By Trey Bundy
Bay Citizen
May 1, 2011
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/amid-celebration-abuse-victims-march-sf/
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| Archdiocese of San Francisco communications director George Wesolek speaks with SNAP leader and abuse survivor Tim Lennon outside St. Mary's Cathedral. |
As the Catholic church moved closer to declaring Pope John Paul II a saint, a handful of Bay Area residents who were sexually abused by priests gathered Sunday outside St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. They came to tell church members that there is still a crisis in the Catholic Church.
"Our message today is to remind people of the importance of protecting children in light of the speeded-up beatification of the pope," said Tim Lennon, a victim of clergy abuse and the San Francisco leader of SNAP, the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests. "The speeded-up sainthood of the pope, to us, is merely a publicity action to regain some of their good name that they've lost because of all the thousands -- maybe tens of thousands -- of victims of clergy abuse."
After John Paul II died in 2005, his successor, Pope Benedict XVI waived the traditional five-year wait before beginning the late pope's canonization process. Sunday's beatification marked a major step toward sainthood.
But critics of the church's handling of the global sex-abuse crisis, which broke open during John Paul II's tenure, say he was complicit in the long-suspected church practice of covering up instances of abuse and reassigning rather than punishing predatory priests.
"If nothing else, he failed in the absence of doing anything," Lennon said.
The demonstration was part of a worldwide action over the weekend that took place in 60 cities in seven countries. It was a quiet gathering in San Francisco, not so much a protest as a solemn statement to church members in the midst of their celebration.
Lennon, some of his relatives and four other abuse survivors stood on the sidewalk near the church during Sunday's 11 o'clock mass, handing out flyers asking parishioners to pledge that they will report suspected child abuse in the church or anywhere else they find it.
Halfway through Sunday's mass, George Wesolek, communications director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, stepped outside and strolled across the empty sun-washed plaza that separates the cathedral from the sidewalk along Geary Blvd., and introduced himself to Lennon. Both commented on the lovely spring weather before Lennon traded a flyer for one of Wesolek's business cards.
As he walked back across the empty plaza, Wesolek read over the pledge.
"We're supportive of the concept, definitely," he said, nodding his head and reading on. "It's great. It's most worthy that they're doing this.
Lennon and more than a dozen Bay Area abuse survivors have been meeting with the Archdiocese of San Francisco in recent months to demand the church improve its policies around sex abuse of children. Local bishops have taken the group's proposals under advisement but have yet to decide whether they will take any action.
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