All the king's men ...

I READ WITH INTEREST THE JANUARY INTERVIEW WITH Judge Anne M. Burke ("Nothing but the truth: The unfinished business of the sex-abuse crisis"). As the original chairman of the review board, I found the interview interesting, timely, frustrating, energizing, and terribly sad.

Anne is a quality person and was drafted, as I was, to put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall. Most of us did not experience or have knowledge of clerical sexual predation before service on the board. To conceive such conduct within God's house was, to be blunt, simply inconceivable. What stunned us was the reaction of some bishops. Anne was right. Call it official petulance, arrogance, naivete or sin, several looked at their shoes.

I always wondered how an onmiscient Jesus could ever select Judas as an apostle. I suspect that it was to make the point that occasionally there will be weak and bad men in the episcopacy. Only vigilance and prayerful humility will assure that they are progressively weeded out.

Frank Keating

Washington, D.C

I enjoyed the interview with Judge Anne M. Burke very much. I liked the way she challenged the church. I find much of the current structure oppressive and out of touch, not just because I am a woman who wants to see positive change in the church, but for many reasons.

I am a survivor of sex abuse by a priest. My local bishop apologized to me in person. It was nice of him to do that. I wish the bishops in general would do more. In my opinion, they have not accepted enough responsibility. My offending priest is still alive; it took nearly two years from the time I reported the abuse to the diocese for his religious order to ask to interview me and my family. Cooperation on the part of the order was slow. He was removed from ministry and is involved in some sort of treatment program.

I hope one day, in the not-too-distant future, to have a face-to-face visit or confrontation with him. I do not want any money. I just want the satisfaction of sitting in a room with him, not being afraid or intimidated. It would be a chance for me to take back my own power. The process is a difficult one.

Name withheld

Walnut Creek, Calif.

I was deeply impressed by the interview with Judge Anne M. Burke. She stresses that passivity on the part of laypeople contributed to the sex-abuse crisis, yet when it came to selecting members for the National Review Board, she carefully avoided choosing persons with a track record of church reform activism. Members of reform groups like Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), Call to Action (CTA), or Suvivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) were rejected because the board "couldn't be seen as beholden to a group's agenda." One could wish that the board would have weighed the importance of "perception" against the potential benefits of having a SNAP or VOTF member on board.

We can hardly expect bishops to include Catholics "with an agenda" on any of their committees when even an independent lay board excludes them.

It is refreshing to hear Burke's enthusiasm "for us all to start using the talents of Catholic laypeople, not just for this issue, but all across the life of our church"--this despite the bishop who told her board last summer, "You're wasting your energy and frustration on trying to change something that's not capable of changing, so you may need to free yourself of that frustration and find other areas in which you can be effective." How many times have long-term activists heard that put-down?

The irony is that most Catholics pursuing a church-reform "agenda" are already deeply involved in service to their secular and faith communities.

Bottom line, Burke is right: "It's a miracle that the church has survived all these years, but the reason it has is because throughout the ages, concerned people have stepped up and done what needed to be done."

James Orgren

Williamsville, N.Y.