Opus Bono Sacerdotii
Work for the Good of the Priesthood Finding solutions to the problems confronting priests.
Make a Donation to Opus Bono

Mixed Commission meets in Rome

The National Catholic Reporter

January 28, 2005

John L. Allen Jr. 
Vatican 
Correspondent

jallen@natcath.org

Most Americans probably regard the sexual abuse norms adopted by the U.S. bishops in 2002, the heart of which is the “one strike” policy, as by now more or less written in stone, a permanent part of the church’s response to the crisis. In fact, however, those norms were approved by the Vatican only for two years, and that trial period is up in March. What happens next is unclear.

A “mixed commission” of Vatican officials and American bishops to discuss the norms will meet in Rome in the offices of the Congregation for Clergy, Jan. 31-Feb. 1.

Concerns linger about the norms – about the fairness of the ‘one strike’ policy, the definition of the “sexual abuse,” the routine lifting of the statute of limitations, and various due process issues – though opinion is divided both in Rome and in America. Some canonists and Vatican officials, and most American bishops, believe the norms are working and should be continued largely as they stand. Other Vatican officials, however, and many overseas bishops, remain opposed.

Sources told NCR in late January that this meeting of the mixed commission is not necessarily expected to produce a decision, but to air experiences and concerns on both sides.

“It’s a follow-up and evaluation,” a senior Vatican official told NCR Dec. 28. This official said that this meeting may or may not produce a document, depending on how serious the revisions decided upon by the group turn out to be.

One open question is what happens to the existing norms if March comes and goes without Vatican reauthorization. Some canonists say the new American rules would thereby expire, “and we would return to the status quo ante, though a lot older and wiser,” as one put it. Under the previous standard, there was no uniform national legislation, and no guarantee of a “one-strike” approach.

Others, however, believe the norms would stay in force until revised or formally withdrawn.

“We’re going to try to be sure that there’s no period that’s not covered by a norm,” the senior Vatican official said.

Representatives from the Vatican are expected to be: Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, a Colombian and prefect of the Congregation for Clergy; Cardinal Julian Herranz, a Spaniard, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts; Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, another Italian, secretary of the Congregation for Bishops; Archbishop Piergiorgio Nesti, Italian, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; and Monsignor Thomas Green, an American in the Secretary of State.

In the meeting of the mixed commission in 2002, then-Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone represented the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, but in the meantime he has gone on to become the cardinal of Genoa.

For the Americans, the members last time were Cardinal Francis George of Chicago; Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco; Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Illinois; and Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Archbishop Harry Flynn of Minneapolis-St. Paul, who serves as chair of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, has been added to the U.S. group this time around, as has Sulpician Fr. Ron Witherup, president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the major umbrella group in America for men’s religious communities, as a consultant.

George is the head of the American delegation.