Some Catholic church observers were not surprised when the Vatican, citing a conflict with canon law, rejected the U.S. Bishops Conference's new policy, which would ban priests from church duty after one credible allegation of sexual abuse.
James T. Murphy, a lawyer for the Diocese of Providence, which last month ended a decade of sexual-abuse litigation with a $13.5-million settlement, said yesterday that church lawyers in the United States believed that the bishops' policy defied canon law's requirement of due process for priests.
"If someone commits one of these offenses," Murphy said, "it is also an offense under canon law, but the approach is different. You want to protect the person who is harmed, prevent it from happening again. But at the same time you have to reconcile the sinner to his or her God.
"We tried to explain," Murphy said of his years of litigation, "that there are laws here in Rhode Island, but that there are also universal Catholic laws."
Brian Condon, who was one of the alleged victims who sued the diocese, yesterday said he was encouraged that the Vatican's response was not an "outright rejection," but he said the church was focusing on canon law at the expense of victims.
Condon was allegedly abused by the Rev. James M. Silva while Silva was assigned to St. Matthew Church in Cranston, in the 1970s. In 1991, Rev. Silva was convicted of abusing an 18-year-old man at St. Theresa in Burrillville.
"Rome does what Rome wants to do; they live in their own little world," he said. "They're more concerned with false accusations against priests, which is a serious thing, but there hasn't been an epidemic of that. They should be more concerned about children."
Former Bishop of Providence Louis E. Gelineau explained in a 1997 deposition the tension between church law and civil law.
"While the accusations, and in some cases admissions, of sexual abuse of young adults by priests raises in me a combination of anger and sorrow experienced by any normal person . . . with respect to the imposition of discipline on priests, my action and reaction to each situation and each accused priest must be in accord with the Canon Law of the Catholic Church as informed by the Catholic Faith.
"In this regard, when there are episodes of alleged misconduct brought to my attention, my prime obligation, as it is to every other member of the church, is to lead, teach and sanctify the priest who is the target of the allegation."
A lawyer who represented victims in the lawsuits against the church said yesterday that the Vatican's response shows that it cannot be relied upon to police itself.
"As a Roman Catholic, the Vatican has let us down again," Carl P. DeLuca said.
Auxiliary Bishop Robert J. McManus yesterday said that the Vatican has not thrown out the bishops' sexual-abuse policy. It has asked for a refinement by calling for a review commission of eight church leaders which will determine how the policy can be adapted to respect "universal church law that's already in place." That commission will include four U.S. bishops, he said.
McManus said that the Vatican, in its response, "recognized in certain cases that some priests should be dismissed from the holy state," but had three main concerns: How lay review committees will operate; the definition of the phrase "sexual abuse"; and the procedure for addressing an accused priest.
Church law, McManus said,, "calls for a church investigation," but it also calls for abiding by civil law." He said that Rhode Island has a law requiring child abuse to be reported.
Yet, in Rhode Island, the Providence Diocese has repeatedly used "clergy-penitent privilege" in refusing to disclose its investigations into sexual abuse by its clergy. The privilege is invoked not only for confession, but for notes from group conversations at the chancery, confrontations between bishops and accused priests, and statements from priests to a retired police officer hired by the diocese to investigate allegations.
The clergy-penitent law has been on the books since 1960; the state amended the law in the 1990s, saying that allowances for privileged communication do not apply in cases of suspected child abuse. But in 1998, then Superior Court Judge Richard J. Israel ruled that the state's amendment applied to professionals and clients, and that a priest wasn't a professional in the traditional sense.
Canon law does not prevent the bishop from notifying police, Murphy, the church's lawyer said. "The problem is when there is information he cannot disclose because of the laws of the church."
The Providence Diocese last month created a lay board, the Child Protection Advisory Board, to review and develop policies on how the diocese should respond to the victims of sexual abuse and the perpetrators.
Yesterday, one member, Anne Marie D'Alessio, director of the Rhode Island Victims Advocacy and Support Center, said she would need to study the Vatican's response, but that she believes Bishop Robert E. Mulvee is committed to the "zero tolerance" policy he endorsed at the bishops' meeting.
"I think he's very sincere in what he says and is a person of his word," she said.
