At a news conference Thursday in Scranton, Pa., university trustee Kenneth Frazier, who is chief executive of Merck & Co., said the board of trustees failed to take action and didn't force the issue when alerted in the spring of 2011 about a grand jury investigation into the abuse allegations.
"We are accountable for what's happened here. Our administrative leadership also failed... People who were in a position to protect children and confront a predator" did not do so, Mr. Frazier said. "We are deeply ashamed."
This is a topic that’s always going to be as current as the latest news story.
Yesterday, Christianity Today’s her-meneutics blog carried a story entitled Success, Honor, and the Legacy of Joe Paterno. It was subtitled “Why the world should never forget the football coach after the sex abuse scandal at Penn State”.
For all these same reasons, the world should never forget the Roman Catholic Church’s response to a sex-abuse scandal that is now well-documented and that lasted for decades, if not longer.
The author wrote:
Last week, years after his decision not to protect innocent boys was revealed, Paterno said he regretted this decision. "This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."
Not doing more will be his legacy. The wins on the field will mean little compared to this one big loss. The meal of a lifetime will fail to satisfy this man hungry for success with honor.
Ironically, because Paterno will be remembered for what he didn’t do—adequately report child abuse—his “great sorrow” may do more to change the world than his entire 46-year record as Penn State’s head football coach. Because of his reputation, the world will always remember Paterno as the man who failed to report child abuse. For the 33 victims of [the serial killer John Wayne] Gacy and those who escaped with their lives, and the thousands of children who have been victims of clergy abuse and those who continue to suffer in silence, and the millions of children who have been abused and the millions more who will be, Penn State’s scandal is a moment in history that has changed everything.
Because of Paterno, we all now know that we have an obligation to protect kids by speaking up to legal authorities when we learn—or even suspect—that abuse has occurred. … This week, the Big Ten announced that it was taking Paterno’s name off the trophy for the conference champion. The statue on Penn State’s campus may come down too, and some day they will probably remove his name from the library.
I have been chided for suggesting that certain Roman Catholic apologists stop defending Rome’s practices [well documented over the years, by the way], by trying to deflect attention, by saying “oh yeah, well everybody else is doing it too … etc.” A typical response is to accuse others of “pretending that sexual abuse is not a society-wide problem that is rampant in many Protestant and other circles as well”. But let’s get this off the table. I grant, here, now and forever: “SEXUAL ABUSE IS A SOCIETY-WIDE PROBLEM THAT IS RAMPANT IN MANY PROTESTANT AND OTHER CIRCLES AS WELL”.
But to say that is to miss the point that we have been making all along.
If you Google the phrase, “taking responsibility for your own actions”, or “being accountable for your own actions”, you’ll find any number of people and groups and organizations espousing that concepts – parents groups, pop psychologists, sales trainers, and on and on.
The organization BishopAccountability.org is working to assure that, just as Penn State and the Big 10 are removing reasons to celebrate Joe Paterno, people will remember, understand, and see the actions of the Roman hierarchy for what they truly are. Here’s how they put it:
It is a matter of public record that U.S. bishops have knowingly transferred thousands of abusive priests into unsuspecting parishes and dioceses, placing fear of "scandal" ahead of the welfare of children. The bishops themselves have apologized for what they call their "mistake," but they say nothing about the crucial actions that constitute accountability.
For true "bishop accountability" to occur, two things must happen: 1) there must be a full "account" of the bishops' responsibility for the sexual abuse crisis, both individually and collectively, and 2) bishops who have caused the abuse of children and vulnerable adults must be "held accountable."
Of course, there are networks upon networks of people who are working to deflect attention from these efforts.
Many times when family and friends try to "help" alcoholics, they are actually making it easier for them to continue in the progression of the disease. This baffling phenomenon is called enabling, which takes many forms, all of which have the same effect -- allowing the alcoholic to avoid the consequences of his actions [emphasis added]. This in turn allows the alcoholic to continue merrily along his (or her) drinking ways, secure in the knowledge that no matter how much he screws up, somebody will always be there to rescue him from his mistakes….
Simply, enabling creates a[n] atmosphere in which the alcoholic can comfortably continue his unacceptable behavior.
So simply put, Roman Catholic apologists who constantly seek to deflect attention from the Roman hierarchy – these folks foster and enable the atmosphere in which the many Cardinal Bernard Laws in that hierarchy can comfortably and peacefully avoid having to deal with the real evil they have perpetrated upon the world.
Penn State and the Big 10 are removing Paterno – making the effort to remember him for the evil he enabled, not for his “wins”. As the Christianity Today writer noted, remembering Paterno’s failures is about remembering “the double-injury inflicted when our trusted institutions fail in their duty to report allegations of child sexual abuse”
On the other hand, Rome continues to celebrate its worst offenders. Here are a couple of news flashes: whatever he may have said, you can watch what he did: an infallible Pope whisked Cardinal Law away to Rome. And Rome itself produced the Cardinal Law video. This is an organization that continues to evade responsibility for its actions. And this is one of those things we should never forget.
