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	AG Disappointed with NH Diocese's Reforms By J.M. Hirsch The Associated Press March 30, 2006 Concord – The state's Roman Catholic diocese has made progress toward protecting minors from sexual abuse, but many deficiencies remain, including a failure to ensure criminal background checks have been done on staffers who work with children, according to a long-delayed audit of the church's sexual abuse prevention strategies released Thursday. The diocese also has failed to determine which workers and volunteers even need to be checked, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said. The problem needs to be dealt with immediately, she said. "There's still significant work that remains for the diocese to do and in some respects the level of compliance is disappointing," she said at a news conference. "The fundamental problem seems to be a failure to take responsibility at the top of the diocese." She named no one specifically. "Of course, it starts at the bishop, but it's just not him alone," Ayotte said. The diocese has 30 days to submit a plan for correcting the problems. Ayotte said the state won't hesitate to seek court action if it doesn't feel the church is complying. The audit is the first of four annual assessments of the Diocese of Manchester's child protection policies. The church said it did not agree with some of the findings of the audit, but "our priority is to protect children, and we have made significant progress over the last three years in creating and maintaining a safe environment for everyone in the church," the Rev. Edward Arsenault said in a statement. "I readily acknowledge that we have further work to do to achieve full implementation of our policy regarding training, written acknowledgment of reporting requirements and our policies and background screening" for those who work with minors, he said. The audits were a key part of a 2002 settlement between the state and the diocese that ended a criminal investigation of whether church officials knew priests were molesting children, but failed to protect them over a period of decades. As part of the agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek criminal indictments against the church. In exchange, the diocese agreed to enact strict new child protection policies, admit its actions had harmed children, and open itself to audits. Ayotte said the audit found that no church "site" checked was in full compliance with child-protection policies. In one parish, nearly half of the employees or volunteers had no criminal record checks, she said. In a second parish, only 16 percent of the people had been checked against a sexual-offender registry. The audits were delayed as state and church officials sparred over their scope and who would pay for them. The state sought a comprehensive audit that evaluated the effectiveness of the diocese's new policies. Church officials objected, saying the agreement called only for a compliance audit, or a check that the diocese had implemented such policies and trained people in them, not how well those policies work. The state said such an audit would be worthless. In March 2005, a judge sided with the state and said the estimated $445,000 cost must be shared by the state and the diocese. The state's investigation was prompted by the abuse scandal that erupted in Boston in early 2002 and quickly spread to the rest of the nation, including New Hampshire, where John McCormack -- a former top aide to Boston Cardinal Bernard Law -- is bishop. During the next few years, the New Hampshire diocese paid millions of dollars in settlements as hundreds of people came forward accusing clergymen of sexual abuse. Most of the allegations are from the 1960s and 1970s, long before McCormack's tenure. Since the agreement, McCormack -- who also was the subject of criticism from his time in Boston -- has admitted making mistakes, and has instituted tough new policies in New Hampshire, where he was named bishop in 1998. Though the 2002 agreement initially called for five audits, that since has been reduced to four as a cost-saving measure. The attorney general's office has said KPMG, the audit firm, assured the state the reduction would not affect quality. Meanwhile, the church is doing its own evaluation of its abuse-prevention strategy, saying on its Web site that a review board is examining the diocese's policies and that public comment can be offered until April 15.
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