IOWA
The Catholic Globe
By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
Ten years ago the U.S. bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that required each diocese have mechanisms in place to respond promptly and in a pastoral way to credible allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy.
Since that charter was adopted at the bishops June meeting in 2002 being held in Dallas, it has become known as and is often referred to as the Dallas charter.
Bishop Walker Nickless of the Diocese of Sioux City, who was a priest for the Archdiocese of Denver at that time, pointed out that not long before that meeting of the bishops the national scandal pertaining to child sexual abuse by clergy had erupted in Boston.
Response was necessary
“The bishops knew they had to respond,” Bishop Nickless said. “It was really important for them to show that they cared first and foremost about victims, that children needed to be protected and that credible and accused perpetrators needed to be dealt with in a strong way.”
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