ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio
[with audio]
By STEPHANIE LECCI
At their annual spring meeting held in St. Louis last week, U.S Catholic bishops discussed several issues currently facing the Catholic Church, including: the clergy sex abuse scandal, what the Church sees as challenges to marriage, and the pope’s upcoming encyclical on the environment.
St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson attended the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting, where he spoke with reporter Stephanie Lecci. An excerpted interview aired on “St. Louis on the Air” and part of it is included below: …
On steps the Church is taking to combat clergy sex abuse of children and the pope’s new Vatican tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up cases of abuse
I think it’s a good thing. Obviously, as I look back over my more than 30 years as a bishop, the whole thing has changed a great deal. I think there were changes in the ’90s, and then again in 2002, and there’s still changes that we need. But the pope has brought it to the attention of the whole church, so it’s something that we are working on.
When I came to St. Louis, I felt that they had a very good review board process, and my commitment has always been to listen to them and to follow what this group of experts feels is the right way to proceed. And I think it’s a wonderful way that laity, whether you’re a grandmother in the community or psychologist or an attorney or a counselor, or whatever you might be, can listen to what victims are saying and can give a recommendation to me. And my commitment is to follow… the advice I receive from this group. As a matter of fact, you can check, I’ve absolutely followed their advice since I came here.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.