Catholics & Catholicism

Question:

Would these be the same bishops who told the auditors who they were to contact to determine is a diocese was "in compliance"? That’s not an audit.  It’s a farce. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The Bishops Seek Recovery Published: January 9, 2004 ARTICLE TOOLS E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Format Most E-Mailed Articles TIMES NEWS TRACKER Topics Alerts Religion and Churches The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have taken a praiseworthy but sadly belated first step toward putting in place safeguards against the scourge of rogue priests, whose sexual abuse of children was hushed up for decades. In releasing an audit claiming improvements in most of the 191 dioceses studied, the bishops underlined how far they still had to go to repair the deep damage to the church’s reputation. The audit makes clear that outreach programs for victims remain lacking in many dioceses, as are programs for ensuring safer parishes and adequately tracking abusers. "We bishops are keeping our word," declared Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. His commitment is appreciated after the years of official stonewalling. But the audit mainly amounts to a baseline for measuring whatever true progress is to come, parish by parish. The laity is still reeling from the abuse and cover-up scandal, which exploded in Boston two years ago and spread nationally. (In California, a suspension of the statute of limitations last year led to 800 new molestation lawsuits.) Auditors were not allowed full access to personnel records in the dioceses, so the bishops’ promise of transparency is left unfulfilled. And 20 dioceses have not provided all the promised safeguards against future abuse. Some, like the Archdiocese of New York, pleaded greater complexities because of size but said compliance would be forthcoming. The bustling Brooklyn diocese was commended by the auditors for going beyond the requirements to deal more closely with criminal prosecutors investigating the scandal.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?tntget=2004/01/09/opinion/09FRI… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – - Watson, out

Response:

Would these be the same bishops who told the auditors who they were to contact to determine is a diocese was "in compliance"? That’s not an audit.  It’s a farce.

Assume they’re the same guys, Dragon. Sounds like there was a piece of the puzzle I may have missed based upon what you say here. Something specific to which you refer? Farce. You bet. For sure this Biship Gregory is the same guy that fired the former Governor of Iowa who headed a commission that was overseeing this mess when the Governor publicly called the matter a farce. No truth is good enough I guess. – Watson

Response:

The Bishops Seek Recovery Published: January 9, 2004 ARTICLE TOOLS E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Format Most E-Mailed Articles TIMES NEWS TRACKER