The Roman Catholic cathedral in Altoona no longer displays large banners honoring the bishops who presided there.
The Diocese of Harrisburg is removing the names of recent bishops from buildings that were named in their honor, including a retirement home named for a Pittsburgh native, the late Bishop Nicholas Dattilo.
The Diocese of Erie is even listing the name of a deceased bishop among those who either sexually abused children or, in his case, “failed to act to stop abuse which was credibly reported to him.”
Bishops, the spiritual and teaching authorities in their dioceses, have long occupied places of honor where they have served.
But the tradition of naming buildings and other things in their honor is being rethought alongside their legacies.
“As a result of a careful review of historical cases, it was ... clear that the leadership of the Church did not in every case take adequate measures when handling matters related to offending clerics,” Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer said last week in announcing, among other things, the renaming of places named for bishops who served over the past 70 years.
That’s the timeframe of a statewide grand jury investigation into his and five other Catholic dioceses, those of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Erie, Scranton and Allentown.
The grand jury’s report remains sealed, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has authorized the release of a redacted version of the report while it considers challenges from about two dozen clergy members to the way they’re depicted.
Excerpts of the report have been unsealed, and they clearly indicate that in addition to telling of more than 300 “predator priests,” the report will skewer bishops for their role.
Victims, the report says, were “brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all.”
Churches are hardly the only ones rethinking honorifics at a time when allegations of sexual assault against both children and adults have arisen throughout society, especially in the #MeToo era.
Administrators have faced scrutiny over what they knew of alleged assailants under their supervision, and what they did about it. High-ranking officials at places like Pennsylvania State and Michigan State universities lost their jobs in high-profile scandals.
Penn State’s 2012 removal from its campus of a statue depicting football coach Joe Paterno, in the midst of the sexual-abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, remains controversial.
The Diocese of Harrisburg didn’t give a case-by-case account of why it’s removing each bishop’s name from buildings.
Its bishops include the late Bishop Dattilo, a New Castle native who was ordained in the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1958 and was a parish pastor and later diocesan administrator. He served as bishop of Harrisburg from 1990 to 2004.
He was the namesake of the diocese’s Bishop Datillo Retirement Residence for priests.
While details of Bishop Dattilo’s record on abusive priests may have to await the release of the report, he has been criticized by victims’ advocates for presiding at a time when the diocese made payments to victims of abuse in return for their signing confidentiality agreements. Such agreements kept their stories secret, and in some cases the identities of their perpetrators.
Bishop Gainer last week officially waived all such confidentiality provisions.
A 2005 county grand jury investigating the Archdiocese of Philadelphia briefly touched on Bishop Dattilo’s record as an administrator in Pittsburgh involving a bishop and priest who both later moved to the archdiocese. It said he objected, without success, to his bishop’s importing a priest from another diocese who was emerging from a center that treated pedophiles.
In Erie, Bishop Lawrence Persico decided earlier this year to publish a list of priests and others accused of endangering children. The list, now at 62, names one of Bishop Persico’s predecessors. It said Bishop Alfred M. Watson failed to act on credible allegations of abuse against church workers. He led the diocese from 1969 to 1980 and died in 1990.
The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was subject to a report by an earlier statewide investigating grand jury in 2016. It said past bishops “further endangered children as they placed their desire to avoid public scandal over the well-being of innocent children.”
Within days, current Bishop Mark Bartchak ordered the removals of large banners in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona, saying it was a time for humility. The banners, which bore the names of him and his predecessors, remain shelved.
The Rev. Nicholas Vaskov, executive director of communications for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said it would be “premature for us to consider at this time” whether to rename buildings that bear bishops’ names here.
Although a complete list isn’t available, schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh are named for at least two former bishops — now-Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the current archbishop of Washington, and the late Bishop J.F. Regis Canevin, who led the diocese in the early 20th century.
St. Paul Seminary in East Carnegie has one hall named for the diocese’s founding Bishop Michael O’Connor and another, Cardinals Great Hall, named for those associated with the diocese who went on to the rank of cardinal.
The Diocese of Greensburg “is always reviewing our options” responding to the grand jury, said spokesman, Jerry Zufelt. “One of those reviews will be the naming of buildings.”
Among its facilities is the Bishop William G. Connare Center, a retreat and conference site in Greensburg named for its leader from 1960 to 1987.
Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith.
First Published: August 7, 2018, 10:53 a.m.
Updated: August 7, 2018, 10:55 a.m.
