Volume 26, Number 1    April 2004

In Brief

Bishops should resign
Bishops who knowingly transferred priest abusers should resign, say 82 percent of Catholic laity in poll results released by John Zogby Jan. 20 at the Catholic University of America.

Accused priests also victims?
A concern for the rights of priests accused of sex abuse is cropping up all over the country. Several members of the National Review Board recently complained that priests are not receiving due process because some diocesan review boards are failing to comply with the guidelines approved by the bishops in 2002. Said National Review Board member Nicholas Cafardi, “There is great disparity in how these cases are being handled from one diocese to another.” In some instances, according to reports, priests have been ordered to leave their parishes even though a preliminary investigation of the charges against them has not even begun. In other instances, trials of charged priests have been delayed for months, even though the initial investigation has been completed. Canon lawyers in several dioceses have decried what they see as a growing tendency to “presume guilt” whenever a priest is identified as having sexually abused a minor.