This is a big week for the US bishops. On Tuesday the audit by the National Review Board of the implementation of the child protection charter, i.e. the Dallas policy, will be made public. The implementation by each diocese will be graded. Already some of the dioceses have been pre-empting the big rush by releasing their own results, getting a jump on spinning it favorably.
Bishop Wilton Gregory will also be busy claiming that the job is accomplished. Of course, as they bend over backwards to pat themselves on the back, in reality what we have is a hodge-podge of good and bad programs, with parents in open revolt against things like Talking about Touching in Boston and Good Touch, Bad Touch in Arlington, Va.
And, the implementation of the Dallas policy is not the end of the Scandal, although we some will attempt to say it is. The bishops have failed to address the role of dissent and their own failures to crack down on wayward clergy in the Scandal. If they walk away without doing so, it will all be for naught since the root cause of the Scandal is in what they failed to do.
