The Catholic church must change.

That was one of the central themes that emerged from a panel discussion Wednesday evening at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1234 Ky., about the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the U.S. church.

“There needs to be honesty in the church, honesty when a law is broken. That person has to be (held) responsible. In the church, that has not always been the case, and priests have been protected from the law,” said the Rev. Charles Polifka, pastor of St. John.

The panel, called “Crisis in the Catholic Church Making Sense of the Senseless,” drew about 80 people to St. John’s parish hall.

The panelists were Polifka; Joel Foster, a doctoral candidate at Kansas University and a psychology intern at the Colmery-O’Neil VA Hospital in Topeka; Susan Kraus, a Lawrence therapist; and Susan Yoshida, a Lawrence psychiatrist.

Foster, Kraus and Yoshida are St. John parishioners.

The mental health professionals on the panel discussed the nature of sexual abuse, the trauma experienced by victims and facts about pedophilia and sexual offenders.

“What makes some of these cases we’ve heard about so, so sad is that there was no support or validation for the (abused) child,” Yoshida said.

The way the Catholic church appears to have tried to cover up the allegations of sexual abuse by priests is similar to what happens in families where sexual abuse is present, according to Foster.

“The church probably has colluded (to hide the allegations). We shouldn’t be surprised by that, but we should be outraged by it. It’s wrong, but that’s what happens in families,” he said.

A question-and-answer session after the panel discussion grew stormy at times.

Participants shared how sexual abuse had affected them personally or their family members.

One, John Watkins, a Lawrence Catholic, angrily read a statement denouncing homosexuality in the priesthood as the cause of incidents of pedophilia.

Watkins said that a member of his family had been abused by someone in the Catholic church, and the family had never received an apology.

He said that mental health professionals, like those on the panel, are responsible for excusing homosexuality in society and failing to identify it as a sin. Watkins then walked out of the discussion.

Polifka talked about the sexual abuse scandal involving priests and what it would mean for the church’s future.

“There is a clerical culture of the Catholic church that says because this person is wearing a Roman collar, everything he does is absolutely right and true. This kind of culture just doesn’t work anymore,” Polifka said.

“We need a new sense of accountability in the church, and that’s what I think is going to come out of this.”

There will be another panel discussion with the same four participants between Masses on Sunday at St. John. It will be from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.