Archdiocese of Baltimore rolls out new national system to receive complaints against bishops

The Archdiocese of Baltimore implemented locally a new national reporting system for allegations against bishops for sexual misconduct that was activated March 16.

Archbishop William E. Lori implemented in January 2019 the first system in the country specifically for reporting allegations against bishops.

The new national system, called the Catholic Bishops Abuse Reporting System, or CBAR, was approved by the U.S. bishops at their spring general assembly in June 2019. It aligns the dioceses in the United States with requirements established for all bishops’ conferences in the world by Pope Francis in his “motu proprio” of May 7, 2019, “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You Are the Light of the World”).

“Motu proprio” is a Latin phrase that means “on one’s own initiative.” Popes use it to signal a special personal interest in a subject. The document established new procedural norms to ensure that bishops and religious superiors are responsible for their actions.

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Adam J. Parker said the new system is similar to the one established last year in that it will be accessible from the archdiocesan home page and by phone. Posters displayed at each parish about alleged ethics violations of any kind will contain the information for the national hotline as well as the information about contacting the local Child and Youth Protection Office or to report other ethical violations by church personnel.

The archdiocese uses a system hosted by EthicsPoint to receive allegations of financial malfeasance or concerns about human resources. That system was expanded last year to include the local bishops reporting initiative.

The national system, hosted by Convercent, will be available March 16 and will be “very similar in terms of its functionality,” said Bishop Parker. “You have the option of either calling in a phone number or using a website address and it will look very much the same as what we have.”

The system can be found on the Web at ReportBishopAbuse.org. Toll-free calls can be placed to 800-276-1562. The information gathered will be protected by enhanced encryption.

“Our intention was that the national system – which we are implementing locally as a metropolitan – would be no less robust than what we had implemented here in Baltimore,” the bishop said. “In order to accomplish that, when we devised the protocols for the new reporting system, we then compared those protocols – which were based on and guided by ‘Vos Estis’ – line by line with our Baltimore reporting system protocols to ensure that we would not lose anything.”

He noted that the system Baltimore had initiated in 2019 had allegations against bishops being delivered first to two retired judges who are members of the archdiocesan Independent Review Board, neither of whom were diocesan employees. The new protocols requires the appointment of one Qualified Lay Person to receive reports and ensure compliance.

In order not to lose that independence, the new QLP for the Baltimore Province – which also includes the dioceses of Wilmington, Delaware; Arlington and Richmond, Virginia; and Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia – will be Terrence B. Sheridan, a retired law enforcement chief, who has never been a diocesan employee.

Sheridan, a Catholic who served twice as chief of police for Baltimore County and also as superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said he saw his almost 50 years in public safety as “one of the most important services that the government provides citizens – making them safe and secure. And I look at this as an extension of that.

“Volunteering to do this, hopefully, I can add to it. I can make our world a little better place, our country a better place, our state and the archdiocese of Baltimore. That sounds kind of corny, but that’s the reality,” Sheridan said.

He said he sees his role, in part, as “traffic cop”: receiving complaints, if there are any; directing them to the appropriate civil and church authorities; ensuring the integrity of the system; making sure that victims are treated humanely and with respect; and that those accused are treated fairly.

“Having been in this business for a long time, you have to make sure that your victims are treated fairly and that the person accused is also treated fairly. We have laws. We have rules. We have policies,” Sheridan said.

“The church wants to ensure that we do everything we can to ensure the integrity of the process and that we do not have any kind of problems occurring which are not addressed,” he said.

As a technical change under “Vos Estis” and canon law, the archbishop will copied when the Qualified Lay Person is notified. However, if the allegation is against the archbishop, then he will not receive the report, but rather the senior suffragan bishop – the diocesan bishop in the province with the most seniority – will be notified. At this time, that is Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington.

“The archbishop is copied on reports that are not about him because the Vatican requires it under the metropolitan system and he has his own obligations to do the right thing, to take appropriate actions and to follow up with the Vatican,” said Sean Caine, vice chancellor and executive director of communications for the archdiocese. “And he has an obligation to provide information and pastoral support to victims and assure them there won’t be retaliation in any way.”

Dr. Diane Barr, chancellor of the archdiocese, praised Sheridan’s selection, saying, “This is somebody who has always been an ethical and moral person, who understands law enforcement and communicating with victims.”

She said part of the Qualified Lay Person’s responsibilities are to ensure that dioceses are publicizing the information on how to reach the CBAR system “and to make sure that anyone who comes forward is properly supported. Those responsibilities also apply to the metropolitan.”

The assumption is that if the Vatican determines that an investigation is warranted, Vatican officials will ask the metropolitan archbishop to conduct the investigation. “As far as modern usage, this has been done but it had never been enshrined in a document (until ‘Vos Estis Lux Mundi’),” Barr said.

The new system does not prevent someone from directly calling the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection. “If you want to talk to someone right away, we want to be there,” she said. The CBAR and OCYP can also receive allegations about abuse or misconduct that occurred in another diocese. “We want to make sure the information gets to the right people” including civil authorities and the apostolic nunciature, the Vatican’s “embassy” in Washington.

“We’ll know better in six months to a year how this unfolds,” Barr said.

On the archdiocesan website, archbalt.org, the top menu bar has an option to “Report Misconduct,” which takes visitors to a page that provides ways to report child abuse or neglect; to report sexual misconduct or interference by a bishop; or to report “other misconduct, such as financial wrongdoing or human resources issues.”

Contributing to this story was Dennis Sadowski of Catholic News Service.

Email Christopher Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org.

Also see:

Reporting system to record abuse complaints against bishops begins

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