US Anglican Ordinariate Will Join Sex Abuse Audit

By Dennis Coday
National Catholic Reporter
June 2, 2016

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/update-us-anglican-ordinariate-will-join-sex-abuse-audit

The U.S. bishops' conference issued today an update and correction to its annual report on local churches' compliance with the Dallas Charter, the set of guidelines and standards that are to govern the dioceses' response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The 2015 report was released May 20. That report contained an error: it called the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter an eparchy, which is the Orthodox church's equivalent of a diocese. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is not an eparchy; it is the diocese-like structure created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy in the United States seeking to become Catholic.

The report -- which covers the period July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015 -- also said that the ordinariate was not in compliance with the Dallas Charter. Today's release clarifies that the ordinariate did not participate with the audit process " due to its new ecclesiastical structure in the United States." Its first bishop was not installed until February of this year.

The release today says that the ordinariate, which has headquarters in Houston, will participate in data collection for the the 2016 audit (which covers the period July 2015 to June 2016) and will have an onsite audit for the 2017 audit period.

Here is the full text of the press release from the U.S. bishops' conference:

Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter To Participate In 2016 Audit

June 2, 2016

During the recent release of The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and the National Review Board’s 2015 Annual Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was mistakenly named as an eparchy and as non-compliant.

Bishop Steven J. Lopes was ordained the Ordinariate’s first bishop in February 2016. The Ordinariate did not participate in the 2015 audit due to its new ecclesiastical structure in the United States. In collaboration with StoneBridge Business Partners, the Ordinariate will participate in a data collection for the 2016 audit, with a scheduled onsite visit for the 2017 audit.

The information in the report was gathered between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2015. The report on the response of the Catholic Church in the United States to clergy sexual abuse includes an annual survey conducted by Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) and an annual audit to numerous dioceses and eparchies.