Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People

s the Catholic Church in the United States marks two decades since the U.S. bishops adopted a document establishing policies to deal with allegations of sexual abuse of children by clergy, Jesuit Father Jerry McGlone worries about the psychological responses the event could trigger.

Cardinal Gregory said the difficulty in rebuilding full trust among the laity and regaining credibility has been mired in periodic disclosures that a bishop provided “an inadequate response” to an abuse allegation.

The 20th anniversary of the U.S. bishops’ passage of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” is “not a time of celebration, but a time of continued vigilance and determination,” said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The report said the number of allegations remained high in part because of changes in statutes of limitations on reporting abuse in several states. “It should be noted that the vast majority of these reports were historical in nature,” the report said.

The 17th annual report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection, released June 25, states that 4,220 child sexual abuse survivors filed 4,434 allegations.

Retired Judge Elizabeth Hayden was recently appointed to a national board to review and strengthen sexual abuse policies and procedures.

The report was issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and is based on the audit findings of StoneBridge Business Partners.

During an April 25 talk at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Steinfels said the clergy sex abuse crisis that engulfed the U.S. church, and has since spread globally, requires understanding it as context for what is happening in the church, society and culture.