By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service
And Margaret M. Russell
The Catholic Free Press
    BALTIMORE (CNS) – A Vatican-requested delay in adopting practices that are expected to boost accountability among U.S. bishops in their response to clergy sex abuse is a "bump in the road," said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
    Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston told reporters Nov. 12 that the Congregation for Bishops at the Vatican requested that no vote be taken on the proposals during the bishops' fall general assembly going on now.
    “I was disappointed, but not surprised,” Bishop McManus said Monday at the end of a day of prayer and fasting that the bishops undertook in response to abuse.
    “The laity are looking for the bishops to be held to the same accountability as the priests. Transparency is a highly valued reality in America,” Bishop McManus said.
    “We belong to the universal Church. I think the Holy Father might be concerned that we would come up with a paradigm that might work in the United States but not in other parts of world,” the Worcester bishop said.
    Cardinal DiNardo said the congregation wanted the bishops to wait until after the upcoming February meeting of the presidents of bishops' conferences from around the world called by Pope Francis to address clergy sex abuse and the need to ensure that the proposals are in line with canon law.
    Bishop McManus noted that other countries often look to the United States as a model.
    “We came up with the Dallas Charter ("Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People") and other countries look to it for an example of how to act. They might not have the type of laity that are as involved in the life of the church as American Catholics are,” he said.
    “In other parts of world the church is under  persecution, so a third-party reporter could wreak havoc in the church,” Bishop McManus noted.
     “So it is not surprising” that we are being asked to wait, he said.
    “I think the American bishops, as a body and individually, want to be held accountable,” he said, adding that he “would be disappointed if this (delay) might stoke the anger of American Catholics.”
    The bishops’ proposals which were under consideration include standards of episcopal conduct and the formation of a special commission for review of complaints against bishops for violations of the standards.
    They are among steps developed by the USCCB Administrative Committee in September in response to the firestorm that has emerged since June over how the bishops handled reports of wayward priests.
    The Administrative Committee consists of the officers, chairmen and regional representatives of the USCCB.
    "We have accepted it with disappointment," Cardinal DiNardo said of the congregation's request during a midday news conference.
    "We have not lessened in any of our resolve for actions. We are going to work intensely on these items of action. We can't vote on them totally, but clarify them, get them more intensely canonically well, so that Rome will see that. We're going to keep pushing and moving until we get to a point where they become action," he said.
    "We are ourselves not happy about this," he continued. "We are working very hard to move to action. We are just at a bump in the road."
    The cardinal stressed that he planned to press the need for the proposals to improve bishops' accountability when he represents the U.S. bishops at the February gathering.
   Bishop McMnaus said that Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago proposed discussing, but not voting on the proposals. "I think that will happen."
    Until Cardinal DiNardo announced that no vote would be taken on the proposals as the bishops opened their fall general assembly in Baltimore, none of the bishops were aware of the Vatican's concerns, Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Burlington, Vermont, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Communications,
    "It has thrown us a little bit sideways because it was completely unexpected," Bishop Coyne said of the Vatican correspondence.
    Nevertheless, he explained to reporters, the bishops "by nature are collegial" and "do not work in separate entities" when adopting standards under canon law.
    Cardinal DiNardo said he did not know if the congregation's letters originated with Pope Francis. He said that during a meeting with the pope in October in Rome, the pontiff expressed interest in the direction the U.S. church was taking.
    The cardinal repeated several times that the bishops were committed to implementing the proposals despite the setback. "The bishops are all of one mind on this," he said.
    Acknowledging that some parishioners would be "quite angry" that no action was to be taken during the fall assembly, he said that it will show each bishop what it means to be a "local shepherd."
    "You always want to keep giving people a sense of hope," Cardinal DiNardo added. "We need a living sense of hope right now and I think the church can grant it even through the shepherds but even through our good and wonderful people who are moving along."
    Bishop McManus said, “I would be upset if people would use this to say that Pope Francis is just trying to put the brakes on this. We have to remember that we are part of the universal Church. We were the first bishop’s conference to have zero tolerance. Often what we do becomes a model.”

    The cardinal cited the history of the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" as an example of how the church works. When the charter was proposed and was sent to the Vatican for review in 2002, it met with some "reticence," but that 16 years later "nowadays that is universal around the world."
    "What I find within our Catholic faith sometimes it takes maybe a little longer than we would even like. But the net effect, because we are a universal church, is that you can get things done that are really fine," he said. "I'm hoping myself that what we are doing now, whatever it might be, with some of the he bumps in the road, that this will eventually work out."

Photo: Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, looks up while holding a press conference Nov. 12 at the bishops' general assembly in Baltimore. (CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)