The Dallas Charter Is On Life-Support

Regarding: " But, the time has come for the American bishops to recommend this extreme step to the Holy Father and for the Holy Father to take action."
- It seems to me that the bishops of a region or a national church have an obligation to offer each other fraternal correction and discipline without direct reference to the Archbishop of Rome.

While the Archbishop of Rome is the ultimate disciplinarian in these occasions the bishops of a region should forthwith tell the offending bishops to pack up and decamp to Rome and there wait at the door of whichever official will deal with them. This of course after the local law authorities have determined that no civil laws were broken by said bishop. If the bishop is so blind as to ignore the consequences of his offense then the bishops should intervene and inform the parishes in the diocese that the neighboring bishops will provide their spiritual care until such time as the diocese has a new bishop.

The consultors of dioceses harmed by an offending bishop must also step up to the plate and using whatever civil laws are available to disenfranchise the offending bishop from responsibility or ownership for the patrimony of the diocese. Using moral suasion and any canon within their reach the consultors and the pastors of each parish must prevent the bishop from presenting himself to the faithful as the chief pastor of the diocese and thereby prevent him from operating as 'teacher, governor, and sanctifier'.

The laity, whether the bishops of a region and the diocese's consultors and pastors act or not, must begin to isolate the offending bishop. They must demand that the pastors of their parishs dis-invite the offending bishop and otherwise prevent him from presenting himself in anyway to the faithful of the parish. The laity must refuse to let their children receive the sacraments from the offending bishop and they must surely remove their young people from any occasion to hear or interact with him. Also, the laity, must devise a way that their contributions to the diocese, via the 'diocese sunday collection tax' is not remitted to the diocese while the offending bishop is still seated. They can do this by setting up not-for-profits to which they can then donate their offerings. The not-for-profit would then submit to the parish that money needed to pay salaries and benefits and utility bills. By earmarking the donation specifically, the pastor and others can not misdirect it back to a diocesan purpose. If the pastor does misdirect the funds, in all likelihood he will be arrested for violating civil laws related to charitable contributions.

Even if the offending bishop does not step down from the episcopal chair, the laity must unite to separate the bishop from his duties and at all times use the full effect of civil law to control his actions.

An Utter Failure - Yet again. The past 9 years have proven that Catholic officials cannot and will not police themselves. The only way that we can protect children, help victims heal, and ensure true transparency is through robust victim-friendly civil and criminal laws.

If the past couple of weeks are any indication (and the author didn't even touch on California), we know that the church is still covering up crimes, predators still are in ministry and any church-funded audit, study, poll, charter or norm is a complete and utter failure.

Joelle Casteix
Newport Beach, California
SNAP Western Regional Director
jcasteix@gmail.com
http://theworthyadversary.com/

Its not on life support, Its dead and buried, When the other bishops, archbishops and cardinals failed to take those to task who did not stick to it, They sent a clear message, The welfare of children do not matter

The Canonical system is not above the laws of the United States of America. These bishops and their ilk have enabled sexually immature predators to prey on American children and vulnerable adults. Their pledge to stop enabling has the equivalence of their Zero-policy tolerance... NOTHING.

Perhaps it's coincidence or the Holy Ghost at work.

Pres. Abp. Dolan is in the news for his woeful victim assistance program in Milwaukee and associated financial questions.
http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/122997113.html

This would be a good time for some fresh air in the hierarchy, but I do not expect it. Too many people among the traditionalists would complain to the Pope.

Ask any person in authority, a civil judge, a cop, a school teacher, and they will tell you that "zero tolerance" is a very blunt instrument. It can work in extremely repressive police states (think Soviet occupied East Germany of unhappy memory), but it usually does not work in free cultures unless it is very narrowly tailored. When zero tolerance is applied to "boundary violations" (such as a priest sharing his cell phone number with teenagers on a field trip in case they got lost, which was one of the recent cases in Philadelphia, and yes there were other adults present who also shared their cell phone numbers)the result is either a heavy handed injustice when the policy is rigorously applied or the policy is ignored. Obviously neither of these is acceptable. The Dallas Charter needs to restore the concept of proportionality. My guess is people in the chancery office for the recent scandal felt zero tolerance was too broad, and ignored the warning signs. If there had been a policy of proportionality, perhaps officials would have read the well crafted (and it was well crafted and very specific - an ideal justified document) complaint carefully and responded better and faster (like immediately). Zero Tolerance sounds good, but its unwieldy character degrades all protective policies. The recent scandal is a perfect example of good intentions gone badly astray, most probably because the good intentions lacked proportionality.

the Dallis Charter is an pretend agreement. Bishops are people and people defend themselves, especially when they are wrong. So if the requirements of the Charter are inconvienent, who will make the cooperate?

It was an insightful article suggesting corrective action. I have a couple recommendations to add.
~Until the "honor" given to Cardinal Law by the Vatican is revoked and Cardinal Law returned to the USA for probable criminal action future coverups will be not be discouraged.
~Until the 55 dioceses found non-compliant with audits mandated by the Dallas charter move to full compliance no child is safe.
~Until the Bishop Levada "guidelines" are mandated not just recommended dioceses will not have a compelling reason for compliance.

