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Contact:
Carolyn Disco 603-424-3120
Cell 603-582-9084
James Farrell 603-692-7927
Priest supports calls for bishops' resignations
NH - VOTF - May 16, 2003 – Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a Dominican
priest and major in the United States Air Force serving in Iraq,
has written a letter of support to members of New Hampshire Voice
of the Faithful (NH-VOTF) and New Hampshire Catholics for Moral
Leadership (NHCML) for calling for the resignations recently of
Bishop John McCormack and Bishop Francis Christian.
Rev. Doyle is a longtime advocate for survivors of clergy sexual
abuse, and the only priest to testify in court in over 200 cases
as to the legal liability of the Church, all decided in favor of
the survivors. He is the co-author of the famed Doyle/Mouton Report
sent to all bishops in 1985, which spelled out clearly the nature
of sexual abuse as a compulsive psychological disorder. Titled,
The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy:
Meeting the Problem in a Comprehensive and Responsible Manner,
he warned that sexual abuse has debilitating long-lasting effects
on victims; that the church must never step out of character as
a sensitive, caring and responsible entity, including in the actions
of its legal counsel; and that failure to report abuse allegations
is the most common error of the hierarchy. His estimate of a $1
billion cost to the Church is prophetically accurate 18 years later.
Rev. Doyle’s connection to New Hampshire is marked by his speaking
at the Solidarity March last January at St. Joseph Cathedral in
Manchester. In addition, he serves as an expert witness for Peter
Hutchins, an attorney who has settled 79 cases with the Diocese
of Manchester, and is currently in litigation with the Brothers
of the Sacred Heart, who run Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua.
Rev. Doyle received the first Priest of Integrity Award from the
national Voice of the Faithful last summer in Boston.
In his letter “To all of my friends and fellow Catholics in NH
Voice of the Faithful and NH Catholics for Moral Leadership,” Rev.
Doyle notes the erosion of trust in Bishop McCormack and Bishop
Christian, both of whom hold major responsibility in their respective
dioceses for the course of the sexual abuse crisis over the last
several decades. He writes that in the scriptures, leadership is
ordered to service, which may require risky and radical action.
Instead, these bishops failed “to respond in a compassionate and
caring manner to those whose bodies and souls have been so grievously
wounded by the clergy. Together, we have demanded accountability,
justice and compassion of our bishops. We have not found it…This
reality demands action, not the hypocrisy of smooth though empty
words of apology and regret.”
Carolyn Disco, chairman of survivor support for the NH-VOTF statewide
steering committee, expressed deep appreciation on behalf of the
entire committee for Rev. Doyle’s support. “His words as a priest
give us comfort that our actions are in keeping with our obligations
as faithful Catholics to speak out against injustice,” she said.
Likewise, James Farrell, author of the NHCML declaration on the
group’s website, www.nhcatholics.org, which has been signed by over
800 Catholics calling for the bishops’ resignations, welcomed Rev.
Doyle’s powerful witness. “Here is a priest of enormous courage
who is saying to all of us, stand up and be counted. We accept his
challenge with grateful hearts,” he said.
The full text of Rev. Doyle’s letter reads:
“I want to offer my support to you in your efforts in urging Bishop
McCormack and Bishop Christian to resign. I do so reluctantly because
it saddens me to have been a witness, with all of you, of the erosion
of trust in your bishops in New Hampshire. It saddens me because
I have waited for eighteen years to see courageous leadership demonstrated
from among the bishops of our country and instead we find ourselves
calling for the resignations of those who chose to support their
careers and their positions rather than step forward to end the
nightmare we have been in for so long.
We are all members of the body of Christ. Leadership, we are told
in the scriptures, is ordered to service in the community. If these
words are to be real, then risky and radical action is often required
of the members. The victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse
have risen up and spoken to the entire Catholic community. Many
others who are not victims have seen this terrible disaster for
what it really is; not a passing annoyance nor an exaggerated creature
of the media, but a massive failure of our leadership to respond
in a compassionate and caring manner to those whose bodies and souls
have been so grievously wounded by the clergy. Together we have
demanded accountability, justice and compassion of our bishops.
We have not found it.
Risky and radical action is now required of the bishops of New
Hampshire. John McCormack and Francis Christian have failed to recognize
the victims and survivors as the most important people in our church
because they are the ones most in need of our care. They each have
a legacy of pain and soul destruction because of their actions in
regard to the perpetrators who ravaged so many. The only way they
can effectively show the people of God and especially the victims
and survivors that they really mean the words of concern that they
speak is by resigning. By remaining, they stand as an ever-present
symbol of victimization and re-victimization. The victims and survivors
demand accountability and they surely deserve the most preferential
treatment the church can extend. For too long the clergy and hierarchy
have allowed this vicious travesty to unfold in the midst of our
church. Now that it has been revealed to all, too many of our brothers
and sisters among the clergy and laity remain in denial, unwilling
to believe the breadth of the destruction. We must all wake up and
accept the reality that has happened, painful though it may be.
This reality demands action, not the hypocrisy of smooth though
empty words of apology and regret.”
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New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful (NH-VOTF) is the
state affiliate of the national Voice of the Faithful in Boston,
MA. Its three goals are support for the survivors of clergy sexual
abuse, support for priests of integrity, and the shaping of structural
change in the institutional Church. It was formed a year ago in
response to the sexual abuse crisis with the motto, Keep the Faith,
Change the Church. Its mission statement is to provide a prayerful
voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively
participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church.
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