“We have addressed it. We’ve addressed it in our homilies,” he said. “We have to be careful because there are parishioners who’ve been abused and who don’t want to hear about this.”

As a result, Brennan said, counseling has been left up to the initiative of the students and parishioners.

“If people are truly traumatized, then they need to come forward, but there are people who can’t,” he said. “It’s all based on when the person is ready.”

Hayes said that the issues are less pressing in the Harvard Catholic community because many of the student come from outside Boston.

“Undergraduates have a lot going on. They don’t necessarily consider themselves part of the Archdiocese of Boston,” he said. “There hasn’t been a big push to discuss this.”

Michael L. Stewart ’05, another CSA member, said he felt that a forum spearheaded by the CSA to discuss the scandal with students would be a good idea.

“If nothing else, it shows that the organization is concerned about this,” he said.

CSA member Mary J. Widmeyer ’05 said she also favored a formal discussion among students, noting that her lack of familiarity with the Archdiocese of Boston would actually make such an exchange more useful.

“I’m not originally from the area, and I don’t specifically know what’s happened, and I’m curious,” she said. “I think it would actually be a good idea. It’s just an important piece of Catholic news that we should know about.”

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.