Reflection:
Justice Anne M. Burke
September 20, 2004

Good evening. Let me begin by saying how delighted I am to be here at Loyola University tonight.

I was most pleased to be invited here to this important Catholic academic institution to offer some reflections based on my experience as interim chair of the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I hope that my experience will offer some insight not only into the workings of the NRB and the USCCB, but even more importantly, into the heart and soul of an ordinary lay Catholic whose eyes have been wide open during a most unusual two hears of my life.

All of us create a unique hermeneutic that shapes the ways in which the great signposts of human life unfold. Coming to understand that unique lens through which we see the world can be a spiritually awakening experience. I think that is because it forces us to look at ourselves and examine who we are and what motivates our living.

I have come to believe that all of the members of the NRB carried with them to our work their own true treasure through which they exercises a significant sense of loyalty to our faith and service to the Church. For each one of us, helping to get to the bottom of this terrible scandal of clerical sexual abuse so that trust might be restored was an act of faith in Christ's body, his beloved - the Church.

I carried the baggage of a lifetime with me to this task. I am a cradle Catholic, a Southside Irish Chicagoan; the product of catholic schools' beloved religious women who mentored me with love; a day does not go by without recalling Sister Henrietta, a Sister of St. Casmir at Maria High School, who pushed me to succeed and to recognize that I had a talent for working with children.

My earliest career was as a gym teacher with the Chicago Park District. The students I worked with were mentally challenged. But I was startled to discover their abilities and their drive to succeed and thrive in sports.

It was essentially out of this experience that the Special Olympics were born. First as a part of our regular routine at West Pullman Park, and then, in 1968, with the assistance of the Kennedy Foundation, and many others, including the late Mayor Richard. J. Daley, we were able to expand, bringing together athletes from across the city. Later this little acorn became a great international event. Last summer, my family and about 100 of our dearest friends, including six athletes from the original 1968 games were in the stands in Dublin for the first Special Olympic Games to be held outside the United States. It was a powerful moment in which to witness the 7,500 athletes who came from more than 150 nations to compete in the games. It seemed a long way from West Pullman Park. But, in fact, not much had changed - athletes stretched themselves to achieve and in the process discovered powerful resources within them.

This discovery is something I have always carried with me, this passion to help young people thrive. When I began my law practice, family law brought me into many opportunities to help resolved crises and conflict in the lives of many young people. It deepened my understanding of just how vulnerable children can be at the hands of adults.

Before my appointment to the Illinois Appellate Court in 1995, I was asked by Illinois Governor Jim Edgar to be his Special Counsel to oversee and office review and redesign the child protection services in the State of Illinois.

I say all this to you so that you might be very clear about what it was that qualifies me to serve on the National Review Board. It was a lifetime of involvement with the issues of children and the way in which life could be made safer for those who were vulnerable. I was not a "professional" Catholic. I was not into "Church-centered" issues. If anything I might acknowledge that I was a passive Catholic - one who was willing to let others tend to the issues that concerned the life of the Church.

Quite honestly, I must also say that in the more than two years that I have been involved in the work of the NRB, I have been transformed. I believe that engaged in the struggled to get to the bottom of this crisis, I have had a life altering experience. "No more passive Catholics," is my mantra now.

When this journey began for me, I had only a very meager, acquaintance with the clergy abuse issue. It was something that, on occasion, sparked my legal interest - something about a certain case in the news, or some incident of which others may have spoken. But, by and large, I had no involvement in the issue.

Beginning in June of 200, however, that all changed for me. I think I can say that today, I have come to understand the Church in a whole new way. I have come to see the Church's leadership through a new prism. And most importantly, I have come to a whole new understanding of the critical role that the laity must play in helping the Church to be all that it can.

During the two years since the Dallas meeting of the American bishops, the NRB set out to quickly put in place the strategic resources necessary to combat the effects of the abuse tragedy. Among those was to gather data on the causes and context for the crisis. This meant interviewing people across the country - victims, perpetrators, bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals, chancery personnel, experts-in-the-field and concerned Catholics.

The NRB was also responsible for commissioning the first-ever scientific analysis about the scandal. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice gathered their own vast collection of data from each diocese; data I should say that never before was collected on a national level.

In addition, the Office for Child and Youth Protection which the NRB established in Washing D.D. conducted the first-ever audit of each diocese in American to measure the success or failure, at the local level, of programs to ensure the safety of our children.

These three initiatives involved the members of the NRB in very concrete ways. On one level we had a great deal of personal time with people. We had time to speak to many members of the hierarchy. We had time to intimately interface with the institutional Church. We encountered many people of good will, especially among the hierarchy.

At the same time we also observed at close hand, the less than up-front demeanor of others. I witnessed, personally, individual members of the hierarchy who are angered by our presence, resentful of our mandate to investigate; and others who were fearful of what we might discover.

I also came to know Cardinal, Archbishops and Bishops who are deeply grateful for the sacrifice made by each member of the NRB. Often they were the individuals who felt the deep pain of abuse victims and grieved at the way in which their predecessors bungled the incidents of abuse in the past. I encountered holy men, heartsick at the extensive damage that people have suffered and angered at the arrogance of those who contributed to the scandal.

I also endure the suspicions of other bishops, and the downright vengeance of some, who continue to see leadership in the Church as both exclusively male and clerical. Ironically, some of our biggest critics eventually turned out to be our staunchest defenders once the results of our date were published.

I would not be honest if I did not admit how deeply this experience touched the hearts of each member of the NRB. I am certain it has left deep fissures on my soul. Like most of life, it was an opportunity to see great virtue and great sin.

Initially, I must say how uncomfortable this issue of the abuse itself made me. It was not a subject anyone relished discussing. It was also too much at times, particularly when we were confronted with the details of much of the abuse. At moments you doubted your own sanity, so incongruous did the entire topic of abuse seem in the contest of ministry and the Church.

