Pilot accuses Gov. Keating of "surreal" statement. (The Sexual Abuse Crisis).

The Pilot, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, has condemned a recent statement by Governor Frank Keating about actions that lay Catholics can take to show their dissatisfaction with the church hierarchy. Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma, a Catholic, is chairman of the church-appointed review board that will monitor how well parishes and the church hierarchy respond to the ongoing sexual abuse crisis. The board will pay special attention to how well bishops implement the guidelines they approved for dealing with abusers in the priesthood.

Governor Keating had suggested that parishioners could withhold donations or attend churches in other dioceses if they are unhappy with the way their local bishop is responding to the priest sex-abuse scandal. "In effect a strike, if you wish, a sit-down until things change," he said. The Pilot's editorial charged that Keating's statement was "in effect calling all Catholics in a diocese to commit a mortal sin [and] is just surreal." Keating's spokesman Mike Brake responded, "It would seem that Cardinal Law might direct his attention to [the zero-tolerance] policy rather than this little nonsensical dustup."