NEWS STORY: Review Board Members Say Catholic Bishops Stalling on Abuse

c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Attempts by some Catholic bishops to delay a second round of oversight audits on sexual abuse runs the risk of returning the church to a dangerous era of “business as usual,” the head of a lay review board said. Justice Anne M. Burke, chairman of the church’s appointed […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Attempts by some Catholic bishops to delay a second round of oversight audits on sexual abuse runs the risk of returning the church to a dangerous era of “business as usual,” the head of a lay review board said.

Justice Anne M. Burke, chairman of the church’s appointed National Review Board, warned that parishioners would find it “reprehensible” if the bishops stalled on a second round of national surveys to measure compliance with sex abuse reforms.


“Those who said that the bishops were never serious about breaking free from the sins, crimes and bad judgments of the past will be vindicated,” Burke wrote in a March 30 letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Burke’s letter, along with a flurry of correspondence from more than 30 bishops urging Gregory to delay, was posted online Tuesday (May 11) by the independent newspaper National Catholic Reporter.

“A decision to backslide … will delay the necessary healing and reopen the wounds of deception, manipulation and control _ all the false ideals that produced this scandal,” she warned.

Just days after the church released a nationwide audit in January showing that 90 percent of dioceses had implemented policies adopted in 2002, bishops in at least five states began an organized campaign to put the brakes on future audits.

The bishops, including Cardinals Edward Egan of New York and Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, urged Gregory to postpone any decision on audits until a closed-door meeting of bishops in November.

Burke and a church spokesman said Tuesday the discussion will now occur at a private retreat next month in Denver.

Egan and Rigali were joined by the bishops of New York, Nebraska, the 23 bishops of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the bishops of Connecticut.


They also urged Gregory to rein in the independent-minded Review Board and not give the impression public recommendations from the bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection carry the force of approved policy.

“They appear to be expanding their competence, responsibilities, activities and studies in a dynamic of autonomy,” warned Archbishop Henry Mansell of Hartford, Conn.

Robert Bennett, the outspoken Washington attorney who is scheduled to leave the board with Burke next month, said some bishops would “just as well see the National Review Board either eliminated or neutered.”

Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, chief spokesman for the bishops’ conference, said the bishops’ administrative committee wanted to give other bishops the chance to discuss the future.

He noted that the 2002 rules call for an “annual report,” but do not specify a nationwide audit. Either way, the committee voiced “strong support” for a second audit identical to the one released in January, he said.

“These calls that (suggest) just because the bishops need to think about things, that they are backtracking, simply are not true,” he said.


In an interview, Burke said the board never anticipated a second audit would not be conducted. “We believed there would always have been an audit, there was no question about it, and no vote needed to be taken,” she said.

Lay activists, meanwhile, said the letters indicate that bishops remain unwilling to hold each other accountable, as they promised. Steve Krueger, director of the Boston-based Voice of the Faithful, noted that letters from the Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania bishops were practically identical.

“This appears more to be fraternal collusion than fraternal correction,” said Krueger, whose group represents more than 30,000 U.S. Catholics.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the letters confirmed his group’s deep fears.

“Among the many, many dark days in this tragedy, this is probably one of the darkest,” he said. “We knew that many bishops were backtracking fast and furiously, but this is even worse than we had suspected.”

Bennett said a small group of strong-minded bishops are trying to steer the bishops conference away from accountability. The next few months will be a “moment of truth” for the scandal-scarred bishops, he said.


“At the end of the day, no matter how forceful someone on the board is, this is only going to work if the bishops want it to work,” he said in an interview. “If they don’t want it to work, it will not work.”

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Two letters sent to Burke after her letter to Gregory seem to indicate an uphill fight. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said he supports more audits, but not under the direction of the review board.

“The National Review Board is an important advisory body at the service of the bishops,” he wrote to Burke on April 2. “It does not and cannot have supervisory authority.”

Bishop David Ricken of neighboring Cheyenne, Wyo., suggested it may be time for the review board to take a back seat.

“I do believe that, after such a storm for two years, the bishops need a bit of a break to reflect on all that has happened so that we can move ahead, thoughtfully and prayerfully, instead of rushing in and making a lot of mistakes that we later regret.”

DEA END ECKSTROM

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