A WAITING PERIOD

Many Catholics are feeling similar anxiety over the Vatican's decision to retard its approval of the U.S. bishops' charter on sexual abuse (see page 1). They know the Vatican wants to get under the hood of the document, but does it want to tinker or to overhaul?

When the announcement came last week that a joint commission of American bishops and Vatican personnel would meet on the document, some in the media greatly overreacted and declared that Rome had already rejected the charter outright. Hardly. But the Holy See does want to peruse it, so American Catholics rightfully feel they have been hung on tenterhooks.

According to Catholic News Service, those hooks could be as sharp as talons. CNS reports that the joint commission was a compromise between Vatican officials who wanted to reject the norms outright and others who favored an experimental implementation. The compromise is a cooling-off period that allows for dialogue.

"It's a question of improving the language, not rewriting the policy," declared one senior Vatican official, providing hope to those who do not want to re-live the dreadful first six months of 2002, when rage and disappointment ruled the Church. As CNS put it, "if the Vatican wants to change the basic thrust of the policy, then the bishops will have some tough explaining to do to the Catholic faithful."

Those faithful will be watching, and like car owners with nervous stomachs, they will have two questions in mind: Will the commissioners tighten loose language and perform other minor adjustments, or will they gut the document and thus reopen the wounds that had begun to heal?

(10-24-02)