UNITED STATES
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP RELIGION WRITER
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops have undergone another audit to see if they are complying with the U.S. church's toughened sex abuse policy, though not all the dioceses have been visited by investigators.
And critics say results of the audit, scheduled for release Thursday in Washington, D.C., are not a true measure of the bishops' commitment to their own policies.
The bishops hired investigators to determine whether dioceses are implementing the national policy church leaders adopted in 2002 at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal. But the auditors from the Gavin Group, a private firm led by a former FBI agent, were not asked to judge whether the programs are effective.
Also, church leaders changed how the review was conducted.
In the first two annual reviews, all 195 dioceses received an onsite visit. During the most recent review, dioceses that had been judged compliant two years in a row were allowed to fill out a questionnaire instead.