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	An Apology from the Vatican on Good Friday By Jayson Landeza San Francisco Chronicle April 2, 2010 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/jlandeza/detail??blogid=140&entry_id=60456 I am writing this from my room at the Pontifical North American College (PNAC), the U.S. seminary at the Vatican. As part of a year-long sabbatical break from my work in inner-city Oakland, I've spent the past three months in Rome as a participant of the Institute for Continuing Theological Education, a program at PNAC designed to provide updating for Catholic priests ordained 20 years or more. Interacting with the seminarians at this West Point of American Catholicism is a blog entry for another time, however. I have been closely following the continued saga of my church's response to the sexual abuse of children by my fellow Catholic priests, particularly as reports unfold in Ireland (especially the Ferns and Murphy reports) and Germany, and to a lesser extent in the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. And like many of you, I've been reading the New York Times' coverage of the two cases involving the current pope when he was Archbishop of Munich and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, respectively. I know that whatever I say in this blog entry will be reviled by the right and the left within my church (and outside), but I'll leave the comment section open so that folks can see the full extent of the responses, and experience the spectrum of opinions that exist, even within Catholicism./p> I have to begin by admitting my biases. I was born and raised in the flatlands of Berkeley in the 1960's and 1970's. The closest thing to a mentor for me while I was growing up was Fr. Bill O'Donnell, the longtime pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley. Bill spent more time in jail as a civil rights activist than many priests accused of pedophilia spend in prison. I should also state that I am the only priest on the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), the nation's largest progressive Catholic newspaper. The journalistic home of Vatican correspondent John Allen, the NCR was the first media outlet to write extensively on the clergy sexual abuse of children when such stories began filtering from Lafayette, Louisiana, in the mid-1980's. I have also worked on a national level, representing the Catholic priests of California, Nevada and Hawai'i to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC. I am also on the Board of Consultors for the National Federation of Priests' Councils, which represents the interests of Catholic priests throughout the country. In 2002, shortly after the crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston which prompted the clergy sex abuse scandal in the United States, the Diocese of Oakland established a ministry to survivors of clergy sex abuse (which I will discuss later). One of my closest childhood friends was a victim of sex abuse by a trusted priest. I was asked to be the priest that worked with the survivors' support group, and I heard first-hand accounts of the pain inflicted by Catholic priests upon childhood victims of sex abuse. I have experienced the deep anger and anguish of these survivors at their monthly support meetings, their monthly planning sessions, and on one occasion, a weekend survivors' retreat. For some of those courageous folks, their arduous journey to healing and recovery is nothing short of miraculous. Yet, on the other hand, I have also had close priest friends removed from the priesthood for credible accusations involving sexual abuse of a minor. I also had to take over a parish after a pastor was suspended and chose to retire as a result of an sexual abuse accusation with a minor that was determined, by the diocese, to lack credibility. I have mentioned all of the above to give you a sense of my background on this issue, and where I'm coming from. On this Good Friday, the most solemn day in the Christian Church calendar, I walked over to St. Peter's Basilica for this afternoon's Celebration of the Lord's Passion with Pope Benedict XVI, and joined him and hundreds of thousands of others at the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome this evening. Some expressed hope that he would apologize today on behalf of the Catholic Church for the individual acts of sexual abuse of chidren, and the subsequent cover-up by Catholic leadership, in much the same way he did in his pastoral letter to the Irish people. I just returned from both events this evening, and found out otherwise. In the spirit of this day, from here in the Vatican, I want to say how truly sorry I am for the pain that the Catholic Church has caused to you who are childhood sexual abuse victims of priests, sisters and lay professionals who work for the church. I apologize to you for the times that the church's hierarchy has been non-responsive and dismissive. I am sorry that we, as a church, did not do enough to protect you. There is nothing that the Catholic Church can say or do that will fully take away the deep and profound pain that we have caused those who have been sexually victimized as children by Catholic priests. Nothing. I am tremendously saddened, and I am deeply sorry. If you are a victim of childhood sexual abuse by a priest, deacon, sister, lay professional or church volunteer, I invite you to seek help. I know you might be reluctant to approach the very same institution that was the cause of your pain, but I also know, from first-hand experience, that the Catholic dioceses in the Bay Area have well-developed and staffed victims' assistance programs that can be a source of healing in your journey to recovery. The Diocese of Oakland <, under the leadership of then-Chancellor Sister Barbara Flannery, established the nation's first outreach ministry to victims of clergy sexual abuse. The Diocese of San Jose and the Archdiocese of San Francisco have similar programs. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is the nations' foremost advocacy group, and they have local support groups across the nation./p> What does the church need to do? Plenty. Do we need healing and improvement? In the words of a famous ex-Catholic from Alaska, you betcha'! But I don't want to go there quite yet. There's so much turmoil going on within the hierarchial Catholic Church that the topic warrants another blog entry down the line. What with the Legionaries of Christ and their founder;the ongoing Vatican investigation of American religious womens' communities; the U.S Bishops' stance on the recently-passed health care bill. Next week, our priest sabbatical class will be on retreat in Assisi, home of the patron saint and namesake of San Francisco, St. Francis of Assisi. Last week, we were in Siena to visit the grave of St. Catherine of Siena. Both were ardent reformers who worked to bring the Catholic Church and its leadership to a sense of their mission as followers of Christ. I pray their intercession as we seek change within the church. I know that what I have said may be of little consolation to those pained by the actions of my church, and rightly so. It will be too little, too late. Apologies will never be enough. For others, we're viewed as a bunch of kooks who are just standing in the Kool-Aid punch bowl line, as everything from the Inquisition to Sister Mary Rose sending them to detention is recalled and reviled. Still others will see my words as a attack on their (and my) beloved Catholic Church, and see no need for apologies. I say to all of you, that through this we will become a better church and be the people Christ has truly called us to become. We go from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. In spite of it all, I am convinced that the Catholic Church remains a powerful force for good in the world, as I see the work done within impoverished communities, among immigrants and the homeless, in many of this nation's classrooms, as well as work with the marginalized and disenfranchised. For a balanced point of view in all of this, I encourage you to read Peggy Noonan's article in today's Wall Street Journal - it's the best piece I've read so far I know that this is not quite the apology from the Vatican that some were looking for, but from this regular old, run-of-the-mill parish priest from Berkeley who is currently at the Vatican, I say from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry.
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