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	Church Must Lay Bare Its Failures, Take Responsibility, Dublin Archbishop Says at Mu By Annysa Johnson Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 4, 2011 http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/119201704.html The only way for the Catholic Church to truly heal from the clergy sex abuse crisis is to lay bare its failures, take responsibility for the harm it has caused, change the clerical culture that gave rise to it and welcome victims in an environment that fosters healing, the archbishop of Dublin told a crowd of about 200 at Marquette University on Monday. "The truth will set us free," said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who supplied 70,000 pages of church documents to authorities investigating the crisis in Ireland and has implemented changes meant to better prepare candidates for the priesthood there. "I still cannot accept that no one can take responsibility," he said. "The responsibility seems to be the fault of others or of the system." Martin spoke as part of a two-day international conference on the sex abuse crisis hosted by Marquette Law School's Restorative Justice Initiative. Speakers included Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Bishops' Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, victim-survivors, and clergy and lay leaders who work with survivors around the world. Janine Geske, who heads the Restorative Justice Initiative, addressed the wide-reaching effects of the crisis, acknowledging that it has now touched even outgoing Marquette President Robert Wild. Last week, Wild was accused of shielding pedophile priest Donald McGuire when Wild led the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, beginning in the 1980s. Monday's session opened with the moving accounts of survivors who recounted the devastation the abuse brought not just to their bodies and souls, but to their families, and in some cases their faith. "The sex offender commits two crimes. First he steals the body, then he steals the voice," said Peter Isely of the advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests - who likened the pain and possibility for survivors to Jesus' healing of the bleeding woman in the Gospel of Mark - his almost solemn presentation in contrast to his often combative public presence. "I have not lost my faith in God and I never will. But I have lost my faith in the church," said Carol, whose 18-year-old son killed himself in the 1980s after being abused by a priest. She asked that only her first name be used because her granddaughters don't know the reason for his suicide. She, like Martin, stressed the importance of accountability on the part of the Catholic Church. "I would like to see my faith restored, but I would need to see more change," she said.
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