Some of my friends and colleagues who know that I am chairman of the Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have asked me why I would ever participate in such an unpleasant activity. The simple answer is that, as a Catholic, I want my church to be free from those who prey upon others, especially children.

At the outset of the priest scandal in 2002, it was suggested that I and the members of the board could not be objective because we are Catholics. Nothing could be further from the truth. As practicing Catholics with our own children and grandchildren, we want to make certain that no child or adult is abused by predatory priests or others who work or volunteer in our parishes or programs.

I have been involved in advising Cardinal Roger Mahony on this issue since 1993, when he asked me and three other lay people to participate in the revision and expansion of the archdiocese's first written policy on the subject, which he had instituted several years earlier.

When he made this request, I had only recently retired from the Los Angeles Superior Court after 20 years, including six years in the juvenile court, where I heard many child abuse and neglect cases. The other lay persons on the committee were a clinical psychologist who had worked with offenders and the parents of several children who had been sexually abused by a priest who had been tried, convicted and sent to prison. Four priests were also on the revision committee.

Our revision resulted in the establishment of the Archdiocese's Sexual Abuse Advisory Board, which was chaired by the Vicar for Clergy, the priest responsible for administering the policy. We reviewed cases of sexual misconduct by priests and gave our insights and views from our various perspectives, which were communicated to the cardinal by the Vicar.

When the priest abuse scandal broke in 2002, Cardinal Mahony asked me to formalize the advisory board and make it larger and more independent. This resulted in the Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board, which began operation in June, 2002. The Board is representative of the Catholic community racially, ethnically and socially. It consists of 13 independent-minded members, including a former assistant United States attorney, a retired Los Angeles Police Department commander, a child psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, two priests, a nun, a victim of abuse and a parent of several children who were abused by a priest.

The board reviews complaints of misconduct made to the archdiocese, regardless of perceived credibility. We take complaints seriously in our role as the watchdogs of the Archdiocese, charged with the responsibility of seeing that its policies against sexual abuse are carried out.

Our first duty upon receiving a complaint is to make sure that the person lodging the complaint has the counseling he or she needs and that the allegations are reported to authorities.

If the board finds the accusation to be credible, we recommend to the cardinal that the priest be placed on administrative leave and that canonical proceedings be instituted that could lead to his being removed from the priesthood. Then the allegations are vigorously investigated by several retired FBI agents retained by the Archdiocese for this purpose. No preconditions are placed on investigations. The investigators are instructed to find out what happened, regardless of whether the facts may result in the removal of a priest or not.

The investigations are challenging at best. Often it is difficult to establish the truth. Also, the allegations, especially in civil cases, are usually stated in very general terms, and it is rare for the attorneys of the complainants to permit their clients to be interviewed by us.

In criminal cases with ongoing police investigations, our investigators cooperate with law enforcement as requested.

We often hear the complaint that a priest who has been accused should not be allowed to stay in ministry, whether or not the accusation has been investigated and found to be credible. But priests are members of our greater society and have the same civil rights as anyone else. Besides the right to legal counsel, a priest cannot be forced to incriminate himself and cannot be permanently removed from ministry without proper grounds and a canonical trial.

We also hear the charge that a priest accused of abuse has been moved from parish to parish, as if this, in and of itself, establishes that the archdiocese knew of claims of sexual misconduct and that he was moved because of them. Quite the contrary. Associate pastors have always been assigned to many parishes for short periods of time in order to gain the experience and maturity they need before being named as a pastor or to fill existing needs caused by illness, retirements, death or other needs. Also, since 1986, pastors have been limited to no more than two six-year terms in a parish before they are assigned to another parish.

There is no place in my church for anyone to be in a position of trust who would take advantage of others, whether as a priest or a deacon or a youth leader or a teacher or anyone else. I'm encouraged to know that the work of the board will not stop just because the litigation has been settled. I know from my personal knowledge and experience working with Cardinal Mahony over the past 15 years that he is fully supportive and deeply committed to continuing and strengthening the work and independence of the board.

Richard P. Byrne is a former judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court. This article is part of an ongoing series of feature stories, commentary and analysis that is compiled and edited by an advisory group to the Media Relations Office of the Archdiocese, through which the articles are distributed. Previous articles may be found at www.the-tidings.com, and clicking on the link near the top of the home page. To view a year-by-year chart showing the number of perpetrators alleged to have sexually abused 553 people involved in civil cases in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, visit http://www.la-archdiocese.org/protecting/pdf/
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