U.S. Catholic Bishops Convening Tuesday To Confront Sex-Abuse Crisis
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Mariott's guests this week are Catholic church's top managers in America.
They are the Bishops and Cardinals from throughout the country embroiled in a massive sex scandal that broke last year in Pennsylvania.
A grand jury report charged 300 Priests with more than 1,000 sexual assaults on children over the span of 50 years.
Some families complained to then-Bishop William Keeler, who went onto be Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore.
The grand jury found Keeler acted with criminal inaction by doing nothing about the attacks. Now, Bishops are debating how to judge their own accountability in sex abuse allegations.
Outside, not everybody believes Bishops are the best people to take on that job.
"They need to get more deliberative about investigating," former Priest James Faluszczak said. "They're still going to investigate internally. As the Attorney General of Pennsylvania said, we can't trust the Bishops to police themselves."
Two advisor panels sounded the same alarm.
"Bishops should be held accountable to the same standards as other clerics," Francesco Cesareo, Chmn. of the National Review Board, said.
The role of the church lay member could expand.
"The proposed directives allow for robust participation by the laity, which builds upon the experience in this country when responding to the allegation against priests."
A final blueprint for the bishop's behavior will be voted on Thursday.