February 23, 2004

Dear Parishioner of St. James Cathedral,

Two years have now passed since our Church became front-page news across the land because of the sexual abuse of children and young people by Catholic priests. Added to these terrible scandals — and seriously compounding them — were the actions of some of our bishops who exhibited greater concern for the reputation of the church than for the victims of abuse. Too often, they fostered a culture of secrecy, all but ignored the victims, transferred offending priests from parish to parish, and failed to report their crimes to the proper legal authorities.

There is certainly no doubt whatever that the revelations of these past two years have been for the Church an occasion for great humiliation and soul-searching and I know that each of you has had to pay a significant price. Some of you have felt your faith being seriously tried as you were exposed to one shocking disclosure after another. Many of you have had to endure the scorn and, in some cases, the downright ridicule of people who have challenged your faithful commitment to the Church, some of whose leaders fell seriously short of practicing what they preached. Many, too, have been devastated by the actions — or inactions — of Church leaders who have come across as high-handed and arrogant when dealing with victims and their families. And, beyond the appalling human costs involved, most have wondered what the financial costs to the Church have been. (In point of fact, for some dioceses the costs have been crippling; for our own Archdiocese, insurance programs have covered the costs involved in helping victims and settling cases.)

To these and other understandable reactions, I have few, if any, words that will bring comfort. On the contrary, I find myself taking comfort from the ways in which so many of you have weathered these storms. Against difficult odds, you have responded to God’s grace magnificently and have not only continued in the practice of your faith, you have grown in that practice and in your relationship with Jesus Christ. In addition, you have prayed for the victims and their families, you have prayed for Church leaders, even as you have called Church leaders to greater accountability and fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And, yes, you have shown yourselves to be understanding of human frailty and sinfulness as you have struggled to forgive those who have sinned so grievously against the Body of Christ. In view of this, I realize how truly graced this Church of ours is — this Church of Christ — and I find myself giving thanks to God for each one of you who are the Church.

I write to you at this time because the matter, while being appropriately addressed, is not over. As you know, our own Archdiocese of Seattle has had its own tragic stories of sexual abuse. We have seen them reported in the media and will almost certainly see more reports in the days to come as pending cases come forward for adjudication. However, as Archbishop Brunett has made clear time and again, we will do well to remember that all the cases of sexual abuse by priests coming to the fore at this time date back as far as twenty to fifty years ago. None of them are recent although some claims have only been recently put forward. There are reasons for this, but first, a little history.

Looking back many years, bishops here in Seattle dealt with abusive priests no differently from bishops in other dioceses — no differently, in fact, from the way leaders in other denominations and secular institutions dealt with it. Sexual abuse was commonly viewed as a serious moral failing. In the Church, accordingly, an offending priest would ordinarily receive a severe reprimand from his bishop, be counseled to deepen his spiritual commitment, and be sent to a retreat facility for an extended period of prayer and structured spiritual exercises. Later, as understanding of pedophilia developed, professional treatment programs involving psychological evaluation and in-depth counseling and therapy began to be offered by specialists in the field and bishops would send priest-offenders to these. Frequently, upon completion of such a program, the professionals involved would send the priest back to his diocese with a recommendation to the bishop that he was now ready for re-assignment.

However, in the late-1980’s, the American bishops, during a special meeting held at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, were given a whole new understanding of the true nature of pedophilia and related disorders. Pedophilia, they were told, was far more than a serious moral failing or character flaw, it was a grave pathological disorder, treatable in some cases but not curable. The bishops were further advised that pedophilia was a criminal offense that must in all cases be reported to the appropriate civil authorities.

In response to this serious wake-up call, our own Archdiocese, under the leadership of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen and his chancellor, Father (now Bishop) George Thomas, began to take careful and serious steps to address the complex issues surrounding the sexual abuse of young people by priests. Thanks to them, this Archdiocese became a leader among the dioceses of this country in establishing clear reporting policies as well as comprehensive procedures to be followed whenever a credible allegation of abuse was made against a priest (or, for that matter, any church minister or volunteer). In addition, mandatory training programs for all Church personnel, including priests, religious, lay ministers, and volunteers, were adopted. To implement these policies and oversee them, the Archdiocese of Seattle put into place oversight, policy development, and review boards that were largely staffed by lay experts in the field, several of them prominent non-Catholics. Would that every diocese in this country had acted so responsibly!

