Bishop Thomas V. Daily, the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, has signed a memorandum requiring all diocese employees to report any accusations of sexual abuse of children in Brooklyn directly to prosecutors, without first checking their accuracy, in what appears to be the first formal agreement of its kind.
Bishop Daily had said this month that the diocese would begin reporting accusations to law enforcement authorities on an unconditional basis, revising a policy under which charges were first evaluated internally. But the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, asked that the new policy be put in writing. The result was a "memorandum of understanding," signed on Saturday, that says any allegations of abuse in Brooklyn "will be immediately forwarded to the Kings County district attorney's office without prior screening regarding the truth of the allegations."
The agreement also requires that diocese employees report any information from a parent or other responsible person" that suggests a child may have been abused. It does not apply to statements made during confession, which remain confidential.
Queens prosecutors do not appear to have sought a similar agreement. But Betsy Herzog, a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said that "the diocese of Brooklyn has agreed to promptly report and fully disclose to our office any allegations of sexual abuse involving priests" in Queens.