The contrast now cannot be more clear. A mere five days after learning of sexual abuse in its midst, the board of trustees of a backwoods university met, convened, and fired both the president of the university and a legendary head football coach for failing to protect young people in the midst of a sexual molester. We are talking one molester, at least a handful of enablers, and a dozen or more victims. This was a clear, quick, and decisive response on the part of the university.
Do you Roman Catholics yet understand that we are not talking about the abusers themselves, as heinous as their acts are. We are talking about the bishops and the very church Canon Law policies that hushed up, covered up, centuries-worth of sexual malfeasance. We are talking about more than hundreds of bishops worldwide, and thousands of victims. We are not talking about abuse at the fringes of this “society”. We are talking about the very heart and soul and law and fabric of the Roman Catholic “faith”.
Those of you who defend Rome, let me ask you. What more could Rome have done? In the name of Christ, what should you be doing in the face of such a cover-up? Scott Hahn and Bryan Cross and Devin Rose and Taylor Marshall and Mark Shea and Dave Armstrong and “Catholic Answers” and all of you who are defending the Roman Catholic Church and trying to win converts to it ought to stop now what you’re doing and demand, that Rome itself repent for the sins it has committed, and to make restitution – real restitution – for the evil that its own laws and policies have perpetuated for centuries. And while you’re at it, you ought to examine your own lives and beliefs and motives. Because no artificial distinction between “dogma” and “discipline”, or “doctrine” and “canon law” can account for the pure and simple evil that Rome both perpetuates and hides over with folded hands and a smiling face.
It’s true that many lawsuits have wrung hundreds of millions of dollars from the bosoms of Roman dioceses. But those were not real payments for “the church”. They were largely paid by insurance companies. And the smiling, abusing faces of Roman Bishops, shuffled to their new positions, escape with their exalted positions and earthly glory intact. It is time, now, in this generation, to cut off the Roman charade, so that future generations are not subjected to its faithless abuses.
Christ didn’t call anyone to “communion”. Yes, he prayed for unity. But he called people to repentance. It was in repentance and faith that they would find unity. Not under the robes of abusive Roman priests and bishops and cardinals.
For anyone who wonders, this is close to home for me. Rev. John Wellinger, in the selection that follows, is the second pastor of the parish that I grew up in. He married my wife and me, and he baptized my two oldest children:
Wellinger affair Rev. John W. Wellinger, ordained 1970, pastor at Holy Spirit parish in West Mifflin, was accused by parents of molesting their son, kissing, fondling and performing a sex act on the 11-year-old altar boy in 1989, 1995. They said diocesan officials told them he would be removed from ministry but he continued in the priesthood for up to seven more years. The diocese, for its part, insists Wellinger has not functioned as a priest since the 1995 accusation. Wellinger took a personal leave June 1995. Three months later a young man came forward to allege that Wellinger had abused him in 1989. Diocese banned Wellinger from active priesthood March 2003 when he failed to return from leave (for health purposes).
1. Wellinger lawsuit Suit filed 2004. Claims included in Diocese's September 2007 $1.25 million settlement as to 32 plaintiffs alleging abuse by 17 priests.
2. Ference accusation Former Catholic priest John Wellinger possibly having sexually abused the boy who shot Adam Ference on a Catholic school bus, then killed himself.
3. Mathews accusation Wellinger was reported to the Pittsburgh Diocese in 1995 for sexually abusing Chris Mathews, an 11-year-old altar boy at Holy Spirit Church in West Mifflin. “The boy’s parents first met with current Pittsburgh Diocese Bishop Zubik to voice their concerns, but little was done. It was not until 2003 that the Pittsburgh Catholic (official publication of the Pittsburgh Diocese) acknowledged that a sexual abuse crime “may have been committed.” By then, as with so many of these cases, the statute of limitations had expired for prosecuting the crime.
4. Witkowski accusation, Greg Witkowski, a 16-year-old boy from West Mifflin, PA, whose family were members of Holy Spirit, Welllinger’s parish assignment, was fed drugs and alcohol by Wellinger, possibly even assaulted. The Witkowski was able to break away from Wellinger and made his way to Shadyside Hospital emergency room (now part of UPMC). He was treated by the staff; his parents Robert and Ann Witkowski were summoned and advised of the criminal acts by Wellinger. The parents were advised not to call police and press charges, or challenge the Pittsburgh Diocese as the church had too much money and was much too powerful.
At a meeting we had with him at the rectory in 1991, Wellinger licked my three-year-old son’s face. (He was pretending to be a puppy dog. Parents: let this be a caution to you that you can’t be too careful with your kids.)
Who are the trustees of the Roman Catholic Church, but those who trusted it and were betrayed by it in the worst kind of way? Who are those who are crying for justice, who have not gotten it from the hand of the organization that claims to be the very sacrament of salvation?
Rome has taken half-steps to try to mollify the pain, but it is clear that the larger goal of its efforts is simply to perpetuate itself and its system in power.
Roman Apologists. If you truly believe in Christ, as you claim to do, what should you be doing right at this moment? How should you respond to the Roman Church?
