In response to abuse scandals, bishops to debate code of conduct
WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
November 9, 2018
By Julie Zauzmer
After months of outcry from American Catholics this year, demanding that bishops be held accountable for decades of child abuse by priests, the bishops will meet in person for the first time for a dayslong reckoning about how to address the crisis.
In a highly unusual move, the bishops will put aside almost everything else on their agenda for the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops next week in order to focus solely on rectifying their policies on abuse. The leaders of all 196 U.S. archdioceses and dioceses are invited to attend the Baltimore event.
Many bishops and lay leaders hope that they will emerge from the meeting with sweeping new procedures in place, including a lay commission empowered to investigate abuse by bishops, a new code of conduct and a plan for bishops removed from office due to their handling of abuse.
“When we come out of the meeting and are able to communicate what will be different moving forward, it’s my hope that all those who’ve been asking for such concrete steps will recognize: The bishops heard us,” said Bishop Michael Burbidge, who leads Virginia’s Diocese of Arlington. “We hear what you said, and we share those concerns. And we’re doing something about it.”
That’s a lot to get done in one meeting. But before the work begins, they will devote almost an entire day of the three-day session in Baltimore purely to prayer.
“All prayer. No agenda items. It’s just a day of prayer from morning until night. I think that shows the importance, that we recognize that we need some divine assistance here,” Burbidge said.
The bishops have been a primary focus of Catholics’ anger this summer and fall, starting with the release of a major grand jury report in Pennsylvania in August. That report, which probed seven decades of church history and found more than 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children, drew attention to the conduct of bishops in the state’s Catholic dioceses, who sometimes moved an abusive priest to another parish or let him return to his ministry rather than removing him or reporting him to police.
Washington Post
November 9, 2018
By Julie Zauzmer
After months of outcry from American Catholics this year, demanding that bishops be held accountable for decades of child abuse by priests, the bishops will meet in person for the first time for a dayslong reckoning about how to address the crisis.
In a highly unusual move, the bishops will put aside almost everything else on their agenda for the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops next week in order to focus solely on rectifying their policies on abuse. The leaders of all 196 U.S. archdioceses and dioceses are invited to attend the Baltimore event.
Many bishops and lay leaders hope that they will emerge from the meeting with sweeping new procedures in place, including a lay commission empowered to investigate abuse by bishops, a new code of conduct and a plan for bishops removed from office due to their handling of abuse.
“When we come out of the meeting and are able to communicate what will be different moving forward, it’s my hope that all those who’ve been asking for such concrete steps will recognize: The bishops heard us,” said Bishop Michael Burbidge, who leads Virginia’s Diocese of Arlington. “We hear what you said, and we share those concerns. And we’re doing something about it.”
That’s a lot to get done in one meeting. But before the work begins, they will devote almost an entire day of the three-day session in Baltimore purely to prayer.
“All prayer. No agenda items. It’s just a day of prayer from morning until night. I think that shows the importance, that we recognize that we need some divine assistance here,” Burbidge said.
The bishops have been a primary focus of Catholics’ anger this summer and fall, starting with the release of a major grand jury report in Pennsylvania in August. That report, which probed seven decades of church history and found more than 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children, drew attention to the conduct of bishops in the state’s Catholic dioceses, who sometimes moved an abusive priest to another parish or let him return to his ministry rather than removing him or reporting him to police.
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