KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
May 13, 2019
By Peter Feuerherd
David Spotanski wrote the kind of candid memo to his boss in February 2002 that some underlings compose, think better of, and then delete.
It was no ordinary missive from a chancery bureaucrat. The then-vice chancellor for the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, felt the memo was so important that he went to then-Bishop Wilton Gregory’s house and personally read it aloud. The memo reflected rage, frustration and disgust about sex abuse in the church. In shockingly undiplomatic language, it didn’t mince words.
“Too many nights I wake up and wonder if an institution that can be this insensitive to the physical, spiritual and emotional wellbeing of its most precious members — its very future — is even worthy of my three children’s innocent faith,” wrote Spotanski.
Spotanski continued, stating he wanted “to share clearly with the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops a perception to which he cannot relate. I can speak as a parent.”
He urged his boss to push for reforms that would require bishops to be fully transparent on sex abusers and to dismiss offenders. In particular, he wanted Gregory to push back hard on foot draggers among his fellow bishops.
At the time, then Boston Cardinal Bernard Law was coming under fire for revelations exposed by the Boston Globe for allowing abusive priests to continue in ministry. In the memo, Spotanski said, “Wilton, it could have been my eleven-year-old Jonathan those bastards sodomized under Law’s watchful eye.”
Some bishops and church leaders were putting the blame on the media for sensationalizing cases in Boston and other dioceses. Spotanski would have none of it.
“I personally don’t want the media to back off until I’m confident there are no more dirty little secrets buried amidst the Mysteries of our Faith,” he wrote.
After Spotanski shared the note with friends and coworkers, the memo went viral. Some who read it considered it a miracle that Spotanski wasn’t fired on the spot.
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