Abuse Victims Confront Bishops

D A L L A S, June 13 -- Victims of sexual abuse by priests finally got their chance to meet formally with America's bishops today, as the leaders of the American Catholic Church convened the first day of the three-day U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas amid protests over the church's handling of the abuse scandal.

Mark Serrano said he "had sexual terror committed against" him. Serrano says a priest began sexually abusing him when he was just 9 years old. The abuse continued until he was 16.

He believes offending clergymen need to be removed from their positions.

"Ultimately, there is no place in the priesthood for anyone who would offend a child and damage him, through the rest of his life, reliving it every day of his life," said Serrano, who was among hundreds of Catholics who made their point to the bishops.

"We had a lot of anger in the room today," said Serrano. "We had a lot of stories of despair."

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington said he was very affected by the stories he heard.

"It touched me deeply, as maybe you can see, to see how so many people have suffered because of a few very sick and mixed-up priests," he said.

Victims Call for Signs of Repentance

Serrano and other abused victims have more challenges for the bishops.

"This issue is not just about a few mixed-up priests," Serrano said. "This issue is about felony sex offenders in the priesthood. This issue is about bishops who have decided to keep them in the priesthood."

The victims want something that the bishops' proposals on dealing with the crisis have not called for: self-punishment by the church leaders.

"Any bishop or church leader who has aided and abetted any criminal behavior on the part of the priests [should] be removed from their positions," said Barbara Blaine, the founder of SNAP — Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests.

It's a demand given new teeth by reports that two-thirds of bishops who run dioceses have let accused priests continue to work, according to the Dallas Morning News. The newspaper has detailed the records of each bishop and put them on its Web site so people across the country can look up their local bishops.