(Host) Bishop Kenneth Angell of the Catholic Diocese of Burlington says he’s returned from the Dallas conference of bishops with a determination to "see the task through." The bishop said in a prepared statement that there will be no waffling on how a bishop will deal with offending clergy when it comes to child abuse. Bishop Angell says the church in Vermont will follow the document approved by the bishops to protect children from sexual abuse.
The bishop will not grant interviews on the subject, but he said in his statement, "our people have been rightly disappointed in the manner in which some of us bishops have handled sexual abuse of children in the past. Serious errors were made. I can only say that many bishops did succeed in identifying offending clergy, did provide effective treatment for the abused and the abuser, and did remove offending clergy from the ministry." The bishop went on to say those efforts were not always successful.