David Ancell / Thursday November 03, 2005
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I have been meaning to post this one for days.
Bishop Vasa of Baker, Oregon is my kind of bishop. I wish there were more like him. I see in Karl Keating’s e-letter that he is at it again. Look near the bottom of the letter for the full report.
It seems that the good bishop is hesitant to mandate “safe-environment training” that is supposed to “protect” children from abuse. He has concerns about the effectiveness of the program. He is also concerned about their association with groups that undermine Church teaching. He emphasizes that he wishes to protect children, but these programs don’t seem like the way to do it.
In other words, Bishop Vasa is thinking about these things before he just goes and does it over the objections of faithful parents. He is risking being called “not in compliance” over this because he sees a greater law. Remember that the USCCB has very limited authority, so he isn’t being disobedient. He has his rights in his own diocese, and it’s refreshing to see a bishop exercise them.
Here is my issue: No doubt there will be a group of screamers who try to say that Bishop Vasa doesn’t care about the protection of children. I do believe that he does; he is just against the programs that are being pushed in this regard. He has legitimate concerns. However, I’ve seen similar situations like this. One opposes the program designed to accomplish a goal, and then one gets accused of being opposed to the goal itself. Why is that?
I’ve also seen another twist on this. Suppose someone at work has a computer that doesn’t work. So, his employer replaces it with a computer that also doesn’t work. The employee complains again, and the management simply responds “Well, we replaced your computer.” It’s as though everything should be fine despite the fact that the replacement doesn’t work either. I’ve seen similar situation (not just in a work environment), and it’s really aggravating. Did it ever occur to people that just because they did something doesn’t mean the problem is fixed?
In fact, this seems to be the case with the USCCB’s response to the sexual abuse crisis. It seems that few are addressing the crisis of faith that underlies the whole problem. I am concerned that they will just implement programs and then cheer about all the work that has been done towards fixing the problem. Shouldn’t they investigate to see if what they have done is working before they assume they have made progress?
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