Catholic scandal

Bishops Acknowledge Role in Crisis

DALLAS (AP) - America's Roman Catholic bishops opened their historic meeting on clerical sex abuse Thursday by bluntly acknowledging that their mistakes helped cause the crisis, then yielding the floor to victims who described how pain permeated their lives.

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Catholic Church Abuse Controversy

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Victims Demand Zero Tolerance, More Accountability for Church Leaders (WFAA, Dallas)

Bishops Open Priest Sex Abuse Talks (AP)

The bishops followed the morning session by going behind closed doors to take up proposals aimed at reforming the way the church handles abuse claims. Whether to adopt a zero tolerance policy — ousting any priest found guilty of a single case of abuse — was among the decisions facing them.

The closed-door talks could continue into the evening. Public debate and action was scheduled Friday.

Outside the hotel where the meeting was being held, about 50 people protested the church's handling of abuse cases. There were no arrests.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, opened the meeting with a remarkably direct address, calling the crisis "perhaps the gravest we have faced."

Abuse victim Michael Bland, of Chicago, told the bishops how he joined the priesthood but then left after trying to convince church leaders to take action against his molester. He urged the prelates to get rid of all those who abuse children.

"The priesthood lost me but kept the perpetrator," Bland said. "The church has taken care of him."

Gregory pledged to take action to restore parishioners' badly shaken faith in the church hierarchy.

"The crisis, in truth, is about a profound loss of confidence by the faithful in our leadership," he said. That's "because of our failures in addressing the crime of the sexual abuse of children and young people by priests and church personnel."

He admitted "we did not go far enough to ensure that every child and minor was safe from sexual abuse. Rightfully, the faithful are questioning why we failed to take the necessary steps."

The bishops rarely allow lay Catholics to speak at their meetings, but three Catholic thinkers who have been following the abuse crisis were given the chance to address the church leaders after Gregory. They were followed by the abuse victims.

Bland said he came forward with his molestation claim while he was still a priest. Suddenly, he felt he "was no longer one of the good guys but one of the victims to be dealt with.