Church Reports Gains on Abuse
By Bronislaus B. Kush
Telegram & Gazette
March 27, 2013
http://www.telegram.com/article/20130327/NEWS/103279920/1116/raw_headlines
WORCESTER — Shortly after the Rev. Lowe B. Dongor was arraigned on possession of child pornography charges in 2011, Bishop Robert J. McManus asked the Vatican to defrock the diocese’s first Filipino priest.
Chancery officials said the bishop has always maintained a zero-tolerance policy when it came to clergy charged with sexual improprieties but added they were surprised that the Worcester prelate would move so quickly to strip Rev. Dongor of the priesthood.
“There was no question that the bishop would seek to have Dongor laicized,” explained one chancery official. “But the feeling was that he’d wait until the matter wound itself through the local court system. Obviously, the bishop wanted Rev. Dongor removed from the priesthood as quickly as possible.”
Local church officials, pointing to Bishop McManus’ action regarding Rev. Dongor, insist they are doing everything they can to protect kids and added that the diocese has fully embraced the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
That document, adopted in 2002, calls for, among other things, the removal from the ministry of any priest credibly accused of abusing a minor.
Officials reported recently that — following an independent audit — the local church is fully compliant with the 10-year-old charter.
“We take charges of sexual abuse very seriously,” said Raymond L. Delisle, a spokesman for the diocese.
However, while recognizing that any attempt to protect children should be lauded, organizations that advocate for victims of priestly abuse said the USCCB’s charter doesn’t do enough to expose clerics who are predators.
They said auditors have to assume that the information provided by local church officials is truthful and note that in some cases it might not be.
For example, they said that church officials in Cleveland had reported that 28 priests had been accused of abuse. However, when a prosecutor subsequently examined files, the estimate skyrocketed to 145.
“For the most part, the audits are superficial,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group. “The auditors have to assume that the information they are reviewing is factual.”
She said oversight is difficult because auditors physically visit a diocese once every three years. During the other two years, they are dependent on the reports sent to them.
Victim advocates also note that many bishops ignore the purpose of the charter and continue to cover up improprieties.
For example, Bishop Robert W. Finn, the spiritual leader of Catholics in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, was found guilty last fall of failing to report child abuse suspicions.
Bishop Finn, who was sentenced to two years of court supervised probation and is still the prelate in Kansas City-St. Joseph, is the highest ranking American church cleric convicted in the church’s decades-long child abuse scandal.
Local church officials said the charter works and added that the diocese has been in compliance since the bishops instituted it.
They said an on-site audit takes about three and a half days and they are conducted by employees of Stonebridge Business Partners of Rochester, N.Y., which was contracted by the USCCB to assess all dioceses.
Mr. Delisle said auditors interviewed chancery officials, as well as social workers and law enforcement personnel involved in investigation of complaints.
He said they also culled through reports that parishes are required to provide annually. Those reports are compiled by pastors or, at some parishes, volunteer safe-environment coordinators.
Auditors also worked to determine if criminal background checks were made of all church employees or volunteers who come in contact with children.
Bishop McManus said that the audits help the diocese to determine what works and help local church officials find out what’s happening in other dioceses to safeguard children.
“It is my fervent prayer that this annual audit process is underscoring our commitment to the safety of children and young people under our pastoral care and may serve as a model for other organizations in our society,” he said.
Stonebridge has conducted audits of 200 dioceses and eparchies, which are dioceses of the Eastern Church affiliated with Roman Catholicism.
Through the USCCB’s charter program, 5 million children nationally have been taught how to protect themselves from predators and 2 million adult church workers have been trained to recognize the behavior of offenders and what to do about it, officials said.
Background checks have been made on a least 2 million church volunteers, 52,000 clerics and about 6,200 candidates for ordination.
Church officials said they have spent about $30.1 million on child protection programs. An additional $6.1 million has been spent on therapy for victims, officials said.
Since Bishop McManus’ appointment in 2004, four diocesan priests have been defrocked by the Vatican because of sexual improprieties.
Contact: bkush@telegram.com
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