BishopAccountability.org
	Fixing Church, Post-Scandal By Carol Eisenberg Newsday [Long Island NY] April 23, 2006 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-licath234713861apr23,0,1756887.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines A national spokesman for victims of priest sex abuse offered his stark perspective yesterday on what has worked - and what hasn't - to reform the Roman Catholic Church. Nothing has worked, he told 500 Long Island Catholics gathered in Huntington, save outside pressure. "This is an ancient, rigid, secretive, top-down, all-male monarchy," David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told members of Voice of the Faithful, the lay reform group. "It always has been. It always will be. The answer is not to reform them, but to go around them and to contain them." Instead of seeking dialogue with bishops, Clohessy urged lay Catholics to throw their energy into efforts to lift or to extend New York's statutes of limitations, so that more lawsuits against the church go forward. "There is absolutely nothing that will help protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded like having this opportunity to expose our molesters in court," he said. Bishops oppose changing statutes of limitations retroactively, arguing that fair trials are difficult, if not impossible, to conduct decades after an alleged crime has been committed. Many hearing Clohessy's address at the third annual convention of Long Island Voice of the Faithful, held at the Huntington Hilton, recalled how they joined the group in 2002 out of anger at bishops who shielded priests who had molested children. Revelations that first appeared in The Boston Globe early that year soon reverberated across the country, resulting in the passage of so-called zero-tolerance policies of priest sex abuse by the church, and growing activism by people in the pews. Now, four years later, some said they believe they are part of a larger revitalization movement, and that efforts to hold church officials accountable require their discipline, patience, and above all, faith. The lay reform group is banned from meeting on church property by Bishop William Murphy. Nonetheless, the Long Island chapter is one of the largest and most active in the nation, with offshoots in almost every parish in Nassau and Suffolk counties, co-chairman Dan Bartley said. Diocesan officials could not be reached for comment yesterday. "I'm disappointed that more hasn't changed," said Patricia Bollo, 63, of Point Lookout, who said she attends Mass daily. "But am I discouraged? No. Disappointed? A little. I love being a Catholic. I can't sit back and not do anything." The daylong meeting included addresses by psychologist and former Maryknoll priest Eugene Kennedy and Hofstra religious studies instructor Phyllis Zagano, who spoke about restoring the tradition of ordaining women as deacons. Awards were given to James Post of Boston, who recently stepped down as national president of Voice of the Faithful, and to local leader Patricia Zirkel. "The world of hierarchy has come to an end," said Kennedy, a professor emeritus at Loyola University of Chicago. "Don't fight with it. Let it disintegrate."
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