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	New Organization Calls for Lay Catholics to Hold Archdiocese Accountable for Sexual Abuse by Priests By Peter Smith The Courier-Journal April 21, 2011 http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110421/NEWS01/304210079/New-organization-calls-lay-Catholics-hold-Archdiocese-accountable-sexual-abuse-by-priests?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home Nick Pfeiffer said his experience attending Catholic parishes and schools “has been nothing short of simply awesome,” and he once thought the church was being unfairly “attacked” by lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. But a recent wave of abuse-related news prompted him to learn more about such cases. “The first thing I thought was, when is this problem going away?” said Pfeiffer, who is 36. But then he realized that was the problem — he was waiting for it to go away when he said what he needed to do was “to start getting involved.” Pfeiffer and more than a dozen advocates gathered for a press conference Thursday to announce the formation of a new organization called Protect the Children. They issued a Holy Week call for lay Catholics to hold the Archdiocese of Louisville accountable for handling abuse allegations, charging it with recent lapses in its own policies. They also announced the online posting of internal documents from the archdiocese showing how its leaders kept priests in ministry despite their known history of sexual abuse between the 1980s and 2002, when bishops adopted a new nationwide policy banning abusers from ministry after a first offense. The documents were released more than eight years ago under a Jefferson Circuit Court order during a wave of abuse-related lawsuits. They generated media coverage at the time, but Pfeiffer said it was eye-opening for him recently to read the documents for himself. The documents are now posted on a national Web site, www.BishopAccountability.org, which has posted documents from other dioceses. “It's absolutely sickening, what they knew and when they knew it,” said Pfeiffer, whose father, Cal Pfeiffer, is a longtime advocate for victims who has said he was himself abused by a priest. Advocates at yesterday's conference cited recent cases in the news — including the suicide outside an Owensboro parish of a man who said he was sexually abused. They also cited a pending lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court that revealed a priest accused of sexual abuse resided at a Louisville parish in 2009 to 2010 and that a volunteer at that parish was a former priest on probation for third-degree rape until his resignation in February 2011. The archdiocese has acknowledged the latter case violated its policy barring sex offenders from volunteer roles. It has not commented on claims that the former situation violated its policy barring those under investigation for abuse from unsupervised contact with minors. “Why does it seem to continue to take lawsuits to get them to do the right thing?” Nick Pfeiffer said. Several of those at the press conference in Clifton Heights have been involved in victim advocacy for several years through local chapters of national organizations. The new Protect the Children group would focus solely on the Louisville archdiocese, Cal Pfeiffer said. The group's goals include raising financial support for priests or nuns who fear for their livelihood if they speak out. Brian Reynolds, chancellor and chief administrative officer with the archdiocese, acknowledged people are frustrated that church officials and other organizations once wrongly believed that abusers could be rehabilitated and returned to ministry. “We have worked daily since 2002 to implement the charter,” he said, referring to the policy approved by bishops that bars abusers from ministry. “There were lots of things that were done in the time prior to the charter that would not be done today.” He said the archdiocese has trained more than 25,000 people on creating a safe environment for children and responding to abuse. “We agree their concern that we all need to protect victims of abuse,” Reynolds said. “We do think we should be accountable. Perhaps where we split is that they don’t perceive us as being accountable.” The church, he said, is “going to have to work hard to earn people's continued trust.” Nick Pfeiffer said it's fitting to issue a call for church accountability on Holy Thursday — in which Jesus set an example of service by washing his disciples' feet during the Last Supper. “I hope we can get enough Catholics to start stepping up and saying we do need to serve, we need to take this mission to end the sex abuse in the church.”
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