UNITED STATES
Commonweal
Why Aren’t Bishops Following Sexual-abuse Reforms?
Nicholas P. Cafardi June 3, 2013
Last month the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops published its report on the latest round of diocesan audits conducted by the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People. The results are encouraging.
Accusations of sexual abuse by clergy have fallen dramatically over the past decade. While it goes without saying that a single instance of child sexual abuse is one too many, just thirty-four minors made allegations of abuse in 2012. Of those thirty-four allegations, six were considered credible, twelve not, and the rest are still being investigated. These are the fewest allegations we’ve seen since the audits began in 2004—audits made possible by reforms the bishops conference adopted in Dallas in 2002. While it’s true that most dioceses self-report their data, and that many refuse to allow auditors into parishes and schools, no one can deny that the Catholic Church made significant progress on this issue. Yet some bishops still act as if the sexual-abuse scandal never happened.
I was at the National Press Club in February 2004, when Archbishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the USCCB, announced that the sexual-abuse crisis was “history.” He was roundly criticized for that comment, but I’m sure he was being sincere. At that point, two years after the bishops adopted the Dallas Charter and Essential Norms governing their response to abuse accusations, the new rules seemed to be working. Predominantly lay review boards in every diocese were assessing abuse allegations in order to advise bishops whether accused priests should be removed from ministry. And, according to the new rules, no priest with a credible allegation of child sexual abuse against him would be allowed to remain in ministry.
When the spotlight of the national press was on them, it appeared that the bishops had acted responsibly. But, as an inaugural member of the bishops’ National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Youth, I had a different perspective. When the board went looking for national data about the phenomenon of sexual abuse by clergy, the California bishops, led by Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles (now retired), strongly resisted the audits.
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