How're they doin??

By Fr. Wilson ( articles ) | Jun 08, 2003

Mayor Ed Koch of NYC, in his first term, used that as his trademark question; people on the street would recognize him, and he'd stop and call out, "HOW'M I DOIN'??"

Well, the Dallas Morning News has a few thoughts on how the bishops are doing regarding fulfilling the promises they made at their Dallas summit. The answer is somewhat mixed, which is surprisingly hopeful since the article is, after all, about the bishops, despite which there are definite rays of hope here.

"Some accused priests have remained on the job because their bishops say the misconduct didn't meet their new policy's definition of sexual abuse or didn't warrant removal from ministry. Others have been reinstated over objections of the bishops' lay review boards. Several bishops have continued their secretive ways  failing to name accused priests, or account for the crisis' financial toll, or reveal who investigates abuse claims. Some have not enforced parts of their new national sex-abuse policy, passed last June in Dallas, until prodded publicly. This Dallas Morning News study - the first of its kind - looked at the records of the top leaders of the nation's 178 mainstream Roman Catholic "What you have here is, each bishop is the czar of his diocese," said Jay Dolan, a University of Notre Dame professor specializing in American Catholic history. "Some will end up doing what they well please. Some dioceses are serious, and some are not."