Despite criticism that it left out victims' advocates, the
board appointed to monitor the implementation of the new sex abuse policy in
the Roman Catholic church is "an impressive group" devoted to
restoring credibility in the church, the panel's chairman said.
Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who was appointed board chairman previously,
pledged that the board will be tough on priests who molested minors and church
leaders who hid abuse cases.
"We care deeply about the church, which has been deeply hurt,"
Keating said. "Our community is angry, because the Catholic church is
trailing blood."
Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, the president of the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops,
appointed eight new board members Wednesday, including former White House chief
of staff Leon Panetta.
The list includes several prominent Catholic lay people, but no one from victim
advocacy groups. Keating said he did not want board members beholden to a particular
organization.
But David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused
by Priests, said the board's first action should be to add one member from a
victim advocacy groups.
"There are certainly some prestigious individuals but I'm not convinced
prestige is what is needed here," he said. "The panel can only be
effective if it is independent, and is perceived as such."
Besides Panetta, who served under President Clinton, the others appointed were:
* William R. Burleigh, board chairman and former chief executive officer of
E.W. Scripps Co., which operates daily newspapers and other media businesses.
* Nicholas Cafardi, dean of the Duquesne University School of Law and former
legal counsel for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
* Jane Chiles, just-retired executive director of the Catholic Conference of
Kentucky.
* Alice Bourke Hayes, president of the University of San Diego and a former
administrator at St. Louis University and Loyola University of Chicago.
* Pamela D. Hayes, a New York City attorney in private practice who has
experience prosecuting sex offenses.
* Paul R. McHugh, director of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine.
* Ray H. Siegfriend II, board chairman of the Nordham Group, an aviation
service and manufacturing company in Tulsa, Okla.
The newly appointed members join three others who were already named: prominent
Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett; Anne M. Burke of Chicago, a justice on
the Illinois Appellate Court; and Michael J. Bland, a victim of clergy abuse
and a psychological counselor who works with fellow victims for the Chicago
Archdiocese.
A final board member has yet to be confirmed.
The charter on sex abuse approved by U.S. bishops last month in Dallas says the
board will supervise the new Office for Child and Youth Protection, approve
that office's annual report on performance of local dioceses and commission
research on the abuse crisis.
In a teleconference, Keating said when the board meets for the first time Tuesday,
they will discuss research on "how we got into this tragic nightmare"
and the hiring of a director for the protection office.
He said the board agrees the director "should be a cop -- a former federal
agent or prosecutor, a no-nonsense individual who can give reassurance to the
public that this will end."
Keating said the national panel wants to make sure review boards in local
dioceses are independent of church control. He will look to them to lobby for
the removal of cardinals, bishops or priests guilty of abuse -- or covering up
abuse. If local boards don't call for key removals, the national board will, he
said.
In other developments related to the church abuse scandal:
* A Kentucky Court of Appeals judge in Frankfort ordered all records in a
sex-abuse lawsuit against two Roman Catholic dioceses to remain sealed pending
a ruling by the three-judge panel. The lawsuit was filed against the dioceses
on behalf of unnamed plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused as minors by
priests in the Lexington and Covington dioceses.
* In Worcester, Mass., a former priest jailed 12 years ago for sexually abusing
a child faced new charges that he raped another girl. Robert E. Kelley, 60, was
released on $10,000 cash bail after pleading innocent to sexually abusing a
9-year-old girl in 1980. Kelley has been criminally charged with sexually
assaulting six girls in separate lawsuits.