The Vatican and the bishops fail to fully value the safety of children. Their silence about coverups of other bishops and their unwillingness to take dramatic action to protect children and report abusers is telling.

Little has changed. 55 dioceses have not complied fully with the audits and several dioceses are in full defiance of such audits. Read the article below.

Two-Thirds of Bishops Let Accused Priests Work
By Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin
Dallas Morning News June 12, 2002

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2002/bishops/stories/061202dnmetntlb...

It was an insightful article suggesting corrective action. I have a couple recommendations to add.
~Until the "honor" given to Cardinal Law by the Vatican is revoked and Cardinal Law returned to the USA for probable criminal action future coverups will be not be discouraged.
~Until the 55 dioceses found non-compliant with audits mandated by the Dallas charter move to full compliance no child is safe.
~Until the Bishop Levada "guidelines" are mandated not just recommended dioceses will not have a compelling reason for compliance.

The Vatican and the bishops fail to fully value the safety of children. Their silence about coverups of other bishops and their unwillingness to take dramatic action to protect children and report abusers is telling.

Little has changed. 55 dioceses have not complied fully with the audits and several dioceses are in full defiance of such audits. Read the article below.

Two-Thirds of Bishops Let Accused Priests Work
By Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin
Dallas Morning News June 12, 2002

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2002/bishops/stories/061202dnmetntlb...

You have to give Bishop Bruskewitz some credit. At least he doesn't lie about the fact that he doesn't follow the Charter guidelines.

The Catholic church has no concept of how quickly the church will disintegrate because of their child rape, their lying and cover up, their cold, heartless stand towards the victims, and their colossal ignorance of God's laws.

Think about this - teenagers in the future will get peer pressure just like we all did. However, their friends will show them these facts about Catholic child rape (on their IPhones), and the kids will sympathize with the child victims. They will read the details of the Philadelphia Grand Jury report, (as one set of examples), and see how 12 year old Ruth was raped by a priest, and taken by that priest to get an abortion.

They will read about how the bishops lied about it, and they will see how the congregation ignored the victims. They will see more hypocrisy than they have ever seen, but no one will talk openly about it.

Their friends will convince them to leave the Catholic church as soon as they can, and they will, and they will never go back. They will also convince your teenager that the Catholic church is evil (citing indisputable proof online), and will be able to tempt your teenager with drinking, drugs, stealing, cheating, or any type of evil. If they are Catholic, they will be defenseless to argue.

This is the truth, and its the legacy that this church has left for your children and their children.

The current Catholic church has ruined the Catholic religion for future generations. God isn't stupid, and He's going to be angry at every priest, bishop, and congregation member that didn't follow His simple rules.

vicars general, not vicar generals...and please proofread!

Pick a city, pick a bishop, pick a promise not kept. Why arn't I surprised at any of this? Take Philly and Rigali for instance. Here we have a cardinal who will most likely be subpoenaed to testify in court concerning his priests. But wait, he may not be available because the pope has named him to be the next vatican emissary to the Chech Republic and he leaves this month. Does anyone believe he'll come back and at best tell what he knows in open court or worst lies under oath? Time will tell but why arn't I surprised?

No one is listening, unfortunately.
The church is in a mess and the bishops are clueless.
In England and Wales the bishops have made it an obligation to abstain from meat on every Friday, beginning in September. What wonderful leadership. Now they are telling God to send people to hell for having a Big Mac on Friday. They haven't grown spiritually at all and the moral leadership of the hierarchy is gone. I am a vegetarian but if I live in the UK, I would start eating meant only on Fridays, to tell them that this isn't the moral leadership we want or need. No wonder so many are former Catholics. I am beginning to think that in order to be an authentic Christian one will have to leave the Catholic Church.

As a family physician who has met women and men around the world who have been sexually abused by priests, I think it is pointless to think that Pope Benedict XVI will do anything meaningful to end this scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. Mr Winters, we lay people have no voice in the Church of Pope Benedict XVI.

From my research, Pope Benedict XVI, when known as Cardinal Ratzinger and head of the office of faith and morals for 24 years, continued the culture of secrecy and duplicity of the Church in regard to priest sex abuse. As Pope, he chooses to hide behind a claim to diplomatic immunity, so that he will not have to be deposed and open the records in the Vatican, on cases of priest sexual abuse, to investigation.

Maybe because the Pope has not had the responsibility of raising children of his own, he is more interested in protecting his brother priests and bishops, than in protecting the innocence of children from abuser priests.

Frankly, as a serious cradle-Catholic, I wonder where are the integrity and transparency of Pope Benedict XVI, as he continues to support those bishops who have been complicit in priest sex abuse, and as he hides behind a claim to diplomatic immunity?

The top-down structure of the Church is definitely not working. Celibate men have limited experience of life. There is need for a more mature, collaborative style of Church, which includes women and men, married and single, lay and ordained. Mandatory celibacy needs to end for the good of all of the People of God.

Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago, IL.

