SAN DIEGO, California, September 8, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — “Acting with urgency and with purpose,” local lay leaders have launched Concerned Catholics of San Diego (CCSD), a grassroots initiative spearheaded by a committee of faithful Catholics whose first order of business is to seek “truthful answers” from San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy about the sex-abuse crisis.
“The Catholic Church, including here in San Diego, is facing an unprecedented crisis,” said committee member Charles LiMandri. “We believe the time is now to mobilize the lay Catholic community in San Diego to bring renewal to the Church.”
In a detailed letter delivered to Bishop McElroy on October 5, CCSD members asked him to provide his plan of action “to meaningfully include the laity in the process of purification and reform of the Church hierarchy that will include accountability, transparency and an emphasis on maintaining clerical celibacy.”
A particular concern is a 2016 letter that Bishop McElroy received from A.W. Richard Sipe, a leading researcher of the sexual and celibate practices of Catholic bishops and priests. In the letter, Sipe told McElroy: “Sooner or later it will become broadly obvious that there is a systemic connection between the sexual activity by, among and between clerics in positions of authority and control, and the abuse of children.”
McElroy never acted on Sipe's warnings.
CCSD has also launched a petition drive to publicly demand that Bishop McElroy answer the questions in the group's letter.
“We are devastated by the evil that has spread throughout the Church,” LiMandri said. “But we are also hopeful that this tragedy will bring about an extraordinary spiritual renewal not only among the clergy but the whole Church.”
Concerned Catholics of San Diego is a grassroots coalition formed to mobilize the lay Catholic community to seek change and accountability in the wake of the Church's sex-abuse crisis. For more information, please contact Daniel Piedra at 858-759-9948 or visit CCSD's website at https://concernedcatholicssd.org/.