By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – Bishop Henry Mansell spoke candidly about his handling of sex abuse cases by local priests, his accomplishments as the leader of the Catholic Diocese and his thoughts on who should be the next bishop of Buffalo. Those were some of the many topics the out-going leader discussed in an exit interview with local radio stations Tuesday.
Bishop Mansell was a stranger to Buffalo in 1995, but now he leaves behind a Catholic community that, for the most part, embraced his leadership. Mansell's last day on the job is next Tuesday. In October, Pope John Paul named Mansell Archbishop of Hartford, replacing retiring Archbishop Daniel Cronin. Mansell wasn't seeking the post. But he said a papal assignment is not something a church leader rejects.
"Sometimes when you ask a priest to come in to be assigned as a pastor of a parish, they think it over it and pray over it. But there was nothing of that in my case," Mansell said. "I was told the Holy Father had chose me as Archbishop of Hartford and we expect you will write a letter acknowledging that appointment."
Even as Mansell prepares for his new assignment, he says it still a "wrenching experience" to leave the Buffalo region.
"It is going to take an adjustment, believe me. These days I'm certainly feeling a sense of being unhinged," Mansell said. "It is a very difficult experience to tell the truth -- seeing all the wonderful things here in the Diocese of Buffalo and the eight counties of Western New York. But I'm sure when I get to Hartford I will regenerate the engines."
Mansell says he expects to go through the same adjustments in Hartford that he experienced eight years ago in Buffalo. The Bishop outlined a number of his accomplishments. They include changes to the Catholic Health System, renovations to St. Joseph's Cathedral and the "Daily Mass" celebrated from a chapel at St. Joe's. The Masses are televised. It allows those who are homebound to worship and gives busy households a chance to keep in touch with their Catholic faith.
"There is a strong organic link with these people who are homebound and bed ridden," Mansell said. "But many people, who work every day, set their VCRs so they can watch it when they come home. I think that has been a very important thing in terms of building up the community in the Diocese. Certainly, from all the letters I've received from the people who do watch that Mass, they see the strong importance of that development."
But despite a long list of accomplishments, Mansell says he could not rate his own performance as a Bishop. He says that would be up to the people he has served. Some of the harsher criticism the Bishop has endured centered around the sexual abuse scandal that has tormented the Catholic church nationwide. The diocese released an undisclosed number of priests from service because of sexual abuse accusations that dated back 20 to 30 years. Mansell says these cases did not involve pedophilia. But he refuses to identify the priests.
"It is not true that I let go of a number of priests in September. I let nobody go in September. They were all gone before September," Mansell explained. "This was done over a period of time. At this point, given their record of no allegations and tremendous service, I just thought it was a violation of basic human rights to give their names and numbers to the public.
"I felt I just could not do that, to subject them to humiliation, to embarrassment, was just the wrong thing to do."
Mansell calls the abuse cases "despicable, heart sickening" crimes. But he stands by the steps taken in the local cases. Mansell says local priests involved in past pedophilia cases were never reinstated.
"There was no experience of shuffling priests from parish to parish," Mansell said. "When an allegation came in, and it was deemed credible, the priest was sent away for therapy. He was not sent to another parish. In that sense, there was not a cover up, and the victim would know that the priest was sent. But in some cases around the country, priests were moved from place to place. The Diocese of Buffalo did not do that."
Mansell says compared to other parts of the country, the local diocese is far ahead of others. He says many of the severe cases occurred many years ago, proving that local prevention methods are working.
"Our Code of Conduct has been hailed as the best codes in the country," Mansell said. "Every employee and volunteer has to sign the Code of Conduct. I'm also very pleased with our Diocesan review board. We have a judge chairing the board and another judge on the board. We also have a former district attorney, who prosecuted sex offenders, on the board."
Mansell says as the church recovers from the scandal, the public needs to recognize that only two percent of priests have been involved in the abuse cases. The Bishop says there are still an enormous number of priests serving Catholics who remain highly respected. In fact, Mansell says he even recommended some local priests as his possible successor. He says there is always a possibility that a local priest could be selected. But Mansell says he's not sure what the Vatican's final choice will be for Buffalo. He says it could be a matter of months before a final decision is rendered. Mansell will be installed in Hartford December 18th.