The U.S. bishops’ conference has announced new accountability measures in response to recent clerical sex-abuse scandals. The reforms include the establishment of an independent reporting mechanism to receive complaints against bishops, and the development of a Code of Conduct for bishops.
A statement released Sept. 19 by the USCCB’s Administrative Committee said that the new steps being taken to combat abuse are “only the beginning,” and that consultations were underway with laity, clergy, and religious on how better to “repair the scandal and restore justice.”
The Administrative Committee’s statement announced four key policies.
The first is the creation of a confidential, third-party reporting mechanism to handle “complaints of sexual abuse of minors by a bishop and sexual harassment of or sexual misconduct with adults by a bishop.” This system, the statement said, will direct those complaints to the appropriate civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
The statement also said that the USCCB’s Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance had been instructed to develop proposals for policies to address restrictions on bishops who have either resigned or been removed following “allegations of sexual abuse of minors or sexual harassment of or misconduct with adults, including seminarians and priests.”
The Administrative Committee also announced it has begun a process for developing a Code of Conduct for bishops regarding the “sexual abuse of a minor; sexual harassment of or sexual misconduct with an adult; or negligence in the exercise of his office related to such cases.”
Finally, the statement said, the committee supported a full investigation into the case of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, including the allegations made against him concerning the sexual assault of minors, adults, seminarians, and priests, and the Church’s response to those allegations.
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
Too late. They’ve lost their moral authority. Time for the whole lot of them to resign. Which they will never do because they love their power more than they love Christ or the church.
Your Emminence Cdl. DiNardo,
Words do not carry the assurance of credibility, especially when they come from the episcopacy which has already betrayed the faithful. What assurance does the USCCB offer that it is sincere in its latest promise?
You and your brother bishops must earn credibility.
what about Bishops who cover up abuse by priests or others? I do not recall a single Bishop who was the abuser of minors. There is a long list of Bishops who covered up for abusers, usually for the ‘good of the Church’. That is certainly biting us laity in the financial backside.
No – that is the greatest misunderstanding that people have regarding the reason for the cover ups. The cover ups are rarely for the ‘good of the church.’ Rather the reason is to hide the homosexuality of the bishops and clergy themselves. It’s called corruption. These people don’t give a damn about the church. They just cozy up behind closed doors. If the most brazen hedonists among them are exposed it would lead to their own exposure. Therefore make the laity go through safe environment training. Vigano said it straight out: the “deviant wing” of the Jesuits constitutes a majority of the order. This thing is completely pervasive, and the biggest stumbling block to cleaning it up is the naivete of the laity.
mike m,
That’s an excellent point. One thing that helps, though, is the anonymous tip line where people can make complaints of any sexual impropriety by a bishop.
The only problem with the tip line is that it will be used by the lavender mafia to accuse the accuser — a standard tactic.
Just because McCarrick is (was) a bishop and committed “impropriety” against laity, that doesn’t mean that his pathology is typical. No “tip Line” is going to do anything to expose what is really going on in the lives of corrupted bishops behind closed doors. One caller to a radio show last week, a seminary drop-out, said by the time he got to the college seminary the homosexual sex was totally pervasive and completely open and uninhibited. Anybody who disapproved was blackballed. The laity who are abused is the tip of the iceberg. The far bigger problem is what has happened to Catholics from listening for decades to the corrupted theology of these scum.
McCarrick?
O’Connell
The article does not say or speak to whether the proposed measures are binding. More clarification, please.
Here is the only clarification needed:
DON’T BELIEVE OR RELY ON ANYTHING THAT COMES OUT OF THE USCCB AND ABOVE ALL, LEAVE THE LOCAL DIOCESES OUT OF THE REPORTING PROCESS IF THERE IS ABUSE OF MINORS OR HARASSMENT OF ADULTS.
INSTEAD, GO DIRECTLY TO CIVIL AUTHORITIES. THE BISHOPS THEMSELVES CAN NOT BE TRUSTED OR RELIED UPON TO DO THE RIGHT THING!
What’s going to have to happen is that attorneys general in all states will subpoena records from chancery offices. That will lead on a paper trail to the Vatican and then all heck breaks loose.
We can’t trust them. Archbishop Vigano has had to go into hiding and ditch his cell phone – go no contact, go silent – for fear of his life since he published his letter charging the pope and important bishops and cardinals with coverups. What does that say about the honesty and Christ-likeness and goodwill of the church hierarchy? Why would Vigano fear that high ranking church officials would want him dead now? And we’re soupposed to believe that the bishops and the pope will handle accusations against them professionally and honestly? I don’t think so. Is the church like the mafia now? What bad dream are we living in?
Charles,
Do you have any sources to cite for your allegations?
It’s well known that Vigano has gone into hiding.
I found a BBC report from August 28th which said that Cardinal Vigano had gone into hiding. He evidently left Vatican City and now resides in a foreign country without a cell phone.
Are we to trust people like Cardinal Cupich with investigations? Cupich just ordered a priest who burned an old, sacrilegious gay rainbow/cross banner to be confined to a hospital for evaluation of his psychiatric issues. Get that? Cupich thinks a real man, a real priest, who opposes the homosexualist ideology and courageously is outspoken against it has psychiatric issues while the homosexuals are just fine. The world is turning upside down where good is considered bad and bad is considered good, and IT’S THE CHURCH’S BISHOPS who are participating!!!! I never thought I’d live to see the day that the CHURCH’S BISHOPS were promoting evil.
What took you so long? There’s nothing new here. Back at the time of the John Jay Report in 2003, it was recognized that 81% of the abuse was homosexual. Michael S. Rose published “Goodbye
Good Men” in 2005. So all the laity just went blithely to mass every Sunday and listened to a homosexual priest tell them from the pulpit that the greatest sin was to not be ‘accepting.’ You saw the day that the church’s bishops were promoting evil decades ago, but it was your own deficiencies that caused you to fail to recognize it.