NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine
June 13, 2019
By Michael J. O’Loughlin
U.S. Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly in Baltimore on Thursday to adopt new protocols aimed at holding themselves accountable for committing sexual abuse themselves and for mishandling accusations of abuse made known to them. While the new protocols are designed to include laypeople at every stage of an investigation—they advise that bishops “should” include laypeople by way of an office in their chanceries—lay reform groups and victim advocates say they are unsatisfied, as the new rules stop just short of requiring such involvement.
In response to a new Vatican law enacted in June, detailed in the motu proprio“Vos estis lux mundi,” which requires bishops around the world to create structures aimed at bishop accountability, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to create a third-party reporting hotline; to adopt a procedure for receiving those complaints and include laypeople to investigate them; and to compile into one place existing measures that restrict the public ministry of retired bishops who leave office “for grave reason.” Bishops also approved a code of conduct that they say binds them to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
According to one new protocol, a metropolitan bishop, who oversees bishops in a geographic area, “should” appoint “a qualified lay person to receive reports” from the hotline about misconduct by a bishop. If the report is deemed credible and if the Vatican orders an investigation into a bishop, the metropolitan “should appoint an investigator chosen from among the lay persons previously identified by the province.” Additionally, the metropolitan bishop “should also make use of qualified experts” who are “chosen predominantly from among lay persons.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago and an adviser to Pope Francis who participated in the February meeting at the Vatican of bishops from around the world to discuss sex abuse, drafted the amendment that strengthened the language about including laypeople in investigations. But because the Vatican’s own law stops short of mandating lay involvement—though it does say laypeople can be involved—some U.S. bishops said they could not require lay involvement. Many bishops pointed out that they already rely on lay expertise for assistance in many areas and that it would be highly unlikely to to conduct an investigation without laypeople.
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