I have just finished reading thousands of words printed in the Pew Report re: Why Catholics are leaving the church. Nowhere in the 34 printed articles [27 male, 7 female!] did the subject of clergy sexual abuse appear as a, or the, reason why people are leaving the Catholic Church.
I am a born Catholic, wife, mother of three sons, and have seven grandchildren. I studied at Emmanuel College in Boston for a Masters in Pastoral Counseling, received a M.A. at Andover Newton Theological School, and became certified as a member of the National Assoc. of Catholic Chaplains. When the clergy sexual abuse was finally exposed, that was it for me. Gradually, I realized I cannot stand up in my church and pay homage to the same structures that created this monster.
Rather than integrate married priests and women priests, we continue to believe “the crisis is over”...keep aging priests at their posts, or put inappropriate ones in their place. What would Jesus do, I keep asking? I believe he would rage at the “money changers” who protected themselves rather than our children. He would spend his time with the victims.
All those who wrote articles for this study were preaching to their own choirs....and they were all off key. Elizabeth A. Walsh, Reading, MA
