Cover
story Post-Dallas: Bishops offer tough policy on abuse
MARGOT PATTERSON
Dallas
The June 13-15 meeting here of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops was perhaps one of the most important and certainly one of the most
well-publicized meetings in the recent history of the conference. Hundreds of
reporters flocked to Dallas for the meeting, which was televised on CNN and
C-Span.
In addition to the establishment of a national policy on sex
abuse, there were other firsts. The conference heard emotional
testimony from the victims of clerical sex abuse and heard from a psychologist
who specializes in treating adult survivors. It also listened to lectures by
two lay speakers, who delivered critical, no-holds-barred analyses of how a
growing alienation between the laity and the hierarchy had enabled the sex
abuse scandal to spin out of control.
The bishops approved the new Charter for the Protection of
Children and Young People by an overwhelming majority of 239-13. The
charter requires bishops to turn over any allegation of sexual abuse to civil
authorities and excludes any priest guilty of sex abuse from continuing in
ministry. The charter calls for independent lay review boards in every diocese
and a national Office for Child and Youth Protection to assist dioceses in the
implementation of safe environment programs and to audit
dioceses adherence to the policies set forth in the charter. Overseen by
a new lay review board, the office will publish an annual public report on
dioceses implementations of the charters standards. The charter
also calls for a study of the nature and scope of the sex abuse problem within
the Catholic church.
In conjunction with the charter, the bishops also established a
lay-run commission to monitor and investigate handling of sex abuse cases in
the nation. (See story below.)
The charter does not require Vatican approval, but the
accompanying norms do. These were sent to Rome for a papal recognitio
that would make them legally binding. The norms are a set of procedures the
bishops will follow in implementing the charter.
The bishops issued an unflinching apology for the scandal.
The church in the United States is experiencing a crisis without
precedent in our times. The sexual abuse of children and young people by some
priests and bishops, and the ways in which we bishops addressed these crimes
and sins, have caused enormous pain, anger and confusion, the charter
began. It went on to call for dioceses and eparchies to reach out to victims
and their families to begin a process of healing and reconciliation.
Coming after months in which the bishops appeared to equivocate
about their role in the scandal, the tough standards and forthright, contrite
apology contained in the charter seemed to mark a new, concerted effort on the
part of the bishops to fully acknowledge and address the crisis.
However, the first day of the conference struck some observers as
equally noteworthy. That day the bishops heard from victims of sex abuse and
listened to talks by Commonweal magazine editor Margaret OBrien
Steinfels, Notre Dame professor R. Scott Appleby, and psychologist Mary Gail
Frawley-ODea.
Appleby denounced clericalism and the arrogance that comes
with unchecked power and said the very mission of the church was at stake
in the current crisis. An alienation that had developed over the past 35 years
between the laity and the hierarchy had created the conditions for a crisis of
leadership that went far beyond the issue of sex abuse, he said. His calls for
reform were echoed by Steinfels, who urged the bishops to build accountability
and transparency into diocesan and parish governance.
Frawley-ODeas account of the effects of childhood sex
abuse on victims also challenged the bishops to look at their own failures and
errors.
The straight talk by laypeople to the bishops, all of it delivered
under the glare of cameras televising the proceedings, was a departure from
previous bishops meetings and seemed to mark an unusual degree of
openness on the part of a group frequently considered closed and secretive.
Margot Patterson is NCR senior writer. Her e-mail
address is mpatterson@natcath.org
For more information:
National Catholic
Reporter www.natcath.org
U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops www.usccb.org
Voice of the
Faithful www.voiceofthefaithful.org
SNAP (Survivors Network of
those Abused by Priests) www.peak.org/~snapper
National Catholic Reporter, July 5,
2002
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