New York's Cardinal Dolan Announces Independent Review of Church Sex Abuse

NEW YORK — Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan announced Thursday that an independent review was underway into how the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York handles cases of sexual abuse of minors and sexual harassment of adults.

The review is being led by Barbara S. Jones, a former judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, who will primarily be examining whether the archdiocese has followed protocols to protect minors from abuse that were approved by the nation’s bishops in 2002.

Jones, who will report to Dolan, will also be looking at whether workplace protections are sufficient to prevent the sexual harassment and other abuses of power of adults in churches and seminaries.

Jones, who has been promised full access to personnel and other case files, will not necessarily release a written report of her findings to the public, Dolan said. But he said that if he does not follow her recommendations, she will “hold my feet to the fire” and “report back to my people.”

“I need your help if I am going to respond to my people’s plea for accountability, transparency and action,” he told her. “I look forward to receiving your recommendations and your insights and I pledge that I will take them all with utmost seriousness.”

The archdiocese, along with the seven other dioceses in the state, is separately in the process of complying with a subpoena from the attorney general’s office for all files having to do with sexual abuse and how such cases were handled. A spokesman for the archdiocese said the response to the subpoena remained “at an early stage.”

Jones, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and is now a partner at Bracewell, said her initial review since she began work 10 days ago had found a “robust infrastructure” in place to handle allegations, but she will now see if those protocols are being followed.

“I approach this important assignment with an open mind and an understanding of the scope and scale of the issues that challenge the archdiocese,” she said. “I have been assured that I and my team at Bracewell will have complete independence and unfettered access.”

Dolan has not published a comprehensive list of all priests who have been credibly accused of abuse on the archdiocesan website, as other dioceses have done.

On Thursday, he said that all names have been released over time, and therefore, “I, for one, don’t exactly see why we should, because the names are already out there.” Victims groups have disputed whether all names have been made public.

However, Dolan said he would be open to publishing a list of accused priests if Jones recommended doing so. Jones, who is being paid by the diocese for her review, said she did not have a timeline yet for when it would be completed.