Woodstock Report | Six Major Lessons from the Sexual Abuse Crisis

“It was a time of great pain, certainly a time of embarrassment, and a brokenness of spirit,” reflects Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin, Texas, in describing early 2002 when the sex abuse crisis was being exposed on an almost daily basis in the media. As chair of the Bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, he is now a leader in responding to this crisis. Late in March, he spoke at an evening of conversation sponsored by the Woodstock Theological Center and moderated by Thomas J. Reese, S.J. The event was in continuity with Woodstock’s earlier programs in Church leadership, which called for more transparency and openness in the Church. Bishop Aymond’s remarks, excerpted below, represent his own views, rather than those of the Bishops’ Conference. The entire text is available on the Web at http://woodstock.georgetown.edu.

By Bishop Gregory Aymond

What have we learned [from the sexual abuse crisis]? May I suggest that there are six major lessons.

–First, June 2002 was a time of terror; it was a wake up call that sexual abuse was certainly a reality in our American society that was not much talked about at that time. But all of a sudden it was within our family, the Church. And we learned not just that it was present, but we learned the depth of it and the pain that so many people had experienced.

–Secondly, we learned of the errors that Church leaders made in dealing with these very delicate, sensitive situations. We have learned that in some areas of our Church we did not have what we would call safe environments. We also did not have “faith environments,” environments that truly reach out with the heart of Jesus, as He said to the children, “Come to me.”

–Thirdly, we saw and experienced the sin, the infidelity, the brokenness of individual clergy and of the Church leadership, in the way in which some of these situations were addressed or not addressed. We also learned, painfully so, that very often rehabilitation of a sex offender may not be possible. And treatment, we found out the hard way, was often not effective. John Paul II said bluntly that there is no place in the priesthood for those who would abuse a child or a young person.

We as leaders of the Church must sincerely apologize, even if we were not directly involved, because it’s happened in this family that we belong to and that we call “church.”

–Fourthly, we learned a great deal from the John Jay College of Criminology and from CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. They helped us to ask some very important sociological, psychological, and philosophical questions.

They helped us put numbers to the story. I would like to share with you some numbers, but I would like to say first that one incident of sexual abuse by a Church leader is one too many.

From 1950 to 2002, the number of priests who served in the United States was 109,694. During that same period, 4,392 of them, a little less than four percent, were accused of sexual abuse. Of those who had been accused, 56 percent of them had one allegation; 27 percent had two to three allegations. And, this part is frightening, 149 of that 4,392 had 10 or more victims. This is a small number responsible for a substantial number of allegations. That doesn’t excuse it. It only gives us a perspective.

–Fifth, we learned that the majority of cases of sexual abuse by clergy occurred in the 1970s and involved clergy who were ordained between 1950 and 1979. This causes us to ask a very important question: why? This is what John Jay College is still helping us to try to answer. What was going on in the Church? What was the morality of society at that time? Was there something going on in priestly formation that was causing this to happen at a certain time?

The fact that fewer cases have been reported in recent years is, we believe, a sign of hope. We are teaching boundaries. We are using modern psychological evaluations and a great attentiveness to this, both with our priests and with seminarians.

–Sixth, we have learned from psychology that people often abuse when they are under stress, when they have poor support systems, when their personal inhibitions are lowered, when they are involved in drugs or alcohol. Not excuses, but that’s reality. The research shows that these factors were present, especially in the cases of priests who have abused one to three victims. It raises an important question. Do we look out and care for our brother priests and brother bishops? We need to shepherd the shepherds in their spiritual and emotional health.

We have learned much. We have done a lot, and there’s still a lot more to do. As a Church, we must continue to implement the charter, which calls us to integrity, to transparency, to fidelity. We must continue to have regular audits within our dioceses, true accountability, true transparency. We must continue to dialogue very honestly with the National Review Board.

What must we do today, tomorrow, and for decades to come? Once again, this was somewhat accidental, but there are six points that I’m going to cover here, too.

–First, we must continue to find those who have been the victims of sexual abuse. And when we find them, we must offer them an apology, and healing, and counsel. God would want us to be for them his healing power. So we must reach out and provide, to the best of our ability, true, genuine healing.

–Secondly, we must continue the education of our bishops, priests, and deacons regarding boundaries in healthy, celibate, and chaste lives.

–Thirdly, we must continue to focus our attention on the importance of seminary life and priestly formation. We must do everything possible to prepare men today in the seminary to know themselves spiritually, psychologically, and sexually. We, as their formators, must make sure that, if there are any signs that may be suggestive of sexual abuse, they do not have a right to the priesthood.

–Fourthly, we must create in our Church – in our parishes and missions, and wherever we find the people of God – not just safe environments. We would hope that there is a safe environment in every youth group and in every organization in our country. But we want environments of faith, where people can trust one another and their leaders.

–Fifth, we must continue to educate our bishops, priests, deacons, religious, volunteers, and people in lay ministry about safe environments and faith environments. Mediocrity in this is simply not acceptable.

–Sixth, as a Church, who has sinned and failed, through our repentance and our purification, we want to be able to say to families, schools, youth groups, and those involved in youth recreation, that we have been through the pain of sexual abuse. Through our pain, and through our repentance and our conversion, we believe that we have something to share that will prevent not just sexual abuse in the Church, but in families, schools, and other organizations that serve young people. We believe that in some way we can be used by God to give life and wisdom to others and to perhaps save others from the hurt that somehow we allowed in the past.