 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
Cardinal George heading to Rome to help resolve U.S. sex abuse policy By Michelle Martin Staff Writer Cardinal George will be one of four U.S. bishops who will travel to Rome in the next two weeks to work with Vatican officials to fine-tune the sex abuse policy approved by American prelates in June. The Vatican must formally approve the rules on how to handle the cases of child sex abuse by clerics for them to become binding on all U.S. dioceses, but a two-page letter from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops released Oct. 18 said the Vatican saw possible areas of confusion and questions of interpretation in the norms. The problematic areas include the definition of terms like “sexual abuse,” the role of diocesan review boards and the canonical procedures for dealing with priests who have abused minors, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement released in Rome Oct. 18. However, the letter also voiced strong support for the bishops’ efforts to respond to the sex abuse crisis. (For the text of the letter, Bishop Gregory’s statement and the official announcement of Cardinal George’s role in the upcoming meeting, see Page 5.) Vatican observers said the request to work with American bishops to hammer out the details of how to reconcile the norms with international canon law is a sign that the Vatican officials understand the gravity of the situation and approve of the U.S. bishops’ general approach in trying to solve it. “When you look at the Vatican statement, it really was a fundamental affirmation of the work that the bishops did in Dallas,” said Father Patrick R. Lagges, director of canonical services for the Archdiocese of Chicago. “They praised the work of the bishops in Dallas, and said we need to take a look at some things. … It’s typical of the way the Vatican handles complex issues. If they want to reject something, they’ll do it outright. There will be no doubt they’re rejecting it.” Lagges said he’s not surprised that the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and the norms need some minor changes, given that they were written—and overwhelmingly approved—by the whole body of U.S. bishops at their Dallas meeting. “Any time you try to get a decision made by a huge body of people, you’re not going to get a real precise document,” he said. The creation of a U.S.-Vatican commission to revise the U.S. bishops’ sex abuse norms reflected a compromise between Vatican officials who wanted to reject the norms outright and others who favored an experimental implementation. By creating an additional step, the Vatican gave everyone more time to study the details—and offered the bishops another chance to win the Vatican’s blessing. Cardinal Re’s carefully worded letter requesting the commission was the result of weeks of internal discussion among five Vatican departments. The Vatican members will come from the congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, for Bishops and for Clergy and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. While the questions to be examined are not minor ones, Vatican officials confirmed the optimistic prediction of U.S. church leaders that fine-tuning on the norms could be finished by mid-November. “I’m certain an agreement will be reached, maybe even before November. It’s a question of improving the language, not rewriting the policy,” one senior Vatican official said Oct. 21. The U.S. bishops conference is scheduled to gather again for its annual fall meeting beginning Nov. 9 in Washington D.C. “We’re dealing with a basically sound document that needs modification rather than recasting,” Bishop Gregory told reporters at a Rome press conference. He said the commission would be “fine-tuning” the norms, and that the Vatican had not categorically rejected any element of the bishops’ sex abuse plan. “Nothing (in the charter and norms) has been taken off the table,” he said. “Nothing has been ruled out.” He said the commission’s review did not mean that implementation of the sex abuse charter was now “frozen” in U.S. dioceses. “The mixed commission has not asked the bishops to stop pursuing the charter. It simply says let us sit down and talk together about issues that need to be clarified or modified so that ‘recognitio’ can be granted to the norms,” he said. Bishop Gregory said the joint review did not imply a softening of the bishops’ policies. “We have not stepped back from our compassion for those who have been harmed, nor from our determination to put into place policies that will protect children,” he said. In his letter, Cardinal Re described three problem areas in general terms; Bishop Gregory gave more specific examples in his statement: * Cardinal Re said the norms and the charter contain provisions that “in some aspects are difficult to reconcile with the universal law of the church.” Bishop Gregory said an example was the proper role of review boards, which are to be established in every diocese. Although these were envisioned as consultative bodies, Vatican officials are concerned that bishops might be held accountable to these boards; they say that would be an unacceptable infringement on the bishop’s authority. * Cardinal Re said the terminology of the norms and the charter was “at times vague or imprecise and therefore difficult to interpret.” Bishop Gregory said an example was the term “sexual abuse.” The U.S. bishops’ charter said sex abuse “need not be a complete act of intercourse” and cited a definition that said sexual abuse of children need not involve physical or genital contact. Vatican officials fear that this is too ambiguous and relies too much on subjective feelings of a victim to define the crime. * Cardinal Re said that “questions also remain concerning the concrete manner in which the procedures outlined in the norms and charter are to be applied in conjunction with the requirements of the Code of Canon Law” and with Pope John Paul II’s 2001 apostolic letter, “Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela,” which gave to the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation oversight on cases of clerical sex abuse against minors. Bishop Gregory said an example of the Vatican’s concern in this area would be the procedures for dealing with a priest who is known to have abused a minor. The U.S. bishops’ plan says that a priest who has committed any act of sexual abuse against a minor—past, present or future—is to be permanently removed from the active ministry. It also sets dismissal from the priesthood as a standard penalty, even against a priest’s will, but allows for some exceptions. Those provisions are more strict and less flexible than those of canon law or the pope’s 2001 letter. However, the U.S. bishops’ plan said explicitly that church law procedures would be respected. Now, Bishop Gregory said, the Vatican wants “further specification” on how that will be done. The papal letter has not really been implemented in the United States; for months, Vatican and U.S. church officials said the question of its application to U.S. cases was still being studied, because U.S. bishops had previously been given special exemptions from church law on such cases. At a separate press conference Oct. 18, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, head of the clergy congregation, said he was concerned that the U.S. approach to clerical sex abuse did not do enough to protect the rights of accused priests. The church defends the human rights of everyone and “does not privilege the ecclesiastical delinquent when it defends his rights,” he said. He said church policies must reflect the right of accused priests to their good name, especially because of the risk of false accusations. Even reformed abusers also have a right to their good name, the cardinal said. The norms must reflect the church’s deep sense of the power of mercy and conversion, he said. Contributing to this story were John Thavis and John Norton at the Vatican. Front Page | Digest | Cardinal | Interview |
||