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Minors or adults can now confidentially report abuses or harassment by a bishop through a phone line and a line of non-church-run online complaints, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops announced on Wednesday. .
The announcement was made a week after the US church leaders met with Pope Francis about it and soon after, a cardinal and a bishop left office following allegations sexual harassment.
Francis had met three bishops last week at the Vatican to discuss the crisis of sexual abuse, which according to the main US bishop "tore up" the church. Bishops are leaders of the church across the United States.
[Francis meets with U.S. Catholic leaders as bishops face allegations of harassment and cover-ups]
The third-party confidential reporting system will direct complaints of sexual abuse of minors or sexual misconduct with adults by a bishop to "the appropriate ecclesiastical authority and, as required by applicable law, to the civil authorities" , says the release.
The statement by US Catholic bishops called for a "thorough investigation" of retired Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington and said the survey should involve lay experts in areas such as law enforcement and social services. But the statement, in a notable change, did not mention the role of the Vatican in such an investigation.
A month earlier, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, had suggested that the Vatican help to conduct the investigation in what is called an apostolic visit. Neither the Pope nor DiNardo mentioned the visits since their meeting last week.
This summer, McCarrick became the first American cardinal to give up his red cardinal hat because of allegations of sexual misconduct. Two men say that McCarrick assaulted them when they were minors and others say that he behaved sexually inappropriately when they were young seminarians and priests.
Last week, Francis accepted the resignation of a West Virginia bishop, Michael J. Bransfield, accused of sexual harassment, and ordered the Archdiocese of Baltimore to investigate Bransfield's behavior.
Judy Keane, a spokeswoman for the Bishops' Conference, said last week that she was not sure whether the third-party operator would report cases directly to law enforcement or would report that anybody else was involved. to a church leader, choose when to contact the authorities. She also did not know if the third party operator had already been identified.
The Bishops said they would also propose policies to restrict bishops who have been removed from office or resigned because of allegations of child sexual abuse or misbehavior or harassment involving adults. This approach also appears to stem from McCarrick's case.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, made the shocking announcement last month in a widely circulated letter that popes Benedict and Francis both knew McCarrick's misbehavior with adults since then. years. Viganò claims that Benedict XVI secretly sanctioned McCarrick, telling him not to celebrate mass or to appear as a cardinal in public while withdrawing into a life of prayer, but that Francis let these sanctions slip.
[Former Vatican ambassador says Benedict and Francis knew about McCarrick’s behavior for years]
Although Viganò's claims about secret sanctions remain to be proven, his controversial letter sparked a debate over how the church should curtail the activities of former rulers who have been dishonored.
Finally, the bishops have called for a new code of conduct that will address not only bishops' sexual misconduct, but also neglect in dealing with abuse cases. This is the allegation against Cardinal Donald Wuerl of DiNardo and Washington, who said he would soon discuss his potential resignation with Francis.
The day before, DiNardo led the small delegation of US bishops to the Vatican to meet the pope about sexual abuse, the Associated Press reported that a woman said he spoke about her abuse as a teenager to a Diocese Houston in 2010. DiNardo promised him that the priest would not work with children, said the woman to the police – but the man remained parish priest until last week, when he was arrested by police for assaulting this woman and another minor. .
The report of the Pennsylvania grand jury, which has sparked renewed interest in abuse in the Catholic Church since its publication last month, has also focused on the role of bishops in dealing with cases of violence. 39; abuse. Wuerl, who was bishop of Pittsburgh for 18 years, is described in the massive report as an incoherent leader who sometimes worked hard to keep the perpetrators of alleged violence out of the churches, but sometimes let them return to the ministry. The report sparked intense calls for his resignation, which he said last week he would soon discuss with Francis.
Robert Ciolek, a former priest who had reached a $ 80,000 settlement with three New Jersey dioceses after saying that McCarrick – then his superior – had asked for and reiterated undesirable disadvantages, said that other alleged abuses in New Jersey, especially in the hands of a high school teacher while he was a teenager in a Catholic school.
Ciolek, now a lawyer, praised the USCCB's inclusion of the option of a third-party complaint line and the part of the ad that called for a McCarrick investigation involving lay investigators.
But, he said, there needed to be more clarity about the operation of the third-party reporting system. "My only hesitation is that the USCCB has no authority over the hundreds of bishops," he said. "So who says," Thanks guys, but no thanks, "and does not implement it?
Tara Bahrampour, Michelle Boorstein and Chico Harlan contributed to this report.
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