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  Group Checks Dioceses' Abuse Prevention

By Rachel Zoll
New York Newsday [Washington DC]
February 18, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A group comprised mostly of former FBI agents has traveled the country for the second consecutive year, examining sex abuse prevention programs in Roman Catholic dioceses.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plans to reveal Friday what the auditors found. A spokesman said "gigantic strides have been made" in protecting children.

"The bishops pledged with God's help to do whatever must be done to rid the church of the horrible scourge of the sexual abuse of children," said Bill Ryan, of the bishops' conference. "There will be no slacking off in this commitment."

But victim advocates said the diocesan audits were fundamentally flawed.

The bishops' new report is the latest in a series they commissioned to restore trust in their leadership after the clergy molestation crisis erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston and spread nationwide.

The first series of audits, released a year ago, found 90 percent of the 195 U.S. dioceses were fully compliant with the discipline policy the bishops adopted under intense public pressure in June 2002. But auditors also found shortcomings in the reforms, such as ineffective monitoring of guilty priests.

Separately, the bishops released an unprecedented statistical review that found 4,392 priests had been accused in 10,667 cases of molesting minors between 1950 and 2002. A companion study on how the crisis happened said church leaders bore much of the blame.

The report will also say how many new molestation claims have been made nationally over the last year. The amount dioceses have spent on settlements since 1950 has climbed to more than $800 million and hundreds of claims are still pending. Three dioceses -- Portland, Ore., Tucson, Ariz., and Spokane, Wash. -- have filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests say the audits have been "minimal and misleading," contending bishops had too much control over who participated in the review. And they argue that there are signs that the bishops' commitment to reform is waning. Activists cite the bishops' vote three months ago to reduce the number of dioceses that will receive full onsite audits this coming year.

In Seattle, several members of an advisory panel appointed by Archbishop Alexander Brunett accused him of trying to squelch their final report on abusive priests and minimize the scandal. Brunett's spokesman has insisted the archbishop is committed to preventing abuse.

The Dallas County district attorney's office announced this month it is launching a criminal investigation into whether Bishop Charles Grahmann and his staff have failed to report abuse claims to law enforcement.

Earlier this month, Illinois Justice Anne Burke, former head of the National Review Board, the lay panel the bishops appointed to monitor their reforms, said in a blunt speech that she worried church leaders would abandon their toughened policy. The plan is undergoing a mandatory church review to see if revisions are needed.

"The institutional church -- represented by individual dioceses and archdioceses -- has still come away from the experience unchastened," Burke said at College of the Holy in Worcester, Mass.

 
 

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