Bp Callahan: USCCB audit show "clean bill of health" in abuse scandals this year

You remember, I’m sure, that I was installed as your bishop with some fairly serious allegations and accusations about reported priestly misconduct. I, like you, sure wish we didn’t have to live through these sad reminders of our weaknesses, especially the weaknesses of a few of our clergy.

Nevertheless, we remember, too, that God’s love and grace are strong enough to get us through. Much of my time during these first 100 days has been spent working to assure you, and especially our victim-survivors, that we take our obligation and responsibility to protect children and everyone in the Church from anyone who would violate them or hurt them in any way very seriously.

You know we can never apologize enough for the hurt that has been inflicted on so many individuals and on the Church as a whole because of the scandal of abuse. Reviews of policies are taking place along with discussions and procedures for settling past grievances and reports. With charity and love we move forward.

It is also important to note that, during these first 100 days, we received our report from the Gavin Group. They are the people charged by the USCCB to audit the dioceses of the country to maintain our levels of compliance and adherence to “The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and the essential norms that were set by the bishops in 2002. Once again, as we have every year that we have been audited by the Gavin Group, the Diocese of La Crosse received a “clean bill of health.” We continue to maintain high levels of expectations for Safeguarding God’s Children. We will continue to make steady progress in this area.

The rest at The Catholic Times - La Crosse

Well, conspiracy theorists will also have to debunk the third party Gavin Group who does these audits.  Essentially this is saying that the diocese handled Fr. Pat Umberger's situation correctly and made proper decisions with the information they had in hand.