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	Pope Confronts Scandal in Ways Erie Bishop Hasn't By Pat Howard Erie Times-News April 20, 2008 http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080420/OPINION04/804200374 In registering his objection to Mercyhurst College inviting Hillary Clinton to speak on its campus, Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman was answering Pope Benedict XVI's call for bishops to mix it up in public debates over cultural mores. In his first visit to America as pope, Benedict in recent days has warned against the perils of moral relativism and the "subtle influence of secularism." That's the basic ground Trautman was covering in objecting to a Catholic college providing a forum for a candidate who supports abortion rights. But it strikes me that it's harder for the bishop than the pope, who speaks to a global audience from the mighty platform of the papacy. Bishop Trautman pronounces in the context of local issues and passions, and the resulting slings and arrows are more direct and personal. And while the pope draws admiring throngs -- even as a majority of U.S. Catholics won't follow key parts of what he's preaching -- the bishop these days must adjust to the reality that less deference attaches to his miter. Part of it is the times and the damage done by the church's sexual-abuse scandal. Part of it is that this bishop has proven to be an uneasy fit for the challenges he's faced. It was telling in the case of Mercyhurst that the bishop bypassed public persuasion and dialogue in favor of a gesture rooted in hierarchy and announced by a written statement. In response to the college's transgression, Trautman said he would not attend its graduation. Within the core church and its machinery, that's a powerful rebuke. But the larger public reaction, including a flood of letters to the editor, indicates many others are likely to greet the bishop's boycott with rolling eyes or a shrug. How the Mercyhurst flap has played out reflects, in part, the disconnect between the traditional, hierarchical church and us so-called cafeteria Catholics, who go our own way on some issues and constitute the majority in America. That majority might not rule in matters religious, but it also can't be ruled the way it once was. Hanging over any debate about Catholic ecclesiastical authority is a haze of anger and disillusionment left by the sexual-abuse scandal. Pope Benedict's approach to the issue in recent days suggests he understands the nature of the damage in a way Bishop Trautman still hasn't fully grasped. At the heart of Trautman's reaction to the most recent flare-up of the scandal in the Erie diocese was an implicit, familiar question. Why won't people move on? The outrage and suspicion linger because the offenses involve the systematic abuse of institutional power to enable and cover up despicable crimes against the most vulnerable among us by men of God. And because reform came only after sickening revelations dug up by journalists in spite of resistance from a hierarchy rooted in secrecy and self-regard. It's going to take people a long time to get past that. That makes any new development in the scandal a public test of whether members of that hierarchy really get it. Such a test came a month ago, when the Erie Times-News reported that state police had charged an ex-priest -- who had been removed from ministry by Trautman in 2002 and from the priesthood by the Vatican in 2006 -- with molesting a boy nearly 40 years ago. Crawford County District Attorney Francis J. Schultz dropped the charges the next day, saying he had misread changes in the new child-abuse law prompted by the scandal. Bishop Trautman released a statement denouncing the initial newspaper report as shoddy journalism that inaccurately and unethically trained a spotlight on long-ago events. We stood by our coverage as accurate and timely. The bishop's statement didn't mention the victim in the case, except for noting how his age relates to the statute of limitations for the crimes alleged. He proceeded to parse state law, subchapter and verse, on his way to making a legal argument for again leaving the sordid past undisturbed. "It has done a great disservice to all involved," Trautman concluded about the newspaper's report. But one of those involved -- the man the district attorney said he could prove was preyed on by that priest as a boy -- didn't see the charges or the resulting media coverage as a disservice. He had requested the investigation, and saw it as his chance for justice at last. Pope Benedict chose a different tone and focus in coming to America. He brought up the scandal himself to reporters on his flight over, and kept talking about it once he was here. Benedict pronounced the church hierarchy "deeply ashamed" of its response to "evil" actions by priests, and said the crisis was "sometimes very badly handled." And he said it's the "God-given responsibility" of American church leaders to reach out in ways that will repair broken trust. The pope and his advisers seem to understand that on this subject in this country, straight talk about the church's failures goes a long way. That's true closer to home as well, but experience suggests that Bishop Trautman just doesn't have it in him. Write to Managing Editor Pat Howard at 205 W. 12th St., Erie, PA 16534, or e-mail him at pat.howard@timesnews.com.
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