Each year the U.S. Catholic Church unveils its annual report on what it’s doing to prevent abuse of minors by clergy and other church workers.
What it also should tell church members is what’s being done, particularly by bishops, to help those suffering after the abuse, said a priest who works with survivors and perpetrators.
“We hear how much we’re paying victims, all these training programs” to prevent abuse, said Jesuit Father Jerry McGlone, himself a survivor of abuse by a priest, “but where is the initial and ongoing accompaniment of survivors? That, to me, is a real missing piece.”
In the two decades since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” “there were some really good advances that the charter promulgated: a sense of setting up a system that was not there, setting up policies that needed to be followed … having victim assistance coordinators, having safe environment training,” Father McGlone said in a June 9 interview with Catholic News Service.
The USCCB says on its website that the most important information in the annual report includes:
— “Findings regarding diocesan/eparchial compliance with the charter and recommendations from the auditor on how charter implementation can be improved.”
— “A progress report from the Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection on its activities.”
— “And data regarding allegations, safe environment programs, background checks, financial costs related to allegations and child protection efforts in dioceses/eparchies.”
“But you know, with that we lack the data to find out how effective this has been,” said Father McGlone, a psychologist and researcher at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Washington’s Georgetown University.
Audits that the church now presents about what it is doing administratively, in terms of training, handling of abuse reports and following best practices, also should include, he said, what church leaders are doing pastorally — and long term — to be there for survivors of abuse and their families and with parish communities where abuse has occurred — and what they’re doing to apologize to all.
Father McGlone, who said he “walks” with survivors as well as perpetrators, told CNS he has sometimes asked offenders “when are you willing to simply apologize to your victim survivor?”
So, too, should the church, as an offending institution, “take accountability and be transparent” for the abuse under its watch, he said, and for failures that continued even after bishops were “forced” to adopt the charter following press reports.
While the charter aimed to prevent allegations of abuse of minors by clergy from falling through the cracks, it did not fully address how bishops could be held accountable for improperly handling reports, including any involvement in covering them up, nor did the charter take into account allegations against bishops who committed the same or similar crimes.
This flaw became apparent after a cascade of sex abuse allegations, of minors and young men, came forward against former cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, of Washington, starting in 2018.
McCarrick is now laicized and facing three counts of sexually assaulting a teenager in Massachusetts in the 1970s. Many questions have since arisen and remain unanswered about who knew of the allegations and failed to do something about them.
In 2019, Pope Francis, who has consistently acted to reduce abuse, issued his “motu proprio” titled “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), which revised and clarified norms and procedures for holding bishops and religious superiors accountable for protecting abusers worldwide.
In addition, a reporting system for accepting sexual misconduct allegations against U.S. bishops and eparchs was established in 2020. The Catholic Bishops Abuse Reporting System incorporates a website and a toll-free telephone number through which individuals can file reports regarding a bishop.
Years before McCarrick’s larger-than-life profile brought to light abuse perpetrated by a prelate, Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell of Palm Beach, Florida, resigned in 2002 over allegations of the type of abuse Father McGlone suffered when he was teenager: the Florida prelate, who died in 2012, faced accusations that he had in the past, as a priest, groped former seminarians.
Father McGlone speaks of a Catholic writer who suggested that as a sign of penance for the “sins of the pastors,” all the bishops in the United States should refuse to wear their miter “and put it down in front of the altars and kneel before every public event in lamentation.”
“In this 20th commemoration of the charter, wouldn’t it be nice if every bishop took off their miter, held it for the entire service in front of the altar, in ashes, in lamentation?” said Father McGlone.
“Where’s a church of lamentation recognizing the sin, being resolute not to do it again?” he asked. “And where’s your sign of penance? What have you done as a sign of penance? Where is the sense of moral outrage at the sins of the past?”
In June 2017, U.S. bishops at the spring general assembly gathered at the cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis for a Mass of Prayer and Penance. It took place after Pope Francis called on all episcopal conferences across the world to participate in a Day of Prayer and Penance for victims of sexual abuse within the church.
In 2019, a small group of U.S. bishops also met with members of the survivor group Spirit Fire on the campus of The Catholic University of America in Washington but, by and large, most of the gatherings between bishops and survivors have taken place one-on-one and in private and it’s hard to know how many prelates have participated in this practice.
These meetings and acts of penance and contrition also should include families and parish communities and the church in general, argues Father McGlone, because the pain is widespread.
In November 2021, during the USSCB’S annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Cardinals Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston and Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, along with six other prelates and religious leaders of various faiths prayed and took a “sunrise walk” with abuse survivors.
Father McGlone and family members of abuse victims were among them.
The priest praised efforts by those present at the service as well as prelates such as Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, Missouri, who regularly meets with survivors and has urged his brother bishops to do the same, and Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis, under whose leadership the archdiocese in 2018 negotiated a $210 million settlement agreement with 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.
The Minnesota archbishop continuously offers contrition, Father McGlone noted.
That’s what survivors want to see more of, not leaders intent on “saving reputation and saving face,” he said. It makes the situation worse to see bishops more worried about church finances, than those who’ve been hurt, Father McGlone said.
