Catholic bishops profess harmony

ST. LOUIS -- Roman Catholic bishops and members of a lay oversight board emerged from a closed-door session Thursday afternoon saying the church's reform plan remains on track.

Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Bennett, a National Review Board member, told a news conference that three board members and the bishops had a "very honest and very cordial discussion" and that "the overwhelming number fully support the board's work."

"If we don't get cooperation, we'll name names," he added.

The hierarchy's president, Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., said the session helped bishops understand the board's work.

Tension has been created in recent weeks by the board's survey of the extent of abuse cases, being conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Refusal by California's bishops to file questionnaires caused a flareup between Cardinal Roger Mahony and review board chairman Frank Keating and led in part, to Keating's Monday resignation.

But lawyers for the California bishops and John Jay staffers worked out a compromise, announced Thursday.

Review board member Paul McHugh, former psychiatry director at Johns Hopkins University, said the bishops' lawyers were worried about complying with California law on confidentiality and employee rights.

The solution, he said, was providing coded information to John Jay that met the needs of the survey.

Kathleen McChesney, director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection on the bishops' staff, emerged from the session to say she and the board believe "the issues raised thus far have been sufficiently addressed and everyone is moving forward."

Once the questionnaires are filed, the next big project is an audit of all 195 dioceses by McChesney's office on whether they are complying with reforms the national hierarchy approved a year ago.

Earlier in the day Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said "what we promised to do a year ago, we've done," referring to reforms the bishops approved in June 2002. The bishops promised to remove all abusers from the priesthood or from active ministry.

"That's been done," George said.

Advocacy groups for victims and lay Catholics disagree, and made their case outside the bishops' assembly. Last year, victims got the chance to address the bishops; this year, they're not on the agenda.

Voice of the Faithful, which wants a greater role for the laity in the church, called on bishops in every diocese to release all personnel records related to credible abuse accusations.

George responded that the bishops' reform platform doesn't require that.

During the bishops' closed-door meeting, about 25 people attended a nearby silent vigil organized by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests to remember molestation victims who committed suicide.

David Clohessy, SNAP's national director, said as the vigil began that his group knows of six cases in which victims took their own lives but a full tally can never be known.

On Wednesday, SNAP gave the hierarchy a "D" grade on its performance in reforming the church over the past year. But Bishop Joseph Galante of Dallas said he would choose "an 'I' for incomplete," saying bishops are filing the questionnaires on past abuse cases, and each diocese also will be independently audited on its reforms.

When that work is done "we need to be graded," he said.

The bishops received encouragement in a speech from the pope's representative to the United States, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, at their opening business session.

"We know we are going through difficult times," Montalvo said, but any adversity can be overcome by prayer and faith in God.

Galante said the abuse crisis has allowed those who disagree with church stands on a spectrum of issues -- including birth control, abortion, and peace and social justice questions -- "to capitalize on the sins of the few to discredit what we teach."

In a New York Times opinion piece Thursday, Keating expressed optimism that the church will ultimately pull through. But he reiterated that a few leaders "chose to resist and obstruct" his board.

Keating's resignation came the same day Bishop Thomas O'Brien of Phoenix was arrested for leaving the scene of a fatal accident. O'Brien resigned Wednesday and was not in St. Louis.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who stepped down as head of the Boston Archdiocese in December over his handling of abuse cases, did attend the bishops' meeting.

He took the floor Thursday to say it's important for bishops to address the collaboration of clergy and laity. Law was responding to proposals to begin work on documents that would discuss the role of lay church workers and relations between clergy and women.

As presented, neither document will consider demands for more lay involvement in church government that have come from groups like Voice of the Faithful in the wake of the abuse scandal.

Voice had a troubled relationship with Law, who banned the group from meeting in some parish buildings but allowed it in others.

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U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.usccb.org