Faith Waste Initiative

business as usual: Clergy-abuse victims like John Salveson think the Catholic Church shouldn't back off reform initiatives. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

The Catholic Church waters down sexual-abuse monitoring.

by Mike Newall

The Catholic Church will once again police itself when it comes to the sexual abuse of children. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted last week to dramatically weaken the two-year-old audit system that was instituted to ensure individual dioceses are enforcing sexual-abuse reform measures. At their annual fall meeting in Washington, D.C., the bishops decided by an overwhelming majority to replace the audit's independent investigators with a self-reporting system in which dioceses fill out questionnaires at their own discretion.

The decision to water down the audit has angered many local Catholics and victims of clergy abuse still reeling from the fallout of the scandals that rocked the church in 2002, when it was discovered that scores of U.S. bishops had covered up abuse complaints and protected pedophile priests for decades.

"This is like Ken Lay of Enron calling up the Justice Department and saying, "Thanks for pointing out a few flaws, fellas, but we'll take over from here,'" says John Salveson, director of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "This is the greatest indicator that it's back to business as usual for the Catholic Church."

Archdiocese officials would not comment on the issue, or whether Philadelphia Archbishop Justin Rigali voted in favor of the self-audit system.

"All of the bishop's votes are private," says Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell.

"They promised transparency and finally put some teeth into accountability measures but now, after only two years, have completely watered them down," adds John McDonnell, 60, who along with his two brothers, filed a civil suit against the archdiocese earlier this year claiming abuse by a priest as children in West Philadelphia.

"This is going to cause victims a lot of pain and suffering," he continues. "It shows a total lack of understanding and compassion by church leaders."

The independent audit system was the centerpiece of reforms implemented by the bishops at the height of the clergy-abuse scandal. For the last two years, 54 private investigators, most former FBI agents, have audited the nation's 194 Catholic dioceses, scrutinizing whether they were implementing measures aimed at curbing sexual abuse by clergy. Last year's audit found that 96 percent of national dioceses, including Philadelphia, were in compliance.

Many bishops argued that complying with the independent audits was difficult and unnecessary.

"These audits were a lot of work," one bishop was quoted in the Inquirer as saying from the floor of the conference, his sentiments echoing the majority opinion of the bishops. "I'm grateful … for a simplified procedure that will be much easier to fulfill."

Many area Catholics viewed the independent audit as a common-sense reform needed to help rebuild the laity's fractured trust of the church hierarchy.

"They're doing themselves a great disservice," says Bud Bretschneider, chairman of the Voice of the Faithful of Greater Philadelphia, a Catholic reform group created in response to the sexual-abuse scandal. "Certainly they're not going to win the confidence of the laity by claiming they can watch over themselves. It's a tremendous setback."

When it was reported last May that a powerful contingent of bishops, including Rigali, were lobbying to postpone this year's audit, the VOF sent an emotional letter to the archdiocese.

"Voice of the Faithful of Greater Philadelphia draws its membership from more than 40 [out of 275] parishes in the archdiocese," it read. "We hear constantly from members about faithful Catholics who are embarrassed to call themselves Catholics, who are hanging onto their membership by their fingertips, or who have actually left the church."

The letter went on to warn that undercutting the independent audit would "cause even more disaffection from the church."

The bishops' announcement comes at time of great uneasiness for area Catholics. For more than two years, a federal grand jury has been investigating the archdiocese's handling of sexual-abuse complaints. Scores of victims, church officials, lawyers and clergy-abuse experts have been questioned. Former Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua has been called to testify at least half a dozen times. Rigali has also been called.

Nearly 30 civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse have also been filed against the archdiocese in the last year.

On Nov. 12, Linda Curran, 38, filed a civil complaint claiming sexual abuse by former nun Eileen Rhoads, her sixth-grade teacher at Holy Cross grade school in Delaware County. Rhoads, 65, who left her job at Holy Cross in 1994, was indicted in Virginia in February after a man accused her of abusing him while she was a nun there in the late 1960s. Curran's filing contains letters of warning sent by Rhoads' mother superior to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia before her hiring at Holy Cross. "Sister is inclined to be too familiar with the children," read one letter. "And permits them to be too intimate with her." Four other men filed abuse charges against Rhoads as well.

The archdiocese does not comment on specific cases but said in a prepared statement that they take "seriously and will investigate any allegation of abuse."