Anne Burke fears for priest panel autonomy

The outgoing head of the U.S. Catholic Church's review board on sex abuse issues said Monday that bishops were planning to appoint a nun to the panel, a move she feared would reduce the board's independence from church hierarchy.

In a sometimes fiery speech at Loyola University Chicago, Illinois Appellate Court Judge Anne Burke said the plan was more evidence of what she called "mischievers at work" within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops...

Reading this article, one gets the impression that she wants to have the final say in what goes on int the NRB - in a way, very similar to others who want to overrule decisions of the hierarchy.

For example:

"We find ourselves at a turning point in which forces within the hierarchy are seeking to derail much of what has occurred," Burke said Monday.

Bishops at a closed meeting this summer tried to delay a proposed 2004 audit of whether dioceses were complying with efforts to end the abuse crisis...Both efforts failed, said Burke, "because we raised holy hell."

"Then they put in someone [Sister Carol Keehan] who didn't go through that process [of board member selection]. That is a violation of trust," Burke said.

It seems Karl Keating's advice would be best. Anyone with a modicum of rational thinking knows the reasons why the scandal occurred.

The Chicago Tribune article on Anne Burke is here.