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Statement of the NFPC - February 27, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 27, 2004
For Information contact:
Frank Corrado (888) 271-6372
corrado@c4m.com
PRIESTS’ GROUP CALLS ABUSE REPORT “SCANDALOUS”
The President of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils called the release today of a study on sex abuse in the Catholic Church “downright scandalous” and said that it shows the failure of a system of silence and secrecy that allowed such abuse to take place. The flaws in the system are demonstrated even in the treatment of those who have been accused.
“Behind each of the statistics released today are the personal stories of hurt, anger and sadness,” said Rev. Robert J. Silva, NFPC’s President. “Each of those numbers represents a person’s life that has been terribly wounded. Even though these crimes occurred mostly in the sixties and seventies, the horror is not lessened by time.”
Silva also asked that attention be given to how accused priests are being treated. “We can’t try to solve one problem while creating another,’ he said. In her intense commitment to assure the safety of children, the Church must not forget the due process owed even to the offenders.
Perhaps the most disturbing, Silva said, is “the negligence and failure of leadership to address the sin and crime within the system. The refusal to confront what was obviously present in the midst of the clerical cohort smacks of gross negligence.”
Noting the Pope’s Lenten message for 2004, he pointed to John Paul II’s words: “Jesus had a particular love of children because of ‘their simplicity, their joy of life, their spontaneity, and their faith filled with wonder.'” Using the Pope’s words , Silva said the profound “abyss of suffering” imposed on those children abused by priests can be understood only by looking to the Cross. “There Jesus took human suffering upon himself and illuminated it with the radiant light of his resurrection. By his death, he conquered death once for all.”
Expressing sorrow for the suffering inflicted by priests, Silva said: “I am deeply saddened. I am very sorry. I hope people will not forget that 96% of the ordained priests over the last 50 years are good men and caring pastors”.
The National Federation of Priests’ Councils represents 26,000 of the nation’s 44,000 ordained priests.
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