CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Margaret Ramirez, Tribune religion reporter. Tribune staff reporter Manya A. Brachear contributed to this report
Published June 15, 2005
At a meeting in Chicago this week, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are expected to retain the church's zero-tolerance policy requiring that all priests who have committed even one act of sexual abuse be removed permanently from ministry.
Yet only three years after the church's abuse scandal erupted, some leaders are discussing whether the policy should eventually be modified--especially in cases of limited offenses committed years ago followed by an unblemished record.
Such talk, however preliminary, worries victims' advocates who say easing the policy would restore power to the hands of their abusers. Several Catholic lay groups plan to protest at the meeting, demanding that bishops who knowingly protected abusers be disciplined.
In an interview last week, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, voiced his support for zero tolerance and said bishops will recommend keeping the policy.
"We've all had the experience, of several years, of working with this. The norms have served us well. And I think most bishops understand that," George said. "If the sexual abuse is very clear, this makes somebody, from my perspective, unsuitable for ministry and so that remains the case."