BALTIMORE — U.S. Catholic priests made clear their frustrations Wednesday as a national assembly focused on clergy sex-abuse neared its conclusion without strong new steps to combat the multifaceted crisis.
Avoiding any direct confrontation with the Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ended the public sessions of its three-day meeting without any vote on two major anti-abuse proposals that had been drafted weeks ago. On the eve of this week’s meeting, the Vatican issued a surprise order for such action to be delayed until after a global meeting on sex abuse scheduled for February.
“The decision of the Holy See to constrain us did allow a limited response,” Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington, Vt., said. “All of us are disappointed that we weren’t able to do as much as we wanted.”
The U.S. Catholic church has been grappling with sex-abuse scandals for many years, but events this year have taken a heavy toll on the leadership’s credibility.
In August, a grand jury report in Pennsylvania detailed decades of abuse and cover-up in six dioceses, alleging more than 1,000 children had been abused over the years by about 300 priests. Since then, federal prosecutors and attorneys general in several other states have launched investigations.
Bishops at this week’s meeting appeared to be most angered and embarrassed by the scandal involving disgraced church leader Theodore McCarrick, who allegedly abused and harassed youths and seminarians over many years as he rose to be archbishop of Washington and a member of the College of Cardinals until his removal by Pope Francis in July.
Several investigations, including one at the Vatican, are underway to determine who might have known about and covered up McCarrick’s alleged misconduct. The U.S. bishops expressed eagerness to learn details of the Vatican probe but defeated a motion Wednesday pressing for access to information uncovered in that process.
“We have taken no official action to distance ourselves from the shameful behavior of one of our own,” said Bishop Liam Cary, of Baker, Ore. “What do people make of our silence?”
Bishop Michael Olson, of Fort Worth, Texas, noted with regret that McCarrick has not been defrocked and would have been eligible to participate in this week’s assembly.
“He is not welcome,” Olson said. “We should say that for his sake, and out of respect for those he has harmed.”
For much of Wednesday’s session, the bishops discussed the two anti-abuse proposals that initially had been scheduled for votes. One would establish a new code of conduct for individual bishops; the other would create a nine-member special commission, including six lay experts and three members of the clergy, to review complaints against the bishops.
Leaders of the conference said the Vatican intervened to ensure that steps taken by the U.S. bishops would be in harmony with those decided at a Vatican-convened global meeting on sex abuse in February. They also said more time was needed to vet aspects of the U.S. proposals that might conflict with church law.
