Bishop Zubik prepares letter on sexual abuse crisis
Support groups and retreats for victims of sexual abuse, a top-level office for child protection, improved preparation for seminarians and enhanced financial transparency.
Those are among the pledges Roman Catholic Bishop David Zubik is making in a letter he plans to issue in the coming days in response to a series of listening sessions held late last year in the wake of a grand jury report on sexual abuse in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The diocesan newspaper, the Pittsburgh Catholic, previewed the letter in its Friday edition. The letter is expected out by Ash Wednesday on March 6, the start of the annual penitential season of Lent.
A statewide grand jury report, issued in August, cited more than 90 priests accused of sexually abusing minors in the diocese over the past seven decades, most of it occurring before 1990. A list of accused clerics on the diocesan website now exceeds 100 names.
At sessions around the diocese, Bishop Zubik sat and listened to often-blistering criticism of his and his colleagues’ handling of the abuse crisis, with some calling for his resignation. He has said he plans to stay on the job.
Among other things, the letter commits the diocese to:
Sponsoring support groups and retreats for victims of sexual abuse;
Creating a top-level Secretariat for the Protection of Children, Youth and Vulnerable Adults to streamline how the church responds to and prevents abuse;
Improving the “formation” or preparation of seminarians training for the priesthood;
Expanding the diocese’s Finance Council to include representatives from all six of its counties: Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Lawrence and Washington;
Providing a way for people to report misconduct of various types to an independent third party.