St Patricks Press Conference, by Julia Duin, Washington Times, April 21, 2008

St. Patrick's Press Conference

By Julia Duin
Washington Times
April 21, 2008

http://video1.washingtontimes.com/papalvisit/2008/04/st_patricks_press_conference.html

Just after 8:30 this morning, I was shivering in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue while listening to Peter Isely, who serves on the national board of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. He (the bald-headed man in the photo) was handing out lists of what the American Catholic Church should do next after getting its knuckles rapped by Pope Benedict for the past six days over sex abuse crisis.

"The disciplinary measures against those who covered up those crimes have not been put in place," he told me. "We would like to see a national registry naming all the sexually offending priests and what we're doing with them and what neighborhood we are settling them in." Some archdioceses (such as Baltimore) have published the names of such priests. Others, such as Washington, have not.

I told him of my interview with Archbishop Wuerl Sunday night (see previous blog entry) where he thought everything that needed to be done to contain priestly sex abuse had basically been done.

"That is the worst thing he could have possibly said," Isely replied. "He should have said, 'We will hold ourselves as bishops accountable to correct the failures the pope talked about.' "

Plus, he added, what about abusive priests around the world, Sure, some 5,180 U.S. clergy - about 4% of all American clergy - have been found guilty. If you extrapolate that percentage to include all the world's priests, that would be about 21,000 clergy, he said. I have not done the math, so am taking his word on this. But are their 21,000 clergy worldwide identified as predators? Nope.

SNAP also wants the pope to sanction, publicly reprimand and discipline bishops who have transferred known sex offenders.

There's a lot more. For those of you local readers interested in this topic, there will be a movie, "Vows of Silence," about the Marciel Maciel sex abuse case involving the founder of the Legionnaires of Christ at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Georgetown University, 111 St. Mary's Hall on Reservoir Road near the GU hospital. See www.vowsofsilencefilm.com for more info.

You'll be hearing a lot more on this topic, believe me.