ST. FRANCIS — In an effort to inform members of the archdiocese about the recent Supreme Court ruling, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan held a conference call July 12 in which diocesan and parish leaders could listen and pose questions to the archbishop and archdiocese’s legal counsel.
Beginning the call, the archbishop explained his reason for holding the conference call.
“Whenever something breaks, good or bad in the archdiocese, I just figure the more open we are about it, the more chance of communication and information we can give, the better off we are,” said the archbishop. “When there are problems or challenges, I know you like to hear it from me.”
Of the Supreme Court’s decision, the archbishop remarked, “The way I read it, the decision could’ve been more dismal for the archdiocese; it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but it was also very sobering and there could be difficult days ahead,” said Archbishop Dolan.
During the 30-minute phone call, the archbishop and Dave Muth, a lawyer and collaborator with archdiocesan legal counsel John Rothstein, who was in court and couldn’t attend, discussed the status of the case and explained the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“On a five-to-two vote, they decided to uphold the dismissal of the negligence claim ... declaring that those had been time barred,” said Muth.
“The Supreme Court was very clear on this; they haven’t made any conclusions on whether or not the archdiocese has in fact committed a fraud,” said Muth.
The archbishop reminded listeners that the issue of child sexual abuse is not specifically a Catholic problem.
“It afflicts all of society and culture,” he said. “...We are gravely serious about beating what is probably the greatest crisis that has ever come before the Catholic Church in the United States. And darn it, we have been making significant progress and that isn’t patting ourselves on the back. Outside people tell us that probably nobody is confronting this terrible issue ... more effectively than the Catholic Church in the United States.”
Archbishop Dolan discussed the ruling’s impact on his recently released plans to conduct an archdiocesan capital campaign.
“It’s off to a good start, there’s been a lot of enthusiasm, we’ve got close to 20 parishes who are ready to go,” he said. “We cannot complicate this tragedy by allowing it to paralyze the good works of the church that we must do. And we’ve got to be very scrupulous in making sure that the intent of our donors toward the capital campaign is safeguarded, that the donor intent is always going to be in the forefront and the money that is donated for the noble cause of Catholic education and faith formation is used only for that.”
One of two callers posing questions was Fr. Bob Betz, a pastoral team member at Divine Mercy in South Milwaukee. He asked Archbishop Dolan what he would advise his priests do at the parish level when questioned. The archbishop urged Fr. Betz and his fellow priests to be open with parishioners, share the information they have received, and pray.
“First of all, be very open,” said the archbishop. “Try to share whatever information you can with the people. Let them know we’re on top of this, we’ve got good legal minds and if they’ve got any ideas or questions, tell them to write to me. They’re as much members of this archdiocese as I am, and I owe it to them to be as open and collaborative as I can be.
“Secondly, let them know that we’re doing our best to see that justice is done,” continued Archbishop Dolan. “And that means justice obviously to the legitimate victims/survivors of sexual abuse. We’ve done that I think, in a very commendable way. It’s not like we’ve been sitting back doing nothing. We’ve been pastorally aggressive, we’ve been very attentive to this. The more we get the word out, the better.”
