April 26, 2006

Diocese lagging on safety measure

MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph isn’t doing enough to teach sexual-abuse prevention to all Catholic children, an independent audit has found.

An annual report on how well the Roman Catholic Church is doing in protecting children from sexual abuse found that 88.5 percent of the participating dioceses recently audited were in full compliance with the church’s Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Only 11.5 percent of the dioceses — including Kansas City-St. Joseph — were not in full compliance. Diocesan officials said they were working to correct the problem.

“Our diocese has made a sincere commitment to take every step and every precaution to ensure that children are safe in church programs,” Vicar General Robert Murphy said in a statement.

Posted by kshaw at April 26, 2006 06:43 AM