At Harvard, Catholics React Quietly to Scandal

With numerous reports surfacing since early January of sexual abuse of children and adolescents by Catholic priests in Boston and other cities, Harvard Catholics have split on whether or not to discuss the issue in a public forum.

The University’s Catholic leaders say they have not focused on the effects of the scandal and the questions of priestly celibacy or the possible resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law ’53 because students have expressed little need for a discussion.

Apart from a discussion on the scandal that took place at the ARCO Forum late last month, which few Catholic Student Association (CSA) members attended, the CSA has not held any public discussion of the issue.

Harvard’s Catholic chaplains have said they believe the student population has reacted with much less concern than the wider Cambridge community, and CSA leaders have also said the scandal has not raised much concern among members.

But other students have said the scandal is a big concern among Harvard Catholics.

“We’re all really horrified,” said CSA member Jonathan S. Gnoza ’05. “The last time I went to Bible study, [other members of the CSA] were talking about it. This is definitely something that is present in our lives.”

He said he has not seen much effort made on the part of the chaplains to address the issue.

“I wasn’t aware of any special type of resource time set up” to discuss it, Gnoza said.

Father Thomas E. Brennan, the Catholic chaplain of undergraduates, said he met with Catholic parents from Cambridge who were “very concerned” about the issues.

“People are disturbed by the expanse of the problem. With these kinds of numbers, why didn’t someone know and why didn’t someone do something?” he said.

Students haven’t shown such a demand to discuss the scandal, according to Brennan.

“They were very preoccupied with exams when this broke,” he said. “Within the CSA, there hasn’t been a groundswell of people saying, ‘This is important.’ There hasn’t been the need or the demand.”

Brian J. Hayes ’03, CSA vice president of communications and finance, said that the scandal “is not something I’ve talked to most students about.”

“I haven’t heard any Catholic students make a big deal about this,” he said. “As a member of the CSA steering committee, it’s come up in passing, but we haven’t really approached it.”

Brennan said that providing guidance for those in the Harvard community who may have been traumatized by the news of the scandal is difficult.

“We have addressed it. We’ve addressed it in our homilies,” he said. “We have to be careful because there are parishioners who’ve been abused and who don’t want to hear about this.”

As a result, Brennan said, counseling has been left up to the initiative of the students and parishioners.

“If people are truly traumatized, then they need to come forward, but there are people who can’t,” he said. “It’s all based on when the person is ready.”

Hayes said that the issues are less pressing in the Harvard Catholic community because many of the student come from outside Boston.

“Undergraduates have a lot going on. They don’t necessarily consider themselves part of the Archdiocese of Boston,” he said. “There hasn’t been a big push to discuss this.”

Michael L. Stewart ’05, another CSA member, said he felt that a forum spearheaded by the CSA to discuss the scandal with students would be a good idea.

“If nothing else, it shows that the organization is concerned about this,” he said.

CSA member Mary J. Widmeyer ’05 said she also favored a formal discussion among students, noting that her lack of familiarity with the Archdiocese of Boston would actually make such an exchange more useful.

“I’m not originally from the area, and I don’t specifically know what’s happened, and I’m curious,” she said. “I think it would actually be a good idea. It’s just an important piece of Catholic news that we should know about.”

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.