Abuse Too Heavy a Cross to Bear, Margery Eagan, Boston Herald, April 25, 2010

Abuse Too Heavy a Cross to Bear

By Margery Eagan
Boston Herald
April 25, 2010

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20100425abuse_too_heavy_a_cross_to_bear_churchs_woes_pile_up/

‘ENRAGED’ BY EVENTS: Bernie McDaid, who met Pope Benedict XVI, inset, two years ago, has plans for a ‘Day of Reformation’ in Rome.
Photo by Ryan T. Conaty

The long-simmering pot may, at last, be boiling over.

Boston’s Catholic sex-abuse crisis has now gone global. Last week bishops in Germany, Belgium and Ireland resigned in disgrace. For the first time, a lawyer has sued the Vatican itself in U.S. federal court, demanding that it “disgorge the secrets” in its files, just as Boston lawyers once demanded of then-Cardinal Law, and won.

In an amazing repudiation of Pope Benedict XVI, the German church vicar who had claimed responsibility for protecting a pedophile priest in then-Joseph Ratzinger’s diocese has changed his story. Now Gerhard Gruber says he only took the blame after being bullied by higher-ups hoping to protect the Pope.

Last week, as well, abuse survivor Bernie McDaid, who met with Benedict himself two years ago, detailed plans for what he calls a “Day of Reformation” at St. Peter’s Square in Rome. He has chosen Oct. 31, the day the Reformation in Europe began with Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

“We’re enraged by these latest events,” said McDaid, who believes nothing has changed since he put his hand on Benedict’s heart two years ago and told him, “You have a cancer in your flock.”

McDaid envisions tens of thousands of survivors, priests, nuns, Catholics and non-Catholics, believers or not, standing together outside the Vatican “united, with one voice on one day. This is about coming to the home of Christianity to say this is the people’s church, to stand up for ourselves.”

He said numerous survivors feel that neither validation nor settlement money is enough when the hierarchy still refuses to tell the truth. “To fully heal, we have to know that we’ve made a difference, that we’ve made our mark in history. History will record that this day happened, that we were there, and that is very important.”

Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston attorney who has represented more than 700 abuse survivors, said he’s heard mixed reactions about McDaid’s plan. “You want what will help the victims. The victims are the conscience of the church. Obviously the church doesn’t have a conscience,” Garabedian said. But he and others fear church “PR spin” on any mass gathering, similar to what followed the pope’s meeting with victims two years ago.

Indeed, just yesterday, as more scandal swirled, a Vatican spokesman was vowing “truth, transparency and credibility” to reporters. Said Federico Lombardi, “We need to be in a position to say we have nothing to hide.”

Yet the Vatican continues hiding. The pope answers no questions. And no one has released any documents about this latest round of accused priests and enabling bishops.

Terry McKiernan is the founder of BishopsAccountability.org, which has meticulously documented the careers of such bishops. Yesterday McKiernan said real change in the church, if it comes at all, will come from a “more boring” route: a dry-up of money from Germany and America, the Vatican’s chief sources of cash, plus police investigations and lawsuits.

“I’m not interested in talking to any bishops or to the pope,” he said. “You want to know how to reach them? You reach them with a subpoena, that’s how.”