VOTF Letter to Reverend William S. Skylstad

December 6, 2004

Most Reverend William S. Skylstad
President
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 Fourth Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20017

Dear Bishop Skylstad,

I am writing to express concerns that Voice of the Faithful has regarding the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent vote on the 2005 audits of diocesan child safety protection policies. I do want to applaud the Bishops for approving the third round of audits, which are a necessary early step to ensure that our parishes are safe for children and young people, and which will help the Bishops to regain the trust of lay Catholics.

Since the vote, however, members of our organization, and members of the survivor community, have articulated real concerns about the proposal to allow dioceses that have previously been determined to be “safe” to submit self-reports. In January, Voice of the Faithful explained our apprehensions about the initial round of audits – we believe that they measured only the existence of child safety protection policies in dioceses, not their effectiveness. We also urged the Bishops to adopt many of the recommendations that the Office of Child and Youth Protection made to strengthen the auditing process. Therefore, we have reservations about plans to allow a self-audit reporting technique, which we feel will not advance the oversight capacity of the policies.

The clergy sexual abuse crisis came about over a long period of time – as the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and National Review Board reports released earlier this year demonstrated, they were decades in the making. It is our opinion that a few years of auditing is not sufficient period of time to truly repair the failures that allowed thousands of young people to be abused by hundreds of priests. Furthermore, we believe that the questions that Catholics have about which Bishops knowingly transferred abusive priests have not been sufficiently addressed in the past few years. In short, relying on self-audits will do little to ensure the safety of children and young people in Catholic parishes, nor will it advance the need Catholics have to see Bishops accountable for their actions in the past and future.

Again, we are heartened that the Bishops see the need to continue the audits but are discouraged that they would expand the self-auditing program. Our members believe self-audits serve neither the concerns of Catholic parents nor helps rebuild the Church. We remain willing to help the Bishops devise an auditing process that will strengthen trust in the Church, and hope to work with you on such an endeavor in the future.

Sincerely,

James E. Post
President
Voice of the Faithful