Four Review Board members step down

Social justice news
May 2004

A call to care for people without health insurance
Four Review Board members step down
Gregory urges moral, human budget priorities
Sudanese refugees face new dangers
USCCB official challenges new stem-cell research
USCCB: Sharon plan no roadmap to peace

Four Review Board members step down
Four members of the 12-member review board established to track U.S. Catholic bishops' compliance with their own "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" will step down from their volunteer posts by June, including the current board chairperson, Illinois Appellate Court Judge Anne Burke. The board of lay Catholics, appointed by the USCCB in 2002, was empowered to assess how well dioceses are adhere to new regulations meant to prevent sex abuse by priests.

Burke told the Chicago Tribune she wanted to devote more time to her work as a judge. "There are two reasons I am stepping down. One is that it is extremely time-consuming and I have been working on it intensely for two years. The other is that what I can offer the board has been completed. I have offered the skills I have," she said.

But Burke has expressed some frustration with the attitude and decisions of some bishops. She said during a recent broadcast news interview aired by WBBM in Chicago that she was ''very disappointed in many of the bishops'' for impeding the work of the National Review Board.

But Burke said her frustration was not the reason she is leaving the post. "There was frustration, but that would not prompt me to resign. I am not leaving because there was acrimony. If I felt that way, I would have resigned a long time ago," she said.

The three other members who will resign June 30 are: Robert Bennett, a trial lawyer; Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration; and William Burleigh, a former executive of Scripps Howard publishing.

Board member Jane Chiles said the resignations could hurt the group's work, even though four or five replacements will be appointed. "We are a start-up board on a project that has never been done before," Chiles said. "The resignations are moving us out of the comfort zone.

"The frustration Anne has experienced is the frustration we all share in holding the attention of the bishops. It has been a spotty thing. Some bishops wake up every day thinking [sex abuse by priests] has gone away."

The resignations came after a flurry of decisions by bishops have raised concerns about their commitment to reform in the wake of an ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the church.

• The diocese of Belleville, Illinois, led by president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, has been held in contempt of court for refusing to release the mental health records of a retired priest accused of child sexual abuse. The diocese is appealing the ruling.

• A long-time clerical gadfly Father Thomas Doyle, who co-wrote a sadly prophetic memo more than 20 years ago urging U.S. bishops to take stronger action to respond to clergy sexual abuse, was fired just short of retirement from his chaplaincy position with the U.S. Air Force.

• And in March, a bishop's committee refused to authorize audits for 2004, pending further review of the matter. "This flies in the face of the charter," said Burke. "According to the charter they are supposed to have annual audits."

Burke became interim chairwoman of the panel last June when the former chairman, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, stepped down after he suggested church leadership were behaving like organized crime in their resistance to requests for disclosure of church docuemtns. Burke has likewise criticized some Catholic bishops for their reluctance to hand over documents and their general lack of cooperation.

In an effort to address their differences, the review board will meet with a committee of Catholic bishops May 17 in Chicago. One dispute they hope to resolve is whether the review board will continue to conduct annual audits of the 195 dioceses in the United States. Some bishops oppose such audits, particularly after two reports released this year showed that the sex scandal in the church over the last 50 years was worse than expected.

For more information:
"Whitewash or renewal: In year two of the sex-abuse scandal, is it time for the laity to brush up on their leadership skills?" from U.S. Catholic, June 2003.

Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People

The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States

Back to page top