The Toledo Catholic Diocese said yesterday that a second on-site audit has found it to be in compliance with nationwide sex-abuse reforms established by U.S. bishops in 2002.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ordered the audits by the Massachusetts-based Gavin Group Inc. to ensure that the nation’s 195 Roman Catholic dioceses are abiding by the policies put into effect after the national clerical sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in January, 2002.

The auditors, who were in Toledo Oct. 18-21, investigated whether the diocese is meeting the requirements in four areas of the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People — to promote healing and reconciliation, to guarantee effective response to allegations of abuse of a minor, to ensure accountability of procedures, and to protect the faithful in the future.

The Toledo diocese was determined to be in compliance in all four areas.

But a local advocacy group for victims of clerical sexual abuse questioned the validity of the report, calling it “glorified self-reporting and a rubber stamp, not a real audit.”

Claudia Vercellotti, co-coordinator of the Toledo chapter of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), said the auditors relied on information supplied by the diocese and rejected her request to meet with her organization while they were in Toledo.

“SNAP is the only victims’ group in town, and we could have provided data that would have been helpful,” she said. “Who paid the auditors? The bishops. Who employed them? The bishops. This has been nothing but a self-reported, self-guided survey.”

The audit credited the Toledo diocese with providing pastoral care to victims of clerical sexual abuse and their families, and said that Bishop Leonard Blair has met with or has offered to meet with all victims who have reported allegations of abuse since last year’s audit.

Ms. Vercellotti challenged that finding, saying the bishop “has only offered to meet with a few survivors, and only under his conditions.”

The audit credited the Toledo diocese for making procedures for filing a complaint readily available. It said the diocese has reported all allegations to public authorities, has abided by civil reporting laws, and has advised victims of their right to report allegations to civil authorities.

In addition, it said the diocese, which has 314,000 members in 19 northwest Ohio counties, has established “clear standards for ministerial behavior for priests and deacons.”

Sally Oberski, director of communications for the Toledo diocese, said the three-page text of the audit’s executive summary will be published by the Toledo diocese’s newspaper, the Chronicle, and posted on the diocesan Web site, www.toledodiocese.org.

Contact David Yonke at:dyonke@theblade.comor 419-724-6154.