Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Erie will join those across the United States Wednesday and Thursday to pray, fast and do penance for the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Prayers for victims of sexual abuse also will be said.

One of the diocese sites will be St. Joseph Church in Sharon.

U.S. bishops at a meeting in Dallas in June decided on the action as a way to atone for their failures to prevent priests from sexually abusing minors. They invited Catholic priests and lay people across the country to join them.

The nationwide effort is titled "A Holy Hour for Healing: For a Holier Episcopate, A Holier Priesthood, A Holier Church."

The Diocese of Erie will host three regional Holy Hours and Masses on Wednesday. Presiders and sites will be:

   » Bishop Donald W. Trautman and retired Bishop Michael J. Murphy at St. Peter Cathedral, Erie, with Holy Hour at 4:15 p.m. and Mass at 5:15 p.m.

   » Monsignor Robert Smith, vicar general and vicar for the diocese's northern vicariate, at St. Joseph's, with Holy Hour at 4:15 and Mass at 5:15.

   » Monsignor Charles Kaza, vicar for the eastern vicariate, at St. Tobias Church, Brockway, where he is pastor, with Holy Hour at 4:30 and Mass at 5:30.

Bishop Trautman also is asking parishes to include "A Litany of Healing" in the Masses for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Thursday. Copies of the litany have been sent to each parish.

Bishop Trautman explained that Catholics have traditionally made reparation when calamitous or evil things have happened. He said the Holy Hours are an invitation for Catholics to recognize that all are brothers and sisters who are responsible for each other.

"That is very hard for Catholics to undertake when they are not guilty," he said. "But they share the condition of the human family as members of the church. Together, arm in arm, we can appeal to the Lord for his forgiveness and pray that we can keep this from ever happening again."