• FITZGERALD: HOW CAN CHURCH RECOVER?

He’s gone now, but what the late Monsignor John Dillon Day had to say to a closed-door gathering of more than 300 fellow priests back in 2002 reverberates to- day as, yet again, the Catholic Church is reeling in a mess of its own making.

As it was back then, when the Boston Archdiocese was clobbered by widespread reports of priests abusing kids, the Church finds itself under fire for similar allegations in Pennsylvania.

And, once again, a heavy burden is borne by innocent priests seen by a contemptuous public as guilty by association.

How do you fight that? How do you prove you never did what skeptics suspect you might have done?

Back in school we were all taught you can’t prove a negative, remember?

At the height of the scandal here dispirited priests were invited to a parish hall in Medway where an open microphone was offered to anyone who wanted to vent.

Dillon, then 90, was the first to go forward. Known for his encyclopedic knowledge of Red Sox baseball, he offered an apt analogy.

“Fellows,” he said, “we’re playing too much defensive ball. We aren’t answering back enough. You’ve got to become more assertive!”

As the public was viewing a Church on trial, it was also engaged in a civics lesson:

Do we actually believe what we profess? Then why would we look at a priest differently in times like these?

It’s a bit like seeing a twotone blue state police cruiser pass by.

Does that make us think of fallen troopers like George Hanna and Mark Charbonnier, gunned down in the line of duty, or stalwart troopers like Doug Weddleton and Ellen Engelhardt, mowed down by renegade motorists?

Or do we now envision penny-ante troopers cooking the books to collect fraudulent overtime? Didn’t they realize they were stealing more than money?

A proverb reminds us a good name is rather to be had than great riches. These badge-wearing crooks stole their department’s good name, too, making it the grandest of larcenies.

So who do you think of when you see a state trooper today?

And who do you think of when you see a priest today?

Would you even know of Packy Dolan, or Francis Greany, both gone now but forever revered in halls of recovery for their ministries to alcoholics?

Indeed, there are lots of good guys wearing those collars, and therein lies the role the rest of us have to play.

If we truly believe in the presumption of innocence, there’s no better time to show it than now.