Catholic dioceses pass check for abuse

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More than 95 percent of Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States passed an audit last year on how they are working to protect children from clergy sexual abuse, about an 8 percent improvement over 2003, a new report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) says.

Auditing teams, often comprising former FBI agents, found that 187 of 194 dioceses met the standards established in 2002, including the Diocese of Arlington, the only local diocese to fail the first audit conducted in 2003. Eighteen other dioceses failed the first audit.

But, "the crisis is not over," church officials said yesterday at a D.C. news conference, as 1,092 new sex-abuse accusations, including 22 from minors, were lodged against 756 Catholic priests and deacons in 2004.

While more than half of the accused clergy already are dead and had been named in other complaints, "over 300 of the reports received in 2004 identified alleged abusers not previously known," said Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

What is over, said Miss McChesney, "is the denial that this problem exists" and "the reluctance of the church to deal openly with the public about the nature and extent of the problem."

Clergy sex-abuse victims yesterday said they were not relieved by the report because it doesn't measure effectiveness in reducing abuse and it leaves too much power with the bishops.

Before the sex-abuse scandal broke in 2002, "each bishop was in charge of handling sex abuse in his diocese. Today, each bishop essentially still is," said David Clohessy, Barbara Blaine and other leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

"How can anyone really believe things have changed much" when the upper ranks of the church remain essentially intact, they said.

USCCB President Bishop William Skylstad thanked "those who have come forward after suffering such abuse."

"We will never fully understand your suffering, but you have helped us to confront this most serious problem and take the necessary steps to rid the church of it," he said.