News from: Voice of the Faithful of Greater Philadelphia

RIGALI URGED TO APOLOGIZE TO SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS

A local Catholic activist group has urged Cardinal Justin Rigali to meet with all area survivors of clerical sexual abuse to “apologize from the heart” and to offer “appropriate compensation for their suffering.”

In a letter to Rigali announcing a prayer vigil at the Cardinal’s City Avenue residence on Nov. 5, Voice of the Faithful of Greater Philadelphia expressed “profound disappointment” at Rigali’s response to the recent grand jury report on sexual abuse by priests in the Philadelphia archdiocese and suggested that he address the crisis “in a true spirit of penance”.

“Your office attacked the report immediately with a 69-page response, rather than accept its carefully documented, incontrovertible message,” the letter said. “Your lawyer went even further, describing the report as a ‘vile diatribe’ and anti-Catholic.”

The letter also called upon the Cardinal to support changes in state laws that will hold accountable those who “enable or tolerate” sexual abuse, to direct that child safety committees, selected by the laity, be set up to review anti-sex-abuse policies and practices in each parish, and to “admit publicly” that the archdiocesan hierarchy and the administrators who carried out its policies ”conducted an immoral cover-up that caused continuing brutalization and exploitation of or children.” 

The VOTF affiliate noted that Rigali had admitted in his October letter from Rome that “some priests” were guilty of “evil” acts, but it said the Cardinal continued to insist that archdiocesan leaders made only “mistakes and errors in judgment.”

“Their behavior in this instance, however, was at least as immoral and reprehensible as the abuse itself,” the letter continued, “since it allowed mentally and morally ill clergy, who could have been stopped, to inflict even more suffering on our children.

“You not only minimized their role and responsibility, but said nothing about administrators who helped them hide abuse, some of whom still hold responsible positions in the archdiocese. This would suggest that you have not comprehended the depth of the crisis nor are willing to take the necessary steps to address it adequately.”

The affiliate said the Cardinal’s October letter had “called for prayer, penance and reparations.”

“But penance and reparation require positive acts of amendment, not simply traditional devotions like the holy hours for which you call,” it continued. “They require acts that address the evil and show a real change of heart.”

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For the full text of the VOTF/GP letter or for further information, contact Walter Fox at 215-247-9645 or wfox@netreach.net.

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