WASHINGTON —(DC)
Catholic News Service
April 9, 2019
By Christopher Gunty
A week into National Child Abuse Protection Month, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori visited the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops chapel April 8 to celebrate midday Mass for conference employees and reflect on the church’s work to develop policies and procedures to prevent child abuse by those within the church.
He recognized that those who work at U.S. bishops’ conference headquarters have a keen desire “to do everything possible to address on an ongoing basis the sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church for such a very long time.”
The “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and the related “Essential Norms” implementing the charter legislatively passed by the U.S. bishops in 2002 were “a major step forward,” the archbishop said. “Nevertheless, all of us admit that much more still needs to be done, especially in the areas of episcopal transparency and accountability.”
“There are many motivations for wanting to get this right,” he said at the Mass.
First of those are the desire to see that all children and young people are safe.
Second, he said that as a bishop, he naturally wants to see confidence in the church restored in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and globally.
The church was hit by revelations last summer that included allegations against Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal and retired archbishop of Washington, and the release of a report from the Pennsylvania attorney general detailing hundreds of allegations of abuse over a 70-year period beginning in 1947.
Such revelations call into question the church’s essential mission of evangelization, the archbishop said.
“More than anything else, however, our hearts should be broken, humbled, contrite, by the horrific experiences of those who have been sexually abused by clergy or by other representatives of the church,” Lori said. “Even if such abuse was committed many years ago, the wounds inflicted upon innocent children and young people are often lifelong wounds. Far too many do not find justice and healing; far too few have their peace.”
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