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Governor Keating Resigns From National Review Board

WASHINGTON (June 16, 2003) -- In a letter to Belleville Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating resigned from the National Review Board which he chairs. Governor Keating, who now heads the American Council of Life Insurers, indicated that his resignation is effective immediately.

The texts of the letter from Governor Keating to Bishop Gregory and Bishop Gregory's response follow:

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Dear Bishop Gregory:

As I have shared with you over the last two months, I intended to relinquish my chairmanship of the National Catholic Review Board on the first year anniversary of the creation of the Board. That time is this week.

During the last year, we accomplished much. Under your leadership and with the bishops' own mandate, we have begun the causes and context, scope and audit processes. The audit is the most significant. Never again will any bishop be able to hide or avoid the scandal of sex abuse in his diocese. As a former FBI agent and U.S. Attorney, I am convinced that pouring law enforcement and audit resources annually into each diocese will reclaim Catholic lay confidence. All of us can be assured of zero tolerance, transparency and criminal referral because outsiders will make sure that that is the case. We also created the Office of Child and Youth Protection, headed by a law enforcement professional. Our message was clear. Sex abuse is not just a moral lapse. It is a crime that should be fully prosecuted.

As I have recently said, and have repeated on several occasions, our Church is a Faith institution. A home to Christ's people. It is not a criminal enterprise. It does not condone and cover up criminal activity. It does not follow a code of silence. My remarks, which some bishops found offensive, were deadly accurate. I make no apology. To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organization, not my church.

The humiliation, the horrors of the sex scandal must be a poisonous aberration, a black page in our history that cannot ever recur. It has been disastrous to the Church in America.

Most of America's bishops are fully supportive of the Board's efforts. They have led and led well and have stood up for virtue. Your own leadership has been extraordinary and courageous. You are a model of the Good Shepherd.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve our Faith. Frequently, it was an agony, but with humility and a devotion to the simple truths of the New Testament, good will always prevail.

Sincerely,
Frank Keating

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Dear Governor Keating,

I have received your letter in which you offer your resignation as chairman and as a member of the National Review Board. I accept your resignation with an awareness of the enormous contribution you have made to the Church in the United States and to the Board as its first Chairman.

A little over a year ago the Bishops passed the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in which we recognize the necessity of having significant lay participation in assessing whether we are living up to what we pledge in the Charter. I will always be grateful to you for your immediate and generous willingness to contribute to this unprecedented endeavor.

Both as a devout Catholic and as a governor who met the challenge of leading his state through the tragedy of a devastating act of domestic terrorism, you struck me as having the qualities needed to take on the task that I gave to you. Your work this past year only served to confirm my early intuition.

Because the task you took on was unprecedented and had to be carried out in an intense environment which gives rise to strong emotions under the close observation of the media, there were bound to be moments of difficulty. At such times I found you open and responsive to my assessments of the situation.

The Board's contribution to resolving the sexual abuse crisis depends on its willingness to offer an honest appraisal of the steps being taken by the Bishops to protect children and young people. I know it was in this spirit that you sought to lead the Board during its first year, and I am sure it will continue in this fashion.

With heartfelt gratitude for your contribution and with prayers and best wishes for you and your family, I am

Sincerely yours in the Lord,
Bishop Wilton D. Gregory

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Office of Communications
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3000
http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2003/03-128.htm

I pray that the governor is right in his contention that coverup of pedophilia will no longer be tolerated. I hope he is right that the government can bust these clarical law breakers whenever the Church heirarchy tries to cover it up.

Dan Lauffer

Dear Friends,

Well, I saw Ray Arroyo interview Bishop Bruskewitz from Nebraska last night on a number of related issues.

It seemed to me that the bishop's attitude was that laity have nothing to do with the hierarchy in the Church and how dare they presume to think that the hierarchy is accountable to lay persons.

The bishop also said that the issue of the "homosexualization of our seminaries" is one that needs to be addressed.

Can someone explain to me exactly what the bishop meant by the "homosexualization of the seminaries?"

I first came across this term in Catholic high school when I expressed a desire to enter a seminary.

I was actually assigned to a psychologist by our lay guidance counsellor for a number of sessions to try and discover why I wanted to be a priest.

The psychologist himself, he told me, was a former seminarian and he said that he left in disgust over what the bishop said above.

But what the heck is going on here? Do the bishops know of this problem as widespread and aren't doing anything about it?

All this talk about a lack of vocations et al. Why would anyone want to go to a seminary under the conditions outlined by the good bishop from Nebraska?

And if the hierarchy refuses to be accountable to the laity - does this mean that reforms now must break down and the secular power must step in to HOLD the hierarchy accountable?

Is that the next step?

Arroyo mentioned that some bishops threatened to resign if found guilty of negligence over this issue, but Vladika Bruskewitz flatly denied this - he seemed perturbed by anything smacking of "clericalization of the laity" and giving them any power.

When confronted with the issue of "lay ecclesial ministers," the good bishop said he didn't know what those were - secretaries, groundskeepers perhaps?

Who would the bishops prefer to be accountable to? The laity whose children have been involved in this tragedy and who have a vested interest in seeing that their kids are never made vulnerable to clerical abuse again? Or to secular authorities who would not be as courteous toward Catholic bishops if and when they are convicted of criminal offense?

Alex

I am saddended by this response of Bishop Bruskewitcz. I had much greater respect for him before this interview.

