By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops approved a plan to implement the document issued in May by Pope Francis to help the Catholic Church safeguard its members from abuse and hold its leaders accountable.
The implementation plan passed 281-1, with two abstentions, June 13, the last day of the bishops' June 11-13 general meeting in Baltimore.
The document established "procedures for reporting complaints of sexual abuse of minors or of vulnerable persons by clerics or by members of institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life," said Bishop Robert P. Deeley of Portland, Maine.
The document holds church leaders accountable for actions or omissions relating to the handling of such reports," he added.
The implementation plan has five elements:
- "Provide for the utilization of a national third-party reporting system by which reports can be received and conveyed to (the) proper ecclesiastical authority."
- "Underscore the requirement to provide pastoral care to persons who might have been harmed."
- "Encourage the utilization of proven experts chosen from among the laity."
- "Affirm the oversight responsibility of the metropolitan throughout the investigatory process." In church parlance, a metropolitan is the archbishop in a province with other dioceses headed by bishops.
- "Recognize the competence of each ecclesiastical province to determine an appropriate means to allocate costs for the investigation of reports and the provision of pastoral care to victims/survivors."
