Episcopal responses
United States
In June 2002, the USCCB established the "Charter for
the Protection of Children and Young People", a comprehensive set of
procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic
clergy. The charter includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing,
accountability, reporting, and prevention of future acts of abuse.
The USCCB's National Review Board for the Protection of
Children and Young People now requires dioceses faced with an allegation of child
sexual abuse (where the victim is currently a minor) to alert the authorities,
conduct an investigation, and (in the case of an admission of guilt or finding
of guilt by an appropriate investigation) remove the accused from duty.
The Board also approached John Jay College of Criminal
Justice to conduct a descriptive study of the nature and scope of the problem
of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as well as the costs to the church
of the scandal. Data collection commenced in March 2003, and ended in February 2004.
The findings of this study are discussed elsewhere on this page.
United Kingdom
The 2001 Lord Nolan recommendations, accepted in full by the
bishops, became model guidelines for other bishops' conferences around the
world, and a model for other institutions in Britain.[255] One guideline was
that in each parish there should be a "safeguarding officer", a lay
person who would vet through the Criminal Records Bureau, a government agency,
anyone in the parish who had access to young people or vulnerable adults, and
would be a contact for anyone with any concerns.
Holy See's Response
John L. Allen, Jr., Vatican correspondent for the National
Catholic Reporter, commented that many American Catholics saw the Vatican's
initial silence on the Boston Globe stories as showing a lack of concern or
awareness about the issue. However, Allen said that he didn't know anyone in
the Roman Curia who was not at least horrified "by the revelations that
came out of the Globe and elsewhere" or who would defend "Cardinal
Law's handling of the cases in Boston" or "the rather shocking lack
of oversight that revealed itself" though "they might have different
analyses of what should have happened to him". Allen described the Vatican's perspective as
being somewhat skeptical of the media handling of the scandal. In addition, he
asserted that the Vatican viewed American cultural attitudes toward sexuality
as being somewhat hysterical as well as exhibiting a lack of understanding of
the Catholic Church.
No one [in the Vatican] thinks the sexual abuse of kids is
unique to the States, but they do think that the reporting on it is uniquely
American, fueled by anti-Catholicism and shyster lawyers hustling to tap the
deep pockets of the church. And that thinking is tied to the larger perception
about American culture, which is that there is a hysteria when it comes to
anything sexual, and an incomprehension of the Catholic Church. What that means
is that Vatican officials are slower to make the kinds of public statements that
most American Catholics want, and when they do make them they are tentative and
halfhearted. It's not that they don't feel bad for the victims, but they think
the clamor for them to apologize is fed by other factors that they don't want
to capitulate to.
According to Allen, cultural differences between the Vatican
and American Catholics complicated the process of formulating a comprehensive
response to the sexual abuse scandal: "there is a lot about the American
culture and the American Church that puzzles people in the Vatican, and there
is much about the Vatican that puzzles Americans and English speakers
generally."
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