CHICAGO (IL)
Post-Tribune
September 23, 2018
By Becky Jacobs
Daniel Lowery sees the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal as a grieving process.
There’s denial, anger, bargaining and depression, he said, but the final stage of acceptance is going to be tough for people. Many are not ready for acceptance yet, he said.
“It’s a matter of choice, individually,” Lowery, theology professor at Calumet College of St. Joseph, said.
In light of lists released in recent weeks in northern Indiana of priests “credibly” accused of sexually abusing children, Lowery, Bishop Donald Hying of the Diocese of Gary, and other theology experts spoke of their views about how the church and its members can grapple with this information and work to move forward.
The Rev. Dale Melczek, who preceded Hying as bishop, did not respond to multiple requests from the Post-Tribune for an interview.
Last month, the Diocese of Gary published a list of 10 former priests found guilty of “credible actions of sexual molestation of minors.”
The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend issued a similar list earlier this month of 17 former priests and one former deacon who were also credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. One of the priests, the Rev. William Gieranowski, served at parishes in East Chicago and Munster in the 1940s and 1950s, according to the diocese.
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