Victims' group scoffs at Catholic report

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

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All three Roman Catholic dioceses in Washington are in full compliance with a policy established by U.S. bishops in 2002 to protect minors from sexual abuse by clergy, according to a national report released yesterday by the nation's bishops.

The dioceses of Seattle, Spokane and Yakima join about 170 other dioceses out of 195 in the country in complying with the new standards, the report says. Twenty dioceses, including Anchorage, New York and Honolulu, were not in full compliance. Four others were not audited for various reasons.

The report, conducted by the Gavin Group, an independent, Boston-based organization headed by former FBI official William Gavin, surveyed the progress bishops are making in carrying out a charter they agreed to in June 2002.

That charter specifies, among other things, what to do with clerics found guilty of abuse, and requires the establishment of everything from review boards made up of lay experts to outreach programs for victims.

Victims' groups, however, said the report was flawed, consisting mainly of self-reporting by church officials.

On the Web To view the report: www.usccb.org

They said the victims interviewed in the audits were not representative, in that auditors only interviewed victims who came forward after June 2002 and who were not involved in lawsuits; the auditors said they did not want to interfere with legal proceedings.

They also criticized the audits for not examining personnel records. The Gavin report itself says auditors did not review those files because of states' privacy and confidentiality laws. It also said auditors "did not have the civil or criminal authority to demand documents for record searches, but pertinent records, policies and information were generally provided as requested."

"The bishops have essentially defined the rules of the game, determined who plays, picked and paid the umpires and now claim they're winning," said David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Clohessy also said he found it "pretty disturbing that the bar is set so low, with dioceses getting commendations for having codes of conduct for priests and a formal diocesan communication plan. ... No priest molested a child because he had an inadequate code of conduct. We've always maintained the problem is not what the bishops write on paper but what they do in reality."

Auditors found dioceses most successful in several areas — selecting victims' assistance coordinators, establishing review boards and reporting cases of abuse to civil authorities. They found dioceses had more difficulty conducting meetings with victims, starting programs to protect minors, and establishing codes of conduct for people who work with youths.

Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI official who heads the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, oversaw the audit. She attributed those problems to some dioceses' limited resources or training; obstacles in providing outreach to victims involved in lawsuits; and difficulties in identifying suitable training programs and instructors.

The Gavin report also recommended future reports contain the number of allegations of sexual abuse of minors reported each year, the number of actions taken against clergy, the number of victims and the financial cost.

"The audit results represent solid progress on the journey toward fulfilling the vision set out in the charter," Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement yesterday. "However, the completion of the audit and this report does not tempt us to be complacent. The report now becomes a source of learning about how to build on what we are already doing well and about what more we need to do to protect children and young people."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272

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