There is a direct conflict between the AG's call for independent outreach, advocacy and oversight in the Boston Archdiocese and the terms of the settlement agreement.  Whereas the AG stressed that the RCAB needed an outside review board and an outreach program that would not be controlled by the Church, the Archdiocese is attempting to resolve its conflict of interest problems by appointing victims and victims' relatives to serve at the will of the Archbishop.

 According to the AG:

 Independent Review Boards. None of the various boards or offices appearing in the Policies and Procedures is "independent" or "independently incorporated," raising doubts about the Archdiocese's commitment to objective oversight and further hampering attempts to rebuild trust in the institution. Under the Policies and Procedures, the Archbishop has complete control over selection of Review Board members who must be "in full communion" with the church. As a result, it is less likely that the Review Board can operate independently and effectively (a problem under the 1993 policy) or make decisions, judgments or recommendations adverse to the Archdiocese as an institution, but still in the public interest.

Independent Victim’s Assistance Board. The experts on the Commission and the Attorney General, recognizing the conflict of interest that arose from the Archdiocese’s control over the provision of assistance to victims who came forward with allegations of sexual abuse, advocated for an independent board to oversee this function. It is essential that services to victims be arranged or provided by persons financed by, but unaffiliated with, the Archdiocese. (p. 18)

According to the settlement agreement:

B. Non-financial issues

1. The RCAB has two boards in place, the Archdiocesan Review Board and the Implementation and Oversight Committee. The RCAB is willing to add at least one additional survivor member to both of these boards. Additionally, the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach is in the process of developing an Advisory Board. It is anticipated that this board will be largely comprised of survivors or the family members of survivors. The RCAB would welcome suggestions of potential candidates for this board. Among the items that might be considered by this Advisory Board would be the establishment of a resource library and the consideration of an appropriate memorial, living tribute, or remembrance.

2. Given that the harm suffered by many survivors and their families involves severe damage to their faith lives, the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach shall continue to offer spiritual direction and spiritual counseling services. Specific programs, such as retreats, healing and reconciliation services, survivor and family of survivor spiritual support groups, and when appropriate or requested referral to ecumenical and/or interreligious, spiritual counselors will be among the services offered through the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach.

3. The RCAB will take appropriate action to ensure that when survivors obtain assistance from the Office of Healing that information, including treatment updates, will remain confidential and not shared with the RCAB or its counsel. 

These measures show, once again, that the guiding principle of the RCAB's policies is to retain complete command over the investigation and disposition of sex abuse cases.  Also, it is important to note that even though access to life-time therapy was publicly described as one of the stipulations of the memorandum of understanding, no such commitment was included here.  Instead, in keeping with the Church's national policy of promoting "pastoral care" over secular psychological services, language about payment for therapy was excluded from the memorandum of understanding crafted by the lawyers working on this deal.

Certainly the Church's cynical and calculating effort to pull victims and their families into the power structure that harmed them so profoundly must be rejected as an offensive assertion of authority by people who have lost all claim to moral leadership.  The logic of the Church seems to be, "We know that we enabled priests to rape you for years on end, and that nothing but legal technicalities kept us out of jail, but now we want to show you the road to salvation.  We may not have had the common decency to keep child molesters away from children, but we can offer you spiritual direction. "

One can't help but wonder if these hierarchs ever read the Bible:

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

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