{"id":3107,"date":"2007-02-05T09:07:26","date_gmt":"2007-02-05T09:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/02\/outspoken-advocate.html"},"modified":"2007-02-05T09:07:26","modified_gmt":"2007-02-05T09:07:26","slug":"outspoken-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/02\/outspoken-advocate.html","title":{"rendered":"“Outspoken advocate?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the recent minor kerfuffle over Bishop Gumbleton withdrawing from a speaking engagment in Tucson (the story is that the speech was sponsored by a local chapter of Call to Action, and Bishop Kicanas refused the group permission to meet and host the speech in a Catholic church. The implication of articles on this <\/a>is that Kicanas refused Gumbleton permission to speak, but it seems to me the permission refused was for the group<\/em> to meet on Church property. Same effect, perhaps, and I don’t know the history of CtoA in the Tucson diocese, but the broader picture is about the group, not Gumbleton)…<\/p>\n

okay, in the minor kerfuffle, as well as in stories about Bishop Gumbleton’s retirement, the meme "outspoken advocate for victims of clergy abuse" has started being bandied about as a descriptive for Bishop Gumbleton.    He has been speaking out about the issue for a couple of years, acknowledging that he was a victim of abuse by a priest as a high school seminarian, and <\/a>testifying here and there in favor of bills extending statutes of limitations and such. He recently claimed that his retirement was a consequence:<\/a><\/p>\n

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"I’m sure it’s because of the openness with which I spoke out last January concerning victims of sex abuse in the church. So we’re all suffering the consequences of that, and yet, I don’t regret doing what I did because I still think it was the right thing to do," he said, as the congregation rose and erupted in applause.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A question nags, however. When Gumbleton was a non-retired auxiliary bishop in Detroit…what did he do in relationship to accusations of clergy abuse?<\/em><\/p>\n

The question has been raised by a former editor of the Michigan Catholic <\/em>newspaper, who says:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Having spent five years (1990-1995) in the Archdiocese of Detroit, where I watched the local scandal unfold, I have no recollection whatsoever of Gumbleton doing anything but being part of the cover-up. Indeed, in one instance, I believe he obstructed justice, as he did not<\/em> comply with archdiocesan policy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the recent minor kerfuffle over Bishop Gumbleton withdrawing from a speaking engagment in Tucson (the story is that the speech was sponsored by a local chapter of Call to Action, and Bishop Kicanas refused the group permission to meet and host the speech in a Catholic church. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}