US bishops unlikely to change sex-abuse policies despite new criticism

At this week’s Seattle meeting, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) are not expected to make any significant changes in their policies for handling sex-abuse complaints, despite a recent spate of complaints about bishops’ performance on that issue.

Bishop Blaise Cupich of Spokane, who chairs the USCCB committee on sex abuse, told the New York Times that the bishops retain full confidence in the “Dallas Charter,” which they approved in 2002. “We consider the charter to have an iconic status,” he said.

The most recent complaints about American bishops’ handling of the abuse scandal, aired in Philadelphia and Kansas City, involve the apparent failure of some bishops to follow the policies established at the Dallas meeting. Nicholas Cafardi, the author of Before Dallas, told the Times that the key consideration is fraternal correction among the bishops.

“Unless the bishops are willing to call each other out,” Cafardi said, “we will always have individual bishops who think that they can ignore the requirements of the charter.”