CHICAGO (IL)
Los Angeles Times
By Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
CHICAGO — The nation's Roman Catholic bishops were expected today to reauthorize a 3-year-old "zero tolerance" policy to prevent the sexual abuse of minors and to weed offending clergy out of public ministry.
But protesters outside the Fairmont Hotel, where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is holding its annual spring meeting, charged that proposed changes in the policy would weaken the church's commitment to safeguard children and youth from sexual predators.
The draft also came under attack Thursday from Illinois Appellate Justice Anne M. Burke, former chairwoman of theAbuse Tracker Review Board, a lay panel that was created by bishops in 2002 to oversee how well they carried out their promises and has criticized some of their actions. Burke, in an interview, said the board's independence would be "undercut or at least watered down" by some of the changes, such as the possibility that it could one day include clergy.
But bishops staunchly denied the charges Thursday and said they were as committed as ever to safeguard children and youth from sexual predators within the church. They are expected to extend the policy for another five years.
A key figure in the ongoing sexual abuse issue will be Archbishop Emeritus William J. Levada of San Francisco, prefect of the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — a position Pope Benedict XVI held before being elected pontiff. The congregation has jurisdiction over such cases.