Instead of taking an opportunity to be a national or international leader on this issue he instead continues to spread the gulf between clergy and laity and perpetuates the great problem of clericalism in the Catholic Church. Instead of admitting guilt and offense where it rightly resides, with the hierarchy, he draws the curtain closed separating the clergy from the faithful.

And he knows darn well what lay ecclesial ministers are. Even in his diocese there are lay readers for Mass.

The presence of Governor Keating was to a great extent the legitimizing factor of the committee, in that lay representation was prominent and public. He is greatly respected and very active in church activities and pro-life initiatives in Oklahoma. His leaving creates additional dark clouds and dispersions regarding the motives and actions of the hierarchy.

Dear Diak,

Being only a simple layman, I just wanted to say that this good bishop and others like him run the risk of tainting the episcopacy as a whole - and needlessly.

So what if an offending bishop or bishops resign because of their stupid mistakes of the past?

What, there aren't priests who cannot take their place?

The priests who committed abuse are to be removed and otherwise dealt with.

But so must the bishops be who knowingly refused to extricate such priests from among their vulnerable flocks.

This shouldn't be reduced to an issue of laity vs hierarchy in the church and who calls the shots.

The Gospel and simple justice are what should be calling the shots here.

Layman Alex

And so say many simple lay people in the Roman Church, also, Alex.

Clericalism is not a dead issue, it seems. Respecting the legitimate roles of the bishops, priests, and deacons in the Church does not mean that we should leave our minds and wills at the Church door. It is sad that some members of the clergy seem to continue to think that they are the Church and that the People of God are just along for the ride. Pray, pay and obey are not the only verbs enjoined on us!

I didn't see the interview, but the attitude that you attribute to the bishop in question is much too prevelent in the Apostolic Churches, it seems to me. Indeed, it appears to be making a comeback. Inerrancy is not one of the gifts granted at clerical ordination.

Baptism initiates us all into the priesthood of Christ. Ordination confers the ministerial priesthood. We are all called to responsibility to work to build the Body of Christ and to keep it as spotless in its humanity as possible.

Concern for the state of the Church is not a privilege granted to us by those ordained to service of the Church. It is a right and duty conferred by our baptism. One way of exercising that right and performing that duty is to remind those ordained to service that service does not mean dictatorship over mindless sheep.

And we haven't even mentioned the other duty, paying the bills yet! Wonder if there is a message in there somewhere about the power of the pocketbook or wallet?

Steve

Dear Steve,

The pocketbook is a powerful weapon indeed!

A great way to restore common cents in the Church!

Alex

Dear Friends:

I am more interested in the real reason for Gov. Keating's "voluntary" resignation.

It appears (here in Chicago, at least) that the Guv was "forced out" by the other members of the Board for an "irresponsible" statement, or as his spokesperson said, for "a slip of the tongue" (or is it of the mind?).

The Chicago media yesterday attributed to Gov. Keating a statement to the effect that he likened some bishops of the Catholic Church as the MAFIOSI.

Our Archbishop, Cardinal George, (BTW a native Chicagoan and who probably knows Al Capone's propensities) reacted last night and said that Gov. Keating's statement was unfortunate and utterly untrue, and that it was insulting to the Bishops.

This morning, Honorable Anne Burke, a justice of the Illinois Court of Appeals, was reported to have accepted the Chairmanship of the Board.

Amado

Dear Amado,

A lay-woman chairman?

Excellent!

I'm sure she will succeed with the bishops where Keating failed . . .

Alex

The Washington Times had a recent article about this sympathetic to Governor Keating's work: http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20030617-094523-5133r.htm

I remember watching the Bishops Conference that dealt with the subject of pedophile priests, last year on EWTN, and I remember feeling profound disgust at the attitudes of some of the bishops. I apologize for not having all my facts in order, but I clearly remember one bishop stating, that we shouldn't allow one moment of weakness by a particular priest to overshadow 20 years of faithful service. Yes, and if I murder my neighbor tomorrow, please let's not forget the many good deeds I've done in the past.

Well, the bishops do tend to act like the Mafia. Where do people think the Mafia got the pattern for their common life?

The Nebraska bishop is one of the good guys when it comes to orthodox belief and practice but is a typical Roman when it comes to hierarchy.

Dan Lauffer

Dear Professor Dan,

Yes, that is truly the secondary, but not less important, issue to surface here - the attitudes of the episcopate.

There was a release I read somewhere about a bishop who had recently been involved in a car accident and actually killed a pedestrian. He drove off thinking, as he told the judge later, that he had hit a cat or something . . .

The judge treated the bishop as he would have any "hit and run" and when the bishop asked to be released so he could attend the conference that is being mentioned here, the judge flatly turned him down.

It would be yet another tragedy if secular government authorities here began to take on a highly suspicious attitude toward the Church and her bishops and seek to "make examples" of bishops etc.

Unfortunately, the bishops would have no one to blame but themselves.

And to those Hierarchs who visit here, please accept, Vladyky, all these comments made here in a spirit of concern for the welfare of the Church by us lay-people.

Alex

Bishop O'Brien resigned yesterday after the press fallout from his fatal hit and run accident. He also is under intense scrutiny for pedophilia within his diocese.

Dear Diak,

As I said, there are always lots of able-bodied priests available as new bishop-candidates!

Alex