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	Local Diocese Not Represented at Conference of Catholic Bishops By Mary Garrigan Rapid City Journal June 16, 2011 http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_ccc74768-97dd-11e0-9377-001cc4c03286.html The Catholic Diocese of Rapid City is not represented this week at the summer meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Seattle, where revisions to its child-protection charter are on the agenda. Rapid City bishop-designate Msgr. Robert Gruss is in Rome, and the diocese's interim administrator, the Rev. Steve Biegler, is on retreat and did not attend. A spokesman in Gruss's home diocese of Davenport, Iowa, said Gruss traveled to the Vatican this week for the "usual visit" before someone is ordained as a bishop. In light of a recent causes and context study about the clergy sexual abuse crisis, church watchers were anticipating changes to the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. But when the revisions were unveiled Wednesday, critics said they were minor and didn't go far enough in addressing egregious failures of accountability that have come to light in recent months in the dioceses of Philadelphia and Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo. Victims' advocacy groups say the bishops need to reconsider how diocesan review boards work and whether uniform procedures for all dioceses ought to be adopted as part of the charter revisions. BishopAccountability.org called for the bishops to require mandatory reporting of all allegations of sexual abuse to diocesan review boards, "not just the ones that the bishop selects." Bishop Blase Cupich of the Diocese of Spokane and formerly bishop of Rapid City serves as chairman of the USCCB Committee for Child Protection. Writing in the May 30 edition of America magazine about "The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010," Cupich said: "This is not a time for the bishops to sit back and applaud themselves for getting a handle on a shameful moment in church history. If anything, the church's leadership must now step forward and give new vitality to its promise to protect and its pledge to heal." But in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, Cupich defended the charter and its few revisions. "It's not the charter that's the problem. It seems to me to be whether or not the people are using the charter as a reference point appropriately," he was quoted as saying. The bishops were expected to discuss the charter revisions in a closed session Wednesday evening before adopting any changes. Those revisions deal mainly with incorporating Vatican-mandated norms for bishop conferences worldwide on how to handle clergy sexual abuse allegations. The meeting continues through Friday. Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com
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