The U.S. bishops’ new policy to remove sexually abusive priests from the ministry should protect children, promote healing, ensure accountability and be “a good start” in rebuilding trust in church leaders, according to Bishop William K. Weigand.

Laity and clergy in the Diocese of Sacramento voiced both their support for the new national policy on handling cases of sexual abuse by priests and deacons, as well as their reservations about the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

The charter and accompanying norms require that any allegation of sexual abuse of a minor be reported to civil authorities and that if the allegation is proven, the priest be removed permanently from ministry and, in most cases, laicized or removed from the priesthood. It also calls for each diocese to have a local review board and establishes a national office for handling such cases as well as a national lay review board.

Bishop Weigand at a June 17 press conference said for all practical purposes the bishops’ decision sets up a zero-tolerance policy, which was already in place in the diocese.

“What we (bishops) committed ourselves to nationally, we are already doing in Sacramento, and it will not require a lot of new response from us, but rather an ongoing response and continuing quick response to any allegation,” he said.

“We want to expand our outreach to victims to aid in their healing. Most important, we will take out of ministry any priest credibly accused of abusing children. That’s difficult and sad, but it has to be done as a precaution for the protection of children.”

Some victims groups are saying the charter and norms are not enough, but Bishop Weigand said some of the criticism is just a misunderstanding of what is contained in the charter document.

“I think they need to be patient and wait,” he said. “I understand where they are coming from, and it was helpful to me to hear in Dallas the stories of some of the victims and from the leaders of victims groups. But I think it’s too soon for them to say what the effects will be.”

The bishop said there was a “sense of urgency” at the bishops’ meeting. “We had a deadline. The whole world had the draft of the charter and we had to produce. It was clear from the beginning that the document would be strengthened and clarified, but not watered down. It’s a very strong document.”

Near the conclusion of the meeting, Bishop Weigand spoke in favor of a resolution passed by the bishops to study ways bishops can improve oversight to assure that each bishop in his own diocese effectively implements the new charter. The resolution called for the bishops’ Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry, headed by Bishop Robert H. Brom of San Diego, to report back to the bishops at their November meeting in Washington.

Bishop Weigand asked that the study look at a broader picture than the bishops’ responsibility to implement the charter’s provisions for responding to and preventing sexual abuse.

He cited the need for increased lay leadership in the church—referred to in a paragraph at the conclusion of the charter—as an area that the committee could look at, not only in terms of the way a bishop functions in his diocese but also in terms of how the bishops’ conference functions at the national level.

Two members of the diocesan Council of Priests, as well as the president of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils, told The Herald that although the bishops dealt with the clergy sex abuse scandal openly and honestly at their meeting, there are still questions about the fairness of the strict zero-tolerance policy on sex abuse and that the bishops should have in some way addressed their own responsibility for the crisis.

Father Brendan O’Sullivan, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento and a member of the Council of Priests and the Priests’ Personnel Board, cited some reservations about the charter.

“I feel it’s very sweeping,” he said. “It’s an overreaction to the inexcusable negligence of some bishops. They forced the pendulum to swing too much…Under the scrutiny of not only the whole United States, but the world, the pressure on the bishops was extremely intense. That’s a lot of pressure under which to make ongoing and lasting judgments that will guide the church for the future.”

He said the policy fails to differentiate between degrees of sexual abuse, noting it doesn’t distinguish between serial offenders and a priest or deacon with only one sexual offense in the distant past and exemplary service for many years following treatment with no threat of recurrence, and who because of the charter will now be removed.

The policy says that most priests who have sexually abused minors will be laicized and the remaining few who are not laicized must live a life of prayer and penitence and cannot exercise any public ministry, wear clerical garb or present themselves as priests. Only old age and infirmity are cited as examples of reasons to exempt an offending priest from laicization.

”I expected a greater differentiation in the kinds of situations that would come up before the local review board, and that there would be more local discretion” in individual cases, Father O’Sullivan said.

