About 15,000 of the 46,000 U.S. priests belong to religious orders such as the Jesuits, Franciscans and many others.
In August, leaders of the orders in the United States decided that sexually abusive priests should be kept away from children but not barred from all church work a less restrictive plan than the bishops’. The orders left open the possibility that some abusers could return to their communities after treatment, serving the church in administrative jobs far from young people….
Rev. Ted Keating, executive director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men… and the organization president, the Rev. Canice Connors, came to Rome last month, addressed a meeting of the International Union of Superior Generals and met with Vatican officials.
Keating said he was told that the international assembly on Nov. 30 expressed support for the concerns of U.S. orders. Officials of the world group were not available for comment Thursday.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Keating declined to provide details of his talks with the Vatican, but said he didn’t expect the Vatican to make immediate changes in the latest version of the norms.
”What we heard in Rome is, it’s too late to do that and we would work it out during the provisional period, case by case, and then take a thorough look at the end of two years,” Keating said.
He indicated the lobbying effort was aimed at the long term. The sex abuse policy will come up for review by the bishops and the Vatican two years after it is formally approved by the Holy See.
Since Fr. Connors has been one of the purported experts advising bishops for years on this subject, I don’t expect that his credibility is especially strong now.