Instead, the respondents in a Lenten survey of 881 area priests could best be categorized as uninterested or disgusted.
The overwhelming majority of priests (716, or 81 percent) didn't return the blank, self-addressed, stamped postcards to the local chapter of the Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), to which McMahon belongs.
Of the 165 who responded, 114 (69 percent) voted "No." An additional 13 (8 percent) expressed conflicted views on whether to put the needs of victims above church politics and finances.
Only 38 priests (23 percent) supported pro-victim laws at any cost.
"I was shocked . . . amazed," the materials-science scholar told me as we sat at his dining-room table in Lafayette Hill last week, reviewing the survey results.
Had it been one of the metallurgist's lab experiments, "I guess you could say this blew up in my face."
Hot under the collars
The survey had a modest goal: to gauge priests' views on two measures in the Pennsylvania legislature, House Bill 832 and H.B. 878, aimed at easing the past, present, and future pain of those who were sexually abused as children.
If anything, the resounding "No" votes showed priests contending with their own anger and agony.
"NO!!!" screamed one priest calling VOTF a "terrorist organization" that "lost its moral compass."
"Abolishing the statute of limitations and opening a two-year window for lawsuits has nothing to do with healing and reconciliation . . . and everything to do with money."
The proposed laws, wrote a self-described "priest of integrity," "would only result in a transfer of wealth from the church to lawyers; the victims would be victimized again. The forced closure of nursing homes, soup kitchens, schools, and parishes to pay settlement claims would benefit no one."
