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	Clergy Sexual Abuse Again a Major Item at Bishops' Chicago Meeting By Jerry Filteau Catholic News Service [Chicago IL] June 20, 2005 CHICAGO (CNS) -- As they have been at every U.S. Catholic bishops' meeting since June 2002, clergy sexual abuse of minors and the protection of children from such abuse were a significant part of the June 16-18 meeting in Chicago of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Major items on this June's agenda were approval of revisions of the 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" and the related "Essential Norms" implementing the charter legislatively. The bishops adopted those documents by respective votes of 229-3 and 228-4. As a legislative text the norms still need Vatican approval. But Vatican rejection seemed quite unlikely since the final version approved by the bishops had only four minor variations from the draft jointly developed by U.S. and Vatican officials: a correction of a typographical error, the addition of a missing canon law reference and two minor editorial changes intended to clarify the meaning of the text. The revised charter and norms are to take effect for five years. While several other abuse-related items were also on the bishops' agenda, they also took time to approve other documents and projects, vote on financial matters, discuss the growing phenomenon of lay ecclesial ministry and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Catholic Church Extension Society. As the bishops met inside Chicago's Fairmont Hotel or gathered June 15 for a pre-meeting Mass at Holy Name Cathedral, on the streets outside various demonstrators picketed and held press conferences. Among them were leaders of clergy sex abuse victim groups, abortion opponents, gay rights advocates who oppose church teaching on homosexuality, women's ordination advocates, and members of Voice of the Faithful and other groups who have been calling for greater openness and accountability by church officials. Documents the bishops approved during the meeting included a new Program of Priestly Formation, a statement in support of Catholic schools, a statement on missions and a statement committing themselves to mutual support and correction in implementing the child protection charter. All were adopted by overwhelming margins. The new Program of Priestly Formation will replace the 1992 edition of that program if the Vatican approves it. It sets norms for seminary admissions and seminary formation. Reflecting the increased awareness of the horror of child sexual abuse, the new program for the first time explicitly orders the rejection of any seminary applicant and expulsion of any seminarian who has molested a child or shows inclinations to do so. It also devotes extra attention to ensuring that seminarians are well-rounded human beings as an integral part of achieving their mature commitment to chaste celibacy before ordination. For the first time it explicitly addresses questions of sexual orientation, saying that when the Vatican publishes its expected norms on the admission of homosexually oriented men to the seminary or priesthood, U.S. seminaries will follow those policies. The statement on Catholic schools urges more efforts to make Catholic schools available to all Catholic children and, especially in poor rural and inner-city areas, to non-Catholics whose parents seek the quality of education and values that Catholic schools can offer. The mission statement reminds Catholics that everyone is called by baptism to participate in the mission of spreading the Gospel to all nations. It especially urges those engaged in teaching and formation of Catholics to expand the missionary awareness and involvement of Catholic men, women and children in U.S. Catholic parishes and schools. The "Statement of Episcopal Commitment," adopted by a 223-4 vote, deals with the difficulty that by church law, bishops, who are ultimately accountable only to the Holy See and not the bishops' conference on virtually all church matters, could not be subjected to the child protection charter and norms in the same way priests and deacons are. It commits the bishops to report to the papal nuncio any allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a bishop and to work and reflect with one another to promote full implementation of the charter in every diocese. In another follow-up action in their ongoing work to respond to the sexual abuse problem, the bishops elevated their Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse to a standing committee and renamed it the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People. Its chairman will be elected by the bishops and will be an automatic member of the USCCB Administrative Committee, but unlike any other committee of that kind, its membership is to include one bishop from each of the 14 USCCB regions -- at least double the size of other standing conference committees. Also on the clergy sexual abuse issue, the bishops committed themselves to spending up to $1 million from a reserve fund to help pay for a study of the causes and context of that abuse over the past half-century. The study is expected to cost between $2 million and $5 million, and the bishops' financial commitment is expected to help generate additional funds from foundations and philanthropists to pay for the entire study. On another