Minnesota Catholics Hut by Sex Abuse Scandals, but Many Show Resilience
By Bob Shaw
Everyone tries to sound so casual. "People will ask how it's going," said Tim Marx, chief executive of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. "They are asking the question without asking The Question." The Question is how he and other Catholics are coping with the scandal from hell, the revelations of the decades of priests abusing children and the church covering it up. They are asking about the crisis that is partly responsible for a 9 percent drop in 10 years in the number of Minnesotans who are registered Catholic. The Question hasn't changed. But lately, some of the answers have. Many Minnesota Catholics are optimistic that the church is bouncing back. There may be more accusations to come -- just last week, an affidavit was filed from a former official in the Twin Cities archdiocese accusing its leaders of covering up abuse cases and blaming victims -- but some Catholics think the worst of them have been exposed. "I don't want to say we won't see these things again, but I think it is changing," said Bob Kennedy, chairman of the Department of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas University. "We are coming back stronger. That is the nature of any kind of trial -- you are stronger when you come out the other side," said Joseph Grodahl of Richfield, a law school student who converted to Catholicism in 2009. Catholics are looking forward to a time when they don't have to constantly defend themselves. "People say to me, 'What on earth do you mean - you are Catholic?'" said Grodahl. FEWER CATHOLICS Priests around the world have been accused of sexual crimes against children, and church officials have often shown a pattern of covering them up. In 2010, Catholic officials in Rome said they were aware of allegations involving 3,000 priests going back 50 years. Reports of abuse in the U.S. bubbled up in the 1990s, but the floodgates opened in 2002 when the Boston Globe reported the now-familiar pattern of the church failing to respond to crimes of its clergy. The accounts of abuse have lingered longer in Minnesota because the Legislature extended the statute of limitations for victims to file lawsuits, which led to 23 new suits filed since May 2013. Against this backdrop, the state's Catholic population dropped 9 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. After growing for more than 50 years, the number of American Catholics has now plateaued at about 75 million, according to U.S. census data. But that number may be artificially high, Kennedy said, because the church counts people as Catholic when they are baptized and does not effectively track when people leave the faith. Better, said Kennedy, to count Catholic ceremonies. And as the news about sex crimes in the U.S. was peaking, the number of Catholic rituals was plummeting: Baptisms fell by 28 percent from 2000 to 2014, according to the Pew Research Center. Marriages dropped by 41 percent. Adult baptisms fell by half. The count of Catholics has been helped by millions of immigrants from Mexico. About 30 percent of American Catholics were born outside the U.S., according to census data. Those immigrants are crowding into churches in the Southwest, even as the numbers of Catholics fall in Midwestern and Eastern states. Like everyone else, Catholics have been mortified by the crimes of the clergy. "We think about what we would do if it happened to a child of ours," Kennedy said. "It makes you furious." But unlike everyone else, average Catholics have faced frequent confrontations. Since law student Grodahl converted to Catholicism, the questions haven't stopped. "I get them a lot," said Grodahl. HEALING There are signs that the number of new allegations is dropping and that the church is dealing with the crisis. Pope Francis this month met with victims of priest abuse to ask their forgiveness. Catholic Charities' Marx said the pope is dealing with the scandals aggressively and is re-energizing Catholic evangelism. "Pope Francis has inspired everyone with a simple and powerful message: the poor, the poor, the poor," Marx said. The impact of the crimes also is changing because of a generational shift. "For older Catholics, this has been hugely disappointing," said professor Kennedy. "In some cases, the (accused priests) are men we knew." But new, young students? Not so much. "Our undergrads are saddened by the bad news," Kennedy said. "But a lot of it took place before they were born. It is not part of their experience." Kennedy said his Catholic Studies students have doubled to 300 in the past decade. SPIRIT, SERVICE When asked why they support the church, Twin Cities Catholics contacted for this report gave two kinds of answers, one spiritual and one practical. "It is nothing other than this: I have had a deepened encounter with the person of Christ," said Grodahl, the law student. "This is where I found a real home." Catholics explain their faith in a language common to almost all religions -- it feels right, it satisfies their soul, and they believe it is true. Tom Peterson is sensitive to the spiritual needs of converts as the founder of Georgia-based Catholics Come Home, which appeals to new or lapsed Catholics. They join, he said, because they believe. "The church was started by Jesus," Peterson said. "If you look at history, you get a whole different perspective on the Catholic Church than by listening to the secular media for the last 15 years. "Despite the fact that humans sin, the truths taught by Jesus and his church remain sound." Despite the scandals, Marx says he can't switch religions the way he might switch his brand of toothpaste. "I am Catholic in many ways, just like I am American in many ways," he said. "It's who I am." Like his country, his church "is a human institution, and it has its flaws," he said. "But in each there is an inherent good." Defenders of the faith also make a practical argument -- that Catholics perform good works that would impress even hard-core atheists. The best example is Catholic Charities USA. Although it is separate from the church, Marx said, it reflects Catholic values of caring for the poor. And Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis does that very well, said Chip Halbach, a non-Catholic and the director of the Minnesota Housing Partnership. "I don't think any faith community does more for the homeless population than Catholics," he said. The local group has an annual budget of $48 million, helps 35,000 homeless people a year and provides 80 percent of the shelter for single homeless adults in Ramsey County. About 40 percent of its budget comes from donations, 40 percent from various government agencies, and the rest from income from investments and fees, including rents. Volunteers make the same argument: that their charitable work is a sign of their commitment to God and to their community. At Catholic Charities' Dorothy Day Center on a recent Tuesday, Lisa Mascia of Woodbury worked in the lunch line, plopping apple crisp into bowls. She said the media coverage of the scandals was excessive. "You have it bad wherever you go," Mascia said. "We are big, so when it happens to us, it makes the news." The scandals don't rattle her. "It's not what's happening here. That's not me. That's not us," said Mascia, whose football jersey said "Francis," referring to the pope. The church's leaders are not the same as the church, she said. "We are the church." Bob Shaw can be reached at 651-228-5433. Follow him at twitter.com/BshawPP. Contact: bshaw@pioneerpress.com
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