Victims angered by Vatican rejection of bishops' sex abuse policy; priests see boost for their rights

<br>Victims of clerical sex abuse said Friday that the Vatican rejection of a policy American bishops adopted to punish guilty priests shows the church is still resisting reform. <br><br>But some church

Friday, October 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Victims of clerical sex abuse said Friday that the Vatican rejection of a policy American bishops adopted to punish guilty priests shows the church is still resisting reform.

But some church observers argued the Holy See was simply trying to develop a policy that protected children while also preserving the rights of accused priests.

Mark Serrano, a national board member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the Vatican response ``a victory for Vatican bureaucrats and recalcitrant bishops.'' He said victims should lobby for changes in U.S. law that would make it easier to prosecute offenders.

Yet Russell Shaw, a former spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Knights of Columbus, argued it would be wrong to conclude that the bishops' policy was dead.

He urged rank-and-file Catholics to recognize the difficulties of implementing a plan that was fair to both victims and clergy.

``This is not the end of the game,'' Shaw said. ``Everyone would like it to be overnight but it's too large and complex.''

The Vatican said there were conflicts between the policy and church law, and expressed concern that some language in the plan was imprecise and difficult to interpret. A commission of Holy See officials and U.S. bishops is being established to resolve the problems.

The Rev. Robert Bullock, an organizer of the Boston Priests Forum, an advocacy group of more than 100 priests, said he hoped church leaders would respond to the Vatican statement by working to heal the rifts the new policy created between bishops and diocesan clergy.

Many priests have complained that bishops have been scapegoating clergy to placate victims. In Rome, a cardinal who reviewed the policy said preserving the bond between bishops and priests was indeed a Vatican concern.

The U.S. policy ``did all the things necessary for victims, but the question is what does it do to due process for priests,'' Bullock said.

Mike Emerton, a spokesman for the lay reform movement Voice of the Faithful, which claims 25,000 members, questioned why more discussion was needed since the Vatican had four months to review the bishops' policy.

He said the rejection by the Vatican gives American bishops a ``line-item veto,'' allowing church leaders to ignore provisions of the plan they oppose.

``It gives the bishops the ability to pick and choose only those portions they feel they would like to implement within their own dioceses This is not something we were looking for,'' Emerton said.