "On the other hand, we want to keep their feet to the fire and make sure bishops continue to be vigilant about this." After the speech, Aymond will take questions from the audience, which Reese expects to be made up mostly of laypeople. Some victims groups and laypeople have said bishops did not go far enough and demand that the names of all accused priests be made public. Aymond said that publishing all the names could be problematic. There is "little chance the list would be accurate and comprehensive," he said. But David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said he's not satisfied. Bishops are "spending tons of energy and money on public relations and lawyers, but, essentially, despite years of horrific scandal and devastation, they've only barely and reluctantly begun to change their behavior," he said. Aymond said the church is striving to be open about the problems. His Austin Diocese has won national praise for its policies and educational programs on protecting children. Reflecting on the past five years, Aymond said it was difficult both hearing victims' accounts of abuse and removing longtime priests from ministry. He was still relatively new to Austin when he had to pull a popular priest from a parish in Martindale after accusations of improper conduct surfaced. Aymond said he sees the church and priests as the vine and the branches. "We have to cut off those branches that have become diseased, because they will infect the rest of the vine," he said. eflynn@statesman.com; 445-3812
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