WASHINGTON - The leader of the nation's Roman Catholic bishops told his colleagues yesterday that it is time to move beyond the sexual abuse crisis that has consumed their attention for the past year and to get on with the work of the church.
In a speech opening a four-day meeting of church leaders, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the abuse scandal has fractured relations between bishops and lay people as well as between bishops and priests. He called for reconciliation.
But he also excoriated some critics, both inside and outside the church, who he said have used the sexual abuse crisis to advance their own agendas - apparently referring to groups such as those who support gay rights, a married priesthood and female priests.
"There are those outside the church who are hostile to the very principles and teachings that the church espouses, and have chosen this moment to advance the acceptance of practices and ways of life that the church cannot and will never condone," Gregory said.
"One cannot fail to hear in the distance - and sometimes very nearby - the call of the false prophet," he said. "We bishops need to recognize this call and to name it clearly for what it is."
Shift in emphasis
Gregory's speech seemed to indicate a major shift in emphasis since June, when he opened the bishops' meeting in Dallas with criticism - and apologies - for how the church and fellow bishops had handled the abuse crisis, which has led to the removal of more than 300 priests since January.
Yesterday, his tone was more defensive, even defiant, as he took on what he called unfair criticism of the church and its priests - the "overwhelming majority," he pointed out, are "faithful servants of the Lord."
"Priests today too often are being unfairly judged by the misdeeds of other priests, men often long departed from ministry or even deceased," Gregory said.
Church critics, who have denounced changes to the sexual abuse policy approved in Dallas, greeted the bishops last night with a candlelight protest as they left their hotel near Capitol Hill to celebrate Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Holding candles and brandishing signs urging tougher action against sexual abusers, as well as respect for the rights of gays and lesbians in the church, the demonstrators sang a chorus of the protest standard, "We Shall Overcome."
