Late yesterday afternoon, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops put out a statement on the sexual-abuse scandal from its president, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. (You may have seen him on 60 Minutes this week, where he also discussed the continuing scandal.) The purpose of the statement, the archbishop writes, is "to offer reassurances that this painful issue continues to receive our careful attention, that the protection of our children and young people is of highest priority, and that theCharter for the Protection of Children and Young People that we adopted in 2002 remains strongly in place."Without noting any of the concerns about zero tolerance he shared with John Allen last month, Archbishop Dolan reaffirms the policy "to remove permanently from public ministry any priest who committed such an intolerable offense." He also says that the charter is up for review by the bishops at their June meeting. Which is good, because, as the Catholics of yet another scandalized diocese know all too well, something isn't working properly. Conspicuously absent from the archbishop's statement is the name of that city.

Grant Gallicho joined Commonweal as an intern and was an associate editor for the magazine until 2015. 

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