There was no end of sadness. Pain abounded. But, there was also expansive expression of virtue displayed, particularly by lay Catholics. In the continuing commitment of believers, the true grace of God could be seen.

Nothing - I will say this again - nothing could have adequately prepared one for the encounter with the politics of the institutional Church. And I say that having a husband who has been an elected public official for the past 36 years. I am no wallflower. I have been around Chicago politics for a long time. I have known Chicago's most colorful politicos, as well as national political leaders from the White House to the State Department. But the machinations encountered in the ecclesiastical version during this period of fear, perplexity and suspicion was at time medieval -certainly Byzantine.

But, amazingly, on two separate journeys to the Holy See, in which meetings with at least seven curial cardinals of the very highest level - let me be clear, these individuals were easy to engage. I found them willing to listen; sharp-eyed; courteous, deeply concerned; willing to act, and most of all, open to what we came to discuss. They were far more open that some members of the American hierarchy even to this day.

I say this not just to annoy you, or anger you, but to perhaps give you hope. Maybe it is the steady diet of pasta "al dente" and good Frascati, but those curial cardinals we encountered at the Vatican demonstrated a willingness to confront the scandal and understand it.

At no time during our work did anyone from Rome attempt to pull the rug out from under us or attempt any behind the scenes shenanigans. But there were plenty of moments when members of the American hierarchy were deliberately less than candid about their reactions to our work. Some, south to neutralize our efforts, others sought to disparage us, personally, while others sought to stonewall our investigations and ensure that our commitment to end "business-as-usual" would be thwarted at the first opportunity.

So how did we survive? I think the answer is a lot more old fashioned than anyone might guess. I believe it was the virtue and valor of people we encountered that always sustained our hope. And I also believe that each member of the NRB brought great virtue with them to the harsh tasks we were given. My colleagues were seasoned professionals, whether in the White House, the highest levels of academic life, legal life, judicial life and business life. Each brought to our work big hearts, redemptive humor, high skills for organizing and most importantly, an abiding faith and love for the Chruch.

And at every juncture we reminded ourselves of this. When confronted by an angry member of the hierarchy or a devious bureaucrat, a punctilious monsignor, or an incompetent administrator - we reminded each other for whom our work was being doen - the young people of the Catholic Church. Safe environments and zero tolerance might sound like buzz words, but for us it was a strategy rooted in Gospel faith.

I think we not only survived, but we have thrived, the NRB and the Church. I believe that this past two year process has been a critical juncture in the life of the laity in America.

None of us deluded ourselves into thinking that we were not being used to reverse the effects of a pretty awful moment of history in the life of our Church in America. We knew that it was precisely our national reputations that were so appealing and valuable to the members of the USCCB. And to be blunt, once the studies and audits were published at the start of 2004, many bishops appear to have felt that they had successfully dodged the bullet and they could go back to the way things used to be - NOT ON YOUR LIFE!

In the last couple of months the NRB has conducted strenuous dialogue with the USCCB. WE could not have been more blunt in our criticism and concern that any return to the procedures of the past would be a national disaster for Catholics in our nation. I believe that when these concerns were understood by groups of laity around the country, their reaction was both emphatic and resolute - things cannot be as they were before.

I hope this is a message that the bishops understand. People will not tolerate the ineptitude and the criminal behavior that fanned the flames of this abuse scandal.

For me, this has been a spiritual journey. It has been a call to action, a reexamination of the way in which I see myself as a lay Catholic. For me, the days of passive Catholicism are over. This is not so much a political reaction as a spiritual reaction. I have seen first hand the disaster that came about because the hierarchy made decisions affecting the life of the Church that were not only ill-fated and financially ruinous, but they were also criminal in their effect.

None of the horror of the scandal would have gone on unchecked, if the laity had truly a seat at the table. Not only is this a place denied, it is largely unasked for. The laity need to rethink this.

It is Baptism that gives us the right and the grace to live out our discipleship. There are not two Churches, one for the hierarchy and the other for everyone else. I cannot imagine what is going through the mind of the Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, having filed for bankruptcy. And the latest figure placed on the anticipated financial cost to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is now estimated to be $1.9 billion. This is beyond anything we could have dreamed up. The most die-hard, unreconstructed member of the USCCB has to realize that when you are in jeopardy of losing your cathedral, and all your financial resources, it is time to look for a new ay to operate. The old way does not seem to be cost effective or rational. However, this raises new issues of civil authorities controlling a Diocese.

As sad as this experience has been over the past two years, it has also been liberating. As a life long Catholic, I know that I cannot permit the errors of the past to happen again. This is not pique, but grace. This is the life of God working through us, all of us who are nourished by the sacraments. Is this not what the sacraments are to do us, connect us to the life of Christ in the world? I believe all the sacraments are important, not just Holy Orders. And while the grace of that sacrament confers indelible character, it does not always bring enlightenment. I introduce the evidence of the last 50 years - the nearly 10,000 recorded instances of the sexual abuse of minor s by members of the Catholic clergy as exhibit A.

We will get the Church we deserve. We are called to do great things in the world - feed the hungry, care for the sick, defend the vulnerable, shelter the homeless and make peace real. There is no mandate to hide the abuser pedophile or keep him near the defenseless. We will live for the rest of our lives with the damage from this scandal. But we can also alter the terrain and widen the opportunities for redemption. We must make room for everyone at the table and listen to those for whom the light, not the darkness, is the goal of our journey.

The past two years have been very spiritual for me. I am grateful for the opportunity that brought this about. Truth is always a virtue. And the Church is always cleansed by such virtue and made strong again by our commitment to the truth.