Altoona-Johnstown bishop holding prayer services for abuse victims

By Peter Smith
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
May 16, 2016

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2016/05/16/Altoona-Johnstown-bishop-holding-prayer-services-for-abuse-victims/stories/201605100164

Bishop Mark L. Bartchak, pictured during a Mass at the Cathedral of Blessed Sacrament in Altoona in March, will be holding three prayer services this week for the victims of sexual abuse, a move at least one advocacy group says is "nothing more than public relations." Photo by Michael Henninger

In the wake of a grand jury report citing decades of sexual abuse by priests in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Bishop Mark Bartchak plans three prayer services this week aimed at seeking healing for the victims.

The bishop is inviting people to join “in prayer for those who have been harmed.”

One advocacy group for victims is not impressed.

“Such services are nothing more than public relations,” said a statement by the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nationwide advocacy group. “They don’t protect a single child, expose a single predator, punish a single concealer or deter a single cover-up.”

It said Bishop Bartchak should replace the diocesan review board that is set up to make recommendations on handling abuse allegations and that, according to the grand jury, instead managed victims as a way to contain liability for the diocese. A priest who advises the board pleaded the Fifth Amendment right not to testify when subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.

The group urged Bishop Bartchak to “take tangible steps so that the church no longer will need to hold such events. The goal should be no more victims.”

Diocesan spokesman Tony DeGol disputed the group’s criticisms.

“Over the past two months, the bishop and many of our faithful have expressed great sorrow for the victims of sexual abuse,” he said in a statement. “There is a genuine desire in our diocese to come together in prayer and healing — so much so that some parishes have already sponsored their own Masses or prayer services. It is always appropriate to pray, and it is unfair for anyone to question our sincerity and core beliefs.”

He noted that the bishop has suspended all living priests accused in the report pending further investigation of allegations dating back more than 20 years.

The grand jury report, released March 1, said hundreds of children were sexually abused by priests and others associated with the diocese, mainly between the 1940s and 1980s, and that two previous bishops covered up for abusers and treated victims callously.