In response to abuse scandals, bishops debate code of conduct

U.S. anger stirred by Pennsylvania report naming 300 priests.

WASHINGTON — After months of outcry from American Catholics this year, demanding that the bishops — the highest-ranking Catholic leaders in the United States — be held accountable for decades of child abuse by priests, the bishops will meet in person for the first time for a days-long reckoning about how to address the crisis.

In a highly unusual move, the bishops will put aside almost everything else on their agenda for the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops next week, in order to focus solely on rectifying their policies on abuse. The leaders of all 196 U.S. archdioceses and dioceses are invited to attend the Baltimore event.

Many bishops and lay leaders hope they will emerge from the meeting with sweeping new procedures in place, including a lay commission empowered to investigate abuse by bishops, a new code of conduct and a plan for bishops removed from office due to their handling of abuse.

“When we come out of the meeting and are able to communicate what will be different moving forward, it’s my hope that all those who’ve been asking for such concrete steps will recognize: The bishops heard us,” said Bishop Michael Burbidge, who leads Virginia’s Diocese of Arlington. “We hear what you said. And we share those concerns. And we’re doing something about it.”

That’s a lot to get done in one meeting. But before the work begins, they will devote almost an entire day of the three-day session in Baltimore purely to prayer.

“All prayer. No agenda items. It’s just a day of prayer from morning until night. I think that shows the importance, that we recognize that we need some divine assistance here,” Burbidge said.

The bishops have been a primary focus of Catholics’ anger this summer and fall, starting with the release of a major grand jury report in Pennsylvania in August. That report, which probed seven decades of church history and found more than 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children, drew attention to the conduct of bishops in the state’s Catholic dioceses, who sometimes moved an abusive priest to another parish or let him return to his ministry rather than removing him or reporting him to police.

In Pennsylvania, bishops’ names have been stripped from buildings and rooms that once honored them. Many of those bishops are deceased or retired, but not all. The current bishop of Pittsburgh, David Zubik, was involved in church administration since the late 1980s and has faced calls for his resignation since the grand jury report.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, whose actions during his 18 years as bishop of Pittsburgh were scrutinized closely in the grand jury report, was the archbishop of Washington when the report came out. After months of furious pressure from parishioners and highly involved Catholics in the District and Maryland, Wuerl retired due to the condemnation of his conduct. (He remains the acting administrator of the Archdiocese of Washington, until Pope Francis selects his successor.)

Across the country, as more than a dozen states and a federal U.S. attorney have followed Pennsylvania’s lead and opened criminal or civil investigations into the Catholic church since August, concerned Catholics have focused their attention on the conduct of bishops. Many have called for increased participation of lay leaders - people who are not ordained clergy, but instead parishioners in the pews — to oversee the bishops’ conduct. Some have raised the question of mass resignation of some of the longest-servingbishops, who have led the church since long before the U.S. dioceses reformed their policies for handling abuse of children, in light of The Boston Globe’s 2002 exposé of the widespread crimes.

In response to these calls for the reform, the bishops will consider three new policies at their meeting in Baltimore.

First, they will debate whether to create a new commission of lay people to investigate complaints against bishops. The U.S. bishops have already committed to hiring an outside vendor to run a hotline for reporting abuse, or mishandling of an abuse case, committed by bishops. That vendor is still being selected, but once the church signs a contract, the hotline operator will be directed to refer complaints to law enforcement when appropriate, according to a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesman James Rogers.

If the bishops create this lay commission, the hotline could also funnel reports to the commission, which would make recommendations for disciplining bishops when necessary to the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States, who will refer the complaints to the bishops’ supervisors in Rome.

Second, the bishops will consider a draft which would create a new code of conduct for bishops, who currently don’t have a written framework of professional ethics. Depending on the language that the bishops agree to during a two-day process of amendments and debate, the new standards of conduct could cover sexual relationships with adults and other questions of abuse of power.

This proposal is likely to provoke the most controversy among the bishops. “I think the whole thing of a code of conduct for the bishops to me is unnecessary. We have a code of conduct - it’s called the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s called living a good, holy life,” said Bishop Christopher Coyne of Vermont’s Diocese of Burlington. “This is the life that we’re called to live as bishops. That would be a code of conduct enough.”

After a moment of reflection, Coyne modified his view. “I wish it wasn’t necessary, but it is. Given what has happened in the past and has happened currently, it is.”

But while some bishops are entering the meeting Vermont’s Diocese of Burlington optimistic about voting in a full slate of new policies, Coyne said he’s not sure the proposals will all survive the debate. “It’s most important that we talk positively about what we have accomplished, our protection of children over the past 16 years, and we also talk about our shame and hurt and guilt we owe collectively,” he said. “I hope we’re not in a worse place going out of it than we are coming in .... I’m just trying to lessen people’s expectations of what can be accomplished, going into this meeting, so we don’t have a huge disappointment at the end as to what was accomplished.”

Finally, the attendees will consider what to do with bishops who have already been, or will be, removed from their positions due to sexual misconduct or mishandling of abuse. The role of bishop is set up to be lifelong, with a promise of full financial support from the church, including an income and housing through retirement. Currently, disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick is moving into a friary in a remote Kansas town. Wuerl’s retirement housing is still being determined. West Virginia’s Bishop Michael Bransfield was removed from ministry in September due to sexual misconduct allegations, and the bishops anticipate that other bishops could be removed for similar causes in the future.

The bishops could approve a consistent standard for such cases at the meeting, including restrictions on former bishops’ permission to lead Mass and other services.

Becky Ianni, a leader of an advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest, or SNAP, said she is dubious about the bishops’ efforts at reform, especially since U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo will be leading the forum. DiNardo himself has been accused of improperly handling an abusive priest in his archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Bishop Christopher Coyne

RICKY CARIOTI / WASHINGTON POST Cardinal Donald Wuerl, former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was pressured into retiring over his actions in 18 years was bishop of Pittsburgh.