Diocese embraces a familiar role

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By Times Staff | Thursday, February 14, 2008 |

With one decree, the Davenport Diocese will transform from being perceived as a protector of child sex abusers to one of our community’s most conspicuous defenders of children.

The diocese’s proposed reorganization plan disclosed this month goes to extraordinary lengths to reach out to past victims and prevent future ones. Our entire community should pay attention. We all can learn from the healing exercise the diocese has committed to for at least the next 20 years.

Under terms of the agreement, the bishop will visit every church where abuse has occurred, identify the perpetrators by name and listen to victims who choose to publicly speak out. The bishop will send a letter of apology to any victim who ask. The diocese will print victims’ stories in the diocesan newspaper.

No longer will the diocese refer to victims, crimes or perpetrators with the qualifier “alleged.” This agreement finally and publicly acknowledges the atrocities committed by this small group of pedophile priests and hidden for years by diocesen leaders.

This intolerance of abuse will be publicly declared before congregations and in church school buildings. Plaques proclaiming this message will be permanently installed in all schools.

Further, the bishop will advocate for all child sex abuse victims — not just Catholics — by publicly lobbying to remove Iowa’s statute of limitations on criminal prosecution of child sex abusers.

Then there is the money. The diocese agreed to pay $37 million to those very real victims. The agreement details levels of compensation based on the degree and duration of the abuse. The details are painfully specific and tough to read. But for the first time, it makes clear how these predators targeted and abused the children who obeyed and revered them.

The depth of the diocese’s commitments finally reveal the compassion, outreach and advocacy that most people associate with the Roman Catholic faith.

Make no mistake, none of this would have happened without the bravery of those victims who persevered in court only after leaders of their own faith denied them. The reorganization plan demonstrates the diocese’s long-term commitment to healing individuals and our community. It amplifies the hushed whispers about sex abuse and embraces victims who had been ignored for so long.

For years, the Catholic leadership looked away. Now the diocese is addressing this issue directly, looking at the victims with loving compassion and seeking forgiveness.

The result is an agreement that reinforces a much more enduring perception of the Davenport Diocese and its faithful members.