The only way for the Catholic Church to truly heal from the clergy
sex abuse crisis is to lay bare its failures, take responsibility for
the harm it has caused, change the clerical culture that gave rise to it
and welcome victims in an environment that fosters healing, the
archbishop of Dublin told a crowd of about 200 at Marquette University
on Monday.
"The truth
will set us free," said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who supplied 70,000
pages of church documents to authorities investigating the crisis in
Ireland and has implemented changes meant to better prepare candidates
for the priesthood there.
"I still
cannot accept that no one can take responsibility," he said. "The
responsibility seems to be the fault of others or of the system."
Martin spoke
as part of a two-day international conference on the sex abuse crisis
hosted by Marquette Law School's Restorative Justice Initiative.
Speakers included Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, who chairs the U.S.
Conference of Bishops' Committee on Protection of Children and Young
People, victim-survivors, and clergy and lay leaders who work with
survivors around the world.
Janine Geske,
who heads the Restorative Justice Initiative, addressed the
wide-reaching effects of the crisis, acknowledging that it has now
touched even outgoing Marquette President Robert Wild.
Last week, Wild
was accused of shielding pedophile priest Donald McGuire when Wild led
the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, beginning in the 1980s.
Monday's
session opened with the moving accounts of survivors who recounted the
devastation the abuse brought not just to their bodies and souls, but to
their families, and in some cases their faith.
"The sex
offender commits two crimes. First he steals the body, then he steals
the voice," said Peter Isely of the advocacy group Survivors Network of
Those Abused by Priests - who likened the pain and possibility for
survivors to Jesus' healing of the bleeding woman in the Gospel of Mark -
his almost solemn presentation in contrast to his often combative
public presence.
"I have not
lost my faith in God and I never will. But I have lost my faith in the
church," said Carol, whose 18-year-old son killed himself in the 1980s
after being abused by a priest.
She asked that only her first name be
used because her granddaughters don't know the reason for his suicide.
She, like Martin, stressed the importance of accountability on the part
of the Catholic Church.
"I would like to see my faith restored, but I would need to see more change," she said.