COLUMBUS (OH)
Columbus Dispatch
September 15, 2019
By Danae King
In the six months since the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus released a list of priests whom it deemed had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors, it has added 14 more names and started a task force to study its policies and make recommendations to the bishop.
The task force, which was formed in May and still is being established, will have 12 to 15 members, including a parish priest and people in the fields of law enforcement, civil law, canon law and mental health. It will review all diocesan policies and procedures related to the sexual abuse of minors, Bishop Robert Brennan said.
“We want to rely on the best advice we can get,” Brennan said. “We want to involve laypeople; we want to involve a lot of people. It’s not just me sitting in a room.”
Regina Quinn, director of the diocese’s safe environment office and chairwoman of the task force, said her goal is to get all members of the task force in place this month.
Judy Jones, Midwest regional leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), calls the idea “typical.”
“They’ll start a task force or they’ll make a new policy,” Jones said. “They say all these things. We want to see some action.”
Brennan said, “We want to do things well,” which is why he decided to start by forming a task force instead of just making changes himself.
“I just need professionals to define it for me; I need to know exactly how these things (work). This isn’t my area of expertise,” he said.
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