FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF contact your diocesan / eparchial Victim’s Assistance THIS SERVICE? Coordinator instead. Consult your local diocesan / eparchial website for contact information. The purpose of the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting (CBAR) service is to provide a third-party service for gathering and Although Church authorities who receive reports of the relaying to appropriate Church authorities reports of the sexual abuse of a minor and certain other crimes will report following kinds of misconduct: them to civil authorities as required by law, this service is not intended as a substitute for calling the police. If you feel • A U.S. Catholic bishop who has: that you are the victim of a crime, please contact local law enforcement immediately. • forced someone to perform or to submit to sexual acts through violence, threat, or abuse of authority; WILL THIS SERVICE RESPECT • performed sexual acts with a minor or a MY PRIVACY? vulnerable person; Although reports made through this service will be routed • produced, exhibited, possessed, or distributed to appropriate Church personnel and, as warranted, civil child pornography, or recruited or induced a authorities for investigation purposes, the reports will minor or a vulnerable person to participate in otherwise be kept confidential. You are not required pornographic exhibitions; to provide your name or contact information, although • or, a U.S. diocesan or eparchial bishop, or you may choose to do so to facilitate the investigative other cleric overseeing a diocese/eparchy in process. Any data submitted will be protected through the absence of a diocesan or eparchial bishop, enhanced encryption. who, in the exercise of their office, intentionally interfered with a civil or Church investigation into WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN allegations of sexual abuse committed by another A REPORT? cleric or religious. Your report must include: WHAT KINDS OF REPORTS • the name of the U.S. Catholic bishop you are SHOULD NOT BE MADE THROUGH reporting; THIS SERVICE? • a description of the allegation, the place where it occurred, and the timeframe of when it occurred, All other complaints against bishops, such as theological as best you can remember. concerns, liturgical abuses, church closings, priest assignments, etc., are beyond the scope of this reporting It will be helpful if the report also includes as many relevant service. Such complaints should not be made through this details as possible, such as the names of other individuals reporting service. involved, as well as dates, times, known circumstances, or other information useful to assess the facts of the situation. If you wish to report sexual abuse or misconduct by other clergy or Church personnel other than a bishop, please 6 WHAT HAPPENS TO A REPORT ONCE WHO IS PROVIDING THIS SERVICE? IT IS SUBMITTED? This third-party reporting system is provided by Convercent, • You will be given an access number and personal Inc., which is a commercial vendor of ethics reporting password that can be used to follow-up on the services and has no authority within the Catholic Church. status of your report. The service can provide The service reflects Convercent’s standard design for automated status reports at a very general level, confidentially receiving and relaying reports, additionally but it can also provide a confidential avenue of tailored to fit the requirements of Church law. The service communication for asking more detailed questions is paid for by the 197 dioceses and eparchies of the about status. United States. The service is operated by the Metropolitan • Your report will be forwarded to the proper Church archbishops and Senior Suffragan bishops of each authority, usually a Metropolitan archbishop (or province, with the assistance of the designated lay people a Senior Suffragan bishop if the report is about corresponding to each. the Metropolitan, or if the Metropolitan See is vacant). All of the information you provide will be WHO INVESTIGATES THE REPORTS forwarded without any editing or revisions. ENTERED INTO THIS SERVICE? • At the same time, your report will be forwarded to a lay person who has been designated to assist Neither Convercent nor the third-party system conducts any the bishop in receiving reports. investigation. Instead, the system only gathers and routes • Some reports, such as those involving minors, will reports to the appropriate Church officials in a manner be reported to law enforcement. consistent with canon law, so that they in turn can be • The Metropolitan (or Senior Suffragan) and investigated. Only those Church officials delegated with designated lay person will review the report. authority by the Holy See can conduct a Church investigation • The Metropolitan will then send your report of a bishop. Some reports, such as those of sexual abuse to the Apostolic Nuncio along with an initial of a minor, will be conveyed to civil authorities as well. In assessment. those cases, Church officials will suspend