c. 2000 Religion News Service
BOSTON _ In a move intended to shore up credibility for the scandal-weary Roman Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Boston has started doing thousands of criminal background checks on parish employees and volunteers.
But despite the new policy’s sweeping scope, it exempts the one group whose behavior has been most troublesome for the church in recent years: clergy. The archdiocese says priests will be included at some point but declined to give a specific timetable.
Archdiocesan spokesman John Walsh defended the policy as an important step toward assuring safety within the church.
“Clearly folks have suffered as a result of this sexual abuse,” Walsh said. “It seems this is another tool in our toolbox to provide for people’s safety and carry out our mission.”
But victims of clergy sexual abuse say the policy fails to address problems of misconduct as long as priests’ backgrounds go unscrutinized.
“I don’t see why the priests should be exempt. They should be the ones you run the first checks on,” said Phil Saviano, a self-described victim and New England Regional Coordinator for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “If they’re not checking the priests, what are they wasting their time for?”
Priests are currently exempt because the details regarding their special status within the church’s canon law “have not been worked out,” Walsh said.
Official Catholic charities and schools in Massachusetts have for years required criminal background checks on personnel, according to Walsh. The new policy, he said, expands that procedure to include all nonclergy parish workers, paid and unpaid. It also encompasses everyone under the aegis of the archdiocese who works with vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly and the disabled.
In recent years, lawsuits stemming from clergy sexual abuse have battered dioceses around the country. The largest jury award cost the Diocese of Dallas more than $100 million in 1997 for damages to 10 altar boys and a suicide. The Archdiocese of Boston has had its own woes: Former priest James Porter is serving time for sexually molesting 28 children. Alleged victims have also charged the archdiocese with negligence in a pending molestation case involving priest Christopher Reardon.
Walsh rejected the idea that lawsuits have triggered the new expansion of background checks.
“That’s not the motivating factor. Not even close,” Walsh said. “We want to build up our credibility because so much of what we do is geared toward helping the vulnerable and the marginalized.”
Critics, however, say the plan is fraught with too many deficiencies to repair the church’s credibility. Not only are priests exempt, said abuse activist Thomas Economus, but anyone with a criminal past can still work for the church if a supervisor grants a slap on the wrist.
At issue is the policy’s requirement for a supervisor to be alerted if an applicant or worker has a criminal past, but that supervisor retains authority to make employee decisions on a case-by-case basis.
“It leaves the door open for something like, `the bishop’s nephew is a perpetrator, so let’s look the other way,”’ said Economus, president of The Linkup, a Chicago-based network of 7,500 clergy abuse victims and supporters.
Although no particular criminal conviction leads to an automatic firing, Walsh said, a history of sexual abuse would almost surely disqualify any applicant or employee.
DEA END MACDONALD
