WASHINGTON -- Hoping to put 10 months of scandal behind them, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved yesterday a revised sexual-abuse policy that they pledge will keep any priest who has molested a child from ever serving in the ministry.
The bishops also approved a statement in which they apologized for mistakes made by church leaders who transferred abusers from parish to parish, and promised to subject themselves to mutual oversight and correction.
The abuse policy goes to Rome for approval, which the bishops said they hope to have by the end of the year.
The bishops avoided using the term "zero tolerance," which many have criticized as overly vague and open to various interpretations. But in conversations after the vote, several bishops made it clear that this policy achieves the zero tolerance they had sworn to practice after their June meeting in Dallas.
"We certainly have done everything that we can humanly do now in order to ensure that the sexual abuse of children, and of minors in general, is something that is going to be removed from the scene," said Baltimore's Cardinal William H. Keeler.
The policy, which was drafted in response to a scandal that saw more than 300 accused American priests removed from the ministry, was sent back to the bishops for revisions after Vatican officials ruled that parts of it violated priests' rights.
Those revisions, completed in a day and a half last month by a joint commission of Vatican officials and U.S. bishops, resulted in a weakened policy, some critics contended.
'Moved us forward'
Yesterday, the bishops insisted the changes make the policy stronger.
"The Vatican did not pull us back but moved us forward and gave us the tools to effectively and legally do what we said we would do," said Bishop Joseph Galante of Dallas. "No priest will ever be put back in ministry who has committed an act of sexual abuse."
This week, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, chairman of the National Review Board set up to monitor the bishops' progress in adhering to their new sexual abuse policy, said he was satisfied with the revisions.
But groups representing lay Catholics and victims of sexual abuse asserted the policy still falls short.
"By replacing a relatively simple set of common-sense rules with a much more complex, convoluted and even daunting set of guidelines, they've increased their own power and decision making and decreased the role of lay people," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Steve Krueger, interim executive director of Voice of the Faithful, a Boston-based group of lay Catholics formed in response to the sexual abuse scandal that first erupted there, advocated increased vigilance of church leaders.
"I think that in every diocese across this country, Catholics have to hold their bishops accountable," he said. "Ultimately it will be the court of public opinion that will have the greater influence on what the bishops do, we hope, than the norms that were handed down from Rome."
The major change made by the revision was to take discipline of accused priests out of the hands of individual bishops, instead requiring church trials that would protect the rights of priests to due process under church law.
"I think the document we finalized in Dallas was very well done, but it needed more balance," said Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe. "I think there were a lot of priests who were concerned that there could be false accusations made against them and that automatically they would be considered guilty."
The bishops also asserted that, contrary to initial interpretations, the revised policy requires all bishops to report allegations of sexual abuse to civil authorities.
No discretionary power
Although the revised document requires the bishops to adhere to a 10-year statute of limitations in church law for bringing cases against priests, it also requires bishops to apply to the Vatican for a waiver. All future cases must be reported to the Vatican, which sets into motion the church's judicial process.
That, the bishops said, takes away from them any discretion over whether to take action against a priest accused of sexual abuse -- a move made necessary because some of them allowed known abusers to continue functioning as priests
"Yes, we give up discretionary power," Galante said. "That's the least we could do for having misused it before."
Even if a priest is acquitted by a tribunal, perhaps because the offense was mitigated by a psychological condition, the bishops have pledged that if there is strong evidence of guilt, they will refuse to let him serve in the ministry.
Some of the seven bishops who voted against the policy said there were no allowances for a priest who abused once, reformed and served well for decades afterward.
At this point, church trials will be conducted only for priests protesting their innocence. Church officials did not have an estimate of how many of these cases there would be, although they said Vatican officials intimated they had received several appeals from American priests.
The bishops also approved a statement in which they apologized for mistakes made by church leaders who transferred abusers from parish to parish, and promised to subject themselves to mutual oversight and correction.
The abuse policy goes to Rome for approval, which the bishops said they hope to have by the end of the year.
The bishops avoided using the term "zero tolerance," which many have criticized as overly vague and open to various interpretations. But in conversations after the vote, several bishops made it clear that this policy achieves the zero tolerance they had sworn to practice after their June meeting in Dallas.
"We certainly have done everything that we can humanly do now in order to ensure that the sexual abuse of children, and of minors in general, is something that is going to be removed from the scene," said Baltimore's Cardinal William H. Keeler.
The policy, which was drafted in response to a scandal that saw more than 300 accused American priests removed from the ministry, was sent back to the bishops for revisions after Vatican officials ruled that parts of it violated priests' rights.
Those revisions, completed in a day and a half last month by a joint commission of Vatican officials and U.S. bishops, resulted in a weakened policy, some critics contended.
"The Vatican did not pull us back but moved us forward and gave us the tools to effectively and legally do what we said we would do," said Bishop Joseph Galante of Dallas. "No priest will ever be put back in ministry who has committed an act of sexual abuse."
This week, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, chairman of the National Review Board set up to monitor the bishops' progress in adhering to their new sexual abuse policy, said he was satisfied with the revisions.
But groups representing lay Catholics and victims of sexual abuse asserted the policy still falls short.
"By replacing a relatively simple set of common-sense rules with a much more complex, convoluted and even daunting set of guidelines, they've increased their own power and decision making and decreased the role of lay people," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Steve Krueger, interim executive director of Voice of the Faithful, a Boston-based group of lay Catholics formed in response to the sexual abuse scandal that first erupted there, advocated increased vigilance of church leaders.
"I think that in every diocese across this country, Catholics have to hold their bishops accountable," he said. "Ultimately it will be the court of public opinion that will have the greater influence on what the bishops do, we hope, than the norms that were handed down from Rome."
The major change made by the revision was to take discipline of accused priests out of the hands of individual bishops, instead requiring church trials that would protect the rights of priests to due process under church law.
"I think the document we finalized in Dallas was very well done, but it needed more balance," said Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe. "I think there were a lot of priests who were concerned that there could be false accusations made against them and that automatically they would be considered guilty."
The bishops also asserted that, contrary to initial interpretations, the revised policy requires all bishops to report allegations of sexual abuse to civil authorities.
That, the bishops said, takes away from them any discretion over whether to take action against a priest accused of sexual abuse -- a move made necessary because some of them allowed known abusers to continue functioning as priests
"Yes, we give up discretionary power," Galante said. "That's the least we could do for having misused it before."
Even if a priest is acquitted by a tribunal, perhaps because the offense was mitigated by a psychological condition, the bishops have pledged that if there is strong evidence of guilt, they will refuse to let him serve in the ministry.
Some of the seven bishops who voted against the policy said there were no allowances for a priest who abused once, reformed and served well for decades afterward.
At this point, church trials will be conducted only for priests protesting their innocence. Church officials did not have an estimate of how many of these cases there would be, although they said Vatican officials intimated they had received several appeals from American priests.