Finish the Job
Stephen White of Catholic University urges USCCB action on lay review of abuse allegations at the June 2019 General Assembly.
“Would Rome balk at mandatory lay review? Maybe. But whether canon law mandates lay involvement or not, any investigating bishop should feel pastorally and morally obliged to make full use of lay expertise, especially when he has an existing review board ready to hand. In the current environment, any bishop who goes out of his way to sidestep lay involvement in the investigation of a fellow bishop must know that he is making himself an ecclesiastical pariah. Never underestimate the power of ecclesiastical – and especially Episcopal – peer pressure.”