By Jeff Brumley
Florida Times Union
April 18, 2010
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-04-18/story/some-local-catholics-unmoved-vatican-scandal
The pope is under fire. The Vatican is on the defensive. Critics around the world are demanding more transparency from the Holy See.
Welcome to the latest sex abuse scandal to embroil the Catholic Church, the furor erupting over recent reports about how Pope Benedict XVI, when he was a high-ranking cardinal in the Vatican, handled several cases involving priests accused of sexually abusing children and even pleas from bishops to defrock them. Some Catholics want him to resign.
But on the First Coast, many Catholics dismiss the criticism and coverage as the creation of money-hungry lawyers and the insatiable appetite of the 24-hour news cycle.
A spokeswoman for the Jacksonville-based Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine said local Catholic officials have reported no complaints or questions from parishioners and see no evidence that church attendance is suffering due to the international news barrage.
The view in the pews is the scandal is primarily the result of "media sensationalism" and it's unlikely someone of Benedict's stature erred in the way he's been accused, said Ed McGowan, a parishioner at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Jacksonville.
"Even if he did something of that nature - if, if, if - I'm sure he's probably been forgiven a long time ago, and you kind of just have to press on with life," he said.
Kim Teira, a parishioner at San Juan Del Rio parish, said blaming Benedict for a priest's immoral behavior is misguided.
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| Long before entering Vatican life, Pope Benedict XVI won renown as a theologian and a German university professor. |
"Yes, the buck does stop with him, but it's like saying [President] Obama should know what a teacher in Florida is doing," Teira said. "It's not a reasonable thing to look at."
Previous sex scandals, Teira noted, have led the church to install safeguards and procedures to handle abuse cases.
"I think it was secretive for many years, but I think they have changed the way they are handling that," she said.
Kathleen Bagg, the diocesan communications director, said it's likely the lack of local reaction could result from awareness of those changes.
Most Catholics know about the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by American bishops in 2002, because they see announcements about it regularly in parish bulletins.
The charter includes a local panel that reviews all sex abuse claims and calls for state or federal background checks on all new employees and, every five years, on all existing staff.
The diocese has conducted 30,000 background checks in the past eight years and has trained more than 15,000 employees and volunteers how to recognize the behavior of abusers and the signs of abuse, Bagg said.
"We have been hammering this to our parishioners," she said. "People are aware that great efforts are being made."
It's too early to say what impact the ongoing scandal could have on adults considering converting to Catholicism, but diocesan statistics show those numbers have either remained steady or even spiked in other years, like 2002, when major sex abuse scandals shook the church.
Mass attendance in the 17-county diocese is declining, but Bagg attributed that to national trends identified by Gallup and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The groups found that busy schedules, family responsibilities and health problems account for declines in attendance.
"It's horrifying for us to read and it's a concern, but most people relate with their parish community, where they receive the sacraments," Bagg said. "If they have a good experience in their parish communities, it's not going to rock their faith when they read bad news."
For its part, the Vatican initially responded defensively, accusing media, pro-abortion organizations, gay-marriage supporters and others of fomenting the scandal. But the Vatican has struck a more conciliatory tone in recent days, promising greater transparency, prayers for victims and a call for repentance, according to news reports.
The Diocese of St. Augustine, meanwhile, has received no phone calls, letters or e-mails asking questions or complaining about the Vatican, Pope Benedict or the furor in general, Bagg said.
And that jives with what Athanase Jones has seen in his travels across the diocese and nation as leader of the Gulf Coast District of Knights of Peter Claver, an African-American Catholic group.
"There's not a lot of conversation about it other than praying for the pope in this time," the Jacksonville resident said. "We do not hear a lot about it at Mass."
Contact: jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com
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