Do Vatican Guidelines Protect Guilty Priests?

Whew! Finally the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to accept revisions to its Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that include child pornography as a crime against the Church. A day late and a dollar short for Kansas City but progress nonetheless. Interestingly, the vote was not unanimous. Five bishops dissented and four abstained. No word on who or why yet; and considering most of the discussions prior to the vote went on behind closed doors we may never know.

In May 2011 the Vatican circulated a letter to all bishops worldwide asking that they develop guidelines that establish clear and coordinated procedures to combat sexual abuse. The U.S. Conference put guidelines into effect in 2002 in response to the endemic allegations against priests originating in Boston under the guidance of Cardinal Bernard Law.

Here's what some of the top guns on the issue are saying about the those guidelines:

• "...a weak, vague and largely unenforceable set of guidelines, We have yet to see a single Catholic employee, from custodian to cardinal, disciplined for breaking any part of the charter." David Clohessy, Director of SNAP (Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests)
• "The charter has served the Church well...the Bishops' Conference does not have the power to sanction church officials, and that when followed as written, the charter is effective.." Bishop Blase Cupich, head of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young  People
• "The Vatican letter likely will cause bishops' conferences worldwide to create policies that preserve the power of the bishops to handle allegations of clergy sexual abuse, and that allows priests with admitted or established allegations to remain in ministry." Terence McKiernan, President, BishopAccountability.org.

So why spend all that time and energy creating and debating a document that essentially has no teeth to protect our children and yourth? Consider the following:

• positive press image
• paper trail for litigation
• palliative posturing for the faithful

Reminder: This all comes on the heels of Amnesty Internationl's Annual Report 2001: The State of the World's Human Rights citing the Vatican's refusal to comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requirement to file reports on its efforts to protect the rights of children. Member countries must file reports initially two years after acceding to the convention and then every five years. The Vatican's report is fourteen (14) years overdue.