Holy Cross to Address Crisis in the Catholic Church

WORCESTER, Mass. – Beginning in January, the College of the Holy Cross, through its Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, will sponsor a series of public forums addressing the ongoing sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. These events are designed to enhance understanding of the problems that have emerged and to engage in meaningful reflection on them.

On January 29-30, 2003, Holy Cross president, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., and Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile, chairman of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, will host a dialogue conference on "The Role of Catholic Higher Education in Renewing the Moral Integrity of the Catholic Community in the United States." The program will specifically examine the responsibility of Catholic colleges for the moral integrity of the Catholic faith in light of the crisis. Participants will be 25-30 bishops, college and university presidents, faculty, staff and pastoral leaders.

One session of the conference will be open to the general public. It is entitled, "Responding to the Crisis of Integrity in the Church: What Should Catholic Colleges Do?" It will be held on January 29, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross. The following panelists will be featured: Monika Hellwig, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities; Matthew Clark, Bishop of Rochester, New York and a Holy Cross alumnus; Fr. McFarland, president of Holy Cross; and Jim Post, president of Voice of the Faithful.

As a service to the local church, Holy Cross will sponsor a series of lectures on the priesthood, seminaries and ministerial formation, and the role of the laity. Rev. Donald Cozzens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood and Sacred Silence and several major studies of American seminaries, will speak at Holy Cross on March 13, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library.

Additional events will be added to this undertaking and will be announced as scheduled.