Church in
Crisis
Bishop proposes registry of accused clergy
Though the U.S. bishops’ conference has yet to create such a
database, in a proposal made last spring, Evansville, Ind., Bishop Gerald
Gettelfinger advocated compiling a registry of priests alleged to have sexually
abused children.
He made the proposal to St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Harry
Flynn, chair of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, so that
bishops would be able to check to see if a priest new to his diocese had ever
abused a child. He suggested the list could be created before the issue of
whether or not to make it public was addressed.
He said he did not receive a response to his proposal. He told
NCR Dec. 11 that at the June bishops’ conference “There was an
allusion made about the issue. The allusion was that it may not be legal.
“My concern is that the need is still there,” he said.
“The problem is we have people who have not been convicted because of the
statute of limitations and there’s no longer a way to prosecute.”
Gettelfinger said that at the June bishops’ conference he
backed the idea of creating safe houses to keep abusers away from children.
“Second,” he said, “we have to let it be known that some are
guilty even if they are not being prosecuted.”
While no registry is being planned, part of the charter for the
bishops’ National Review Board, headed by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating,
calls for study of the problem. A subcommittee of the group led by Dr. Alice
Bourke Hayes, a biologist and president of the University of San Diego, has
been asked to plan research into the nature and scope of clergy sex abuse.
Hayes told NCR Dec. 13 that the board is considering either
hiring an independent group to undertake a thorough study, or to begin taking
steps to conduct it themselves.
She said that the study would include an examination of
information from individual dioceses. “It does seem that some records have
been kept very confidential, and the only source for that information will be
the dioceses. So I think that is going to have to be done,” she said.
“We need to get accurate information from the diocese. We
need to get information from the courts about who has been charged legally. We
need to get the information that has been widely available in the media and
other publications. We think that the number may not be as extensive as people
have thought.”
She said that the results of the study would be made available to
the public at some point: “It is our intention to have an annual report
that will be public. …You know the goal is to be helpful to the church and
to be more transparent for the laity,” she said.
Asked when the review board could first release such results,
Hayes said, “I would think the first opportunity would be probably next
fall, but that’s just a guess.
“There is no date decided on at all.”
-- Gill Donovan
National Catholic Reporter, January 10,
2003
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