Abuse a key topic as US Catholic bishops meet
As the Roman Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal grows in the U.S., bishops convene for a national meeting in Baltimore on Tuesday under heavy pressure to acknowledge their oversight failures and give a larger role to lay Catholics and secular authorities in confronting the crisis.
The pressure comes not only from longtime critics of the church’s response to clergy sex abuse, but also from insiders who voice doubts that the bishops are capable of handling the crisis on their own. Among them is Francesco Cesareo, chairman of a national sexabuse review board set up by the bishops.
“My biggest concern is that it’s going to end up being bishops overseeing bishops,” Cesareo told Catholic News Service, the news agency of the U.S. bishops’ conference.
Sex-abuse scandals have beset the Catholic church worldwide for decades, but events of the past year have created unprecedented challenges. Many dioceses have become targets of state investigations since a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August detailed hundreds of cases of alleged abuse.
The bishops drafted new accountability policies for their previous national meeting in November, but deferred action due to a last-minute request from the Vatican. One of those proposals would have established a newcode of conduct for individual bishops; another would have created a special commission, including lay experts and clergy, to review complaints.
In Baltimore, bishops will be guided by a groundbreaking new law issued by Pope Francis in May.
It requires priests and nuns worldwide to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities. Also, any claim of sexual misconduct or cover-up against a bishop must be reported to the Vatican and a supervisory bishop.