By Sam Hemingway
Burlington Free Press [Vermont]
April 12, 2007
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070412/NEWS01/704120308/1009
The statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington lags behind nearly every other diocese in the country in setting up training programs to protect children from sexual abuse, a new study for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has found.
"It's a message to Burlington that they've got to work harder," said Sister Marie Ann Walsh, director of media relations for the national bishops' organization in Washington, D.C. "Most people were able to meet the requirements."
The study, a follow-up of a 2005 audit of 18 church dioceses that had failed to establish sex-abuse prevention programs as mandated by the church, said only the dioceses in Burlington and Cincinnati had not complied with the so-called Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
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| Bishop Salvatore Matano: "I am saddened and disappointed by the report. I also accept the validity of the report. I know the work that must be done." |
Bishop Salvatore Matano said in an interview that the diocese has worked hard to meet the goal set by the national bishops group since he replaced retiring Bishop Kenneth Angell in late 2005.
"I am saddened and disappointed by the report," Matano said. "I also accept the validity of the report. I know the work that must be done."
Matano said he was sending a letter to all parish priests Wednesday, urging them to help the church comply with the policy as soon as possible.
"I am asking that they give me their full support on this," Matano said. "I am seeking their assurance that those working with youth are fully educated about the charter and are establishing the best possible environment for children."
The issue of protecting children from sexual abuse is a sensitive one for the church. The Vermont diocese, like many others around the country, is the target of claims it failed to prevent priests from molesting children over the years. The diocese is a defendant in 26 lawsuits filed by alleged victims of priest sexual abuse.
Barbara Dorris, spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse, said in a statement that the finding about the Burlington diocese was "significant and troublesome."
"The policy was adopted five years ago, so for Vermont's bishop to be not in compliance even now is worrisome," Dorris said. "Training church staff to spot signs of abuse is a simple but important process. There's really no excuse for foot-dragging on this."
Matano said Dorris' remark was inaccurate because her organization has no idea what the Vermont diocese has been doing to meet the program's requirements or the challenges it faces in doing so.
"We can only work with the resources we have," Matano said. "But I can tell you that from the moment I became bishop, I have given this matter my complete attention."
Kevin Scully, the diocese's director of safe environment programs, said that when Angell was bishop, the diocese took a step-by-step approach to complying with the policy "so everything wouldn't come at the parishes in one big wave."
As a result, Scully said the diocese concentrated first on sexual-abuse prevention training for children, priests and teachers at Catholic schools, leaving the programming for an estimated 2,000 voluntary church workers until later. The failure to have all the volunteers trained kept the diocese from complying with the policy.
"We've trained about 600 of the volunteers thus far," said Scully, a former chief of the Burlington Police Department. He said deacons from parishes around the state will attend child sex-abuse prevention training Saturday.
Scully said he hoped the diocese would be able to finish training the rest of the volunteers by this time next year, when the national bishops conference will conduct another audit of all dioceses to check on the status of sex-abuse prevention programs.
"When we can say we are in compliance, we will be in full compliance," Matano said. "We will not be cutting any corners in order to comply with the program audit."
Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.
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