Editorial

Praise for bishops: Courage to move forward

Catholics should be proud of the U.S. bishops for their courage in moving forward by passing the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" at their meeting in Dallas last week.

Besides the charter outlining their policies, the bishops overwhelmingly passed norms giving "teeth" to their ideas with the protection of children as their primary focus. They apologized to victims and their families for pain caused in the past and pledged to prevent any further sexual abuse in the future.

Ensure accountability. The bishops set up a procedure to ensure accountability, including the establishment of a national office to implement their plan in every diocese. The office will be monitored by a review board including parents as members.

"We must increase our vigilance to prevent those few who might exploit the priesthood for their own immoral and criminal purposes from doing so," said the bishops. "At the same time, we know that the sexual abuse of young people is not a problem inherent in the priesthood, nor are priests the only ones guilty of it."

Protect rights of all. The bishops emphasized that care must be taken to protect the rights of all parties involved. This includes the person claiming to have been abused as well as the person against whom the charge has been made.

The media has placed so much emphasis on the victims that many people have ignored the fact that priests can be victims, too. This is particularly true when false allegations are made against a priest. Even though he is innocent, his life can be ruined by the charges alone.

Isn't it true that people are innocent until proven guilty in our democratic society?

Dismissing priests. Some critics of the bishops' plan want all priest abusers to be "defrocked" or dismissed from the priesthood. That is not the best solution in most cases. Convicted offenders should have no further contact with children and should spend the rest of their lives in "prayer and penance" - as the bishops suggest.

But kicking them out into the streets will not help them or the rest of society. Just as we don't expel members of our families when they sin, so we must also show compassion to priests who've abused children. They should remain under the authority of the church for rehabilitation and monitoring.

I encourage all Catholics to read the articles in this week's Catholic Herald, study the actual documents, and continue to pray for the success of the implementation of the bishops' plans. They deserve our support as they move ahead with courage.

Mary C. Uhler, editor

Mailbag

To the editor:

	Mailbag policy We reserve the right to edit or reject letters. Limit letters to 200 words or less. All letters must be signed. Send letters to: Mailbag The Catholic Herald P.O. Box 44985 Madison, WI 53744-4985 Fax: 608-821-3071 E-mail: info@madisoncatholicherald.org

With the allegations of sexual wrongdoing and coverups among Catholic clergy in recent months, I think many of us ordinary Catholics in the pews are agonizing and wondering if there is anything we can do. I have a suggestion - a very simple one that I believe would help, and certainly can't hurt.

It is simply this: when you are participating at Mass, offer a prayer for the priest/celebrant. At the moment when the priest raises the bread and wine at the consecration, we can ask God to help Fr. ______ to be faithful to his vows.

At this terrible time for the church, the many thousands of priests who are remaining true to their vow of celibacy need our prayers. If every Catholic attending Mass were to offer a prayer for a particular priest every Sunday, this could have a very powerful result.

Maribeth De Rocher, Darlington

Don't let scandal turn away youth

To the editor:

In an article in the May 23rd issue of The Catholic Herald, Joe Bollig gives advice to parents about educating their children about the abuse scandal.

It is important for parents to educate their children on the abuse scandal. It would unfortunate for the child to find out about the scandal from friends or on the playground because one would never know what kind of information the child was given.

If the child learned of the situation from an unreliable source - such as other kids - it could lead to false and misleading information that could cloud the issue or scare the child. The discussion of abuse is crucial to protect a child from ever encountering such a demeaning circumstance.

Also, the child should be cognizant of what is really going on in the Catholic Church to prevent the child from having doubts about the church. The scandal has done enough damage; we cannot let the scandal turn away our young people.

Lisa Baldwin, 17, Liberty Township, Ohio

Thanks for conference coverage

To the editor:

As president of the Wisconsin Council of Women I want to thank you for the splendid Catholic Herald coverage you gave our recent conference.

The pre-conference publicity on April 11 helped to get the word out and resulted in several women registering for the conference after reading about it in the The Catholic Herald. The article on May 16 was very thorough with many pictures and good descriptions of the speeches we heard.

Our annual conference is our big event of the year whereby we fulfill our goal of keeping our members, affiliates, and guests up-to-date on current Catholic issues, legislation, and a variety of other pertinent topics.

Dorothy Lepeska has been our publicity chairman for many years and puts forth great effort to get the news of our organization before the public.

Mary Farley, president,
Wisconsin Council of Catholic Women, Janesville