Concerns raised over US bishops' approval of watered-down norms on sexual abuse. (Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal).

FOLLOWING CARDINAL Bernard Law's resignation (see box, opposite page), the pope approved a new set of rules proposed by the Vatican-appointed panel to deal with the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Many view the new rules as a significant watering down of the original rules the bishops passed at their June meeting in Dallas.

In June the US bishops passed a "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" that required dioceses to "report to the public authorities any allegation of sexual abuse of a person who is currently a minor." But the Vatican-appointed panel removed that mandate and restored a 10-year statute of limitations on cases. It also introduced a definition of sexual abuse, of which Cardinal Francis George, during the bishops' November meeting, said, "It doesn't have to be an act of intercourse, [but] if someone says you're lusting after me in your heart, you can't bring that to the court."

The new rules were required because the Vatican had rejected the US bishops' initial proposal for dealing with clergy sexual abuse. The proposal, "Essential Norms for Diocesan/ Eparchial Policies Dealing with Accusations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests, Deacons, or other Church Personnel," was submitted for approval in July.

In the letter from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, rejecting the US bishops' norms, the Holy See condemned sexual abuse by priests, but failed to apologize to the victims of the abuse or to offer concrete examples of viable solutions, and maintained that the sexual abuse of children by priests is limited to the United States.

Criticism of the new rules was widespread. David Clohessy, of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said, "Catholics need to know that abusers will be taken out of ministry and stay out of ministry, regardless of when their first offence occurred." He added, "We're back to an ambiguous, murky policy that priests, not laypeople, will have the key role in interpreting. This is a huge backtracking. It's a huge and shameful retreat. It goes back to the longstanding practice of doing the absolute bare minimum."

An editorial in the New York Times was wary about the effectiveness of the new norms. "At Rome's insistence the bishops have endorsed several new layers of review that appear to diminish the accountability of individual bishops, blur lines of authority and provide opportunities to obstruct or at least delay justice." It continued, "if [the norms] are used to delay or obstruct justice, then the great promise of Dallas will have been denied. The fact is that these new rules are more ambiguous than the old, and full of potential pitfalls. Ultimately, this policy will not work unless the most senior people in the church want it to."

Bishops at the November conference complained that all the other work they did was being drowned out by the media and public frenzy over the sexual abuse scandal. However, Susan Archibald, president of The Linkup, a national support group of about 3,000 victims of clerical sex abuse, said that, as a Catholic, she was tired hearing the bishops "complain that people just pay attention to the scandal. It really sums up the arrogance of the bishops that they think the church does so many good things that the fact that a few people are abused shouldn't matter so much."