Bishops didn't go far enough in addressing church crisis

As they assembled Thursday for the start of their spring meeting in Dallas, Texas, American bishops of the Roman Catholic Church were confronted by a Dallas Morning News investigative report that claimed that about two-thirds of the top U.S. Catholic leaders "have protected priests accused of sexual abuse in a systematic practice that spans decades and continues today."
The story was based on a three-month review of the records of the church's hierarchy in the nation's 178 mainstream Roman Catholic dioceses.
And yet, when the bishops, whose agenda for the conference contained only one item, the sexual abuse of children by priests, announced a new, get-tough policy for dealing with such criminality, there was no mention of the culpability of those who had a hand in the situation becoming the crisis that it is today.
It is this perceived circling of the wagons that overshadowed what was otherwise a bold move by the bishops to deal with sexual abuse of minors and pedophilia in the Catholic church. The binding document, aptly titled "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," was approved by a 239-13 vote. The charter's most important provision says that "for even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor -- past, present, or future -- the offending priest or deacon will be permanently removed from ministry and will not receive a future assignment." Such a priest or deacon would not be permitted to wear the cleric's garb nor work in a parish or be involved with children.
Mandatory reporting
The bishops also made it mandatory that any allegation of abuse be reported immediately to the proper authorities, even where state law does not require such reporting.
"From this day forward, no one known to have sexually abused a child will work in the Catholic Church in the United States," Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said moments after the historic vote.
Bishop Gregory's honest, forthright appraisal of the crisis that has gripped the church for several years and his obvious disdain for fellow priests who have violated their vows of celibacy and have broken civil law, went a long way toward providing the conference with the credibility it so desperately needed. Prior to the start of the session, there were rumblings that a majority of the bishops would attempt to downplay the problem and give a pass to any priest who had committed only one act of sexual abuse.
But the zero-tolerance policy is the result of Gregory and many of his colleagues' realizing that only a strong stand would satisfy an increasing number of disgruntled lay Catholics.
That said, the failure of the Conference of Bishops to address the issue of the protection afforded to criminal priests by many in the church's hierarchy will remain a point of contention until the bishops are held to account. What is needed is an independent national review board, made up of clergy, lay Catholics and legal experts, to review the actions of every bishop identified in the Dallas Morning News' investigative report and to recommend sanctions, including removal from office.
Indeed, the fact that the bishops stopped short of requiring every abuser to be automatically stripped completely of his clerical status might suggest that they were protecting their own self-interests.
The charter -- it must be approved by Pope John Paul II -- should be viewed as a work in progress and by the fall meeting should be presented to the Conference of Bishops for necessary changes.