Newspaper Page Text
OpEd
After the elections,
reality comes back
Have you read the editori
als and letters to editors
around the country since the
election? The excuses and the
“nay sayers” have certainly
been sharing their opinions
concerning the defeats and the
victories of the nation’s politi
cians.
I have been reminded of
several quotations during the
pre- and post-election days. As
for Sonny Purdue’s comments
about being “free at last,” I
was reminded of this:
“When we consider the
force of our words, we should
weigh them carefully before
we drop them."
As for the defeats of some
leading contenders that fell by
the wayside, these could
apply: “He who trims himself
to suit everybody will soon
whittle himself away.” Or yet
another one that is appropri
ate: “The trouble with being a
good sport is that you have to
lose to prove it.”
Someone once said that
“the promising season ends on
election night.
That same night the alibi
season begins and lasts for
four years.” And the letters to
the editor tell us how wonder
ful political leaders were and
how much they did for citizens
and the next day there are
rebuttal letters about the same
person.
All of the good actions
before election time are
skimmed over and the glaring
errors of judgment become
major issues.
The headlines have been
about politics and the demise
or success of candidates. We
have heard it all and seen the
banners of candidates dot our
Ethics & Religion
Bishops OK sex abuse policy
WASHINGTON —After
11 months of sexual abuse
scandals, America’s belea
guered Catholic bishops voted
246-7 to adopt a compromise
sexual abuse policy that will
remove any priest guilty of
“even a single act of sexual
abuse,” while giving any
accused priest the right to a
trial and appeal if he feels he
has been falsely charged.
The new rules modified a
■ “one strike and you’re out”
proposal adopted by U.S.
bishops in Dallas last summer
because the Vatican said the
. policy was “difficult to recon
cile” with due process protec
tions afforded to priests by
; worldwide canon law. Four
American prelates met with
■ four Vatican counterparts to
work out the compromise.
Victims of sexual abuse
! were very critical of the new
arrangement.
“The bishops clearly and
desperately want to persuade
everyone that they have fixed
the abuse problem, but they
' have caved into pressure from
Vatican bureaucrats,” said
Barbara Blaine, president of
Survivor’s Network of those
Abused by Priests, represent
ing 4,300 victims.
“It leaves open the possi
bility of a perpetrator being
returned to ministry or
remaining in ministry. We
have moved from clear rules
and the spirit of transparency
that permeated Dallas back
toward secrecy and confiden
tiality. In Chicago the cardinal
removed eight known child
molesters, but five are appeal
ing their removal. Is it possi
ble these known molesters will
return to ministry?”
The process now to be fol
lowed is complex.
Allegations of sexual abuse
by a priest will first be
referred to new Sexual Abuse
Review Boards being created
in each diocese.
If the board of at least five
lay Catholics and one priest
believe the accusations are
credible, they confidentially
Julianne
ids Boling
roads and intersections for
months. We still see many still
cluttering the highways and
byways. This, too, should be a
time to clean up and take them
down, don’t you think?
The reality of an ever
changing world has moved the
election, the results, the candi
dates, the winners and the los
ers to the inside pages.
The weather and the torna
does that killed and destroyed
families now take precedence.
How petty are our complaints
and our criticisms when we
see the devastation and the
instant changes that have
occurred in communities and
to families.
Schools were destroyed,
churches, homes and business
es were demolished, and fami
lies now grieve over those
killed and they suffer from the
loss of home and property. We
begin to see the reality of what
is important and politics, both
state and national, takes a back
seat.
Life is an ever-changing set
of circumstances and few of us
make the best of the limited
time we have.
We worry about things that
could happen and we fail to be
grateful for the moments when
life is good and we are happy.
Disaster has away of getting
our attention, does it not?
Julianne Boling is a
Cumming resident who writes
a weekly column.
McManus WflL
advise the bishop and recom
mend “whether the priest is
suitable for ministry.” If the
bishop agrees, the priest is
temporarily removed from
ministry and the case is for
warded to a Vatican office, the
Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith.
Rome is expected to refer
most cases back to American
tribunals for trial, but might
retain more complex cases
involving multiple dioceses or
many victims.
The tribunals, which do not
yet exist, will be composed of
priests trained in canon law
and will not be public.
Accusers will probably not be
allowed to attend.
Victims will be represented
by a priest. Any priest found
guilty could no longer func
tion as a priest or wear the
Roman collar, though he may
continue to receive financial
support and housing.
Even a priest found not
guilty might still be removed
from ministry by the bishop if
he felt he is a danger to chil
dren.
On the other hand, of 24
priests in Boston who have
been removed from ministry
this year, one was reinstated
after an internal investigation
found no substance to sexual
abuse allegations made against
him.
“The changes they have
made will increase their own
discretion and the secretive
ness of the process,” said Peter
Isely, a board member of
SNAP.
“It’s still all about hierar
chy and secrecy, the things
that have practically defined
the Roman Catholic Church.”
On the other hand,
“There’s some uniformity in
what has to happen if a priest
is accused,” said Msgr.
Democrats: Stand for something or lose
WASHINGTON The
Democrats are now in disar
ray? Gosh, when weren’t
they?
