WASHINGTON (ABP) — A semi-independent audit of American Catholic dioceses released Jan. 6 said that diocesan officials are mostly complying with new anti-abuse rules. But abuse victims' groups are skeptical of the study.
The study was conducted by the Boston-based Gavin Group and overseen by a former top FBI agent who was appointed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to serve in a watchdog role. It was conducted to determine compliance with a set of new rules that the bishops adopted in June 2002 relating to abuse complaints.
The report found that 90 percent of dioceses in the U.S. were in compliance with the new rules, and that most of the non-compliance resulted from confusion about how to implement the rules rather than recalcitrance.
But abuse-victims' groups said the study was flawed, pointing out that the auditors interviewed those whom bishops recommended. “This is the bishops grading themselves based on a test they devised,” Peter Isely, of the the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told the New York Times. “I don't think anyone is going to be too surprised that after years of chronic failure they are now going to tell us they have miraculously become star performers.”
The conference adopted the rules after a wave of controversy over revelations that many American Catholic bishops for years quashed reports of sexual abuse of children under the care of priests.
Among the rules adopted were policies to suspend immediately priests accused of abuse. Much of the controversy stemmed from the revelation that transferring abusive priests to other parishes was a widespread practice for years.
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