ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The sex abuse reform programs that Roman Catholic leaders approved in June will add more than $600,000 to the national program budget of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a member of the hierarchy's finance committee reported.
Writing in the Florida Catholic, a statewide newspaper based in Orlando, St. Petersburg Bishop Robert Lynch said the committee set that number at an August meeting in Washington.
New cost items include the national Review Board being chaired by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, two research studies the board will commission, and professional staff for a newly established Office for Child and Youth Protection at the bishops' headquarters.