“Diocese Warned of Priest’s Aberrant Behavior One Year Before Arrest,”by Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter, May 26, 2011
Excerpt: “According to guidelines established by the U.S. bishops in their 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, independent review boards in each diocese are to help the bishop “in his assessment of allegations of sexual abuse of minors.”
A member of the review board in the Kansas City diocese told NCR last week the group had never been notified of the Ratigan matter.
When asked why the review board wasn’t told of the concerns about Ratigan in December, Summers said in a phone interview that the bishops 2002 charter says diocesan review boards should be convened only “when you have a specific allegation of abuse” by a priest or other person in diocesan ministry.”
Once again, the bishops are squeeking themselves around wording to control the outcome of abuse cases. The question not being addressed is what was the intent of the Charter.
If appears that lawyers are defining the nuances of the Charter’s wording and the bishops are going along with them. Bishops, WWJD????????
When we think of what Jesus would do, we reflect back on the life of Jesus. He was young man living in the world; he lived honestly among the people. His life was simple and honest, unencumbered by trappings of worldly power.
It is a pity that our hierarchy does not seem to understand the simple message of Jesus and the honesty of the life of Jesus. They have taken the exquisite message of Jesus and wrapped it in the golden threads of cannon law, placed their message above that of the Bible, and now are scrambling to keep their power.
Those of us who see that their actions spell downfall for them and possibly for the Church as it stands today, know that the simple message of Jesus will and does outshine their machinations.
This is similar to the bishops’ parsing of the Dallas Charter’s audit requirement. The director of the OYCP explained to me that the bishops would not allow the audits to ask if a diocese had actually implemented its plan to protect kids because the way they read the charter it only required them to audit whether the diocese had a plan, not whether it had chosen to ignore it!