CV NEWS FEED // Bishops in the US have facilitated remarkable progress in caring for victims of clergy abuse and preventing such abuse from happening, but problems remain, according to Suzanne Healy, the outgoing chairwoman of the USCCB’s National Review Board.
Healy provided a progress report regarding these issues on June 14, during the second day of the USCCB 2024 Spring Plenary Assembly’s public sessions in Louisville, Kentucky.
Healy said that God has called everyone in the Church to help heal and protect children and young people from abuse from Church clergy, employees, and volunteers, and this commitment has become “an intrinsic ministry.”
“It is no longer responding to a crisis, but rather it has become and continues to be ingrained in the fabric of our everyday church culture,” she explained.
According to Healy, bishops’ commitments in the 2002 Dallas Charter have helped the Church create a culture of safety that is “far beyond” the Charter’s vision.
The 2023 Stonebridge annual audit showed the number of cases has dropped significantly. The number of “historical cases” was 2,704 in 2022 and 1,308 in 2023. There were 17 new allegations involving current minors abused by clergy this audit year, which ran from July 2022 through June 2023.
Healy remarked that the NRC believes training programs, systematic background checks, policies and codes of conduct have reduced “the potential for abuse.” All dioceses and eparchies participated in audit data collection this year for the first time since the charter took effect in 2004.
She praised the bishops for their work to establish safe environments, support survivors and their families, and seek professionals to serve as victims assistance coordinators, safe environment coordinators and other child and youth protection ministers.
There are 161 dioceses and eparchies that have published and updated lists of clergy who are the subject of credible allegations of abuse. These lists are measures of transparency and accountability and can help survivors heal.
But problems continue, and work remains, Healy continued.
“Certainly one (allegation) is too many,” she said.
“We cannot become complacent, and we must remain vigilant in ongoing support of these important ministries and their departments,” Healy remarked. “Survivors will continue to teach us and tell us how we can best accompany them. We must listen in a synodal way, expecting to hear in the voices of the survivors the promptings of the Holy Spirit.”
“A small number” of dioceses and eparchies have yet not participated in a live, onsite audit, according to Healy. These audits are conducted every three years. Seventy percent, rather than 100%, of dioceses and eparchies conduct their own parish audits for compliance with safe environment policies and practices.
Not doing those audits risks breakdowns and abuse, Healy said. Every year, there are instances of diocesan review boards’ failure to comply with Article 2 of the charter in terms of the board’s composition and regularity of board meetings. USCCB departments are reviewing a diocese review board resource booklet and they hope that manual will be approved by the end of this year.
Healy called on bishops and dioceses to receive training in high reliability organizations principles so they can “examine the near misses” and better “prepare for the unexpected.” If they already received the training, they need to keep improving in those areas.
She said that the “preoccupation with failure” principle of high reliability organizations can help identify ways to improve policies and any challenges with how people are following the policies. High reliability organizations’ principles also encourage leaders to find and learn from subject matter experts.
NRB members and constituents in dioceses and eparchies are reviewing the Dallas Charter, which is in the process of being revised, she added. While bishops would like the charter to remain focused on clergy abuse of minors, “there is a growing expectation and hope” that the Church will also provide pastoral guidance on how to respond to adults to adult allegations of abuse and who is a “vulnerable adult.” In 2018, the NRB began recommending that bishops make more efforts in this area.
“The leaders in victims assistance and child and youth protection in your dioceses and eparchies are increasingly receiving adult adult allegations and responding to them pastorally as best they can,” she said.
NRB members and some bishops have participated in child and youth protection leadership conferences and been asked more and more when they will have standards and pastoral care for adults who have experienced sexual or spiritual abuse as adults, Healy explained. Some bishops have also asked for guidance on this “very complicated matter.”
“It is a fact and public sentiment that abuse hurts at every age. If we don’t respond compassionately in these cases, it diminishes the trust we are working so hard to restore in our church,” Healy said. “The institutional response to these allegations appears to be lacking.”
She noted that the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors began drafting and updating a guidelines framework in 2022, in line with the mandate in the Apostolic Constitution “Praedicate Evangelium.” The Commission adopted the framework in March.
In addition to covering matters that are similar to those in the Dallas Charter, “this document also challenges leaders throughout the Universal Church to go beyond the focus of clerical abuse of minors and to address the safeguarding on a broader scale, including adult matters.”
“Our prayer is that fear does not stand in our way of doing what is right and good and holy,” she said. “Again, God calls us to remain vigilant in our care for all his people. Do not be afraid. Now is the time.”
Healy noted that the NRB would like to follow the John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s propsal to examine the credible abuse allegations that have been reported since 2011, when the report “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010” was published, because it is important to learn how the recent allegations happened, whether future events are preventable, what the context was, and whether the solutions involve “ecclesial or societal structures.”
“You again have the opportunity to break ground and establish the foundation for the next evolution and safeguarding with this study,” Healy remarked. “You can continue to demonstrate your commitment to the promises made, knowing that you are supported by your brethren around the world as together we establish healthy and holy communities for all.”
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