Paprocki also told his audience that sexual abuse of minors is a crime demanding punishment. But critics said that his remarks encouraged victims to remain silent rather than join forces with the devil and sue the church.
Six weeks before his installation as bishop last year, Paprocki was still explaining himself, writing in a State Journal-Register opinion article that his remarks were directed at lawyers and judges, not victims, and that he was advocating a middle ground to compensate victims of sexual abuse.
“I still stand by this: Is there a middle ground, what I call charitable viability, where we can compensate victims justly and fairly but we can do that without putting the charitable works out of business?” Paprocki said during a recent interview in his office. “Sometimes, I’ll say things…which would be intended for a particular audience, like a group of lawyers and judges, and then when other people hear it, maybe they hear it in a different way, so that requires a little more explaining – what you mean by that.”
But Paprocki doesn’t back off from statements made a year ago or in 2007.
“You can always think: Did I express myself in the best way possible? Could I have been more diplomatic? Could I have used a different set of words?” Paprocki says. “But in terms of the substance, I do stand by what I said. … It’s not like I’m shooting off at the mouth constantly – I’m not. When I do say something, I’ve usually given it a lot of thought – some thing like this needs to be said.”
Precisely, says David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), who blasts Paprocki’s 2007 statements and accuses him of trying to guilt-trip victims, witnesses and whistle-blowers into remaining silent.
“Paprocki, like most bishops, is a smart, highly educated guy,” Clohessy says. “When a prestigious prelate claims to be misunderstood in a carefully prepared presentation, I think it’s best to be a little skeptical.”
Paprocki says that he believes that the Catholic church has done more to address the sexual abuse of children than any other organization. But the diocesan website does not include a toll-free number set up in 2006 so that victims or whistleblowers can report suspicions directly to J. William Roberts, a former U.S. attorney retained by former bishop George Lucas to investigate sexual abuse allegations. (Lucas is now archbishop in Omaha, Neb.) who is now archbishop in Omaha, Neb. Instead, Paprocki in a column published last May in the diocesan newspaper tells anyone with concerns to contact the “diocesan victim assistance coordinator,” who is also the diocese’s human resources director.
Paprocki says that he is considering posting the toll-free number on the diocesan website.
“I’m certainly open to doing that and looking for the best way to do that on our website,” the bishop says.
This year, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 tragedy, some U.S. dioceses held interfaith observances. But not in Springfield, where diocesan services were ecumenical, open only to Christians.
“There wasn’t any conscious decision on my part – I never had that conversation, interfaith versus ecumenical,” says Paprocki.
The bishop says he was out of town and did not participate in planning. But he defends the decision to exclude other faiths from 9/11 services.
“Not that it couldn’t have been interfaith, but that does alter it,” Paprocki says. “It’s one thing for Christians of different denominations to get together and pray to Christ. It’s another thing when you’ve got Jews and Muslims and Hindus and others who don’t believe in Jesus Christ. … There are those of other faiths, as well, who will say that we don’t pray in the same way, we can’t really join in prayer.”
The lack of interfaith services organized by the diocese did not go unnoticed.
Diane Lopez Hughes, a lay Catholic who is active in peace movements, stops short of direct criticism, but sounds disappointed at the decision to make 9/11 observances ecumenical instead of interfaith.
“It would have been a wonderful opportunity,” says Hughes, who points out that people of all faiths died in the attacks, including Muslims who were not terrorists.
Hughes says the verdict on Paprocki is open.
“My sense is, he’s a very traditional bishop,” Hughes says “I certainly am not a traditional, just-go-to-church kind of person. I don’t expect that he’s going to be as active in terms of active social teachings as folks like me would like. The best way I can be honest to my own faith is to put my statements in terms of hope. He hasn’t been there that long.”
Satan and a singing bishop
When it comes to passionate issues, Paprocki can say things that are flat wrong.
In a column published last year in Catholic Times, the diocesan newspaper, Paprocki wrote that abortion was outlawed in every state prior to the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. In fact, abortion on demand was legal in four states prior to the court decision.
Paprocki looks stunned when asked about the error.