Welcome back Dr. McHugh, I haven't seen you around in a while. I agree with your comments, but I think with regards to B16, a large part of his problem is his sheer isolation in Rome for the last 3 or 4 decades. He is clueless about what is going on at the front lines of the Church outside of Italy.

BTW, are you aware that the Vatican, at this moment, is secretly meeting to compose a worldwide set of Ethical & Religious Directives that will supplant those we have here in the US? Think of it, a worldwide one size fits all set of directives that apply equally to Botswana and the US! No doubt our gutless US bishops will role over and say to hell with subsidiarity and kiss the feet of the Papal Nuncio while he burns our current directives in a trash can behind his dwelling in DC.

"Those promises have been broken in five dioceses."

More correctly, that line should read, "Those promises have been broken in AT LEAST five dioceses THAT WE KNOW OF."

Winters omits some additional items that are "pulling the plug" on life support for the Dallas Protocols. First, after 8 years, 28% of the participating dioceses are not in compliance, according to the USCCB's pseudo-auditors, Gavin and Company. They are pseudo-auditors because they have to power to allow them a direct review of the records. They just ask the bishop to answer the questions, and that is all they have. So, Philadelphia was deemed to be in compliance - that is, until the grand jury disclosed that 14 priests with allegations against them were never referred to the lay advisory board. Then the board demands a meeting with the cardinal after the diocese sends a press release that implies they did have the names - when they did not. The chairperson of the board writes an article in Commonweal in which she re-affirms the mis-behavior of the cardinal, and attributes the problems to clericalism. But the Pope gets into the act and gives the papal finger to the faithful of Philadelphia, and all the rest of us, by naming Cardinal Rigali his PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE to the event in Europe. It would be like J. Edgar Hoover naming John Dillenger as his personal representative to a convention of lawmen.

The Church of Benedict XVI is not the Church that we learn of in the Acts of the Apostles. Under Benedict XVI, there is a growing clericalism, with a growing division between the ordained and lay people.

The fact that Pope Benedict XVI is not taking effective measures to discipline abuser bishops and priests is a sign to me of his lack of adult maturity, likely due to never having children of his own to be responsible for. Some men need the real experience of becoming a father, before they develop the emotional maturity of caring for and protecting a child.

I believe that mandatory celibacy has stunted the normal development of many priests and bishops and popes, leaving them psychosexually immature. These celibate men are little princes instead of servant leaders, and I think we lay people are partly responsible for creating this attitude in them, by our deference to them.

Even the threats of lawsuits are not enough to make Pope Benedict XVI take responsibility for honestly addressing the priest sex abuse problem.

I believe it is time for us all to focus on the lack of accountability of Pope Benedict XVI and to take measures to make him accountable, since all the bishops are accountable to him and have been playing by his rules and policies.

Crimes against children by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church are happening worldwide and Pope Benedict XVI is still on his throne, and is not being made accountable for allowing these crimes to continue, with no real penalty for the abusers. How long more can this outrage be allowed to continue?

Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago, IL.

Mr. Winters - for you & any others who are "confident that [the bishops] would understand that their credibility is at stake" I would suggest they can look at the evidence and conclude otherwise. Look at the 1st two pledges made in the conclusion of the Dallas Charter. In spite of them, they (the bishops) directed the USCCB's Office of Child & Youth Protection NOT to include in its so-called "audits" whether a diocese was following its plan to protect kids. All they would allow is what they told the OCYP the charter required, & that was "does the diocese have a plan"? So, your confidence in them was clearly misplaced. If you doubt my complaint, please check w/ the OCYP re their "audits", you will find my statements are accurate. So, the bishops knowingly violated the 1st two of their pledges, right from the get-go, & it wasn't just a couple of them, or 5 or 6, it is the entire bunch.

After watching this debacle for the past couple of months - from Philadelphia through Kansas City to Gallup N.M. - I have become completely convinced that all of the Catholic ordinaries in the United States are in engaged in a grand conspiracy to continue to cover up for sexual predators disguised as clergy.

The Dallas accords aren't on life support - they are deed, dead, dead. The only way to address this situation - to see that the children and the vulnerable are protected - now is for every prosecutor in every state in the Union where a diocese has its chancery is to open an intensive investigation of the bishops and their minions therein and bring them all before grand juries. If this means "no-knock' search-warrants and the arrests of the leading Catholic clergy in th U.S.A. for questioning, then so be it. The bishops have lost their credibility long ago in this matter -in their arrogance, they don't seem to care or else believe that many Catholic faithful will always run to their rescue - putting tribe ahead of what's just. That must stop.

Any Catholic layperson who helps them or renders them aid is betraying the faith and endangering kids and the vulnerable.

These incidents have shown that the bishops have lost whatever moral ground they had left. Further, I assert that they have also lost their rights as citizens of the nation because they have abused the legal systemto conceal their crimes which have become too egregious to permit anymore.

When it comes to the crime of the cover-up of sexual abuse of children and the vulnerable and the protection of sexual predators in the clergy, there is no difference between the Roman Catholic bishops and bosses of the Sicilian Mafia - and like those bosses they should be given no quarter - hounded until they give in or resign or are placed somewhere where they can do no more harm.