The US Bishops’ procedures for addressing child sex abuse remain
“strongly in place” and the Bishops remain “especially firm” in their
commitment “to remove permanently from public ministry any priest who
committed such an intolerable offence,” said the president of the US
Bishops’ conference.
“This painful issue continues to receive our careful attention,” said Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.
“The protection of our children and young people is of the highest
priority,” the Archbishop said in a statement released on 24 March.
He
added that the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People”
approved by the Bishops in 2002 “remains strongly in place.”
He said the Bishops who met in Washington for the US Conference of
Catholic Bishops’ Administrative Committee meeting on 22-23 March asked
him to offer reassurances about the Church’s resolve to address sexual
abuse and deal firmly with clergy who abuse children.
The Administrative Committee - composed of the executive officers,
committee chairmen and regional representatives of the USCCB - is the
highest decision-making body of the Bishops apart from the entire body
when it meets twice a year in general assembly.
“We Bishops recommit ourselves to the rigorous mandates of the charter,
and renew our confidence in its effectiveness,” Archbishop Dolan said in
his statement.
“We repeat what we have said in the charter: ‘We make
our own the words of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II: that the sexual
abuse of young people is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a
crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God.’”
Both the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and
norms the US Bishops approved for dioceses to adhere to the charter’s
mandates have Vatican approval.
The charter, which also established the
Bishops’ Office for Child and Youth Protection, was updated in 2005, the
norms in 2006.
The charter mandates that safe environment programmes be set up in
dioceses and parishes.
It also requires an annual audit on how dioceses
and Religious Orders are complying with provisions in the charter.
In the nine years since the charter was first approved, “we have
constantly reviewed the high promises and rigorous mandates of the
charter, as we continually try to make it even more effective,”
Archbishop Dolan said.
He said the Bishops “keep refining” it based on input from the lay-led
National Review Board and from Catholic parents, professionals, the
victim-survivor community, law enforcement officials and diocesan
victim-assistance coordinators.
“We want to learn from our mistakes and we welcome constructive criticism,” the Archbishop added.
He said the Bishops are to take up a “long-planned review” of the charter during their June meeting.
Archbishop Dolan said the audits will continue in order to check on how
well the Church is able “to protect our young people, promote healing of
victims/survivors and restore trust.”
His statement referred to “recent disclosures about the Church’s
response to the sexual abuse of minors by priests” but did not mention
the recent clergy sex abuse crisis in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
A Philadelphia grand jury released a report on 10 February that called
for the Archdiocese to “review all of the old allegations against
currently active priests and to remove from ministry all of the priests
with credible allegations against them.”
In response, the Archdiocese, among other things, has hired a former sex
crimes prosecutor to review personnel files of the 37 priests named in
the grand jury’s report.
Cardinal Justin Rigali has placed 21 priests on
administrative leave while any allegations
made against them are
reviewed.
In his statement, Archbishop Dolan said the progress the Church has made
in addressing abuse “must continue and cannot be derailed; we want to
strengthen it even more; we can never stop working at it, because each
child and young person must always be safe, loved and cherished in the
Church.”
He said the designation of April as National Child Abuse Prevention
Month provides the Bishops with “the providential opportunity to unite
with all Americans in a renewed resolve to halt the scourge of sexual
abuse of youth in our society.”