Are the Reforms Working?

In this episode, we look at the reforms the U.S. Catholic Bishops drafted after the sexual abuse crisis of 2002. How did these new rules change things for Catholics in parishes around the country? We look at the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children—a set of policies that the bishops drafted to safeguard children from sex abuse. Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma tells us what it was like to monitor compliance with anti-abuse policies as the chair of a national review board, and former F.B.I. agent Kathleen McChesney explains how she helped to implement the rules. We also hear from Jane Casserly Myers, a lay Catholic woman who had to deal with these changes in her home parish. Finally, America’s national correspondent Michael O’Loughlin explains how one of the public faces of the Dallas Charter—former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick—came to be found guilty of abuse of a minor himself decades later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices