Children First Policy Assessment FINAL COPY Apr 7'06-1

Children First A Two-Year Assessment of the Implementation of the Policies and Procedures for the Protection of Children, Archdiocese of Boston (2003) FINALSubmitted REPORT by 2003-2005 The Implementation and Oversight Advisory Committee, Office of Child Advocacy, Archdiocese of Boston M. J. Doherty, Ph.D., Chair The Office of Child Advocacy, Implementation and Oversight Deacon Anthony P. Rizzuto, Ph.D., Director and The Review Board, Archdiocese of Boston The Honorable Mary Fitzpatrick, L.L.B., J.D., Chair April 7, 2006 Hebrews 13.13-14 Preface 4/7/2006 3 PREFACE ACRONYMS USED IN THIS DOCUMENT CAP Teams Child Abuse Prevention Teams CAIOC Child Advocacy, Implementation and Oversight Committee CfC Committee for Children CCPC Cardinal’s Commission for the Protection of Children CDF Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rome CTF Children’s Trust Fund CQI Continuous quality improvement DA District Attorney DSS Department of Social Services, Comm. of Mass. IOAC Implementation and Oversight Advisory Committee OAG or AG Office of the Attorney General, Comm. of Mass. OPSO Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach PGC “Protecting God’s Children” RCAB Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston TAT “Talking about Touching” TQM Total Quality Management USCCB United States Conference of Catholic Bishops PREFACE THE TWO-YEAR ASSESSMENT This two-year assessment of the implementation of Policies and Procedures for the Protection of Children (July, 2003), Archdiocese of Boston (Appendix A),1 represents a first- time effort of unprecedented depth and magnitude – namely, the process mapping of implementation of current policies with a view toward discovering what is working, what is not working, and what needs to be developed to improve.2 In the course of this review, we have accompanied the process mapping with multiple strategies and perspectives, joining and synthesizing them. The final document of the two year- assessment is the result of combining the process mapping with 1) numerous personnel interviews and interviews of consumers; 2) the multi-disciplinary analysis of the psycho-social experts, educators, therapists, lawyers, social workers, parents, and pastoral ministers on the Implementation and Oversight Advisory Committee (IOAC) and Review Board; 3) the public invitation of insights from the community at large through the archdiocesan website; 4) the external vetting of the draft document with social agencies and survivors’ advocacy groups; 1 All references to policies and procedures in this review document are to the text of the printed booklet edition called Policies and Procedures for the Protection of Children, Archdiocese of Boston, which was promulgated by Bishop Richard Lennon, then Apostolic Administrator, on June 26, 2003 to take effect on July 1, 2003. An outline of the articles of the Policies and Procedures provides a glimpse of its scope: Article 1 – General Provisions Article 2 – Safe Environment Programs Article 3 – Pastoral Support and Outreach Article 4 – Principals for Communications Article 5 – Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect to Civil Authorities Article 6 – Reporting Child Abuse to Church Authorities Article 7 – Principals for Investigating Complaints of Child Abuse Article 8 – Complaints against Archdiocesan Personnel and Volunteers Article 9 – Complaints against Clergy – The Preliminary Investigation Article 10 – Complaints against Clergy – Penal and Administrative Processes 2 It must also be noted that a ministerial “code of conduct” is included with the Policies and Procedures. As early as June 27 and 28, 2002, the Policy Committee of the Cardinal's Commission for the Protection of Children began bringing forward the idea that a code of conduct and a procedures manual were needed as part of the policy. Although the “Code of Ministerial Behavior” was not part of the promulgated Policies, the Decree of Promulgation given at the Chancery of the Archdiocese of Boston on October 17, 2003 to take effect on the 24th day of October, 2003, stated that, after a year spent ad experimentum, the Code would be permanent and part of the policy by October, 2004. The Code has, indeed, become part of the policy, with one possible revision having come forward, namely, the revision of an “acknowledgment of receipt” form to make it general to clergy, employees, and volunteers alike. The procedures manual was never fully developed as a separate entity, although many procedures are incorporated into the Policies and Procedures booklet 5) the request for insights on the same draft from two special internal vetters, namely, the Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia and the Delegate for Investigations; 6) the regular periodic review of developing versions of the document by the IOAC and the Review Board; and 7) the development of a narrative overview of the historical context of systemic change and internalization of programs needed for protection of children and prevention of abuse in the social mission of the Church today. Upon delivery of the final document to Archbishop Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap., we expect that he will conduct an intensive internal vetting of the report with archdiocesan offices, agencies, and personnel such as the Regional Bishops, the Presbyteral Council, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, and the College of Consultors, and respond to the IOAC with his judgments on how and when our recommendations will be addressed and implemented in the Archdiocese. Both the ongoing analysis and the personnel interviews have been a learning experience for all who have participated in this review. Those who were interviewed – Department Directors, Cabinet Secretaries, employees and others, both clergy and laity, who are directly involved with policy implementation – have been forthcoming in their commentary on the strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, challenges, communications, resources and “better ideas” that have come with the hard work of implementing the 2003 Policies and Procedures for the Protection of Children. As a result, the reviewing committees consider the review extraordinarily fruitful in its production of informative and helpful data.3 In the past year, we have also found that external and special internal vetting of the current Policies and of our major draft recommendations with other interested parties have brought many insights and further recommendations to our review. Since the reviewing groups are comprised of professionals who together have distinctly different civil, religious, secular, ecumenical, psycho-social, legal, medical, ministerial, educational and administrative backgrounds, we have striven to be inclusive, rather than exclusive or mono-disciplined, and to accommodate that variety of perspectives in our one narrative. The documents accommodates points of view of all the members of the reviewing groups and seeks neither to provide the neutrality on religious statements that civil documents, and even our reviewers who serve in state agencies, customarily require, nor to argue the position of one professional discipline.4 3 See Appendix B for lists of the volunteer members of the two reviewing groups, the Implementation and Oversight Advisory Committee in the archdiocesan Office of Child Advocacy and the archdiocesan Review Board. Committee and Board membership includes individuals who are survivors of sexual abuse or who are family members of children abused by priests. 4 Special thanks must go to three IOAC Members for helping develop the structure and the spirit of this report and represent its content to various audiences: Robert Gittens, Esq., Vice-President, Public Affairs, Northeastern University, gave the IOAC the broad framework in which to think about its review (what has been done in the Archdiocese, what has not been done, what needs to be done). Susan Getman, Deputy Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Social Services, called us to state the mission, core values, and guiding principles of our review, to emphasize continuous quality improvement as the standard to be striven for in the Archdiocese, and to organize a large amount of review material into more accessible major findings, recommendations and tables. Suzin Bartley, Executive Director, Children’s Trust Fund, a member of the Commission for the Protection of Children (2002) and a member of the Implementation and Oversight Committee since its beginnings early in 2003, has with her staff In short, this review report draft is a multi-disciplinary document – not a civil document, not a theological statement, not a scientific assertion, not a cultural understanding, but something that has elements of all those habits of thought. This review report simply aims to present a truly constructive, comprehensive and critical look at where the Archdiocese of Boston has been, what it has accomplished, and where it needs to go in the future in the work of safe environment, pastoral outreach, and justice. With goals of prevention of abuse and protection of children and youth in mind, we who have independently conducted this required two-year review of the Policies and Procedures for the Protection of Children, Archdiocese of Boston (2003), note that we were given a free hand by Archbishop Seán P. O’Malley to develop our critique and to point a direction. The theme we have chosen is “children first” – a leitmotif that reflects the most promising practices in the work of child and family advocacy and that focuses on actual children. However, with regard to policies and procedures for the protection of children, since every survivor

Load more