U.S. Bishops Focus on Sex Abuse Crisis, Contraception Mandate
By Tim Townsend
Catholic bishops who gathered in Atlanta for their annual spring meeting spent Wednesday morning grappling with the sins of the past, marking the 10th anniversary of the clergy sex abuse crisis that crippled the church. In the afternoon, they turned toward the future, and a looming battle with the federal government over an issue they say could cripple its mission in a different way. In June 2002, the bishops met in Dallas as the abuse scandal, which first erupted in Boston, was raging across the country. What became known as the Dallas Charter was a set of norms the bishops agreed to that they hoped would stop the crisis and prevent the future abuse of children by priests, deacons and bishops. At the time, the bishops also founded a National Review Board, a committee of lay men and women who would study the issue and collaborate with the bishops to help prevent future abuse. In a progress report released to the bishops Wednesday, the National Review Board said that a decade after the crisis, "There has been striking improvement in the Church's response to and treatment of victims." But it also acknowledged that "much work still needs to be done." The board said in its report that in the last 10 years, more than 15,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse had come forward. More told their stories each year. The incidences of abuse, it said, began to rise in the 1960s, peaked in the 1970s and declined sharply in the 1980s. But "the hurt of the abuse is not simply in the past," the board's Al Notzon said in his address to the bishops. "It is apparent that many people abused 50 years ago are still hurting." In 2004, bishops reported that 4,392 clerics had allegations made against them. Since then, the National Review Board says, 1,723 more clerics have been credibly accused of abuse. While some of those offenders have died, the board recommended that the bishops 'should take a special look at those men who have been removed from public ministry" but not defrocked. The board also recommended that the bishops "take action" against an increase in allegations of what it called "boundary violations" that "mimic grooming behaviors," Notzon said, defining such behaviors as those that "can cross the line of integrity and professional responsibility — improper touching, excessive tickling, dirty jokes, and the like." In another area of concern, the board's report highlighted poor communication between religious orders and dioceses in reporting abuse as part of the annual compliance audits. The report said that 10 years is too long for there to be incidents where dioceses "are not informed of religious order priest offenders living in the diocese." ZERO TOLERANCE The board's report mentioned the Dallas Charter's "zero tolerance policy," which requires the permanent suspension of a priest found to have abused a minor, saying some feel it is "too harsh if, for example, behavior occurred many decades ago." But the board continued to back the policy. "Convicted sex offenders cannot be police officers, Boy Scout leaders or teachers," Notzon said. "They cannot be allowed to remain members of the Catholic clergy functioning in public ministry, either." Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone told the bishops that removing a priest from ministry is not the same as "removing a police officer or a teacher, but more like removing the head of a family from a home," Cordileone said. "We have to be very careful about how we go about this so as not to compromise the identity of a priest." Notzon did not mention an ongoing trial in Philadelphia of the most senior church official in the U.S. to be tried for concealing clergy sexual abuse of a minor. Nor did he mention the upcoming trial of Bishop Robert Finn, of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, accused of failing to report a priest suspected of abuse to law enforcement. On the whole, the National Review Board found in its report that "children are safer now because of the creation of safe environments," and that the Catholic Church, "through the commitment of the bishops, the hard work on the diocesan level, and the cooperation of the priests, religious and laity, has done a good job" implementing the Dallas Charter over the last decade. The bishops' critics were less complimentary. Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, said in a statement that the National Review Board in its report had "gratified the bishops but failed their fellow Catholics." "The last thing bishops need is more flattery," Doyle said. "They need a tough national review board and tough diocesan review boards to challenge them on their continued dangerous practices." CONTRACEPTION MANDATE In the afternoon, the bishops turned their attention to their continuing campaign protesting the so-called contraception mandate. The mandate, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says religiously affiliated institutions, such as universities and hospitals, must soon include free birth control coverage in their employee health coverage. The bishops also discussed international religious freedom, and heard from Bishop Schlemon Warduni of Iraq on the difficulties for Christians in that country. The bishops say that the mandate will force Catholics to betray their consciences, and that for them the issue is not about women's health — as the Obama administration has couched it — but about religious liberty. More than 40 Catholic institutions, including the Archdiocese of St. Louis, have filed federal lawsuits seeking to block the mandate. In recent months, Catholics and other religious groups have organized public protest events. St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson has announced a six-month campaign in the archdiocese against the mandate, to last through November. Last Friday, hundreds gathered near the Gateway Arch — part of a nationally coordinated effort — and heard the Rev. Anthony Gerber of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Imperial say that the federal government "has put Jesus under house arrest." Next week, a national campaign coordinated by the bishops called the Fortnight for Freedom begins. The campaign will "emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty," according to the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and end July 4. From the floor of the convention, Chicago's archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, asked the bishops to consider failure. "What if the mandate remains in place? What will we ask of our institutions? Have we given much thought to that? Will we allow them to secularize? "We would lose a Catholic voice in health care and education, and we use those institutions to make a point of carrying Catholic moral teaching to the public square." Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, who leads the bishops' committee on religious liberty, told his brother bishops Wednesday to prepare for a challenging campaign against the mandate. "Our response will require all the energies the Catholic community can muster," he said. Contact: ttownsend@post-dispatch.com
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