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Vatican Delay on Abuse Norms Ominous

October 18, 2002

Chicago, Oct. 18, 2002 -- "It is clear that the Vatican's underlying concern is not protecting children, but preserving the privilege and status of priests and bishops," said Linda Pieczynski, spokesperson for Call To Action.

"If you look at who the Vatican is appointing to the mixed commission to review the sex abuse norms, they represent the clergy and the bishops. Why isn't there anyone from the Vatican offices for family life or the laity? We don't have confidence that anything will be better in three weeks when the U.S. bishops meet to consider this again."

Pieczynksi was responding to the Vatican's rejection of the U.S. Catholic Church's sex abuse policy adopted in June at the U.S. bishops' meeting.

"How is competent lay advice a 'source of confusion and ambiguity' for the Vatican? Is the real fear that lay people may exercise some independent authority ? The review boards as constituted by the norms are not even independent as CTA recommended in its recommendations sent to every bishops last May, and they are only advisory to the bishop, so what is the problem?

"The bishops created the problem of credibility by reassigning abusive priests. The solution lies in having truly independent review boards which have the trust of the Catholic community, and which put the safety of kids first," said Pieczynski.

"We are in favor of due process for priests. We called for due process for priests in our recommendations. We said in May that, 'Due process for accused priests should be ensured, including advising them to retain independent legal assistance.' The issue is who administers the due process. How can we trust a process run by the same people in the
Vatican who have neglected to pursue other legitimate sex abuse complaints, such as in the case of the Legionnaire's for Christ founder whose case was whitewashed by the Vatican?

"And what about due process for laity? Where do we appeal decisions made by bishops and priests that adversely affect us? Church law gives us the right to appeal, but no one to hear our appeal. There are no church courts to defend the rights of lay people.

"What about due process for all the lay employees, and nuns too, who work in parishes and are fired when a new pastor comes to the parish? This happens all the time, and most of them are women. Where do they turn for justice? If the Vatican is going to uphold due process for priests, how about making it universal and applying it to all of us. Are lay people, who make up 99% of the church, less important than priests?" Pieczynski said.

CTA is concerned that the Vatican's delay in accepting the norms from the U.S. bishops will allow some dioceses to do nothing about implementing the Charter. The USCCB's own survey of dioceses in August found that 34 dioceses don't yet have a review board that conforms to the norms, and 9 of those don't expect to have one operating even by the end of the year - and 9 dioceses didn't respond to the survey, so we don't know what they are doing. Nor do we know which particular dioceses are not implementing the norms.

"Lay members of the church aren't being consulted here, but that won't stop CTA members continuing to act as responsible, adult Catholics. Our members are going to join with other Catholics in monitoring each diocese to see if it implements the norms, and to make that information public. We are launching a campaign seeking full disclosure from every diocese of its past experience with sex abuse, including the names of abusive priests, and the financial costs, like the Baltimore Archdiocese has done," Pieczynski said.

Call To Action is a national organization of 25,000 laity, religious, priests and bishops and 40 local chapters. It advocates for reforms in the Catholic Church such as the ordination of women, optional celibacy for priests, more focus on the church's social justice teaching, and consultation with the Catholic people on church decision-making and sexuality issues. Their comprehensive web site is at www.cta-usa.org.

CONTACT: Don Wedd, 773-404-0004 ext. 270, don@cta-usa.org; after hours: Linda Pieczynski, 630-323-6924

 

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