Churches Move Toward Reducing Sexual Misconduct by Clergy : Abuse: Several major denominations adopt tougher guidelines as evidence surfaces. Some offer means of redress for victims.

Early this year, one of seven Catholic priests who allegedly had sex with a South Bay teen-ager about 10 years ago returned from the Philippines to apologize publicly.

He also revealed evidence that the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese had advised him to stay out of the country, sent him monthly payments and counseled silence on the matter.

Historically, the response of religious institutions to charges of clergy sexual misconduct has been fraught with “denial and reluctance to acknowledge that the problem has happened,” said the Rev. Karen Lebacqz, a professor of Christian ethics at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. “As often as not, the institution steps in to protect its own.”

But now, as evidence rises of clergy sexual misconduct, several major denominations--mostly liberal-to-moderate ones--are trying to face the problem more squarely by adopting tougher guidelines governing the conduct of clergy. Some are even providing means of redress for victims.

The most common denominational approaches involve “in-house” policies prohibiting various kinds of behavior and providing mechanisms of appeal for victims of abuse. And religious leaders in two states are cooperating with civil authorities to require background checks of clergy.

Last week, sexual harassment and abuse involving pastors, staff and lay people within the United Church of Christ was “condemned” by delegates to that denomination’s 18th General Synod.

Early in June, the Presbyterian convention adopted a policy that prohibits sex between clergy and parishioners or church employees and allows victims to seek compensation.

Rabbis in Reform Judaism, meeting last month in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., adopted a new code of ethics that specifically warns against even the appearance of sexual impropriety.

And the Episcopal Church may vote on statements addressing the problem at its convention next week.

The new, more open approach comes as a welcome change to many, but some observers remain skeptical.

“Frankly, some of this will never be addressed by preventive steps because there will always be a small segment of ministers who are in fact sexual predators,” said the Rev. Marie Fortune of Seattle, author of “Is Nothing Sacred?”, a pioneering book on the subject and founder of that city’s Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence.

“All we can do is identify them and remove (the accused) from positions of trust,” she said.

The effort to deal with the problem goes beyond church walls, with two states enacting laws that take aim at past sexual offenders.

Washington has a law requiring a background check “on anyone who works with children or vulnerable adults whether they are professional or voluntary counselors, clergy or not,” Fortune said.

Minnesota mandates checks on clergy to ferret out evidence of sexual misconduct going back to 1981. Church leaders are solidly behind the statute because they view sexual exploitation by clergy as a critical problem, according to the Rev. Margo Maris, an Episcopal Church administrator helping to implement the law.

Clergymen usually are warned early in their ministries that as trusted counselors of distressed people they are susceptible to sexual involvement if they are not careful.

Today, as societal problems of sexual abuse receive closer attention, some denominations are going beyond traditional admonishments.

Reform rabbis, for example, decided to include specific language on this topic while revising their ethics code.

“It is almost embarrassing to spell out moral standards because we would like to assume that rabbis are aware of the pitfalls,” said Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman of Chicago, who chaired the code-revision committee. The code now warns against “exploitative practices,” or even the appearance of “taking advantage of our position with those weaker than ourselves or dependent upon us.”

The problem takes on an added dimension with the rising number of ordained women rabbis and ministers moving into assistant positions. Concerns have arisen that they, too, may face sexual intimidation from their clergy superiors.

In a survey last year of United Methodist clergywomen, 77% reported incidents of sexual harassment. Half of the unwanted advances were from male clergy colleagues, the survey showed.

Lebacqz, the Christian ethics professor and co-author of the upcoming book “Sex in the Parish,” charges that sexual exploitation by the clergy is “happening in every denomination and every location in the country.”

And several studies would tend to reinforce that view.

A study released early last year by the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics in Chicago showed that one in every 10 ministers has had an affair with members of the congregation, while one in four has had some kind of sexual contact with a parishioner.

Fortune noted that a survey done in the mid-1980s found that 12.5% of clergy in five denominations said they had had sexual intercourse with a church member or someone they had counseled.

“That self-reporting survey just gives us an inkling of what’s happening,” Fortune said. “But even that figure is higher than that reported among therapists in similar situations.”

Despite the growing numbers of women clergy, the offenders overwhelmingly have been males. Fortune’s domestic violence center has been called in on 475 cases of alleged clergy misconduct since 1984 and only about four cases concerned charges against women. Fortune, a United Church of Christ minister, has been hired to advise ministry officials in a dozen different church bodies, from Roman Catholics to Unitarian Universalists.

“We think the Unitarian Universalists are in the forefront of what faith groups are doing,” said the Rev. David Pohl, director of ministry for the 1,200 clergy in the Boston-based denomination.

“We had three clergy cases this year,” he said. “One was removed, the minister resigned before a hearing was held, and one hearing is pending.”

Aside from an upcoming training session with Fortune, Pohl said a manual listing complaint procedures is being written for Unitarians and a conference is being organized to deal with the tensions that arise when a pastor is accused of sexual misbehavior.

“Ministers have their supporters and detractors,” he said. “Those who try to defend the minister make the remark, ‘It takes two to tango.’ We have discovered that often the victim is blamed, they shoot the messenger and try to rescue the perpetrator.”

Changes in procedures by Catholic dioceses have come about mainly in response to reports of child molestation by priests. The new policies, as instituted by the Los Angeles archdiocese, for instance, call for cooperation with law enforcement authorities and offering counseling to both the accused priest and the alleged victim.

In the case of the young woman who accused seven priests of seducing her, Los Angeles archdiocese spokesmen explained the payments to the priest in the Philippines by saying they were legally mandated until he found another position. Moreover, the return of that priest or the others would have only reopened old wounds in the church, they said.

As denominations begin to give increased attention to clergy sexual misconduct, some clergy have worried about a simultaneous rise in unfounded accusations.

“It is surely going to happen someday,” said Pohl, the Unitarian official, “but I have been director of ministry since 1979 and I have never received a complaint that I thought even approached the frivolous or malicious.”

The instances of clergy sexual misconduct may not be on the rise, according to officials of various denominations. “What has changed is . . . that victims are now more willing to come forward,” said David Hardy, general counsel for the 5.2-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Hardy told The Lutheran magazine, which has a special report on the topic in its July 17 issue, that he spends more than 50% of his time on matters related to clergy sexual misconduct.

Most lawsuits filed against churches are brought by accusers who felt that the church did not listen to them, failed to take their allegations seriously or failed to act promptly, Hardy said.

The United Methodist Church has a committee working on new grievance procedures and is proposing to lengthen the statute of limitations on complaints of abuse from two years to six years, according to Bishop Jack M. Tuell of Los Angeles.

The policy recently adopted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) offers new procedures when sexual misconduct has been alleged, including creation of a “response team” of at least five people who will evaluate allegations and recommend whether the church should bring official charges.

One of the major provisions--elimination of the church’s current three-year time limit for reporting sexual misconduct--will require ratification by two-thirds of the denomination’s presbyteries, or regional units.

Proposals are before the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles to establish an ombudsman committee to receive complaints and to set rules to deal with both offenders and victims.

“The bottom line is that the church must be a safe place for everyone,” said the Rev. Lynn Jay, a member of the women’s group that proposed the changes.