UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
A U.S. Catholic interview
Canon lawyer and charter member of the National Review Board Nicholas Cafardi talks about the importance of advisory boards and lay consultation.
Is every diocese required to have a review board for cases of possible sexual abuse?
The norms that the U.S. bishops agreed to in 2002 state include that every diocese must have a review board that is to assist the bishop in evaluating the credibility of an accusation of sex abuse against a priest. That’s their role. The eventual decision is the bishop’s.
These review boards work when they’re properly used. We have all sorts of boards in our church. It’s not required, but it’s strongly recommended, for example, that every diocese has a pastoral council. If he wants to, in fact, the bishop is allowed to require all of his parishes to have a parish pastoral council. I’ve always thought this was interesting because parish pastoral councils are optional, while finance councils are obligatory. Every diocese has to have a finance council. Even every parish has to have a finance council, but they don’t have to have pastoral councils.
Canon law describes the diocesan finance council as experts in law and finance, which to me implies laypeople. Then there’s the diocesan presbyteral council, which is made up of representatives of the priests of the diocese, and the diocesan college of consultors, a smaller group of priests chosen by the bishop with whom he must consult on certain decisions.
Bishops have a lot of authority. So canon law, as a way to sort of “check” this power, specifies that bishops are meant to deal with and hear these councils when they are proposing major types of actions for their diocese, such as opening and closing parishes, extraordinary financial transactions, and the like. These boards are meant to help the bishop exercise prudently the immense authority that he has. If the bishop gets help making a decision, then he’s not relying on his whims. The whole point of these consultative bodies is to act as a check on the bishop and say, “Bishop, have you thought about this?” Ordination gives bishops authority; it doesn’t give them ability. You need both.
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