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In Dallas, Catholic Church Leaders Meeting To Confront Sexual Abuse Crisis

Aired June 14, 2002 - 10:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We move on now to Dallas. That is where Catholic Church leaders are meeting this hour to confront the sexual abuse crisis. Our Leon Harris has been CNN's point man at the Bishops Conference and he joins us from there now.

Leon, good morning once again.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning once again Daryn and good morning once again folks. The Catholic bishops here in Dallas are inching their way toward coming up with a document to vote on and the emphasis is on the term "inching". After hours and hours and hours of debate and discussion late into the night last night, we have just learned that they still do not have a document in a form that is possible to be even voted on today, and that is supposed to happen sometime later on this morning or early this afternoon.

So we're keeping our eye on that process as it develops. But this of course is the policy on what to do about sexually abusive priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Church leaders are debating and this - in this historic meeting and so far 250 priests have been reassigned or have been dismissed amid different allegations of misconduct and many of which have been in the news.

And some of the victims of the priest sexual abuse spoke to the Catholic leaders sharing their poignant tales of the pain, the guilt, and the anger that has festered for so long. Yesterday's meeting opened up with the blunt acknowledgement that the Church's handling of the crisis only deepened the scandal and the suffering as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP WILTON GREGORY: In my own name and in the name of all of the bishops, I express a profound apology to each of you who have children or family members who have suffered sexual abuse by a priest or another representative of the church. I am deeply and will be forever sorry for the harm that you have suffered as a parent or loved one of a victim survivor. We ask your forgiveness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Our next guest joins us this morning, and she's speaking in place of her son who did suffer abuse by a priest. We are joined this morning by Janet Patterson whose son Eric committed suicide back in 1999, correct?

JANET PATTERSON, MOTHER OF ABUSE VICTIM: Yes that's correct.

HARRIS: Well, we sure thank you for coming and ...

PATTERSON: You're welcome.

HARRIS: ... And sharing with us this morning - and that's what you've been doing here in Dallas, you've been sharing your story with a lot of different people, a lot of different groups. How's that been?

PATTERSON: It's been very inspirational to see the courage of all these survivors who have worked diligently for years trying to draw the attention of the Church to this painful, painful subject. It's very hard to have this happen in our Church, and we don't want this to happen to any other child, and I don't want any of the adults who are still wounded children inside to be thinking that their situation is unique, that they are alone, that there's not help out there for them.

HARRIS: And from what we've been hearing they all feel that way, don't they?

PATTERSON: Yes, yes they do.

HARRIS: Well how about your son Eric? Tell us about your son.

PATTERSON: Eric was a very bright, articulate, handsome young man. He was six feet, eight.

HARRIS: Six, eight?

PATTERSON: Yes he was a Kansas State scholar. He went to Kansas State University. He participated in "right to life". When he became a junior in college he experienced a religious turning back to God. He had turned away from God after his sexual abuse, which we knew nothing about because he hadn't told us, which is typical.

Most victims do not reveal it for years and when he turned back to God he did 180 degrees, started going to Bible classes, making a daily Holy hour, visiting the sick, writing to prisoners, teaching religion classes to young children. He decided he wanted to become a priest. It was a very amazing thing. He was very, very excited about going to the priesthood.

HARRIS: Is that right? Then how was it that you found out about his suicide, and how did you come to learn about what happened to him?

PATTERSON: He went for a candidacy to an order back East to see if he would like their order and be accepted into their order and he loved it there. We found out after Eric's death that he had bared his soul to them in the seminary and told them about his sexual molestation, and we feel that that's the reason he wasn't accepted as a candidate. They did not have to give him a reason. They just said pack your bags. Don't tell anyone you're not coming back ... HARRIS: Really?

PATTERSON: ... and that was it. And I -- when I inquired into it, I was told the official reason he was not admitted was because when a psychologist asked him did he really want to become a priest, he hesitated and I said that is the reason. That's the lamest excuse I've heard in my life. What are the six years of study all about? Well that's what the psychologist said.

HARRIS: No kidding.

PATTERSON: So Eric had to come back to the home parish and have all the parishioners ask him when are you going back. I'm not. They don't want me. So he went on from there to become a teacher in a Mowerhil (ph) High School in Ashason (ph), Kansas where he taught religion and Spanish. He was fluent in Spanish and was doing quite successfully there and then he began to fast and he started fasting, and we didn't realize what was going on with him because we were over 250 miles away ...

HARRIS: Yes.

PATTERSON: ... and by the time we understood the gravity of the situation and got up there, He was down to about 160 pounds and ...