On a personal note, I remember very well a conversation I had with Archbishop Thomas Murphy when he first arrived here in Seattle as Coadjutor Archbishop in 1987. He told me that so impressed was he by the sexual abuse policies and procedures in place and under development here in Seattle that he quickly sent them back to his home Archdiocese of Chicago. Soon thereafter, the Chicago Archdiocese adopted many aspects of the Seattle model. Because of its size and prominence, Chicago quickly gained the reputation of being a national pacesetter.

In view of this history, it is not at all surprising that this past month, when the national Bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection issued an exhaustive evaluation of each diocese’s compliance with the norms and procedures adopted at the Dallas meeting of 2002, the Archdiocese of Seattle received a “comprehensive commendation” and was held up as a model to be emulated by other dioceses of this country. That same report acknowledged and commended the past and present leadership of this Archdiocese for the progress made over the past twenty years in addressing these issues of the gravest importance.

Some of this has been reported in the local press, but almost always it has been counter-pointed by devastating stories of sexual abuse by priests — seldom calling people’s attention to the fact that the abuse cases in question happened sometimes decades ago, before the policies were developed and implemented.

This, then, is another reason why I write this letter. Fairness demands it. Sometimes, even though it may seem self-serving, we have to tell our own story because no one else will tell it for us. I also write because in another week or two yet one more national study will be released and will, no doubt be sensationally bannered in all the news media. This professional study, commissioned by the American bishops and conducted independently by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, will contain a full statistical analysis of the scope of child abuse by Catholic clergy in America during the past fifty years. The statistics in that study will present a chilling story that will send more shock waves throughout the church and, no doubt, throughout our country and beyond. And it is a chilling and terrible story! But it will be well to keep in mind that the numbers set forth in this study for every diocese of this country will be aggregate numbers covering a period that goes back fifty years. In most cases, and certainly with regard to our Archdiocese, the cases being reported will date back many years. This is not to excuse any one of them — there is no way to excuse them — but it is to make clear that serious steps have since been taken — and followed — to protect children, to reach out to victims and, of course, to deal with offenders.

It will also be well to keep in mind that the study conducted by John Jay College is unprecedented. No other societal institution — no church of another denomination, no public or private school system, no voluntary organization — has undertaken a study of this nature or undergone this degree of scientific scrutiny. And so, while it may appear that the Catholic Church is unique in the breadth and depth of the sins and omissions of some of its leaders, it is not. The sexual abuse of children and young people by trusted authority figures is both an outrage and a societal scourge that cuts across all institutions, beginning with the family. I realize, of course, that there is small consolation in acknowledging this because the Church should hold itself — and should rightly be held — to a higher standard than other institutions of society, but it does provide a context for viewing and understanding the extent of this terrible problem. And I believe a context is what we need at this time.

With the forthcoming release of the John Jay College Report, and with local sexual abuse cases still slated to go to court, it is clear that our long nightmare is not over. But I have confidence that we will weather these next storms as we have weathered the previous ones, and I do believe that the God who alone can bring good out of evil will bring healing to those who have suffered — and who continue to suffer — so greatly, and that we as a Church will be a stronger, more humble, and more faithful witness to Jesus Christ whose treasure we possess “in earthen vessels” but whose grace more than abounds wherever sin abounds.

I close with words of St. Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: “Because we possess this ministry through God’s mercy, we do not give in to discouragement. Rather, we repudiate shameful, under-handed practices. We do not resort to trickery or falsify the Word of God…. For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts, that we in turn might make known the glory of God shining on the face of Christ. This treasure we possess in earthen vessels to make it clear that its surpassing power comes from God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way possible, but we are not crushed; full of doubts, we never despair. We are persecuted but never abandoned; we are struck down but never destroyed. Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed.”

May these words of St. Paul sustain and encourage us in the days ahead!

Sincerely in the Lord Jesus,

Father Michael G. Ryan
Cathedral Pastor

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