Committee on Sex Abuse by Priests Set Up

NEW ORLEANS —  The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, buffeted by a series of reports of pedophilia among priests, established a committee Thursday to address the problem of sexual abuse by clergy.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse was charged with making recommendations on what the church can do to assist victims and their families. They also will assess the risks of reassigning abusive priests, once they have been treated, to other duties within the church.

“I want to make sure that all of us bishops understand the depth and the seriousness, the pain and the agony of this problem and why it strikes at the very heart of the church’s trust level and credibility level,” said Bishop John F. Kinney of Bismarck, N.D., the committee chairman.

The committee was established after a report from a church-sponsored panel recommending the establishment of a national task force on child abuse and a ban on abusive priests returning to any ministry that includes minors.

The panel of more than 30 experts on clergy sexual abuse also urged the nation’s bishops at their annual spring meeting to establish a national day of prayer and penance for victims of sexual abuse and to set up independent diocesan review boards to oversee how the church handles abuse allegations.

The committee and the report to the bishops come amid increasing allegations of clergy sex abuse in dioceses around the country.

Kinney said improving the screening of ministerial candidates is particularly important.

“The church can never allow this to happen again,” he said.

The church-sponsored panel of experts on child sex abuse said the problem of clergy sex abuse is eroding the church hierarchy’s credibility and is a source of scandal for Catholics.

The welfare of victims should be the first concern of church leaders, the panel said.

For example, the church should pay for mental health costs of victims and should seek out other victims when a charge of sexual abuse has been substantiated.

The panel also recommended that abusers should never again have unsupervised contact with minors.

“Church leaders should err on guaranteeing the rights of victims,” the panel said.