Experts oppose policy of ousting pedophile priests
Despite criticism, U.S. bishops committed to removing offenders
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

The Vatican issued a report Monday by non-Catholic sex abuse experts who criticized the policy adopted by U.S. bishops of removing abusive priests from the ministry, saying it was overly harsh and would not protect the young.

The report was released days before U.S. bishops issue their own national survey on sex abuse by clergy, which is expected to find more than 4,000 American priests have been accused of molesting minors since 1950 -- far more than previously estimated.

Still, the U.S. study may also show the number of cases has declined dramatically since the 1990s, and victims fear it could lead U.S. bishops to ease off on discipline. The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said last week the American church remains committed to keeping offenders out of the ministry.

Monday's report, published by the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, may fuel victims' concerns because it compiles assessments by independent, non-Catholic psychiatrists and psychologists, who say the U.S. "zero-tolerance" policy is mistaken.

The 220-page report, "Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: Scientific and Legal Prospectives," is a compendium of scientific papers and discussions presented by the experts during a Vatican conference convened last April to give the church hierarchy advice on how to handle the crisis.

Neither the Vatican nor the experts drew final conclusions, but there were areas of agreement. As the Associated Press reported last week, one was in the widespread criticism by the experts of the 2002 U.S. zero-tolerance policy that says an offending priest can be permanently removed from ministry -- and possibly from the priesthood -- for a single act of abuse.

Many American dioceses say they are aggressively pursuing zero-tolerance policies after being stung by charges the church hierarchy was trying to protect abusive priests, often by shuffling them from parish to parish.

The experts said a zero-tolerance policy was mistaken and even dangerous. Most agreed that such a policy can actually increase the chances that offenders might strike again because it removes them from supervision and the only jobs they have known for decades.

Zero-tolerance "does not function to prevent these crimes," Dr. Hans-Ludwig Kroeber, head of the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry in Berlin, told the conference. "It is better to domesticate the dragon; if all you do is cut off its head, it will grow another."

Another conference participant, Dr. William Marshall of Canada, a former president of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, said such a policy sends the message the church doesn't care about the offender or believes he can't be rehabilitated -- "neither of which are good messages for the church to communicate."

He cautioned such a severe penalty may even discourage victims from coming forward.

The experts all agreed that offenders need treatment, as well as possible criminal penalties.

The report will be sent to bishops' conferences and Vatican offices and be used by the Vatican as a "scientific base for information" for developing guidelines, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, the deputy Vatican spokesman, said Monday.

_______________________________________________________________________

This new report certainly makes some convincing arguments against a 'zero tolerance' policy in the United States, but then again it is the United States and so no one should expect that the most logical argument will prevail.

DS