financial matter the bishops who head dioceses rejected a request by their Committee on Budget and Finance to increase their diocesan assessment by 4 percent next year to cover one-fourth of an expected 2006 conference budget deficit of more than $2 million. Only the 193 bishops who head dioceses can vote on assessments. While 86 bishops present and voting approved the proposed increase, the 80 who voted against it defeated it, since passage required at least two-thirds approval -- possible only with 64 or fewer negative votes. With a new translation due soon for the English version of the latest official Roman Missal in Latin, the Committee on Liturgy asked the bishops to approve a series of current U.S. adaptations in the Mass, in use for more than 30 years, in order to obtain the necessary prior Vatican permission for their continued use before the new English translation of the main Latin text is submitted for approval. Despite the Vatican requirement that such adaptations get prior clearance, the bishops voted to defer action on the adaptations until they can study the new English translation, which is expected to be ready within the next few months. In special elections the bishops: -- Elected Bishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Duluth, Minn., as conference treasurer until November, filling the vacancy left earlier this year when Archbishop James P. Keleher of Kansas City, Kan., retired. Bishop Schnurr was already treasurer-elect, due to start a three-year term as treasurer at the end of the bishops' November meeting. -- Elected Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., as chairman of the Committee on Doctrine until November 2006. He will serve the remainder of the term opened up by the resignation of Archbishop William J. Levada of San Francisco, who was recently appointed prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope Benedict XVI. Following up on a request to a group of U.S. bishops last year by the late Pope John Paul II, the bishops decided that each diocese in the country should establish an annual day of prayer specifically for priestly vocations. In preparation for a probable debate and vote this fall on a document on lay ecclesial ministry, the bishops devoted about half an hour June 16 to hearing presentations by three bishops on various aspects of that issue. With more than 30,000 lay people now employed full time or part time in U.S. Catholic parishes as lay ecclesial ministers, working in the name of the church under the authority of its ordained ministers, questions about the role of such lay ministers and their relation to the ordained have come increasingly to the fore in recent years. The proposed document is intended to address such issues as the theology of lay ecclesial ministry, the call to such ministry, formation and discernment, authorization and certification, collaboration with church authorities and workplace conditions. In another look toward their fall meeting in Washington, the bishops approved a proposal that their Committee on Domestic Policy, in collaboration with other committees, will develop an updated statement on growing church opposition to use of the death penalty, which the bishops will be asked to debate and vote on in November. On June 15, the eve of the national meeting, nearly 200 bishops gathered at Holy Name Cathedral for a special Mass celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chicago-based Catholic Church Extension Society. Two nights later about 150 bishops and other Extension supporters held a centenary banquet celebrating the society's long record of contributions to the building of the U.S. church. Extension, formed in 1905 to support home missions, has contributed more than $400 million dollars over the past century to build Catholic churches, provide religious services and support missionary efforts, religious education and a wide variety of other parish and diocesan programs in parts of the United States where the church is poor and still struggling to become established and self-sufficient. During their meeting the bishops also heard a brief report from Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of the U.S. Archdiocese of Military Services, chairman of the Committee on the North American College Rome, on the capital campaign for the college, the U.S. national seminary in Rome. Archbishop O'Brien told the bishops that although it is still in its early stages, the campaign has already raised one-fourth of its $25 million goal. He said funds raised will be divided between a scholarship endowment and "critically needed capital improvements" for the seminary and its graduate house for priests. Although the bishops met for three morning and two afternoon sessions, only the first two morning sessions were open to journalists and invited observers. And the second of those was closed to all news photographers after one bishop complained that he thought a pool photographer who was to be admitted to both sessions had been intrusive and disruptive during the morning session June 16. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., chairman of the bishops' Committee on Communications, told a press conference that the ban on news photographers was temporary and the committee hoped to establish photographer guidelines that would avoid such problems before the bishops hold their next general meeting in November.