From 2002: Bishops to tackle new policy

Originally published June 16, 2002

Having met the challenge of unifying behind a strict policy on sexual abuse, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops return to their dioceses today facing an equally formidable challenge: Making it work.

Under the policy adopted resoundingly Friday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, dioceses are now bound to follow a uniform set of zero-tolerance guidelines, reporting all abuse allegations to authorities and seeking to defrock all priests found guilty of future misconduct.

Church leaders in Philadelphia and Camden indicated Friday that bishops will have to negotiate legal obstacles to ensure that the new policy sweeps dioceses clean of abusive priests while remaining compassionate toward victims.

Some of that work began earlier this year, when the public and prosecutorial scrutiny unleashed by the national abuse scandal forced the Philadelphia Archdiocese and the Diocese of Camden to audit personnel files for priests with allegations of abuse in their records.

Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua said his archdiocese conducted a review of all its priests several months ago and that as a result, no priest accused of sexual abuse in the past is in any form of ministry in the five-county archdiocese.

In Camden, a similar audit began several months ago when the diocese turned over to prosecutors personnel files dating back two decades, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said during an Inquirer interview last week.

That audit, according to the Rev. Thomas Reese, a church scholar, is the first step – one that most U.S. bishops likely have undertaken already.

"By this time, they've got the list," said Father Reese, editor of America magazine and author of a book on the hierarchy of the U.S. Catholic Church. "I don't think there's going to be a lot of deep research on this. "

From there, however, the path to implementation becomes uncharted territory.

A great unknown in Philadelphia is the district attorney's continuing grand-jury investigation into the archdiocese's handling of decades-old cases. Cardinal Bevilacqua indicated last week that those criminal proceedings might have some bearing on how he would handle allegations of past abuse.

The cardinal and all other U.S. bishops are compelled to notify civil authorities of allegations – whether so-called frivolous or credible, whether the alleged victim says the abuse is current or happened years ago.

When asked Friday how he would handle reporting new allegations of past abuse, Cardinal Bevilacqua was unclear.

"Right now we're with a grand jury involved, so I'd rather not answer a question like that," he said. "We have to talk about that. . . . I'd have to talk to my lawyers. "

Asked again yesterday if he would report a new allegation of past abuse, the cardinal said that under the new policy, "right now, we have to do that. "

Such complexity illustrates the dilemma: Despite their stated conviction to change the way they do business, to respond compassionately to alleged victims, to aggressively report allegations of abuse against minors, the bishops may find themselves in a familiar quagmire.

They are trapped between their own moral and written mandate and the advice of their lawyers, who are bound to follow civil law.

It was also unclear how the cardinal would implement provisions calling for greater pastoral outreach to abuse victims.

After the bishops adopted the policy by a 239-13 secret ballot vote on Friday, Cardinal Bevilacqua said the time had come "to be more compassionate with the plight of the victims. "

In the past, the archdiocese has not always shown what some might consider compassion toward accusers. In one instance in the mid-1990s, the archdiocese countersued the parents of a victim who had sued the archdiocese, claiming that the parents had been negligent in their supervision of their child.

Asked if mistakes may have been made in the way victims were handled by the archdiocese, Cardinal Bevilacqua said: "At times we have had no control over what the lawyers do. "

With a new mandate, will the archdiocese have more control over lawyers?

"I don't know," he replied. "But if someone brings a suit against the church, the church also has a right to defend itself. Frequently, it's the insurance lawyers. I don't know how they act. We don't want any kind of unfair means used, but we have to defend ourselves. "

The cardinal said he did not want to see "insensitivity. But at the same time, I don't know what my limits are, how much can I go with this in telling the lawyers what to do and what not to do. "

This is an area that prompted Camden's bishop to try to insert language into the proposal that would have given diocesan officials discretion to determine the circumstances under which pastoral outreach would be offered.

Although his amendment failed, Bishop DiMarzio indicated Friday that such latitude still exists, because the policy does not explicitly address whether outreach is possible in dioceses being sued by those same victims.

"You want to honor the [charter's] commitment," Bishop DiMarzio said. "At the same time we have to be careful, as in all of these things, that we're following the legal procedure. "

A different challenge, Cardinal Bevilacqua said, will be establishing methods of investigation. For any accusation that comes in, the archdiocese will engage the assistance of Catholic Social Services – something already under way in Philadelphia.

"I have to get some kind of a group together to actually implement all of this," said Bevilacqua , who plans to meet tomorrow with lawyers and administrators to sort out how to proceed with the policy. "And it has to be done fairly quickly. "

Contact Maria Panaritis at 215-854-5162 or mpanaritis@phillynews.com.