September 2002 Call to Action News

National review board: is it off to a fast start?

The national review board on clergy sexual abuse appointed by USCCB president, Bishop Wilton Gregory, had its first meeting July 30 in Washington. Afterwards the chairman, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, told reporters the board wants a status report on current sex abuse policy and practice from every diocese by the end of August. The board will also select a director of the USCCB national Office for Child and Youth Protection. The 12-member, all-lay panel has been criticized by abuse survivor groups for having no one from their ranks on the board. (The only abuse victim on the panel is Michael Bland, a former priest who works for the Chicago archdiocese.) But the board met with victims' organizations July 30, and will sit down with more victims at the next meeting Sept. 16.

Others have complained that the Gregory appointees won't be tough enough on the bishops. But Keating insisted that all 12 are "independent-minded but outraged Catholics" who will do whatever it takes to restore confidence in the church. Some commentators think Gregory was politically shrewd to appoint such high profile public figures. USCCB cannot ultimately make bishops follow the charter, but these lay people have the ability to embarrass recalcitrant bishops in public. The board members will not risk their own reputations by settling for weak enforcement. They include former President Clinton's lawyer, Robert Bennett, and chief of staff, Leon Panetta; Illinois Appellate Court Justice Anne Burke; Duquesne University law school dean, Nicholas Cafardi; former Brooklyn prosecutor Pamela Hayes; psychiatrist Paul McHugh, former dean of Johns Hopkins University medical school; and Alice B. Hayes, president of the University of San Diego.