The US bishops have decided not audit their dioceses for compliance with the Dallas charter this year, despite the recommendation of the National Review Board, which thinks that the charter implicitly requires it.
At first glance, this would look like another blatant attempt to avoid tough self-examination, but it’s no so clear. At least a few of the bishops who are opposed to audits are ones like Bishop Bruskewitz who thinks that the audits are an interference in his rightful sovereignty over his diocese. On the one hand, I agree. A bishop is sovereign in his diocese and a national bishops’ conference doesn’t have a right to impose on him anything external. On the other hand, while we can be confident of bishops like Bruskewitz, what about other bishops who have shown their untrustworthiness? What checks and balances do we, the laity, have in order to ensure that our bishops are not putting us or our children in danger, physically or spiritually?
