WASHINGTON (AP)--In a Roman Catholic Church where the hierarchy exercises most of the power, an all-lay review board began monitoring the U.S. bishops' performance on the priestly abuse cleanup policy they approved in June.
Holding its first meeting on Tuesday, the board spent 45 minutes hearing from an abuse victims' group and asked the bishops' staff to compile a quick survey of how the nation's 194 dioceses are applying the June policy.
It also decided a director with law enforcement experience should be hired by Sept. 1 to run the new Office for Child and Youth Protection that the board will supervise. Washington lawyer Robert S. Bennett is heading the search.
Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, the board's chairman, said quick action will help assure Catholic and non-Catholic parents that their children are safe if they enroll in parochial schools.
At its second meeting, Sept. 16 in Oklahoma City, the panel will spend a full morning listening to victims, then plan two research projects, one on why the scandals came to convulse the American church, the other compiling data on the scope of the problem.
The board, an extraordinary entity in the annals of U.S. Catholicism, has only an advisory role. But Keating indicated its prominent members won't hesitate to put public pressure on bishops who were guilty of complicity with past abuse or who fail to honor the new policy.
Only Pope John Paul II, however, has the right to remove a bishop.
Keating also told reporters that lay Catholics should exercise ``the power of the purse.'' If a bishop shuns his moral duty, he said, ``it's time for the lay community of that diocese to say we're not writing another check until things change.''
Justice Anne M. Burke of the Illinois Appellate Court was named the panel's vice chair. Other members include Leon Panetta, the former California congressman and White House chief of staff. All members attended Tuesday's meeting.
Before the board meeting, Keating spent nearly an hour over breakfast with four leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which is sharply critical of the bishops and questions the makeup and independence of the board. The same four later spoke with the full board.
The Survivors Network's national director, David Clohessy, said board members are bright and well-intentioned but ``it's simply too early to tell how effective the panel will be.''
Peter Isely, of Milwaukee, Wis., said the Network told the board ``you are the one group that might be able to hold bishops accountable for their behavior.''
On Monday, the Network charged that nine U.S. dioceses had already failed to comply with terms of the June reform policy. Keating and Burke said the board would welcome any such information.
Among other things, the policy says bishops will remove all past and present abusers from active ministry, refer new cases to the police and pursue ``transparency'' in all their dealings with the issue.
Since the scandal erupted in January in Boston, some 300 of the 46,000 U.S. priests have been taken off duty over abuse allegations.
In other developments Tuesday related to the church abuse scandal: --In Wyoming, an investigation has concluded there is no evidence that retired Bishop Joseph Hart sexually abused a boy more than 25 years ago, a prosecutor said. Kevin Meenan said many of the details provided by the accuser were not corroborated and some were contradictory. In a statement released through his attorney, Hart said he was ``pleased but in no way surprised.''
• In Wisconsin, Madison Bishop William Bullock appointed a review board to handle sexual abuse policies. The leader will be retired Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Roland Day, who wrote a 1995 court decision that basically makes it impossible for people to sue Wisconsin churches over actions of their clergy.
• In Arizona, the Diocese of Tucson adopted a zero-tolerance policy calling for the removal of any priest, employee or volunteer who sexually abuses anyone under 18. Under the policy, any such allegation also will be reported to law enforcement immediately.
• More than a dozen new lawsuits were filed against the Archdiocese of Louisville alleging sexual abuse, bringing a total of 169 pending suits against the church.
• A 25-year-old man filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, charging that he was sexually abused by a priest he consulted for counseling three years ago. Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling declined to comment on the lawsuit but said the priest had been under the supervision of the Franciscans--not the archdiocese.
• In Oklahoma, Bishop Edward Slattery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa apologized for a former priest's ``inappropriate behavior'' with young boys and said reinstating him after the allegations surfaced was a mistake. Slattery said he was following the advice of church lawyers when he returned the Rev. Kenneth Lewis to duty after the priest underwent psychiatric treatment for giving back rubs to young boys in 1994. Lewis has denied the allegations of wrongdoing.