In response to the new sexual abuse policy adopted by the U.S. bishops, Bishop William K. Weigand has named the first members of the diocesan review board which will investigate all allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

The board will be chaired by retired Justice Robert K. Puglia, who served for 24 years as presiding justice of California’s Third District Court of Appeal and for three years as a Sacramento County Superior Court judge.

“I hope to be of service to the church, an important institution in the community,” said Puglia, 72, the father of four adult children, who retired from the bench in 1998. “If the board can play a role in helping to protect vulnerable, defenseless children, then this is a significant opportunity to work for good.”

Other members appointed to date by the bishop are:

• Kevin Starr, state librarian of California and parishioner of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento, who has two adult daughters and six grandchildren ages 2-8.

• Laloni Montgomery, Sacramento County Counsel for the Dependency Unit in the county’s Department of Health

and Human Services, and a member of Holy Family Parish in Citrus Heights.

• Connie Koppes, a nurse at UC Davis Medical Center, a former teacher, mother of five children and a member of St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento.

The new formal review board will replace a more informal and anonymous “sensitive issues” committee which the diocese has used over the years to investigate and assess allegations of sexual abuse, according to Father David Deibel, diocesan vicar for canonical affairs.

“We want to make sure we are in complete compliance with the new national policy,” he said. “This will be a broader board with more members, all who will be publicly identified.” He said the board will have at least 11 members, with several more expected to be named in the next few weeks.

The bishops’ new national charter mandates a diocesan review board in every diocese made up mostly of lay people who are not in the church’s employ, to investigate all allegations of sexual abuse of minors and assess fitness for ministry, and to regularly review diocesan policies and procedures for possible improvement.

The charter says that the board can act both retrospectively and prospectively on these matters and give advice on all aspects of responses required in connection with sexual abuse cases.

As part of its ongoing efforts to reach out to victims of sexual abuse, the diocese has recently established a 15-member committee to explore options and make recommendations to Bishop Weigand on how to achieve greater pastoral outreach and assistance.

The committee, called Diocesan Outreach for Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse, includes lay Catholics, men and women religious, therapists, diocesan staff and abuse survivors, according to Nancy Milton, complainant liaison for the diocese, who oversees the diocese’s hotline for victims of sexual abuse and works as part of the pastoral response team.

The committee has been working since May and was formed in response to Bishop Weigand’s call in February “for greater assistance of all kinds to sexual abuse victims,” she said.

“The diocese’s first concern is to assist victims, especially children and adolescents, and to prevent further victimization from occurring. We also want to be of support and compassion to abuse survivors, to listen and to address their hurt and their ongoing needs.”

She said committee members have been divided into subcommittees and are focusing their efforts on three areas of response:

• The immediate, pastoral care needs of victims, such as counseling and emotional and spiritual healing;

• The formation of support groups through which abuse survivors can offer support, encouragement and advice to one another in their process of healing;

• Prayer and reconciliation/healing services for all Catholics, including victims, abuse survivors and their families, held in “neutral settings” and not in churches.

“We want to continue to listen and talk with victims about what they want to happen and what is liturgically appropriate,” Milton said. “We are also looking at other successful models from other dioceses around the country of support groups and other programs with victims.”

Committee members, Milton added, have received a report on and discussed the thoughts, concerns and suggestions given by victims and others who attended several recent listening sessions in the diocese with Bishop Weigand regarding the crisis of clergy sexual abuse.

Michael Sandoval-Johnson of Sacramento—himself a victim of sexual abuse when he was 16 by a priest in a Midwest diocese—is one of the abuse survivors serving on the committee.

“As someone who is going through the healing process, this will open old wounds and emotions for me, but I feel I can lend a credible voice to the panel,” said Sandoval-Johnson, 39, who attends Mass at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and All Hallows Church. He is completing his master’s degree in theology at the Dominican School of Theology in Berkeley.

“I’ve already gone through my own process of reconciliation with the church and am still a committed Catholic as a result,” he said. “But this is the not the experience of most victims. We have to look at what will bring the most healing to victims and that will most likely not be in a church setting.”

Another member of the committee, Gretchen Mayerhofer, 36, of Placerville, a victim of sexual abuse by a priest in the Midwest when she was 5, hopes to be “a voice for survivors.”

“There are lots of survivors out there who are still too afraid or ashamed of what happened to speak out,” she said. “My life was screwed up by abuse, but I’m coming now from a place of neutrality rather than aggression…If we all have compassion and talk openly about sex abuse, rather than throw stones and run away from it, we can deal with it as an entire church community.”

Milton said the subcommittees will meet again this month and the entire committee will meet in September to finalize recommendations for pastoral outreach and assistance to victims.

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