On June 14, the U.S. bishops marked the first anniversary of their formal response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. In the year since the bishops approved their “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” they have created the National Review Board and the Office for Child and Youth Protection, as well as establishing diocesan policies and bodies aimed at protecting children, helping victims of abuse to heal, and making church policies more transparent.

Julie Sly, Herald editor, sat down with Bishop William K. Weigand June 10 for an interview to talk about some of the issues raised by the crisis, both nationally and locally in the Diocese of Sacramento. Here is the text of that interview.

Are you satisfied with the actions that the U.S. bishops have taken to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis?

Yes, it has been quite comprehensive actually. It’s a matter of doing it all, but I think in general, with the provisions of the charter fully implemented, it makes us basically on the cutting edge in our society in terms of the groupings out there — school districts and professional groups in general. We’re certainly up with others in the prudent measures to protect children and minors. That’s what we’ve always wanted to do, and our procedures were seen to have been inadequate and now they are much more adequate.

...The charter and the public focus on us is a teachable moment in a sense for all of our people and all of society to know what we’re doing and to develop a confidence that the measures are in place and quite adequate.

Do you think our diocese has done all it can possibly do to address the issue?

Our response has developed in stages. One of the first things we implemented — which went beyond what we already had in place and which we started before the charter — was our own local, independent review board. We’ve found it very effective. They’re good people. They’re dedicated, they have credibility, we’ve published their names, it’s a very diverse group and they’ve done very good work and given very good counsel.

A second step was training for key people in all of our parishes and institutions about the whole reality of sexual abuse — what the signs are, how to watch for it, what to do, and what are the reporting obligations. We had the help of public entities out there such as county Child Protective Services, who helped give the workshops and seminars to key leaders who then went back to their volunteers and catechists to give that training to them.

The question of outreach to victims is on many people’s minds and we’ve been better organized and it’s been very helpful. That’s unpublicized, and by it’s nature that’s going to be very confidential, but we’re trying to devise, with the help of committees with input from victims, what outreach ought to be and how to do it. For example, the launching of one or more support groups — with therapists/facilitators to help in a group setting these victims deal with the hurt and to go beyond it — those kinds of things aren’t set up overnight, and the pastoral care that victims need doesn’t happen overnight and that can be a long process. But we’re engaged in that and we’ll get better at it.

Another whole phase that our committees and staff have spent a lot of time on over the past year is deciding on what’s going to go into effect in the coming months Ï a much more aggressive “safe environment” program. It will be basically training of parents and children in a very positive way — not to make children fearful of strangers and adults, but rather in the setting of many developmental issues, and that they might also be alert to inappropriate touching or shows of affection that could lead to some kind of abuse.

Over the past year and before, have you have had an opportunity to meet with victims? Can you reflect on your experience?

I have met with victims and Bishop (Richard) Garcia has met with victims, as have some diocesan officials.

We have victims at all different levels — not everyone wants to speak with me. They might want to speak with some other representative of the church. Some of them don’t want to talk with anyone and just go the legal route. So people make their choices, but we are certainly available.

My experience — probably the most important thing — is simply to listen. People want to tell their story and want you to listen to it. And they have a sense that you can’t undo the history, you can’t press magic buttons and make it all go away. But we can be here to listen and be sympathetic and give them encouragement, and apologize for any harm that was done. To make it very clear that abuse should never have happened, that it is totally outside the role of whoever the church worker at whatever level ñ whether a priest or a volunteer.

Hearing those kinds of things seem to be helpful, and assuring victims that we are praying for them and that we will assist them in ongoing pastoral care, if they are open to that. Some victims are, some are not, or some are today and others aren’t until three months from now. People deal with things at their own pace ñ they are in the driver’s seat. We can’t make them go faster than they’re able to go.

In spite of all that happens to victims, God’s grace is there. God works in the midst of pain and suffering, at least as strongly if not more strongly, than when everything’s going well. So to give a certain hope to people that just because something terrible has happened, it doesn’t mean that they can’t go beyond it and have a very fruitful life and regain their self-confidence and their dignity and to discover what God has taught them through that terrible experience. It’s basically the virtue of hope ñ giving hope to people so that they don’t have to simply remain a victim....

In all your years as a bishop, has the clergy sexual abuse crisis been one of the toughest things to deal with? How have you coped personally with the crisis?

Very clearly this has been the toughest, and it has consumed a great amount of my time. But I don’t mind, because as bishop I have to address whatever the needs are at the moment — that’s my job. It’s a very important issue and dealing with any perpetrators so it doesn’t happen again, to put safety measures and safe environment programs in place for children that will keep them safe, that’s a very good and positive contribution to society in general.

