Two victim advocacy groups accused Roman Catholic bishops Monday of abandoning their pledge to root out sexually abusive clergy by reducing the number of U.S. dioceses that will receive full, onsite audits of their child protection programs next year.
But a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the changes were meant only to make the process more efficient, and were not a sign church leaders are backing away from reforms.
Voice of the Faithful, a lay Catholic group, and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the revisions will undermine whatever trust the bishops have restored in their leadership since the abuse crisis began in early 2002.
In each of the last two years, the bishops hired an outside auditor who sent teams largely made up of former FBI agents into all 195 U.S. dioceses. Their job was to determine whether the church had put in place the safeguards required under the anti-abuse policy that the bishops approved at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas.
Last month, the bishops authorized a new approach to the audits at their national meeting in Washington. They decided that dioceses found fully compliant twice will not be required to have onsite visits next year. Instead, they can fill out questionnaires that will be sent to the auditors for review. Some bishops had complained that the audits were expensive and time-consuming.
In the first round of audits, 90 percent of U.S. dioceses were deemed fully compliant. If the same number get identical marks in the second round, which is just being completed, then only a small minority of dioceses will be visited, the Survivors Network said.
"We're basically back to square one, where we have no choice but to trust in many of the same men whose repeated deceit and misconduct led to the molestation of thousands of innocent Catholic youngsters," the advocacy group said in a statement.
William Ryan, a spokesman for the bishops' conference, said the bishops were following standard practice for organizations that undergo audits.
"This is in no way a lessening of the bishops' commitment," Ryan said. "The bishops were determined to get it right and they are equally determined to keep it right."
The Survivors' Network and Voice of the Faithful have asked the National Review Board, the lay watchdog panel the bishops created, to intervene. Nicholas Cafardi, the board chairman and dean of Duquesne University Law School in Pittsburgh, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, which oversees the audits, said the audit changes have been misunderstood.
A former top FBI official, McChesney said that if auditors find inconsistencies in the questionnaires they will send teams into those dioceses for an onsite review.
Dioceses found out-of-compliance with part of the policy will have a shorter onsite visit to review their deficiencies. Additionally, some dioceses not required to have full onsite audits have requested them anyway, she said.
Despite the changes, McChesney said the audits will still be effective as long as the bishops continue to authorize them. The bishops are reviewing their discipline policy and are expected to decide in June whether to approve nationwide audits beyond next year.