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	Trust the Bishops? Arizona Daily Star [United States] December 15, 2004 Two years ago, the nation's Catholic bishops finally acted on sexual abuse of children by priests. Among their moves was establishing the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a set of tough procedures, and ordering audits to make sure they are complied with in each diocese. Now, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is backing off on the audits, employing a practice common in organizational turnarounds: Stopping annual on-site audits for those dioceses found to be in compliance two years in a row and allowing them to self-report, instead. Whether this will ever be the proper course for the church in America remains to be seen. The first audits showed compliance by about 90 percent of the dioceses, including Tucson. But, with the second set of audits just now being readied for release, it certainly is not yet time to take a more lenient approach toward monitoring the parishes. And certainly not until the bishops follow up on the finding by their special lay committee, the National Review Board, that there "must be consequences" for bishops who helped cover up the decades of clergy abuse. Thus far, the bishops are mum on their own culpability or that of their predecessors. This is no time to say "trust us," just two years after the historic June 2002 Dallas conference of bishops finally dealt with decades of abuse. This is no time to rein in the outside auditor hired for the job or the teams of former FBI agents and others who have been sent into the nation's 195 dioceses during each of the last two years. It is, however, a time for the other shoe to drop. The bishops' laudable efforts to clean house and heal old wounds will never be complete without a full report on the coverup - a report that is equal in vigor and scope to the investigations into abuse by the clergy. These investigations pinpointed credible allegations of abuse and suggested that priests commit sexual abuse at no greater proportion than any other segment of society. The depth of betrayal is in the position of trust that they held among their flocks and in society as a whole. This painful process has helped the church identify the scope of its problem and settle with the victims. It helped the dioceses of Tucson; Portland, Ore.; and Spokane, determine that bankruptcy was their only course of action. And it is helping wipe away the taint of scandal from the vast majority of priests who are genuinely dedicated to a life of selfless service. This cannot be said of the nation's Catholic bishops. A study they commissioned put the number of priests accused of abuse since 1950 at 4,400, 26 of them in the Tucson diocese. As we have noted here before, this amounts to a pattern of abuse that could not have endured without an institutional coverup. Until the coverup, too, is explored and acted upon, the bishops - in every effort to right past wrongs, including the way they track their corrective procedures - will be working under a cloud.
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