Four prominent Spokane Catholics have asked Bishop William Skylstad to resign, saying the $48 million bankruptcy deal he struck to settle sex-abuse claims against the Spokane Catholic Diocese is a “complete disaster.”
The four men, Donald Herak, Thomas Tilford, James Workland, and Ronald Caferro, met with and wrote letters to Skylstad and vowed, “we will not contribute one dime to this unfortunate, costly and mistaken mediated settlement.”
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“We detect a backlash in the parishes, which we believe will only become more active when the complete details of the settlement are disclosed to the parishioners,” they wrote, calling themselves The Committee Seeking the Resignation of the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.
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After the bishop replied, Herak, Tilford, Caferro and Workland wrote again, taking exception to the bishop’s insistence that the Catholic community of today must atone for the actions of pedophile priests decades ago.
“We are the perpetrators of the abuse,” Skylstad wrote in his reply. “That ‘we’ is the perceived community of bishops, priests and laity, in communities over a 50-year period. You may not like being in that ‘we,’ but that is the way it is.”
It's awfully nice for the good bishop to include the "laity" as "perpetrators of the abuse"...Most, I'm certain were unaware that they were complicit in the crimes of certain bishops and priests...What a guy to share the blame so generously! In all honesty, he needs ours prayers as do those who were the victims of such vile criminal deviants. May God grant the victims the graces for true peace and forgiveness. And may He enlighten the minds of the confused.
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