By Sandi Dolbee 
STAFF WRITER 

January 7, 2004 

A long-awaited report card shows nearly all U.S. Catholic bishops are complying with their mandatory get-tough sexual abuse policy, but critics already are questioning the grading system.

In an audit released yesterday in Washington, D.C., nearly 90 percent of the nation's 195 dioceses, including San Diego, were found to be in compliance with the national policy, which calls for removing guilty priests from ministry, reaching out to victims and conducting background checks on clergy and others who work with children.

Twenty dioceses were listed as not being in full compliance, including the archdioceses of New York, Anchorage and Omaha. Four were not audited, including the Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle in El Cajon, a Chaldean Catholic diocese that was formed in 2002. An eparchy is a geographic district for Catholics who accept papal authority but follow separate rituals.

The audit did not examine past conduct of bishops or other diocesan officials, only how well dioceses have complied with the policy adopted by bishops in Dallas in June 2002.

"The audit results represent solid progress," said Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "We made a promise to protect our children and young people. . . . These findings show we are keeping our word."

In the Diocese of San Diego, which the audit commended for its "commitment to openness and transparency," Bishop Robert Brom issued a statement calling the report "extremely positive."

The audit noted, for example, that one retired San Diego priest "with a credible allegation against him" has moved to another region and that diocese has been properly notified. The diocese would not name that priest yesterday but said he has been removed from ministry.

The diocese also has initiated the required screening and training programs, published a pamphlet on how to make a complaint and sent letters to parishes where abusive priests served.

But critics said the audit should have been more independent. The prelates commissioned the $1.8 million report from the Gavin Group of Boston, a firm headed by former FBI official William Gavin. The investigation was overseen by Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI agent and head of the bishops' watchdog Office of Child and Youth Protection.

"This is the bishops grading themselves based on a test they devised," said Peter Isely, of the Midwest chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

Mary Grant, SNAP's Southern California coordinator, said the score card is misleading. "It's all based on information that the bishops are willing to disclose to auditors – hand-picked auditors – and we see now with the results that it's nothing more than shameful PR posturing."

Critics also said that the dioceses picked the victims who were interviewed and that auditors did not dig into personnel files.

Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor of the San Diego diocese, defended the audit, which was conducted here during a week in July. "We made everything and anything they asked for available," he said.

The report released yesterday acknowledged that auditors were unable to view personnel files because of privacy laws. Still, Gavin insisted the audits were comprehensive and accurate.

The auditors, mostly former FBI agents or investigators who were hired without regard for religion, traveled the country from June to November, Gavin said, interviewing bishops, diocesan personnel, victims, abusive priests, prosecutors and lay people.

The audit, to be conducted annually, is part of the church's plan to prevent abuse.

While the majority of dioceses were given at least one commendation, the study also found some serious problems.

For example, five accused priests in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati still were in ministry at the time of the audit, a violation of the policy. The clergymen have since been removed, and the archdiocese was deemed to have come into compliance.

Among the study's recommended changes are some that victims have been advocating for years, including improved monitoring of guilty priests and a survey of victims.

McChesney said that among the most common weaknesses was the lack of effective outreach to victims who have filed civil lawsuits against dioceses.

In California, about 800 such lawsuits were filed last year, when the time limit on old sexual abuse cases involving minors was lifted temporarily. An estimated 100 of those lawsuits are against the Diocese of San Diego.

For two years, the Catholic Church has battled a nationwide scandal over allegations of priests molesting minors in cases that go back for decades. In response to the scandal, bishops in 2002 adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a zero-tolerance charter that calls for such prevention steps as conducting background checks on priests and others who work with children.

The release of the audit yesterday was seen as a milestone in the church's recovery. But an even bigger one might be the Feb. 27 release of a church-commissioned national study that is expected to give an accounting of cases, including costs, from Jan. 1, 1950, to Dec. 31, 2002.

In his statement yesterday, Brom said the San Diego diocese will release its own report to "describe the extent of the problem of sexual abuse" through 2003.

During the past 18 months, the diocese has addressed cases involving 40 victims, according to Brom's statement.

"In more than half of these cases, financial compensation for the harm suffered was requested and granted," Brom said. "However, far more important is the healing being accomplished through counseling and the reconciliation realized through apologies offered to victims for the serious failures they experienced by church ministers."
 

Sandi Dolbee: (619) 293-2082; sandi.dolbee@uniontrib.com Associated Press, Knight Ridder News Service and Reuters contributed to this report.