Experts: Charter protects children

Washington (CNS) -- Five years after the U.S. bishops passed their landmark policies to prevent child sex abuse, they can look back at successes in institutionalizing safeguards and look ahead to challenges in restoring Church credibility.

The bottom-line question is: Are children safer now?

"Absolutely yes," answers Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, who recently completed her term as chairwoman of the National Review Board, which oversees the bishops' compliance with child protection policies.

Steps forward

Ewers, former president of Pace University in New York, pointed out that structures have been put in place for dealing pastorally with victims who come forward with allegations; millions of parents, clergy, employees and children are being educated on child sex abuse prevention; background checks are being done on clergy and church workers; and procedures have been developed for reporting allegations to public authorities.

Ewers said remaining tasks include overcoming the loss of trust in the Church, improving the quality of the programs, and streamlining Church procedures for investigating and judging whether a priest is guilty.

"The U.S. Church is trying to create the safest environment that can be humanly created," said Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, which helps dioceses implement the policies and audits compliance.

Charter

The National Review Board, and the Office of Child and Youth Protection were established by the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" approved by the bishops in June 2002.

Key charter provisions include:

* encouraging bishops or their representatives to meet with victims;

* establishing offices to receive accusations and provide professional counseling to victims;

* setting up diocesan review boards to examine accusations and advise the bishop on policies;

* zero tolerance, that is, permanently removing a priest or deacon from ministry after he admits committing abuse or his guilt is established after an appropriate Church process;

* improving seminary training and providing ongoing priestly formation programs to strengthen the commitment to celibacy; and

* cooperating with a Vatican-supervised on-site examination of U.S. seminaries.

Studies

The charter also commissioned studies on the sex abuse scandal.

One study, targeted for completion in 2010, will examine how bishops responded to the crisis, the social attitudes in the general society at the time of the abuse and priestly formation programs.

It will complement a previous study on the nature and scope of the clergy sex abuse crisis. That study gathered statistical data about the crisis from 1950 to 2002.

Balance

Since 2002, Ewers said, "I've seen a dramatic change in attitude by religious authorities toward victims, from confrontation to welcoming."

There is also a need to balance justice for victims with fairness for accused clergy, she said.

She favors maintaining the "zero tolerance" policy but said ways have to be found to speed the process by which Church officials determine if a clergyman has committed an abuse "so someone is not in limbo for years" with his reputation tarnished. Furthermore, long delays in making a decision are not helpful for victims, she said.

(6/28/07)