Posted on: Saturday, November 23, 2002

Priest now represents other abuse victims

By Melanie Coffee
Associated Press Writer

Michael Bland, 42, a former Roman Catholic priest, is the only purported victim of sexual molestation to be appointed to the National Review Board. Advocacy groups have argued that he does not represent the average victim. Associated Press

CHICAGO — Michael Bland said he was molested by a Roman Catholic priest as a child, but his love for the church remained and he later became a clergyman.

He joined a religious order and served for seven years, until he told church officials what had been done to him. Their response — disbelieving and impassive, he said — sparked his decision to leave the priesthood.

Bland now finds himself in a unique position to change how Catholic leaders handle allegations of abuse: He is the sole molestation victim on the National Review Board, a lay panel formed by U.S. bishops this year to monitor how dioceses discipline accused clergy.

"I felt this was a different time in the church, and the church was looking to truly reform, and I wanted to be part of that," Bland said.

Susan Archibald, president of the victim advocacy group The Linkup, wondered whether a diocesan employee, "a hand-picked victim by the bishops," would challenge the system.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called Bland "a good man in a tough spot."

"I think that Michael must feel some pretty awesome responsibility to represent the thousands and thousands of survivors who have seemingly very, very little voice in the decision-making of our church leaders," he said.

But Bland wants to show that victims can heal. "I realize there's some good individuals who have done great things and some other individuals who have done horrible things," he said.

He grew up in St. Joseph's Church in Carteret, N.J., where the associate pastor, the Rev. John Huels, was a role model until the priest began abusing him, Bland said, leaving him confused and afraid. Still, he felt called to become a priest.

Bland was ordained in 1987 and joined the Servites, a Chicago-based religious order. In 1994, he told church officials Huels had abused him about 20 years earlier.

The attempt to hold Huels accountable was complicated by the fact that Huels was then a provincial leader of Bland's religious order and a teacher at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Bland's superiors asked him not to tell his fellow priests or family, then asked him to meet with their attorneys and reconcile with Huels. Bland felt isolated.

"It was difficult for everyone," Bland said. "In the community they not only had the victim, but the perpetrator."

Some clergymen tried to be supportive, but Bland felt that he was considered a "loose cannon" and that he had to leave the order.

"I felt some people didn't know how to deal with me or talk with me," he said. "I think they responded to the best of their ability — I guess I had hoped for more."

He earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and now works in the Chicago Archdiocese as a counselor to abuse victims.

Huels eventually left public ministry. After Bland's accusation, he resigned from the Servite order and left the Chicago school. But he continued teaching.

In June, Bland was among the victims invited to speak at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' meeting in Dallas, where they drafted a national policy on handling guilty priests. In an emotional address, Bland spoke of the devastation of being abused and the fact that his perpetrator, whom he did not name, still taught.

The talk led to the discovery that Huels was scheduled to teach that summer at Saint Paul's University in Ottawa, Canada. The accused clergyman took a medical leave and no longer works as a priest, said Servite provincial Michael Guimon.

Huels did not return calls from The Associated Press.

Bland's talk came at the height of the molestation scandals, which erupted in January when Boston Cardinal Bernard Law acknowledged that he knowingly reassigned a priest accused of abuse. The crisis quickly spread to other dioceses.

The 13-member review board has gained importance since the bishops voted last week to revise their policy to meet Vatican demands that they balance help for victims with fairness to priests.

The policy does not impose sanctions on bishops who fail to comply, so the board's annual evaluation and its work with the bishops' newly created Office for Child and Youth Protection will be among the few means to enforce the plan.

"Everyone (on the panel) loves the church," Bland said, "and is very committed to prevention of child sexual abuse and the healing of those affected."