A long and expensive lawsuit against the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado showed the church that it must be more precise in telling priests what they can and cannot do.
Mary Tenantry, who has been diagnosed as having multiple-personality disorder, recently won $1.2 million in her suit against the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and Bishop William Frey, claiming psychological damage from an affair with a priest and the church's cover-up."The clergy are very vulnerable in our culture," said Bishop William "Jerry" Winterrowd. "Our responsibility is to help people who are in trouble. Mary was a troubled person. These people find their way into the church.
"For time immemorial, people have been attracted to clergy inappropriately. Sometimes the cleric is taken in by this. If our priests are going to be vulnerable, we have to provide the professional boundaries to help protect them."
The church is refining a code of ethics for clergy, begun months before the trial, that will be presented to a conference on moral theology in early November, Winterrowd said. Clergy also recently were trained in the legal aspects of counseling.
"The Roman Catholics have recently done that, too," he said. "The goal is to raise the issue of what is appropriate conduct for clergy and be very clear about what the boundaries are in professional behavior."
Winterrowd said the guidelines will define such subjects as the appropriate role of a pastoral counselor, what kinds of physical contact are proper between a priest and parishioners and how to handle personal calls on parishioners at their homes.
"These kinds of things aren't really dealt with in seminaries," he said.
In the Tenantry case, the Rev. Paul Robinson testified in his deposition that he felt ill-equipped to counsel parishioners and didn't know how to handle advances he said Tenantry made toward him. (Tenantry contends he instigated the affair.)
Said Winterrowd: "Clergy are spiritual leaders, not therapists, and there has been some confusion here. Clergy often are aware of family problems and addictions and can play a very vital role in getting people into treatment and then after treatment, getting people back and involved in the church. But clergy should make the referrals to appropriate treatment, not become long-term therapists themselves."
Winterrowd said a Massachusetts diocese had set a limit of three or four pastoral counseling sessions. If more counseling is needed after that, the bishop must approve it or a referral is made to an appropriate agency or therapist. "A priest can get emotionally involved without even realizing it," he said.