Provisions Of "Charter For The Protection Of Children And Young People"

First obligation is to seek healing and reconciliation for victims/survivors and their families.

Each U.S. diocese and Eastern rite eparchy must have an outreach to victims, including past victims, in all cases where a minor was sexually abused by a representative of the church, lay or cleric.

Outreach is to include pastoral care by the bishop himself or his representative, by meeting with victims and their families, listening with patience and compassion to their experiences and concerns and by sharing the profound sense of solidarity and concern expressed by Pope John Paul II. Care is also to be directed to the faith communities in which sexual abuse occurred.

Each diocese is to have a competent assistance coordinator to help in immediate pastoral care of persons who claim to have been sexually abused as minors by clergy or church workers.

Each diocese is also to have a review board, with a majority of lay members not employed by the diocese, to assist the bishop in assessing allegations and fitness for ministry; to review diocesan policies and procedures regarding sexual abuse of minors; and to advise on all aspects of responses to cases.

Dioceses will not enter into confidentiality agreements unless victim/survivor so desires for grave reasons.

Dioceses will report all allegations of sexual abuse of a person who is currently a minor to public authorities and will cooperate in investigations. If the person is no longer a minor, the diocese will cooperate with public authorities and will advise victims of their right to make a report.

A priest or deacon will be permanently barred from ministry for a single act of sexual abuse of a minor, past, present or future.

Bishops may seek to have the priest or deacon dismissed from the clerical state without his consent, as well as the priest or deacon may request to be dispensed from holy orders. If because of age or infirmity of the priest, the dismissal from the clerical state is not sought by the bishop, the offender is not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly, wear clerical garb or present himself as a priest. He is to live a life of prayer and penance.

Dioceses must have clear and well-publicized standards of ministerial behavior and appropriate boundaries for clergy and lay church workers regularly in contact with children and young people.

Diocesan communications policies must reflect a commitment to transparency and openness.

Dioceses will establish "safe environment" programs to train children, parents, educators and ministers.

Criminal background checks for workers and screening and evaluation of candidates for ordination will be employed.

Whenever a priest or deacon is proposed for assignment or residence in another diocese or country, the sending bishop or major superior of a religious order will forward to the receiving bishop or major superior an accurate and complete description of the cleric's record.

An Office for Child and Youth Protection will be established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help dioceses implement the charter provisions and ensure accountability. It will produce an annual public report on progress, including naming dioceses not in compliance with the charter.

A national review board headed by Gov. Frank Keating (R-Okla.) will report to the president of the USCCB and approve the annual report on compliance. It will also commission studies on the scope of the problem of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church in the United States and on the causes and context of the current crisis.

Bishops will cooperate with the apostolic visitation of seminaries and religious houses of formation in the United States recommended when U.S. cardinals and conference officers met with the pope in April. The visits will focus on human formation for celibate chastity. Dioceses will also develop systematic ongoing formation programs for priests.

The charter will be reviewed in two years by the USCCB to ensure its effectiveness in resolving the problems of sexual abuse of minors by priests.