Bishop Wilton Gregory, opening a national meeting of bishops, said the prelates should reach out to victims «with perseverance and with love» and pray that they will forgive Church leaders who had failed to act decisively against guilty priests, the Associated Press reported today.
«Rather than being something that divides us, the sexual abuse crisis can and should become a rallying point not only to make the Church a safe environment for all children, but our whole society as well,» said Bishop Gregory.
In the wake of the abuse crisis that erupted in the Boston Archdiocese in January 2002 and spread elsewhere, the bishops’ conference has enacted a mandatory discipline policy for guilty priests and has commissioned an official survey on the extent of abuse in the Church.
The National Review Board, the lay panel the bishops chosen to monitor their response to abuse, will report on the Church’s progress Tuesday, AP said.
