Catholic sex scandal fosters local discourse

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

CARDINAL EGAN: Calls for "purification" of the church

In a week that began with church leaders such as New York Cardinal Edward Egan calling for the "purification" of the church and the end of priestly pedophilia, many Catholics and clergymen disheartened by a sex scandal that has tainted the priesthood are finding greater poignancy in one of the most somber days on the Christian calendar.

Since January, at least 55 priests on the Mainland have been removed from their assignments because of sex-abuse allegations, including John Geoghan of Boston, accused of molesting more than 130 children.

In his annual Easter letter last week, Pope John Paul II commented on the scandal, saying he is profoundly hurt that fellow priests have betrayed the grace of ordination by succumbing to the most grievous forms of evil.

The ripple has reached Hawai'i's Catholic community the same way it has touched other Catholics who are troubled by a social ill and an ecclesiastical bureaucracy that has covered it up.

"Most of our Catholics are saddened, but it has not really affected the faith of the people," said Joseph Borges, a deacon at St. Anthony in Wailuku, Maui, where so many people showed up Sunday that they needed extra chairs at all four Masses. "We're praying for the church and for those priests who are in trouble. We're not condemning anyone."

Catholics such as Borges said they don't want to let the sins of a few disgrace an entire religious community. But for others, the national furor touched off by a sexual-abuse cover-up in Boston is just another reason to be disillusioned by their church.

Sex abuse in the church used to be a taboo subject, said Michael Golojuch Sr., of Makakilo, who says he's a disenchanted Catholic. "The only thing that's different now is that people are willing to talk about it."

Golojuch, who has a gay son and often attends unofficial services with Hawai'i's Dignity organization of gay Catholics, says the church needs to change with the times by doing such things as being more accepting of gay people and allowing priests to marry.

For a church slow to change and quick to close ranks to protect its reputation, priests talking openly about abusive clerics is a giant step, Golojuch said.

Church leaders are struggling to confront the topic, and they acknowledge it is more than a moral lapse, said David Coleman, an associate professor and director of the religious studies program at Chaminade University of Honolulu.

"They certainly want to address the issue," he said. "It's difficult. It's a very painful step."

Like a death

Marc Alexander, pastor of Sacred Heart and St. Pius X churches in Honolulu, said he felt he needed to address the scandals in a recent sermon because it was on people's minds.

Alexander related the issue to the biblical story of the death of Lazarus, saying the cases of sexual abuse in the church have been like a death experience that must be acknowledged and overcome with the guidance of God.

"The clergy are becoming a lot more akamai" or skillful in reassuring their members that they can continue to trust church leaders, said Randy Roche, a Jesuit priest and pastor at the Newman Center and Holy Spirit Parish at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

"If there is something that arises," he said, "it is something that needs to be dealt with up front."

Those are words Mitch Kahle is glad to hear.

Kahle isn't Catholic, but when Hawai'i Catholics held the annual Red Mass in January at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral downtown to welcome elected officials at the opening of the 2002 session of the state Legislature, Kahle was outside, protesting.

The civil-rights activist, an atheist and president of the Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church, said he was taking a stand against the church's secrecy in sexual-abuse issues. As a Boston native who grew up in strongly Catholic community, it is a topic he has followed for years.

Since the latest abuse scandal erupted in Boston in January, after documents revealed church officials covered up abuse allegations, Kahle said he's satisfied the church is making an effort to lift some of its secrecy. But he sees it as a small step in clearing smoke from a problem that has smoldered for decades.

"There isn't enough vocal denunciation," he said. "I think it's time for people to be more critical of these things, and for the church to be more openly critical of itself."

Taking precautions

The Catholic Diocese of Honolulu has no open investigations into allegations of abuse involving clergy, spokesman Patrick Downes said.

The church assures its parishioners it employs no priests or church workers with any history of sexual misconduct against children, and that it has a strict policy on the matter: If anyone employed by the church receives a report of sexual abuse, that employee is obligated to inform police.

It has been more than a decade since sexual-abuse allegations have led to criminal charges against clergy in Hawai'i.

The Rev. Arthur O'Brien was suspended as pastor at St. Rita's Church in Ha'iku, Maui, in June 1990 after he was charged with molesting a 10-year-old boy.

The priest pleaded no contest, but he maintained he was innocent and that he wanted to avoid a trial to "spare anguish for all those involved." He was put on probation for five years.

When Mainland cases began making headlines again last year, Don MacGregor, pastor of St. Joseph Church and school in Makawao, Maui, formulated a new policy.

No child could come to the rectory alone, to safeguard against the appearance of any wrongdoing.

Terri Ibarra, now an adult parishioner in Makawao, attended that parish's school. The need for that kind of policy, she said, makes her uncomfortable.

"Embarrassed would be a more accurate description," she said.

Yet Ibarra, whose family has been volunteering at the church for years, sees a need for sexual abuse to be addressed by church leaders.

MacGregor hasn't brought himself to talk about the scandal during his sermons, but he does address individual concerns of his members.

"It makes me sad that this has happened," he said. "But we are a church of sinners, and this is the season when we reflect on our sins."

Reach Tanya Bricking at 525-8026 or send e-mail to tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com.