Victim advocacy groups decry cuts in on-site diocese audits

[Khephra]

NEW YORK -- Two victim advocacy groups accused Roman Catholic bishops yesterday of abandoning their pledge to root out sexually abusive clergy by reducing the number of US dioceses that will receive full, on-site audits of their child protection programs next year.

But a spokesman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said the changes were meant only to make the process more efficient, and were not a sign church leaders are backing away from reforms.

Voice of the Faithful, a lay Catholic group, and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the revisions will undermine whatever trust the bishops have restored in their leadership.

In each of the last two years, the bishops hired an outside auditor who sent teams largely made up of former FBI agents into all 195 US dioceses. Their job was to determine whether the church had put in place the safeguards required under the antiabuse policy the bishops approved in 2002.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/14/victim_advocacy_groups_decry_cuts_in_on_site_diocese_audits/