Here are some guidelines for investigating sexual abuse as outlined by the church’s 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, updated in 2005:

• Dioceses are to create and maintain review boards that investigate allegations of sexual abuse committed by clergy.

• Review boards are to have “at least five persons of outstanding integrity and good judgment” and who are lay people not employed by the church.

• One member of the board “should be a priest who is an experienced and respected pastor” and one member should have “expertise in the treatment of sexual abuse of minors.”

• If the review board finds that “even a single act of sexual abuse” is admitted or established by the review process, “the offending priest or deacon is to be permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.”

• The church is required to report all allegations of sexual abuse of a minor to law enforcement.

The full text of the charter can be viewed online at www.usccb.org/ocyp/charter.shtml