Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, papal nuncio to the United States, warned the U.S. Catholic bishops on June 19, 2003, in St. Louis, that sitting idly or retreating is not an option when dealing with the problem of the sexual abuse of children by priests.
The papal nuncio likened the scandal to the fire described in the Book of Wisdom: "As gold in the furnace he proved them."
Fire can either destroy or purify, he pointed out. Citing Mother Teresa of Calcutta and two American saints, St. Frances Cabrini and St. Katharine Drexel, as examples of "religious zeal and unbending fidelity," he said, "They show us that in the worst and most difficult of times they refused to sit idle or to retreat to a place of isolation or seclusion. Nor would they quit or give up the fight to which they had been called."
