The Catholic Church crisis

San Diego Bishop McElroy came to USD to discuss the issue of sexual assault in the Church

Amy Inkrott / News Editor / The USD Vista

The bishop came to the University of San Diego on Monday, Nov. 5 at 10 a.m. to discuss the sexual abuse crisis facing the Catholic Church. The Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (KIPJ) was packed with members of the USD staff, and individuals from the San Diego community. Security met the attendees as they walked into the KIPJ. Despite being open to everyone, only four students attended the event. 

A Pennsylvania grand jury report was released in August of 2018 detailing the sexual abuse of a thousand children within the Catholic Church. The report that found more than 300 priests from across the state were sexually assaulting children and making inappropriate contact with them over the past 70 years. The former archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, was among the list of priests accused. The cardinal resigned shortly before the grand jury report was released. 

The Pennsylvania scandal served as a reminder of the 2007 sexual assault allegations within the San Diego diocese. The diocese here paid more than $198 million in settlements to the 144 individuals assaulted by 48 San Diego priests. 

In response to the Pennsylvania report, San Diego Bishop McElroy released the names of eight diocesan priests who were not included in the 2007 charges- Revs. Jose Chavarin, Raymond Etienne, J. Patrick Foley, Michael French, Richard Houck, George Lally, Paolino Montagna, and Msgr. Mark Medaer. 

In a statement to the diocese, McElroy scheduled a series of listening sessions to discuss the recent allegations.

“There is a broad call for transparency,” McElroy said. “When we looked at it, we wanted to meet that as best we could.”

The bishop also expressed his intent to give eight listening sessions throughout the diocese in order to foster a discussion about the crisis, with the last one being hosted at USD.

President Harris began the listening session by highlighting USD’s mission as a Changemaker campus. 

“We want to set the standard for an engaged contemporary Catholic university where innovate Changemakers confront humanity’s urgent challenges,” Harris said. “The crisis related to clergy sexual abuse is one of those urgent challenges and USD is dedicated to confronting it with our resources as an institution for higher learning… We must not shy away from the pursuit of the truth even in the face of difficult and painful conversations.” 

He continued to emphasize the moral outrage that has come from this, and promised to guide the USD community through the crisis. Harris explained how he has compiled a list of resources related to the crisis available to students and faculty. The president has also formed a task force to monitor the issues within the Catholic Church. He stressed the ways in which the USD community is called to help foster accountability, transparency, and reform in the Church. 

“I continue to believe in the healing power of grace that the faith in God provides,” Harris said. “The spirit invites us all to be the change we want to see in the world.”

When Bishop McElroy took the stage, he expressed the deep sadness he had for the crisis facing the Catholic Church. McElroy was a priest when the sexual assault abuse scandal broke in 2002. After these abuses came to light, the nation’s bishops met to make reforms to protect the Church’s people in the future. The reforms adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward priests who were known to have abused children. 

“There was a very strenuous effort to come up with a pathway and a set of structures that would reduce insofar as was humanly possible in a world where sexual abuse in all spheres of human life—in the family, in schools, in universities, and the life of the Church—where it’s always going to be part of human nature, and one of the most regrettable and shameful elements of human nature, given that it will always be there,” McElroy said. 

The bishop stressed that the Church is striving to protect its members through these various reforms. Most notably, McElroy rejected the idea of priests being reassigned after facing sexual abuse allegations.

“That was the terrible, sinful tragedy of it,” McElroy said. “The trust is irreparably broken. You cannot trust that person again in a place of spiritual leadership in the community. I think that was the huge problem that lead to the spiraling of the sexual abuse crisis in Catholic Church in the United States.”

He stressed that the 2002 reforms did help to protect the Church against sexual abuse. While the Pennsylvania report revealed a devastating reality of the Church’s history, the numbers have significantly decreased since the reforms. However, the Church is still working to make further reforms.

“We really have to find our way through,” McElroy said. “And that is not an easy pathway.”

While McElroy’s message does not erase the realities of the abuses within the Church, it provides many Catholics with a sense of comfort knowing that efforts are being made for a better future.