State: Diocese Made 'Significant Progress'
By Eric Moskowitz
Concord Monitor [New Hampshire]
May 5, 2007
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070505/REPOSITORY/705050357
A new state audit of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester offered a mixed review of the church's system for preventing and identifying the sexual abuse of children. Auditors found "significant progress" since last year, but they noted "critical gaps" that remain.
Although the church has substantially improved its screening and training program, the diocese relies on self-reporting by local parishes, schools and summer camps without a central review to ensure proper screening and training, auditors found.
The audit, released yesterday by the attorney general, also criticized the diocese's "tone at the top," citing a lack of enthusiasm for commitment to the compliance program and the auditing process itself. Auditors specifically faulted the Rev. Edward Arsenault, the diocese's top official for clergy conduct, for providing auditors with "a lack of detailed information and candor."
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Attorney General Kelly Ayotte credited the diocese yesterday with making "great strides" since last year. But she also ordered them to draft an "action plan" for addressing remaining flaws - including the flouting of a specific provision of a 2002 agreement between the church and the state - within 30 days, or risk litigation to force compliance. The state and the church could also return to court over a disagreement about the number of audits remaining.
Arsenault said the auditors misconstrued his attitude and misinterpreted his response to their interview questions.
"My tone is to be sure that everyone in the church understands that the safety of children is part of our day-to-day commitment in ministry," he said.
Overall, Arsenault praised the audit, focusing on the aspects that noted the church's progress. He said the audit "clearly shows that the promotion of a safe environment in the church, cooperation with civil authorities and the screening and training of all church personnel are part of the regular day-to-day life of the Catholic Church in New Hampshire."
The church and state signed the 2002 agreement to spare the diocese from unprecedented criminal charges for decades of protecting or shuffling sexually abusive priests. Under the terms of the agreement - which did not prevent the state from prosecuting individual priests - the diocese acknowledged its wrongdoing and agreed to implement new programs to train and screen personnel and to report suspected abuse; the church also agreed to a yearly review of its practices.
The state had four stated goals in the agreement: transparency, accountability, oversight and training for the church.
The diocese agreed to annual audits for five years beginning in December 2003. But the audits were delayed when the church objected to their cost and nature, saying a compliance review would violate its religious freedom - an argument rejected by a superior court judge in 2005. Although the audited party typically pays for the cost of an audit, the state ultimately agreed to split the cost and arrange four audits conducted by the international auditing and accounting firm KPMG, at a total of $445,000.
The first audit, released last year, was highly critical of the church, finding that the diocese had failed to ensure that priests, employees and volunteers who work with children had passed criminal background checks or attended training programs. The church also had not dedicated sufficient resources or staff time to working with its 100-plus parishes, 25 schools and two summer camps on compliance.
At the time, Ayotte faulted the diocese for a "failure to take responsibility at the top" and threatened possible legal action. She gave the church 30 days to take action. The church responded with a series of important moves, Ayotte said, recognizing the church for hiring a diocese-wide compliance coordinator and working to screen and train staff and volunteers.
"The diocese has made great strides since last year in establishing an effective program to protect minors from sexual abuse and an effective program to make sure that if allegations arise, they are reported and handled effectively," Ayotte said.
At the same time, she said, this year's audit found three principal shortcomings: "tone at the top," reliance on self-reporting, and failure to observe a provision of the 2002 agreement related to personnel removal.
The agreement calls for the diocese to immediately remove anyone accused of abuse "from any position in which there is the possibility for contact with minors" until the allegations have been investigated and resolved.
Arsenault said yesterday he did not believe the church needed to adopt that policy. The diocese immediately reports all accusations to local law enforcement and the attorney general - a practice noted in the audit. But the church should not have to immediately remove accused personnel if diocesan officials believe the allegations are spurious, he said yesterday.
The attorney general and the church held separate consecutive press conferences yesterday. At the state's, Ayotte said the automatic-removal policy is an important measure for protecting children.
"This is pretty straightforward, and it's an easy change they could make to their policy," she said. "I'm confident they'll change it. If not, we'll take appropriate action."
At the church's press conference, Arsenault said the automatic-removal policy was unreasonable. He said the church should not be forced to remove priests or other personnel if the accusations come from people "who are disturbed," or if they are factually inaccurate - such as an accusation against a priest who was out of the diocese or out of the country at the time.
"It's clear we have a disagreement," he said. "It's not the end of the world."
Arsenault also said the situation was hypothetical, and that the state had not faulted the church's handling of actual abuse cases in the past year.
The audit found that the church received 14 complaints of alleged abuse by 13 priests between June 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, although all of the allegations dated to previous periods. One person was placed on "precautionary administrative leave," while the other allegations involved priests who had died or were no longer with the New Hampshire church.
The two sides disagreed yesterday over the number of remaining audits. Ayotte said there would be two more audits in the coming years. Arsenault said the church believes the audits must be completed by December, which marks five years from the date the two sides signed the agreement.
"I hope that the next audit starts soon. We're ready on Monday," he said. "I see no reason why there can't be an audit that starts now and one again in December."
Ayotte said she doesn't understand why the church would want to rush the audits or resist future review.
"If they are truly committed to ensuring a sustaining, long-lasting program to protect children in this state, I'm confident that they would welcome two more audits to make sure that they have a top-notch program in place," she said.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statement thanking the attorney general for her commitment "to honoring the original agreement for annual audits, despite the almost childish, petulant foot-dragging" by church officials.
Carolyn Disco of Merrimack, the survivor-support chairwoman for the state chapter of Voice of the Faithful, said she was pleased the church had made progress since last year in its child-protection programs. But she expressed concern about what she perceived as institutional resistance or reluctance on the church's part to comply with the terms of the agreement.
"Don't parse this and split that," she said. "I am tired of this manipulation of terms - it's just discouraging."
She also was disappointed that Bishop John McCormack sent deputies to the press conference but did not appear himself. Arsenault explained that McCormack, who also did not appear at the church's press conference last year, was busy.
"Bishop McCormack's pastor of the whole church in New Hampshire," he said. "He's meeting today with a group of retired priests, he's meeting with an advisory board for a new magazine we're going to publish and he has meetings with staff people."
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