Grace and disgrace

When the news about the epidemic of sexual abuse of minors by priests began pouring out of the Archdiocese of Boston—only to be joined by too many stories from elsewhere around the country—scabs were ripped from old wounds here in Chicago.

In the early 1990s several high-profile cases of such misconduct, some regarding minors, focused painful attention on the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 1992, criticism was leveled against church officials charging that they were less than forthcoming regarding such accusations and less than responsive to needs of victims. One of the fall-outs was the 1996 accusation, later recanted, against Cardinal Bernardin.

While not hardly the first and obviously not the last facing the Catholic Church and other institutions, these cases sparked a pioneering response in Chicago that has been acknowledged as effective and helpful in confronting the troubling problem of sexual misconduct by clergy, especially against minors.

This issue of The Catholic New World includes— in addition to news updates on Page 15— a special eight-page pullout section containing the policy crafted by the Archdiocese of Chicago to deal with charges of sexual misconduct by clergy.

The policy, conceived and written initially in late 1992, has been constantly reviewed and updated— last in 2000— to be able to respond to situations.

Also in this edition is a powerful column by Cardinal George about the issue of clergy sexual misconduct and a special reprint of a column written by Cardinal Bernardin as the cases in 1992 were coming to light.

This edition reports on the issue of clergy sexual misconduct not with a sense of “look how good we are,” but rather to take the opportunity to demonstrate how grace can be sought, even in disgrace.

Here are a few more bits and pieces to get us to the bottom of this column:

A few readers are going to note— certainly with disgust— the photo of Gov. Ryan getting an award on Page 5.

Yes, it’s the eve of an election (but lame-duck Ryan isn’t on any ballots) and the award he’s receiving for calling Illinois’ moratorium on the death penalty is an issue that still does not resonate well with many Catholics. Many pro-lifers consider the governor to be an enemy, but on this issue at least he is right.

While we’re skirting with the subject of politics, here’s one where you can get involved.

Read the very pointed column on Page 2 by Catholic Conference of Illinois executive director Doug Delaney. Then call your friendly neighborhood legislator beseeching help to pass the tax credit for corporations who contribute to scholarships for needy students to attend private or parochial school.

Despite opposition from entrenched public-school supporters, this is a measure which benefits children and society. Private and parochial schools save taxpayers more than a billion dollars a year by educating children.

To our readers

The outside firm which handles the mailing of The Catholic New World stumbled when preparing labels for our last issue. Several thousand readers received two issues in the mail while an uncertain number may have received nothing.

If you were in either camp, you have our apologies and deserve this explanation.

And, on a related matter, we often receive complaints because of late mail delivery. This newspaper is placed for mailing with the U.S. Postal Service in time for delivery by Saturday (or, at the latest, Monday).

If that’s not happening, please contact your post office.

Tom Sheridan
Editor and General Manager