WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
November 7, 2018
By Dennis Sadowski
The National Review Board chairman called for changes to the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” to “make it a less ambiguous document” because despite nearly every diocese meeting its standards in third-party audits, some bishops are facing scrutiny about their handling of reports of wayward priests.
Francesco Cesareo, the board’s chairman since 2013, told Catholic News Service Nov. 5 that board members have raised concerns for “a long time … that the audit instrument may not be getting at information that we need to get.”
He also expressed “frustration” that new questions have surfaced about how some bishops responded to clergy sex abuse, especially after pledging openness and transparency after the 2002 crisis exploded.
“This is much more of a crisis of a failure of leadership,” he said.
“It is frustrating because on the one hand, you know that the church has put in place all of these policies and procedures, which have definitely made a difference. All of these allegations are historic. (There are) very few new ones,” he said.
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.