[ OUR OPINION ]
Catholic diocese should
comply with rulesHAWAII'S Roman Catholic diocese has been slow in complying with a new national policy aimed at preventing sex abuse by priests and is among the few dioceses that remain deficient. The "zero tolerance" that Hawaii Bishop Francis DiLorenzo has accepted as policy should be applied to bring Hawaii into compliance with safeguards adopted by American bishops a year and a half ago.
THE ISSUE
Ninety percent of the nation's Catholic dioceses have fully complied with rules to prevent sex abuse by priests, but Hawaii's diocese is not among them.
Audits of the nation's 195 dioceses conducted by a team of investigators determined that 90 percent are fully complying with the plan's 17 guidelines. The Hawaii diocese was found to be in violation of several rules six months ago and remains negligent in three areas that are most common among the noncompliant dioceses.
When the auditors employed by retired FBI official William Gavin reviewed the Honolulu diocese last July, they found it had failed to develop an outreach program for victims of sexual abuse, had no printed form for making a complaint of abuse and had neglected to create programs to assist priests. The diocese now is in compliance with those rules, according to the audit.
However, the auditors found last month that the diocese still had not developed and publicized formal codes of conduct for priests, established a training program for parents, educators, clergy, employees and church volunteers who regularly work with children, or started background checks on priests and other church employees.
"For the most part, it was not a refusal to adhere to the policies," Gavin said of those violations, the most common among deficient dioceses. "It was a lack of understanding of how to do so."
That was a reasonable explanation of why Hawaii and the other deficient dioceses had failed to implement those programs six months ago. Hawaii parishioners should be concerned that the diocese has not established the programs since then.
Four priests had been removed from the Catholic public ministry before DiLorenzo became bishop in 1993, and he removed the Rev. Joseph Bukoski as pastor of Marian Lanakila Church on Maui in August 2002. Bukoski was accused of two incidents of sexual misconduct dating back more than 20 years. He has denied the allegations.
The auditors reported that the Honolulu diocese has not received any sexual abuse complaints since then. A report to be released next month will show the results of an investigation of the number of sexual abuse cases and abusive clergy since 1950.
Information in that report, like this week's report, will have been obtained "primarily through data provided by the dioceses, eparchies and religious orders," according to the bishops. A spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said only three of the organization's 4,600 members were contacted by Gavin's auditors.
