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Wednesday, May 08, 2002

By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

In a major change of policy, Bishop Donald Wuerl said yesterday that the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh will now report all allegations of child molestation by priests to civil authorities, no matter how old the accuser is or how long ago the abuse is said to have taken place.

Up to now, the policy was to report only accusations made by minors, which is all that Pennsylvania law requires.

"Any allegation we receive, no matter how old, will be turned over to the district attorney," the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese, said in explaining the change. "We've said all along that the expectation was that most of these would be turned over, but that there could be an exception. Now we are going to hand everything over."

The diocese previously encouraged accusers to take their complaints to the authorities themselves, but told them they could not promise confidentiality and might choose to go to the police over their objections. Church officials made allowances for some accusers who said they did not want their charges to be made public or to be questioned by police.

During a breakfast meeting with local reporters and editors, Wuerl said he now thinks taking all allegations to the authorities would have been wise policy all along. But he spoke of victims who had pleaded for privacy and he called the loss of confidentiality in church settings a "sad, sad, situation."

Referring to the sex abuse scandals that are now rocking the church in America, he said that church leaders had "shot ourselves in the foot."

Lengwin said the new policy was adopted within the past two weeks. It followed a series of meetings between church officials and district attorneys from the six counties in the diocese about the issue.

The new policy would also apply if an adult made a charge of rape against a priest, Lengwin said. But it does not apply to anything revealed under the seal of sacramental confession, for which there is an exemption in the state reporting law. Under canon law, a priest who reveals anything said to him during confession is subject to excommunication.

Among Catholic bishops of the United States, Wuerl has a strong public track record of removing priests who have molested minors, whether there is a criminal case against them or not. In 1993 the Vatican's highest court ordered him to reinstate an accused pedophile priest against whom no criminal charges were pending, but whom Wuerl believed to be guilty. Wuerl refused to allow the man to even wear a collar or call himself "Father" and ultimately won an almost unheard of reversal from the Vatican court.

During the recent crisis, Wuerl has criticized the actions of some other bishops, whom he faulted for following the advice of lawyers and psychiatrists rather than using their own pastoral judgment to protect parishioners.

Lengwin said the new policy is not retroactive. Accusers who were promised confidentiality in the past will not have their records handed over to the authorities unless a new accuser complains about the same priest or former priest and the district attorney requests his file, Lengwin said.

The only documentation that will immediately be given to the authorities is the report on the allegation itself, Lengwin said.

"The district attorneys will then determine what additional information they may need," he said.