Review panel to name bishops not following new abuse policy

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The head of a national panel said Monday that he will soon reveal the names of Roman Catholic bishops who are failing to comply with the church's new policy for disciplining priests who molest children.

Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, chairman of the church-appointed National Review Board, said information the committee had gathered so far indicates most dioceses are implementing the plan bishops approved in June to stem the clerical sex abuse crisis.

He did not say how many bishops he thought were violating the policy, or exactly when he would release their names. But the board had questions about how the plan was being followed in "some" dioceses, Keating said.

The governor made the remarks after the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said it has evidence that 13 of the nation's 195 dioceses have failed to comply with the new policy. SNAP representatives met with the church-appointed National Review Board for more than an hour Monday.

Susan Archibald, president of The Linkup, another victims' advocacy group at the meeting, said "the board was placed into battle with very few weapons," except its ability to alert the public about which prelates were violating the plan.

"We still see little accountability for the senior management of the American church," SNAP said in a statement it presented to the board. "We are afraid that dozens of priests with histories of sexual abuse remain in public ministry."

Only met twice

The board, made up of 13 prominent lay Catholics, was established as a way to help enforce the reform policy U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved three months ago.

The board has met just twice, allowing advocates for victims to participate briefly in both sessions. The board was to continue meeting privately throughout the day.

At its first meeting July 30, the board directed the bishops' staff to compile a preliminary survey of policy implementation in each diocese. That report was to be reviewed Monday.

'Cutting up the work'

The board also had hoped to announce the director of the new Office for Child and Youth Protection on the U.S. bishops' Washington staff. But a few more weeks are needed to make a selection, said the board's Vice Chair Anne Burke, an Illinois appellate judge.

The crowded Oklahoma City agenda also includes details on how the child-protection office will operate and several other projects. "All of us have day jobs, so we're going to be cutting up the work so each board member will be intimately involved," Burke said.

The board is mandated to supervise the child-protection office, check on the performance of each U.S. diocese and commission research about the scope and origins of the abuse scandal.

Keating's group is taking a broad view of its duties. For instance, the head of the bishops' staff officially appoints the child-protection director, but a board subcommittee took charge of the search.

The lay board has only advisory powers, but its existence alone is an unprecedented power-sharing move by the nation's church hierarchy. Keating has said the group will wield influence by publicizing bishops' past or future failures. Only the pope can remove a bishop, however.