The Catholic archbishop for the Minneapolis and St. Paul archdiocese restated some very clear guidelines regarding allegations of sexual abuse by the clergy. The police must always become involved. Apparently this is having the intended results: no recent lawsuits in this area of the nation!!
Here is the link: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/1915685.html
And here's the main part of the story:
Archbishop Flynn restates policy on clergy sex abuse
Nolan Zavoral
Star Tribune
Published Mar 9, 2002
Archbishop Harry Flynn, responding to recent news accounts of Catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct in the Boston area, reminded Twin Cities Catholics of the guidelines covering such abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Under the headline "How we treat sex abuse cases," in the archdiocesan newspaper, "The Catholic Spirit," Flynn said he hoped that "this helps to bring about peace and resolution to area Catholics and to keep the channels of communication between the Archdiocese and the Twin Cities metropolitan community open."
Revised 3 1/2 years ago, the document, "A Time to Heal," encourages victims to come forward; outlines their course of action; tightens the screening of candidates for religious orders, and describes workshops in sexual misconduct and boundary issues for new Archdiocesan employees. (To order a copy of the policy, call 651-291-4400.)
In the Feb. 28 Spirit article, Flynn also emphasized that allegations of sexual abuse by the clergy must be reported to the police, and that the archdiocese wanted to be part of the victim's recovery process. Offenders would be removed from parish ministry -- "followed by therapy and continuing treatment plans, and disclosure of abuse (under victim consent) to those communities involved," Flynn wrote.
In a cover letter to the media from the archdiocesan communications office, it was stated that the 12-county archdiocese "faces no sexual abuse lawsuits and has no known child abuse defenders serving in parish ministry."
The archbishop's remarks followed by a week the sentencing in Massachusetts of a defrocked priest named John Geoghan, who received nine to 10 years in state prison for improperly touching a 10-year-old boy a decade ago. According to a Boston Globe story, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston -- already facing the possibility of paying $40 million to settle 140 pending sexual-molestation claims against priests -- now may have to pay millions more to settle new claims.
J.R.Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)