any canonical • The Apostolic Nuncio will then send your report action in deference to an investigation being conducted by and the Metropolitan’s initial assessment to the civil authorities when they so request. appropriate authority within the Holy See. • Within thirty days, the Holy See will determine if WHICH BISHOPS ARE COVERED BY a formal investigation is warranted. If so, it will THIS SERVICE? authorize a bishop to oversee the investigation. • If an investigation is ordered, it will be undertaken This reporting service may be used to report the actions by qualified experts, including lay persons. or inactions of living U.S. Catholic bishops, whether active Normally, the investigation is to be completed or retired, of U.S. dioceses or eparchies. This includes within 90 days of receiving the order from the the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair Holy See. of Saint Peter and bishops of the Archdiocese for the • Once the Holy See receives the conclusions Military Services, USA, and current diocesan and apostolic of the investigation, the Holy See will initiate administrators of vacant U.S. sees. the appropriate process that will lead to a final judgment. 27 Who Is a Glossary of Church Terms Metropolitan? Here is a brief glossary of terms often used in the Catholic priests in their dioceses. The Eastern Catholic equivalent The Catholic Church in the Church that may not be completely familiar to journalists to a diocesan bishop is an eparchial bishop. In addition to United States has 32 provinces. who have not had a great deal of experience in covering diocesan bishops, there are auxiliary bishops, coadjutor church matters. bishops, and archbishops. Each province bishops’ conference – see episcopal conference. is made up of dioceses A brother – a non-ordained man who is a member of that are grouped together. an institute of consecrated life or a society of apostolic apostolic nuncio – a papal ambassador representing life, and who seeks to live a life consecrated through the the Roman Pontiff (Pope) to the Catholic Church of a nation, profession of poverty, chastity, and obedience by vow or A province as well as before the civil authorities of a nation. Also some other bond. called papal nuncio. See also pontifical representative. has one archdiocese plus one or more dioceses. archbishop – title given to a diocesan bishop who is the chief shepherd of an archdiocese. An archbishop may C also preside over an ecclesiastical province, or may be a canon law – ecclesiastical laws governing the Catholic The other dioceses in the chief shepherd of an archdiocese but hold another, high- Church. In the Latin Church, the governing code is the 1983 ranking Church office, such as anapostolic nuncio. province are referred to as Code of Canon Law (CIC). A separate but parallel Code of suffragan dioceses. archdiocese – The archdiocese, headed by an Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO) governs the Eastern archbishop, is typically the largest or oldest diocese in Catholic Churches. an ecclesiastical province and takes on an additional cardinal – the highest-ranking Catholic clergy below the administrative role for the whole province. The archbishop of the archdiocese, pope. According to Church law, cardinals are regarded as also known as the metropolitan, archeparchy – the equivalent of an archdiocese in the pope’s closest advisors. Most cardinals are archbishops presides over the province. the Eastern Catholic Churches that is entrusted to an or prefects of major departments at the Vatican. Those archeparch (equivalent of an archbishop) of an Eastern cardinals (79 years of age or below) are tasked with the Catholic ecclesiastical province. There are two Catholic responsibility of electing a new pope by gathering at a With the new law set down in archeparchies in the United States: the Byzantine Catholic conclave in Rome. Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and the Ukrainian Catholic celibacy – the condition of living chastely in the Vos estis lux mundi, a metropolitan Archdiocese of Philadelphia. may be authorized by the Holy See to unmarried state. At ordination, a diocesan priest or unmarried deacon in the Latin Catholic Church makes a undertake responsibilities for promise of celibacy. investigating reports involving bishops B chastity – is the virtue of correctly ordering one’s own pertaining to sexual abuse in the Church. bishop – a cleric who through episcopal ordination sexual conduct and desires. is a successor to the apostles and who shares in the threefold ministry of Jesus Christ (sanctifying, teaching, Church – The local or particular church normally refers Note: This explanation does not pertain to and governing). A bishop exercises these in hierarchical to a diocese or an eparchy. The universal Church refers to Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States. communion with the Roman Pontiff (Pope) and the College the entire Catholic communion of the Latin Church and the of Bishops. Most bishops are diocesan bishops, the chief Eastern Catholic Churches.