UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Twenty years now, and in those twenty years, the story that perhaps more than any other characterizes the Roman Catholic church and has come to brand it in the eyes of the public is the crisis caused by clerical sexual abuse of minors and the cover-up of such abuse by church pastors. In continuation of the theme I began on Palm Sunday, I’m sharing with you now a letter I sent Bishop William Curlin of Charlotte on 10 September 1997 — some twenty years ago — speaking about the abuse crisis before it had even broken out in American Catholicism via media reports (with the exception of Jason Berry’s ground-breaking coverage), and about what I could foresee it would mean, when news of it did really reach the world. This letter builds on the 1 September letter I posted here on Holy Thursday. It refers to Mother Teresa because Bishop Curlin has regarded himself as a close personal friend of Mother Teresa and brought her to Charlotte.
Here’s my letter from 10 September 1997:
Dear Bishop Curlin:
Soon after I wrote you on September 1, I received the September 5 issue of the National Catholic Reporter. That issue has news about the pedophilia trial in Dallas, on which my September 1 letter commented.
Since this news is deeply disturbing to me, and has bearing on my story in the Charlotte diocese, I am writing again to comment on the latest revelations from the Dallas case.
As you may know, the NCR article indicates that the bishop of Dallas has met secretly with “a group of powerful laymen” to plan “an aggressive legal and public relations campaign designed to discredit … the … verdict in the Rudolph Kos sex abuse case.” Notes from the meeting contain evidence of possibly unethical communication between the judiciary slated to hear a motion in the case, and an attorney present at the meeting.
The meeting notes also show that the diocese plans a public relations campaign designed to assure Catholics of the diocese’s “compassion,” while suggesting that the trial was unfair. According to these notes, at least one of the “powerful men” present at the meeting observed, “We can control the media.” The notes identify “protection of assets” as a key diocesan objective.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.