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Re.: Request that the Congregation for Bishops investigate the behavior the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ...

Catholic Whistleblowers
January 04, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/gvt5prx

[with pdf]

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S. Prefect, Congregation for Bishops 00120 Vatican City State Europe

Re.: Request that the Congregation for Bishops investigate the behavior the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for possible violations of canons 1389 and 1399 of the Code of Canon Law within the context of clergy sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

Dear Cardinal Ouellet,

We, members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee, recognize our duty and our right to bring to your attention the request presented above because it involves the good of the Catholic Church and the good of the society at-large.

Summary of our concern

Why would the USCCB establish a commitment to Zero Tolerance and then work against its own commitment? What motivates such behavior?

The USCCB is to advance efforts that further the protection of minors and vulnerable adults from sexual abuse within the Church. The bishops commit to this as it applies to priests and deacons by saying: “Diocesan / eparchial policy is to provide that for even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor – whenever it occurred – which is admitted or established after an appropriate process in accord with canon law, the offending priest or deacon is to be permanently removed from ministry and, if warranted, dismissed from the clerical state.”1 This establishes Zero Tolerance as a USCCB policy.

1 See Article 5 of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Also see Norm #8 of the related Essential Norms.

However, in a deliberate and ongoing way, the USCCB reneges on its commitment. The Conference does not exercise the leadership necessary to assure that known sexually abusive priests and deacons are removed from the community and that the community is warned about the sexually abusive priests and deacons.

Three stunning realities focus our concern and explain the need for an investigation by the Congregation for Bishops into the behavior of the USCCB.

First, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI changed the statute of limitations (prescription, as it is called in the Code of Canon Law) in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) so that in effect cases of sexual abuse of a minor or of a vulnerable adult by a priest or a deacon cannot be barred from a Church court because of a failure to report the abuse within a prescribed time frame. Moreover, canon law provides that such cases can address both the crime of sexual abuse of a minor or of a vulnerable adult as well as the reparation for damages that result from the crime.

Furthermore, at various times state legislators have attempted to bring about changes to their state’s statute of limitations for criminal and civil actions in cases of child sexual abuse. The USCCB and its member bishops should follow the example of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI by working to change the states’ statutes of limitations. It’s about protecting minors and vulnerable adults from sexual abuse, and about protecting their moral right to reparation. More details on this point are presented later in this letter.




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