Hawai'i priests confront scandal

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Religion & Ethics Writer

In the wake of a firestorm of publicity about the priest sex abuse scandals on the Mainland, Hawai'i priests are taking up the issue with their parishioners in community forums.

While only four people attended the Rev. Tom Gross' "listening session" at St. John Vianney in Enchanted Lake last weekend, his brethren on the Big Island has 10 times the number of people participating.

Last Sunday at St. Michael church in the Kona resort town of Kailua, the diverse crowd who stayed after 10 a.m. Mass to air their feelings even included tourists, said the Rev. Jack Ryan.

One woman he didn't recognize told Ryan that it helped to see how angry he was about how the Roman Catholic hierarchy dealt with the issue in Boston.

Ryan said he wrote a letter to The Boston Globe, the newspaper that broke the story about Cardinal Bernard Law transferring rather than removing several priests who had been accused of molesting children in the Boston area. Ryan called for Law to resign and be prosecuted.

"The clergy is probably more angry than (church members) are with the way church handled it," Ryan said.

No new cases of sexual abuse by a priest active in the Honolulu diocese have been reported in nearly a decade. However, Ryan and other priests are grappling with the national scandal.

"The issue had gotten a lot of media attention, and I didn't want to talk about it during church," said Ryan, adding that some in the pews would be uncomfortable with the topic, with children in attendance. "I wanted to deal with things in adult way."

He said many in the crowd were motivated to attend to show their support to their parish priests.

"They all stood up and gave me an ovation at the end," he said. "... A lot of those folks are worried about us, how are the priests feeling. I didn't sense anybody there was hostile, though there was a sense of betrayal (on the part of) the bishops involved."

Ryan told the group that he couldn't explain what happened in Boston, "because it's inexplicable," but added, "it certainly wouldn't have happened here."

Other priests are planning to address the issue in coming days.

The Rev. Dennis Koshko at St. Anthony's in Kailua announced in his church bulletin that he'd be listening to questions raised by the congregation after tomorrow's 9 a.m. Mass.

"No directive came from bishop's office," Koshko said. "We're taking preventative measures."

A staffer told Koshko that Catholics in his parish were raising questions about the scandal, and it afforded him the chance to "give our reflections and open it up to questions," Koshko said. A member of the communications committee will chair tomorrow's session.

The Rev. Lane Akiona of St. Patrick church in Kaimuki is arranging to bring in a facilitator, Dr. Don Kopf from Chaminade University, for a Monday evening listening session next month.

"I told my congregation we're not looking to blame, but to see where people are at and to move beyond this," Akione, who read about town meetings being held in Boston and decided to follow suit. "What happens is (some people) generalize the sins of a few. The impression people get is that we're all pedophiles, which is not true."

If the subject of married priests and women clergy comes up, he's willing to talk about that, he said.

"Even those issues, we never sit down and talk about them. It's an opportunity to learn," he said. "Why do they see priests as an all-male fraternity?"

He added that he wasn't sure "what my other brother priests are doing," but said the problem with the Catholic church is a lack of openness.

"We can't only blame bishops," he said. "... (We) in the grassroots have to take our responsibility to move people and bring them to an understanding. It's a pastoral way of dealing with issues in the lives of our church and our members. Many times we deal with the legalistic, sometimes the pastoral element is left out. That's why people have impression that it can be very cold."

He said he encourages other priests to take similar measures.

"Whenever we say Mass, they'll have that suspicion, "Is my priest like that?'" he said. "... People sense that we're looking for answers, struggling to find some answers."

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.