What I’ve found most burdensome probably is the public scrutiny and the public skepticism, which might well be warranted in some quarters of the country, but really from my judgement has not been warranted here. To have the public in a sense, through the media, focus almost solely on the few cases of abuse, as if that kind of defined the church of Sacramento, and it doesn’t.

I’m in a different parish almost every weekend on a pastoral visit and I see the vitality and the good things that are going on at all levels, including for children and young people, as well as for senior citizens and the poor. And I see the confidence level that people have in the priest of their parish and the rest of the staff. To have that in a sense challenged in a general way with negative publicity was hard. Plus the suspicion of my own leadership — people almost taking for granted that bishops were hiding something, that we must be doing the same in Sacramento, when we haven’t. And that’s not just been on my watch, but back through the years as much as we can ascertain.

You would admit though, that there’s some among the faithful who still have distrust of the church and that the church has lost some credibility.

Yes, and I would say it’s especially likely with Catholics who are not fully plugged into their parish. So the most active people are fine — they know and they see what is going on. But it’s the people who may attend Mass and the sacraments with not much regularity...they don’t know what the vitality is and what the care has been and is. They are more subject to the surprise and shock, and often more angry then, of media stories about the scandal and the abuse, and can’t see it in the perspective of the many good priests and employees, the many faithful, and the many other wonderful ministries and programs, not just for Catholics, but for the community.

Do you think that the measures being taken will help the church regain people’s trust?

Yes I do. The safe environment program is going to be a resource appreciated by all parents — that means Catholics across the spectrum. They’re going to be confident in that and think it’s a good thing.

Our pastoral outreach and concern for victims will help. I think people also understand that we can’t just sell our patrimony down the drain, that in this frenzy today, there’s no question that there are some false claims, for example, and how to sort all that out. People expect us ultimately to be good stewards of their money and to be fair with victims.

So there are a lot of issues, and different people out there will come down on one side more than others. It’s going to be an ongoing scrutiny and hard to please all people. Some will think it’s appropriate to give pastoral care to victims, but not money....we’re simply going to have people in different camps...

Certainly, California has been thrown into a different climate because of recent legislation lifting the statute of limitations on civil claims. So we are probably in a more unique situation than any other state.

Yes we are. The stakes are very high here. The lifting of the statute of limitations to some makes sense and to others makes absolutely no sense. There was good reason for having a statute of limitations to protect people from false claims and to ensure the ability to prove claims and so forth. So we have a very difficult situation in California, no question. And it’s not resolved yet.

What can you say about the upcoming audit of the diocese to see if there is compliance with the provisions of the bishops’ charter?

The audit is June 30 through July 3, under the auspices of the Gavin Group. They will be here and I will meet with them at the beginning and at the end for an exit interview. This was committed to by the U.S. bishops to monitor in every diocese the measures we’ve taken to comply with the provisions in the charter. They will check to make sure we have an independent review board, they’ll see how it functions, they’re review what we’ve been doing in terms of outreach to victims and what the plans are for the future in terms of support groups for them, and they will look at we’re launching in terms of safe environment programs.

They will also be asking questions about whether we have anybody still in service who may have had some offense years ago against a minor. The audit is a very good thing.

I assume the team will have suggestions and helpful recommendations, because they will have been in other dioceses. That can only be helpful to us. As far as I can tell, I don’t think there is any area where we will be found to be in non-compliance. So it will be a help to us and in terms of public credibility and trust, that’s one more measure that will give a comfort level to people — that what we as bishops committed to in the charter was just not talk, that we’re having outside people, not employees of the church, come and audit us.

What has been your relationship with the priests of the diocese during this crisis?

I have a real burden for the priests. They’ve suffered a lot, especially out of fear. They get good affirmation at the parish level from their own people and there’s not a lot of suspicion there, but they pick it up when they go downtown, when they board an airplane. There are different stories of how they’ve had the skepticism expressed to them and it’s very hurtful, when they’re not guilty of anything and they simply feel painted by the same black brush of those relatively few in the country and in our own diocese who have been unfaithful and have had some kind of abusive behavior toward minors.

That having been said — the burden, yes, and I share that burden with them — on the other hand I couldn’t be prouder of them, in the sense that they’ve not complained for the most part and they’re not just angry. They’ve handled it very maturely and appropriately, they haven’t isolated themselves from people just out of fear, and they’re still going about their work, including with young people.

...Priests now live in fear that somebody for their own purposes, with no basis, could ruin their reputation. That’s a real carrying of the cross. And we’ve tried to see it in that light and I try to help them see it that way, and for the most part they have.

...Out of this, of course, we believe in faith — that there will be growth in holiness and in depth that forces us to go deeper within ourselves, but it’s not easy. It’s been a difficult year for the priests.

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