WASHINGTON, November 13, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – U.S. bishops meeting in Washington today are expected to approve Vatican arranged revisions to their Dallas policy calling for the zero tolerance of any priest who commits any act of sexual abuse. David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has stated that the bishops are not giving enough attention to the abuse problem at the current meeting. The Kentucky Courier-Journal reports that Clohessy and others said today at a news conference that some bishops should resign or at least give up their leadership roles in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. ‘‘First they have to acknowledge there has to be . . . criteria (for disciplining each other) and then there can be a discussion about that criteria,’’ said Peter Isely, a member of the survivors network.
The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and editor of America, a liberal, dissident Catholic magazine, said “one bishop in Ireland and another in Canada resigned for mishandling the assignments of abusive priests. But no American bishops have done so, and ‘‘if they haven’t done it by now, I don’t think they’re going to do it.’‘
See the Courier-Journal report: https://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/11/13/ke111302s312826.htm See Priest faces removal from Arlington Diocese https://www.washtimes.com/metro/20021113-153855.htm See LifeSite’s Church Scandals page https://www.lifesitenews.com/features/churchscandals/