The president of Assumption College in Worcester and chairman of The National Review board, a Catholic board established in 2002 that looks to protect children from clergy abuse, is calling upon U.S. bishops meeting at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore to define new standards of accountability before ending a three-day summit. WGBH Radio's Marilyn Schairer interviewed Francesco Cesareo about his recent criticism of bishops and a call for more reform. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Marilyn Schairer: Let’s begin with asking how disappointed are you that the Vatican postponed the vote on the accountability policy?
Francesco Cesareo: That was extremely disappointing because it's very clear that the bishops need to take action, and they were prepared to take action to indicate not only their understanding of the gravity of the situation, but the need to hold themselves accountable. This intervention by the Vatican is really difficult to understand given the situation that the church is in at this moment. The bishops need to find a way to act without being disobedient to the Holy See. But they've got to find a way to do something at this meeting.
Schairer: Explain to me and the public, what is your role in all of this?
Cesareo: I am the chair of the National Review Board. The National Review Board was established in 2002 by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People by the USCCB [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]. We are completely lay board, we’re an independent lay board. Our role is to provide advice and counsel to the bishops on how to deal with the question of sexual abuse of minors and young people by the clergy. So, our role is to provide them with best practices, advice on how to create cultures of safety and protection and healing, but also to review the audits that are done of dioceses on an annual basis to determine whether or not there are areas within the church, within certain dioceses, that are beginning to raise some red flags, and how those should be dealt with in order to ensure safe environments for our children and young people. So we're a consultative and advisory board to the bishops.
Schairer: From what I've read, what occurred at yesterday's meeting in Baltimore with the Roman Catholic bishops, you were quoted as saying they've done too little too late. And that was a pretty hard stance. How did they react to that, and what prompted you to say that?
Cesareo: What prompted me to say that is the fact that, while there has been a great deal of progress made in the church dealing with sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, we now so have many policies and protocols and procedures in place, and the number of incidences of current abuse has significantly declined. It's too late or too little because it never applied to the bishops themselves. And so what we have found through the allegations that came forward this summer, historical allegations, is that the bishops even through omission or in action really enabled abuse to continue. And because they were not held accountable, we have a situation in the church where priests have suffered the consequences, but bishops have not. Whether it was for their own acts of abuse or by no action whatsoever, when they knew of clergy that were engaged in the abuse of minors and young people. So that was why I said what I said. Because I saw, and the National Review Board in general as we met this weekend in preparation for yesterday's presentation, we really felt that this is a moment in which candor and frankness and honesty needed to be brought forward in the presentation, so that the bishops could really think about what they needed to do and how they need to be held accountable, and how they need to be transparent, and how consequences need to apply to them as well as it applies to clergy.
Schairer: And you also said, which really put it out there, that the “faithful and the clergy do not trust many of you.” That is a powerful statement.
Cesareo: Yes, and I think that the credibility of the bishops has been lost because of this. There is a lack of trust, because many times they find that in these incidences they have not been forthright and they have not come forward. And this is not the entire Episcopacy, I want to make that clear. All it takes is one or two bishops to fail in this area and the entire Episcopacy is impacted and affected. And so there is a lack of trust and there is a lack of credibility, and it's going to take a long time for that trust to be regained. One of the ways that that can happen is by taking some very definitive, concrete actions that apply to themselves in order to address this issue in this situation.
Schairer: So what's the next step? Is the meeting over? Is there still a day left, or is it done?
Cesareo: There's still a day left for the meetings, and it remains to be seen. There's been some talk of a straw poll, if you will, of the bishops on these action items that would allow Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to signal to Rome, 'This is the thinking of the Episcopacy in the United States.' We really need to act. We can't wait any longer. There's been talk of potentially resolutions on these issues without formal votes. So I know they're grappling with this because they all recognize that they've got to leave these meetings this week with something concrete to bring back to their dioceses.
