UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Sep. 11, 2012

By Joshua J. McElwee

The conviction last week of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., Bishop Robert Finn for failing to report suspected child abuse indicates that “clearly there is a problem” with how the procedures adopted by the U.S. church to protect children are being used, a key adviser to the U.S. bishops on the issue said Monday.

Central to that problem, said Al Notzon III, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board for clergy sex abuse, is the question of accountability for bishops who do not comply with the norms and conditions the body of bishops agreed to 10 years ago. The procedures are spelled out in the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

One of Notzon’s predecessors on the review board, Judge Michael Merz, called the Finn case “a serious embarrassment to the church.”

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