HARRIS: Oh my goodness.

PATTERSON: ... this is for a 6 foot eight gentleman ...

HARRIS: Oh my goodness.

PATTERSON: ... you know. We admitted him to a hospital after several days of pleading with him to get help. And he still did not reveal what had happened to him. They couldn't handle, they couldn't diagnose exactly what the problem was. Two years later he went through another period of severe depression after working as a - as a sales persons in computers and he was rehospitalized and his sister talking to him asked him about his opinion of God, you know we think of God as a loving, merciful God and you seem to view God as a vindictive, vengeful God that can never be pleased.

And have you always felt this way? He said, no, not until I was 12. And Becky said, 12 seems a strange age. I would expect you to say a teenager or a young adult. What happened to you at 12? And he said at 12 I was practically raped by Father Larson (ph). And then he didn't want to talk any more about it and he said I want to go meet -- talk to the other patients.

So she told the nurse because Becky knew this was very important and when the nurse went to check on Eric later he was beating his head against the tile floor and they had to put him in full body restraints and heavily sedate him. He was found -- put on suicide watch and then several days later, according to the psychiatrist note, she came into his hospital room and found him in a fetal position, still feeling guilty about the molestation. And that's one of the things that people don't understand is the abuse victim suffers an acute sense of shame and guilt even though ...

HARRIS: Yes.

PATTERSON: ... they were innocent children and a violation had been made, a boundary had been crossed and ...

HARRIS: I think we've heard that same ...

PATTERSON: Yes.

HARRIS: ... assessment and that same kind of story and the same kind of feeling in almost every single story that we've heard here. I have to ask you this, because we're running short on time, but you know, what does this do to your faith when you hear a story like this and we know what it did to your son. And we've been hearing stories about how people have come to struggle with their faiths despite what has happened to them and their families. How about you?

PATTERSON: My faith in God and in Christ has not been shaken one bit. I know ...

HARRIS: Really?

PATTERSON: ... that Christ didn't want this to happen to my child. He doesn't want this to happen to any child of God and anywhere and it doesn't matter whether it's in the church, in the home, by a stranger, no matter who. It's a serious violation and all I'm trying to do as a parent and my husband as a parent is to reach out to other families who've lost children to suicide due to sexual abuse ...

HARRIS: Yes.

PATTERSON: ... and also to reach out to victims who are suicidal and let them know it wasn't their fault. They didn't do anything wrong. There are resources out there.

HARRIS: Finally I have to ask you this, if you can quickly tell us, if you have any advice for parents who they may not be suspecting that their children may be going through something like this. You didn't understand, you didn't know, you didn't see any signs. How would you advise a parent who may have a child in a situation where they may be vulnerable? What would you tell them?

PATTERSON: If you see your children acting out in manners that are strange for them or if they're turning to alcohol or to drugs or if they're very angry, belligerent and you know that or you suspect that maybe something could have happened, aggressively seek out the answers to the situation and be compassionate. Be understanding. Be aware of the fact that they may not want to reveal it because it's very, very difficult as you saw in my son's case to actually reveal it.

HARRIS: And I know it's been very difficult for families like you ...

PATTERSON: Yes.

HARRIS: ... and yours and others here to come and share your stories, but it's quite clear that by doing so you're actually helping quite a lot of people. And we thank you for sharing your time with us.

PATTERSON: Thank you for giving us the opportunity.

HARRIS: Janet Patterson, good luck to you.

PATTERSON: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: And Daryn, going back to you in Atlanta now. This is just, you know, just typical of the kind, I shouldn't say typical because we haven't heard very many stories of a suicide. But it's indicative of the kind of stories that we've been seeing and hearing here in Dallas and it just gives you a really good sense of what's happened to people's lives and why all of these bishops are here in Dallas right now talking about this very issue.

Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: And another sign, if I could just add in there Leon, another sign of incredibly strong and brave people like Mrs. Patterson who might consider themselves everyday people but who refuse to be quiet and insist on speaking up if nothing else on behalf of their loved ones.

HARRIS: Exactly. Exactly and when you hear a story like that, doesn't it make you very feel very silly about complaining about the problems you have in your own life?

KAGAN: Absolutely and it makes me feel humble in the presence ...

HARRIS: Yes.

KAGAN: ... of a woman like that who know - who is just ...

HARRIS: Yes.

KAGAN: ... dug down and knows how to fight. Thank her once again Leon for sharing her story with us very much ...

HARRIS: Sure. I'm with you, partner.

KAGAN: ... very much appreciate it.

HARRIS: You got it.

KAGAN: I know that. I know that. Nice job.

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