OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A review board monitoring how America's Roman Catholic bishops comply with the new sex abuse policy had a busy agenda at its second meeting as it responds to the abuse scandal that has swept through the church this year.
The church-appointed panel was to examine a report on their response so far and hear from molestation victims Monday at a closed-door meeting.
The National Review Board, made up of 13 prominent lay Catholics and chaired by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, was established as a way to bring accountability to the reform policy that U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved in June.
At its first meeting July 30, the board directed the bishops' staff to compile a preliminary survey of policy implementation in each diocese. That report was to be reviewed Monday.
The board also had hoped to announce the director of the new Office for Child and Youth Protection on the U.S. bishops' Washington staff. But a few more weeks are needed to make a selection, said the board's Vice Chair Anne Burke, an Illinois appellate judge.
She said the crowded Oklahoma City agenda also includes details on how the child-protection office will operate and several other projects. "All of us have day jobs, so we're going to be cutting up the work so each board member will be intimately involved," Burke said.
The board is mandated to supervise the child-protection office, check on the performance of each U.S. diocese and commission research about the scope and origins of the scandal.
Keating's group is taking a broad view of its duties. For instance, the head of the bishops' staff officially appoints the child-protection director, but a board subcommittee took charge of the search.
The lay board has only advisory powers, but its existence alone is an unprecedented power-sharing move by the nation's church hierarchy. Keating has said the group will wield influence by publicizing bishops' past or future failures. Only the pope can remove a bishop, however.
The board planned to spend an hour with members of two victims' organizations, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and The Linkup. In July, the board met victims for 45 minutes and Keating spent another hour with them.
Originally, the board planned to give victims a full morning in Oklahoma City. SNAP has complained that Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. hierarchy, did not name one of its members to the panel.
The board reached full membership Aug. 23 when Gregory appointed New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Petra J. Maes. Others named earlier included Washington lawyer Robert S. Bennett and former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.
Burke said board members have conferred frequently by phone and e-mail since the first meeting. The board plans to meet monthly until January, in addition to subcommittee meetings.