Boston Cardinal Announces Reporting System for Misconduct Claims against Church Leaders

By Laney Ruckstuhl
WBUR Radio
March 8, 2019

https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/03/08/cardinal-omalley-sex-abuse-reporting-hotline

Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese Cardinal Sean O'Malley speaks to the media in Braintree, Mass. (Bill Sikes/AP)

In the wake of last month's landmark Vatican summit on clergy sexual abuse, Cardinal Sean O'Malley has announced an anonymous reporting system for misconduct complaints against church leaders of the Archdiocese of Boston.

O'Malley says the archdiocese will utilize the existing web-based and hotline system EthicsPoint, which is currently used for reporting concerns of financial misconduct. The updated system will be "exclusively for the reporting of misconduct by a Cardinal, Bishop or Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston," O'Malley says.

O'Malley made the announcement in his Lenten letter, noting that this year's observance is of "particular significance" following the summit, where he served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors.

To conclude the summit, Pope Francis called for an "all-out battle" on clergy sex abuse. But the summit has been criticized by some for its lack of substantive action against sexual abuse. The cardinal says "people are anxious to see concrete results."

The letter says reports through EthicsPoint will be sent to members of O'Malley's Independent Review Board, who are required to "immediately notify law enforcement for claims of abuse."

"The way forward for the Church is to hold as a priority the voices and experience of survivors, to keep them close to every step we take and make all possible efforts to provide the means for them to be heard," O'Malley wrote in the letter.