Weigand wants ‘zero tolerance’

Sacramento Bishop William K. Weigand will advocate “zero tolerance” for priests who abuse children when the U.S. bishops debate a national sex abuse policy in Dallas June 13-15.

The proposed policy calls for laicizing any priest or deacon who commits even one act of abuse of a minor in the future. It also calls for laicizing anyone who has committed more than one abusive act in the past or who is diagnosed as a pedophile.

Bishop Weigand, at a press conference at the Diocesan Pastoral Center June 4, said he would be among those bishops pushing for an across-the-board policy with no exceptions.

“I’m personally very happy with the draft charter and norms,” he said. “In effect, it makes national most of the things we’re already doing here.”

The bishop said that with a few minor exceptions, the national proposal is similar to the one he announced locally in April.

At that time he established a “zero-tolerance” policy for sexual abuse of minors. He said if an allegation of sexual abuse of minors is substantiated, a priest is not transferred but is removed from ministry. He also said no known pedophile priest is functioning in the diocese.

In an effort to reach out to victims, he said the diocese is cooperating fully with law-enforcement agencies and had established a complainant liaison to work with victims. An independent board, composed largely of lay experts, will review cases of sexual abuse, in accordance with diocesan policy, he noted.

As other bishops across the nation, Bishop Weigand said he offered the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse his thoughts on what should be included in the national proposal, based on his experience in the diocese and from what he has heard from Catholics at several recent regional “listening sessions” about clergy sexual abuse.

“It’s been heartrending to hear victims’ stories, and also been heartwarming to know that what we’re trying to do is appreciated, even by victims and their families,” the bishop said of the listening sessions. “We’ve had good suggestions, which I will be taking to the Dallas meeting, and it’s my intention to vote substantially for what is already in draft form.”

He called the draft charter and norms “a new chapter” in the church’s response to sexual abuse.

The charter “puts more specifics to the policies that have been common in most dioceses for at least the last 10 years, and in most the last 15 years,” he said.

“There will now be systems of accountability. Before it was left to everyone’s good will in a sense to implement, and now there will be peer reviews and it will be law—consistent throughout the country. It’s much stronger and much more adequate for today’s needs, and it’s what people have been asking for.”

The bishop said the most hotly debated issue likely would be the committee’s recommendation to allow continued limited service in cases of priests who have been implicated up to now in one instance of inappropriate sexual contact with a juvenile but who apparently have never done it again.

Even if “zero tolerance” doesn’t make it into the final report, the Sacramento Diocese “will, in effect, have zero tolerance,” he said. “In practice, no one is going to take the chance to let sexual abuse happen again. The occasional exception can’t happen with the many mechanisms and the lay review board that the national policy puts into place.”

Coming to terms with the “horrendous reality” of sexual abuse “has been a very difficult topic” for all bishops, Bishop Weigand said.

“Our hope is not only that we can address the situation in the church adequately, but as a result, we will also be a voice for researching, studying and finding the proper solutions to this problem that is all too present in the broader society. If this (policy) passes, we’ll have more credibility to do that. And we want to do that. Children must be protected.”

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[Catholic Herald - Cover Page]