UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

August 17, 2018

By Heidi Schlumpf

The U.S. bishops’ call Aug. 16 for an apostolic visitation and lay-involved investigations into sexual abuse and cover-ups was praised by members of the first National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, but at least one member called it “too little, too late.”

Any internal investigation — even a well-intentioned one — would be ineffective, because “the trust is already eroded and gone,” said Anne Burke, an Illinois Supreme Court justice who served as the review board’s interim chair until 2004.

Other former board members praised the bishops’ proposal, released by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston on behalf of the U.S. bishops’ executive committee, as a “good start,” though they expressed caution about internal investigations and review boards.

“Only secular authorities have subpoena powers,” said Burke, urging all attorneys general and district attorneys to…