“One of the problems we face is that it’s very important that at all costs we protect children,” he added. “That must be an absolute and the energy of the church must be dedicated to that….Once that’s clear, there could be some local discretion and variations on the kinds of sanctions that are adopted toward the offender.”

Father Manuel Soria, chairman of the Council of Priests and pastor of St. Isidore Parish in Yuba City, said it was too early for him to “make a judgment whether the policy is good or not, but I think on the whole it will be beneficial for the church.”

Though many priests have received a great deal of “faith, love and support” from their parishioners, he said some are confused about where they find their “support system” in the current climate.

“One of the greatest fears for priests is the perception that with one allegation you are guilty, you are out, and you can be accused of anything,” he said. “Even if you dedicate your life to the church, by a simple allegation you are out. And that’s painful.”

He stressed that above all the local church must continue to be “of love, forgiveness and compassion” to victims, abuse survivors, laity and clergy.

Father Robert Silva, a priest of the Diocese of Stockton and current president of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils, said that in voting on a national policy the bishops found themselves “between a rock and a hard place” and decided on a plan that is “too absolute.”

“Absolute policies don’t work because they don’t take into account human situations, and we are a church and community of human beings,” he said.

Good priests will feel they are carrying the burden of what is in some measure the bishops’ own failure in not making themselves as fully accountable for their misdeeds as priests will be for theirs, Father Silva said.

The formulation of a national policy “should have been placed in the context of the faith community’s response—people, priests and bishops together—and not just reserved to bishops as an administrative matter. That’s a difficulty,” he said. “The ecclesial vision isn’t in this document and it loses its ability to address the whole issue of conversion, repentance and forgiveness.”

Father Silva said he understood the concerns of abuse survivors, “who have been so hurt and betrayed, that they can’t even conceive that the church would keep its word…but you can’t set a policy for priests based on victims’ hurt.”

In an interview with The Herald, Bishop Weigand said that in talking with priests throughout the diocese, his “sense is that priests generally want an aggressive and effective response to this crisis, including taking abusive priests out of ministry, because if bishops don’t, it reflects negatively on all of them and they are tired of it.”

He added, “If there’s any anger among our priests, about our policy being too strict, I’ve not heard it…I’ve not had one letter or statement from a priest that we should go easy on a one-time abuser.

“I think this is significant…Priests may have heavy hearts for an individual priest who has offended. It will sadden them, but it won’t change the fact that we have to be consistent in protecting children, protecting the other innocent priests, and the image of the church.”

The bishop noted that “decisions and actions” by a priest or deacon for so much as a single instance of sexual abuse of a minor “have consequences.”

“There’s no question that forgiveness is open to everyone, including a priest, but that doesn’t mean that he will function as a priest after he abuses,” Bishop Weigand said. “There can be forgiveness and salvation and he can lead a very productive life, but not as a priest. The bishops in the national policy went out of their way to distinguish this carefully.”

While nearly all comments by the leaders of victims groups reported in the national media after the bishops’ decisions were negative, reaction to the new charter by one area abuse survivor and a pastoral counselor who works with victims was more positive.

“You can see that a lot of prayer and thought went into the bishops’ policy,” said Michael Sandoval-Johnson of Sacramento, an abuse survivor serving on the diocese’s committee of Outreach for Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse.

“One of my hopes is that this is just the beginning of a process—that the bishops will police themselves and if there is an errant bishop or someone who isn’t enforcing the policy, that other bishops will hold that bishop accountable in some way,” he said.

The Rev. Debra Warwick-Sabino, an Episcopal priest at St. Martin Episcopal Church in Davis and a pastoral counselor who has worked with sexual abuse victims for several years, said many abuse survivors are “taking a wait and see attitude” about the new charter.

“Many are still very suspicious of church leaders—almost cynical,” she said. “The spiritual wound of abuse is so deep and people try so hard to repair it, that discussion of these issues is stirring up the pot all over again for them. But maybe the new policy will help over time…I think the charter is a remarkable document and a real step forward.”

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