All but 10% of the nation's 194 Roman Catholic dioceses have fully complied with rules and safeguards to prevent sexual abuse of minors by priests, the church's watchdog office will report today in the aftermath of a scandal that has rocked the U.S. church for the last two years.
The much-anticipated report said that bishops have made significant progress in implementing "zero tolerance" regulations as required under a national church charter on sexual abuse adopted in June 2002.
But the document, a copy of which was obtained by The Times in advance of its official release in Washington, declared that 20 Catholic dioceses and Eastern Rite Catholic districts, all outside of California, had not made enough changes, and urged the nation's bishops to take corrective action there.
In most cases, those 20 dioceses, including Anchorage, Honolulu, Omaha and New York, had not established formal codes of conduct, not developed classes for parents on how to spot signs of sexual abuse, or not properly started background checks for priests and other church employees, according to the report.
Leaders of sexual abuse victims' support groups said they were skeptical about what they believed would be the report's mainly upbeat conclusions, although they had not yet seen it.
At a news conference Monday in Los Angeles and in a statement issued in St. Louis, leaders of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests alleged that the audit would be "fundamentally flawed." They said few victims were interviewed by auditors.
The audit was conducted by 54 investigators -- many of them former FBI agents -- employed by the Gavin Group Inc. of Boston, headed by retired FBI official William Gavin. Undertaken at a cost to the church of $1.8 million, the audits were carried out primarily from June 23 to Oct. 31.
A separate investigation is seeking to determine the number of sexual abuse cases and abusive clergy around the country since 1950. Those results, which could be far more explosive as the church seeks to restore its credibility, are scheduled to be announced next month by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
This week's report called for annual audits of the nation's Catholic dioceses and their similar Eastern Rite jurisdictions, known as eparchies, and a yearly up-to-date accounting of the number of priests and deacons accused of sexually molesting minors. It also called for greater efforts by the church to track down and help bring to justice priests who have fled after accusations of sexual abuse.
