A Manheim Township couple who has stopped attending Mass said they don’t believe the leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg when he speaks.
Central Pennsylvania’s diocese has scheduled listening sessions to atone for their role in the Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal. The fourth session was held at St. Leo the Great Parish in Lancaster County on Tuesday evening. Another session is scheduled Wednesday in St. Joseph Parish in Mechanicsburg.
Harrisburg’s Diocese earlier Tuesday announced its establishment of a victims compensation fund, which is why Claire Rennie, 60, said she attended the Lancaster listening session. She said her husband was abused in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.
She thinks it’s insulting, she added, that Bishop Ronald W. Gainer deflects questions and avoids providing sincere answers.
“We hear the church abused you, the bishop covered it up, you don’t get statute of limitation,” she said.
The couple has been married for over 30 years, but Rennie said she only learned of her husband’s childhood nightmare a year ago.
Harrisburg’s Diocese said that millions of dollars are going to be paid to victims, however, it did not disclose a specific dollar amount or provide details on the amount that will be dispersed to victims. The “Survivor Compensation Program” will be administered by Commonwealth Mediation & Conciliation, Inc. and will be effective immediately for three months.
The two-and-a-half-hour listening session drew a sizable crowd on a cold, rainy night. Two-thirds of the Lancaster County church’s pews were filled. Throughout the session, a steady stream of people exited the sanctuary to fill out comment cards.
A steady stream of parishioners filled out index cards Tuesday at Harrisburg Diocese's listening session in Lancaster.
“The laity are speaking out,” Carolyn Fortney said. She is a member of the Dauphin County family who had five daughters abused by their Catholic priest. “They are angry, and they are giving options and solutions to this systemic problem."
The Fortneys were part of Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s grand jury investigation into the alleged abuse. Shapiro released his grand jury report on August 14, 2018.
Her sister, Saundra Fortney-Colello, agreed that more people are starting to absorb the shattering reality that sex abuse permeated the church.
“This kind of stuff, if you think about it, it’s shocking,” Saundra said.
She acknowledged that she and her sisters have supported each other, and they now want to make sure what happened to them doesn’t happen to another child.
“To be 60, 70, 80 years old, and to hear this [grand jury report] on August 14 your first instinct is to be like ‘no’, because the Catholic Church just isn’t your faith when you’re a Catholic, it’s your life,” Saundra said. “It’s your social life, it’s your family, it’s your friends, it’s your culture, it’s everything.”
She said she isn’t angry with other parishioners who don’t believe the problem is as widespread as victims claim it to be.
“So, I feel sorry, I feel bad for them,” Saundra said. “I’m not angry with them either."
Some leaving the church said they still don’t believe that many people were victims of clergy abuse. A handful of attendees explained there were conflicting feelings expressed during the session, but they did not want to comment about their point of view. Media wasn’t allowed inside.
Diana Vojtasek, 44, drove with her husband, Mark, from Reading to attend the event. She said she’s been through every emotion from her teenage years until now, but she said she chooses to continue to believe in God. Vojtasek, a victim of clergy abuse in the Allentown Diocese, said she’d rather face the “secondary victimization,” instead of not speaking up because then the “culture of abuse will just continue.”
“I came for my survivor family, that’s why I came," Vojtasek said. “I came for them. It’s very painful for me to even be in here. I praise God, I still have faith, but it is not in this institution. I have a faith apart from this institution. My faith is in Christ, the God of the Bible. So many are still very shattered. I’m here for them.”