Are children safe from sex abuse in Catholic church?

In a letter from Bishop Patrick J. McGrath last week, the Catholic diocese of San Jose became one of the first in the nation to announce plans to disclose all of the names of priests who had credible accusations of sexual abuse who ministered in the diocese.

Additionally, the bishop offered several listening sessions and announced the hiring of a distinguished former FBI executive, Kathleen McChesney and her consulting team, to review diocesan personal files. This effort on the part of the diocese to offer full transparency and accountability is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of the efforts by the local church to deal with their history of clergy abuse and to try to do the right thing for victims and their families as well as for rank-and-file Catholics.

These efforts and frequent recent local, national and global news reports about the clergy abuse crisis in the church begs the question, are children safe from abuse in the Catholic church today?

Since the crisis in Boston during 2002 that led to the Academy Award winning film, “Spotlight,” the church has instituted industry standard best practices in child protection that were directed by the now famous Dallas Charter and Essential Norms for child protection in the church. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice also conducted two comprehensive and independent studies on the problem, published in 2004 (Nature and Scope) and 2011 (Causes and Context).

During the past 16 years the church pulls anyone with creditable accusations of abuse from ministry, reports to local law enforcement and prevents those with substantiated allegations from continuing in ministry or representing themselves as a priest to the public for the rest of their lives. All those who wish to become clerics in the church now must complete full psychological and behavioral evaluations as well as participate in criminal background checks. Additionally, all dioceses and religious orders have lay review boards comprised of law enforcement, human resources, mental health, child protection, and other lay professionals who review and consult on all cases of alleged abuse by clerics.

All employees and volunteers in the church participate in safe environment training learning about best practices in child protection. Each diocese and religious order is audited by an independent auditing firm to ensure compliance, and their findings are made public. These best practices are shared by other groups that work with children including the Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs, Youth Athletics, and so forth. The number of new cases of victimization across the nation has been often in the single digits since these best practices have been put into effect.

Vigilance is always needed in child protection as sometimes policies and procedures are not carefully followed and occasionally someone falls between the cracks. Holes in the system need to be plugged in the church and elsewhere to ensure that children are safe in the hands of adults. Sadly, a small percentage of men, when given the opportunity to do so, will violate trust with children and sexual victimize them. This is true in all institutions where children and adults mingle, including schools, youth sports, music and churches of all denominations.

The diocese of San Jose has made efforts to deal with their past and manage the present and future with best practices in child protection in mind. And in doing so they will help to keep children safe and hopefully regain the trust of local Catholics and non-Catholics alike.