Posted on: Saturday, August 23, 2003

Catholic conservatives to meet

By Rachel Zoll
Associated Press

Conservative lay Roman Catholics say they'll gather for an unusual private meeting on the clerical sex-abuse crisis and the future of the church, with at least two top American bishops attending the session.

The meeting follows one in July that conservatives said was dominated by liberals.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington are among those expected to attend the latest summit, set for Sept. 8 in Washington.

Deal Hudson, editor of the conservative Catholic magazine Crisis, said earlier this week that he was organizing the event along with Russell Shaw, a former spokesman for the bishops' conference.

The previous meeting was July 7 at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington. It also included McCarrick and Gregory, along with other members of the executive committee of the bishops' conference.

The idea for that event came from Geoffrey Boisi, vice chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and former board chairman of Boston College. Such high-level, closed-door meetings are rarities in the American church, particularly gatherings that are organized by lay people.

Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the bishops' conference, said Gregory would be attending the September meeting "as a diocesan bishop and not in his capacity as conference president."

"Since it is not a conference activity, I am sure other bishops attending would do so with the same understanding," Maniscalco said.

Hudson said about 40 Catholic leaders have been asked to participate.

Among the other lay people whom Hudson said he invited are Robert George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University; Wil-

liam Donohue, president of the Catholic League, an anti-defamation group in New York; and Kate O'Beirne, Washington editor of National Review.

Hudson declined to reveal the location.

Among the topics will be "sexuality, leadership, moral authority and dissent," said Hudson, who described the meeting's theme as "how the leadership of John Paul II points the way toward the future."

"We don't need any creative theologies of structural change to solve the problems that have been exposed by the abuse crisis," Hudson said.