Bishop Loverde to Establish Diocesan Oversight Committee

By Michael F. Flach
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 6/20/02)

Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde announced June 20 that he will establish an oversight committee to assist him with reviewing existing diocesan policy on sexual misconduct and to help incorporate new provisions contained in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth approved last week by U.S. Catholic bishops.

In addition, Bishop Loverde said he gives his "full support" to the Charter and will wholeheartedly implement its provisions to the best of his ability.

The Arlington Diocese, under the direction of former Bishop John R. Keating, implemented a strong sexual misconduct policy in 1991.

In addition to the Charter, the bishops also approved Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Priests, Deacons or Other Church Personnel. Unlike the Charter, these Norms will not become effective until they are approved by the Vatican.

The bishops committed themselves to implementing the Charter immediately and have pledged to observe a day of prayer and penance on Wednesday, Aug. 14.

Article five of the Charter deals with the situation where sexual abuse by a priest or deacon is admitted or is established after an appropriate investigation in accord with canon law.

"In this situation," the bishop said, "diocesan policy will provide that even for a single act of sexual abuse of a minor — past, present, or future — the offending priest or deacon will be permanently removed from ministry."

Bishop Loverde said there were strong opinions on both sides of this issue during the bishops’ meeting in Dallas. Some victims said that abusive priests should be removed from the priesthood, but this was not mandated by the Charter.

"In my judgment, removing a priest permanently from ministry is a very serious action with painful and lasting consequences," the bishop said. "Such a priest can no longer exercise his priestly ministry, celebrate Mass publicly, wear clerical garb or present himself publicly as a priest. This is not laicization as such — dismissal from the clerical state — but its effects at the practical level are surely similar."

Bishop Loverde said he knows priests who have offended in the past but were not diagnosed as pedophiles or ephebophiles.

"I am saddened for these priests who can no longer serve in any priestly ministry and for the parishioners who have benefited in a positive manner from their ministry after rehabilitation," the bishop said. "However, given the present crisis, the common good must take precedence over the individual good."

The bishop said he has "looked into the eyes of victims of sexual abuse and their families, and am likewise deeply saddened by the pain inflicted upon them by any act of sexual abuse.

"Both the victims and the offending priests and deacons are members of the same flock to whom God sends me as a shepherd in the Church," Bishop Loverde said. "I must love both groups, reach out to both and allow God to use me as an instrument of His healing, reconciliation and mercy."

The bishop asked for prayers so that he might have "the wisdom and insight, the fortitude and courage, to fulfill faithfully this commitment to all God’s People, especially to the children and young people."

Copyright ©2002 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.