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	Atoning for Priests' Sins an On-Going Process Davenport Diocese Bishop Amos Leading 18 Atonement Services By Molly Rossiter Hawk Eye October 27, 2008 http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/Priests-102608 Bishop Martin Amos is sorry. He's sorry for the "inappropriate action or inaction" some of his predecessors at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport displayed after early reports of sex abuse. He's sorry victims and their families were left without help or a place to turn within the diocese when the abuse happened. Mostly, he's sorry the abuse happened at all. "All of us have been affected by the sexual abuse by priests. Some of us have been severely affected," Amos, bishop of the Davenport diocese, said in one of 18 scheduled atonement services being held throughout the diocese through next month. "If we can do an atonement, if that one sin can so affect the body of the church, imagine what our prayers can do now." The atonement services are being held in parishes in which either priest abuse has been reported or in parishes where priests accused of abuse had served, said Deacon David Montgomery of the Diocese of Davenport. He said the services were both something the bishop had discussed doing for some time and part of a mandate in a bankruptcy settlement agreement for the diocese. Before each service, Amos offers parishioners the opportunity to ask questions or express thoughts and concerns. "In some of the services people have chosen not to speak but to pray with the bishop," Montgomery said. "It really depends on what the parish needs, what the people attending need. The bishop and the diocese recognize that people are in different parts of the healing process." Montgomery said abuse allegations within the Davenport diocese date back 30 years or more. During one service, Amos was asked why the diocese wasn't more helpful to the victims and their families when the abuse was reported. "I don't know. That just blows my mind," the bishop said. "I have a lot of those same questions as well." Amos said he knows some of his classmates and colleagues have been accused of sexual abuse, and he himself is in the healing process. "There is still so much that I don't understand," he said. "This is the church that I love very, very much, and I am very hurt by this." The diocese's victim assistance coordinator, Alicia O-wens, has attended each service with Amos and Montgomery. She said she's received mixed reactions from the victims with whom she's worked. "I had two people that I have been working with travel from out of state to attend one of the services," Owens said. "They attended with family members, and when the daughter of one asked her dad how he felt about the service, he replied, 'I have found some peace by attending.' " Others, she said, felt the services were being held to help the Catholic Church heal as a whole, rather than the individual victims. Montgomery said the services are intended to help everyone -- those directly victimized by the abuse and those who were otherwise hurt by the allegations. "People have been harmed by this more than just the survivors," he said. "Regular parishioners and society has been harmed by this as well. This is going beyond the diocese and recognizing that abuse is occurring outside of the church as well and there is a need to protect children everywhere." Montgomery said the atonement services are just the beginning of the steps Amos plans to take to help the victims and the parishes heal from the abuse. "The bishop wants to continue this process," he said. "This isn't just one visit and we're done. He wants the diocese and the parishes to continue to be involved in the healing process."
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