The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
announced last week that at its Spring meeting which ended Friday, the National Review Board (NRB), a lay group advising it on handling of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, issued "A Ten Year Progress Report" (
full text of June 1, 2012 report). Here are excerpts from the Report:
In 2002, the bishops of the United States approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Ten years later, there has been striking improvement in the Church’s response to and treatment of victims.....
Perhaps the most important advance for the Church in the last decade is the realization by its leaders that cooperation with legal authorities is in the best interest of the Church and the dioceses/eparchies. Dioceses/eparchies are required to report all allegations of sexual abuse of minors to public authorities and to cooperate with all investigations on all matters of sexual abuse. They are also required to advise victims of their right to make a report to public authorities.....
A serious concern of the NRB is complacency or Charter drift – that is, thinking 10 years of action is enough and programs and vigilance can be taken for granted or worse, watered down. While the current trend shows a decrease in clergy sexual abuse, we must never let our guard down. Now is not the time to drift away from the moral requirements of the Charter and the legal requirements of reporting....