“If we need to be a bankrupt church, then so be it. What amount of money gives back the innocence of a child who’s been raped?” he asked. “What amount of money?”
KEY EVENTS
Here is a brief timeline of events surrounding the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the establishment of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”
1983
Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, suspends Father Gilbert Gauthe after he admits to having sexually abused at least three dozen young boys and girls. Lawsuits and trial over the next three years draw national attention to the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests.
1985
At June meeting, U.S. bishops have extensive discussion of clerical sexual abuse. A confidential report warns the crisis could cost the church billions of dollars. Individual dioceses and state Catholic conferences begin developing policies to respond to sexual abuse allegations.
1992
Allegations against James Porter, former priest in Fall River, Massachusetts, lead to 68 lawsuits. At June meeting, president of U.S. bishops’ conference issues a five-point statement summarizing guidelines sent to dioceses four years earlier. The guidelines call for removal and treatment for the offender, reporting of incidents in accord with civil law, reaching out to victims and dealing “as openly as possible” with the community.
2002
In January, Boston Globe publishes an investigative series on decades of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese and the mishandling of those cases.
In April, U.S. cardinals are summoned to Rome for a Vatican summit on clergy sexual abuse. After 10 years of bishops voluntarily addressing clerical sexual abuse, Vatican allows U.S. bishops to draft legislation binding on all U.S. dioceses as legal norms on abuse, subject to Vatican approval.
In June, the bishops approve a “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” at their national assembly in Dallas. A National Review Board is formed to oversee compliance of dioceses with the charter, and two major national studies are commissioned regarding the scope and scale of the problem and its causes.
In November, after consultation with the Vatican, bishops adopt a revised version of the “Essential Norms,” which establishes legal procedures under church law for applying charter policies.
Kathleen McChesney, a senior FBI official, is appointed first executive director of the Office (now Secretariat) of Child and Youth Protection required by the charter.
In December, Cardinal Bernard Law resigns as Boston archbishop and takes up residence in Rome.
2003
“Safe environment” guidelines sent to bishops. Charter requires dioceses to have safe environment programs.
2004
The first report on the implementation of the charter is released; it finds that 90% of the dioceses were fully compliant. This report would be issued annually.
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice releases its study, “The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States.” Study found that from 1950 through 2002, 4,392 priests were accused of abuse and more than 10,600 individuals made allegations.
2008
Pope Benedict XVI addresses the matter of clergy sexual abuse of children in several talks. He meets with three victims privately to listen to them and pray with them.
2011
The “Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010” is released. It concluded that there was no single cause or predictor of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
Bishops vote on changes to the charter, adding policy on child pornography.
2014
Pope Francis establishes the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
2015
Pope Francis creates a Vatican tribunal section to hear cases of bishops who fail to protect children from abusive priests.
The film “Spotlight” is released, dramatizing the Boston Globe’s investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. The film goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
2016
Pope Francis issues “motu proprio” “As a Loving Mother,” which specifies that “grave causes” for removal of a bishop are to include a bishop’s negligence in exercising his role, especially in relation to cases of “sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.” (Canon law already provides the possibility of removal “for grave causes.”)
2018
Pope Francis makes remarks dismissing allegations against a Chilean bishop who was accused of covering up alleged abuses by a priest. Pope Francis acknowledges his mishandling of the crisis after protests and sends an investigative team to examine the matter.
All Chilean bishops offer to resign, and the resignations of three are accepted.
Archdiocese of New York publicly confirms that it substantiated allegations of abuse of a minor by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Subsequent reports confirm that the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, and the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, have settled claims of adult misconduct by the prelate. Pope Francis accepts Cardinal McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals.
In August, a Pennsylvania grand jury issues a report chronicling abuse allegations against more than 300 priests and other church workers over a 70-year period, starting in 1947, in six of the state’s eight dioceses.
Pope Francis issues a “letter to the people of God” regarding the abuse crisis.
Plans by the U.S. bishops to vote on action items regarding accusations made against bishops are put on hold at the Vatican’s request. The bishops agree to meet for a weeklong retreat in January 2019 at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois.
2019
In February, Pope Francis holds an international summit of all episcopal conferences in Rome to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis internationally.
McCarrick is removed from the clerical state because of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and seminarians.
Bishop Michael Bransfield is removed as head of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, because of sexual harassment of adults and financial improprieties.
Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron is removed in the midst of accusations of sexual abuse and financial mismanagement.
Pope Francis issues the “motu proprio” “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), which revises and clarifies norms and procedures for holding bishops and religious superiors accountable for protecting abusers worldwide.
At June meeting, U.S. bishops pass three new bishop accountability reforms, and they establish a third-party reporting system for allegations of violations by bishops.
Pope Francis accepts the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, amid allegations that he knowingly kept a priest in ministry despite abuse allegations against him.
2022
Twenty years after the establishment of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the anniversary is “not a time of celebration, but a time of continued vigilance and determination.” He also says in the June 9 statement, “In these 20 years, we have greatly benefited from listening to and working with survivors of abuse. We are grateful for their courage in sharing their stories and for helping the church strive to create a culture of protection and healing.”