“Disarray is a state we visit
frequently,” one party elder
said after last week’s midterm
drubbing. “There was the
Republican tidal wave in ‘94,
there was impeachment in *9B,
the loss in Florida in 2000
disarray is something we do.”
But as the Democrats pre
pare to wander in the desert
without control of the House
or Senate, they do so without a
Moses: Bill Clinton is off
building his presidential
library, the Democratic leader
in the House just resigned his
post, the Democratic leader in
the Senate is tainted by defeat,
and many in the party are
grumbling that the current
field of 2004 presidential aspi
rants the “Six-Pack” of Al
Gore, Richard Gephardt, John
Edwards, John Kerry, Joe
Lieberman and Howard Dean
are just a bunch of would
be has-beens.
“Within the party, the
political equation for 2004 has
been changed,” says Donna
Brazile, chairman of the
party’s Voting Rights Institute.
“We have seen too many of
our elected officials hugging
this wartime president. We
need somebody with vision,
and no such person is out
there now.”
It has long been said that
when Democrats form a firing
squad, they stand in a circle,
and within hours of their
defeat this year, the ammuni
tion was already being passed
around.
The first victim was
Gephardt, who resigned his
leadership position after four
unsuccessful attempts to
regain control of the House.
Rep. Harold Ford, Democrat
of Tennessee, who wants
Gephardt's job, led the attack,
saying: “The manager in the
clubhouse could be the most
beloved fellow in the club
house, but if he can’t produce
victories for the team, you
William Varvaro, a canon
lawyer in Queens, N.Y.
“That’s what due process
is.”
Nationally, more than 325
priests have been taken out of
ministry this year, against
whom credible complaints
have been made. However,
dozens of priests are expected
to demand church trials to
clear their names.
The bishops have pledged
to report all cases to the
police, though only 24 states
require that step. Grand juries
are considering criminal
charges in at least four dioce
ses. About 100 former priests
are now in prison. Another
183 priests have had civil suits
settled by their dioceses, who
have reportedly paid nearly $1
billion in damages to victims.
The names of both groups of
priests were published last
week by Survivors First, anoth
er victims’ group.
Public prosecutors say they
encourage the Catholic
Church to conduct its own
investigations and trials, but
only after the local district
attorney has looked into a par
ticular case and decided not to
prosecute.
The scandal’s impact has
been heaviest in Boston,
where collections are down 25
to 30 percent.
Yet Cardinal Bernard Law
has resisted pressures from
many Catholics to resign,
although he has acknowledged
having knowingly transferred
accused priests from one
parish tolanother, and has
asked forTorgiveness.
Why has the Pope not
asked for his resignation? In >
my view, he should have done ;
so. I
Having no inside knowl
edge, my theory is the reason
he failed to do so is that
dozens of American bishops
have also reassigned child
molesters.
Where would he draw the
line?
A/ile McManus is a nation
ally syndicated columnist. >
4
® Roger
Simon
have to find another job for
him.”
To Gephardt, however, this
was all about presidential poli
tics. “That was Gore generat
ed,” Steve Elmendorf, Geph
ardt’s chief of staff, says of
Ford’s assault. “He is Gore’s
guy. And I must say Gore was
extraordinarily graceless in his
Barbara Walter’s interview in
his attack on the congressional
leadership.”
With the bodies of the
Democratic fallen still warm,
Gore went on ABC to say,
“Democrats should not mis
take the magnitude of this
loss; there has to be a major
regrouping.”
Right now, Gephardt’s peo
ple would like to regroup on
Gore’s windpipe. “The con
gressional leadership stood
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, November 17,2002
with Gore in 2000, stood with
him in Florida, worked for
him and never questioned
him,” Elmendorf says. So why
is Gore on the attack? “I take
it as a sign he is running for
president,” Elmendorf says.
But, then again, who isn’t?
The problem for the Demo
crats is that, after last Tues
day’s defeat, many in the party
now want to throw all the
babies out with the bathwater
and search for new babies.
“Both the rank and file in
the party and the Washington
chattering classes are saying
we need new blood,” says
Chris Lehane, Al Gore’s press
secretary in 2000. “But that is
easier said than done.”
As a sign of how difficult it
is, none of the names being
tossed around are very realis
tic contenders, including
Govs. Ed Rendell of Penn
sylvania, James McGreevey of
New Jersey and Mark Warner
of Virginia. And though some
would like to see Sen. Hillary
Clinton of New York run, she
almost certainly would rather
PAGE 13A
face Jeb Bush in ’OB than
George Bush in ’O4.
“We need somebody not
scarred by battle,” says
Brazile. “We need a new tone,
a new song; we need new
music. All the old records are
scratched.”
Whatever new songs the
Democrats start singing, how
ever, they are going to more
closely resemble gangsta rap
than love songs when it comes
to George Bush.
If there is anything the
Democrats agree on and
there probably isn’t it’s that
the party has been far too easy
on the president.
“As a party, we were intim
idated by Sept. 11, and there
was a fear of taking on the
behemoth of George Bush,”
says Democratic political con
sultant David Axelrod.
“But that is what we have
to do. We either have to stand
for something and win or lose,
or stand for nothing and lose
for sure.”
Roger Simon is a national
ly syndicated columnist.