WASHINGTON — With a few innovations, the 2004 audits to measure compliance with sex abuse prevention policies by U.S. dioceses and Eastern-rite eparchies started in late July.

A new question this year is the number of allegations received by dioceses and eparchies since their 2003 audit, said Sheila Horan, deputy director of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection.

The answers will establish a statistical base line needed to measure the success of prevention policies by showing whether future accusations will rise or fall, she said.

"Are we reducing cases?" she said.

The child and youth protection office is responsible for conducting the on-site audits and has contracted the Gavin Group, the same organization that did the 2003 audits, to do this year's audits.

The audit of the Arlington Diocese is scheduled to take place Oct. 4-8.

The 2003 audits, the first to be conducted, showed 90 percent compliance with the policies contained in the bishops' "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," approved in 2002.

Other 2004 innovations include:

— Provisions that allow individuals or groups with information that a diocese or eparchy may not be in compliance with policies to forward such information directly to the Gavin Group.

— Giving dioceses and eparchies the audit results within two weeks of the completion of their individual audit rather than waiting for all audits to be completed, as was done in 2003.

Regarding allegations, Horan told Catholic News Service that each diocese and eparchy will be asked the number of allegations it received during the approximately 12-month period since its last audit.

The 2003 audit did not ask about allegations. However, a church-approved national study on the sex abuse crisis conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York gathered data on sex abuse allegations during the 1950-2002 period.

The John Jay study released in February said that dioceses and eparchies received credible allegations of abuse against 4,392 clergymen — almost all priests — involving 10,667 minors during the period.

Regarding possible noncompliance data, a child and youth protection office fact sheet on the audits said that people with information that "indicates that a particular article, or articles, of the charter are not being complied with" in a diocese or eparchy can mail the data to: Gavin Group, P.O. Box 520162, Winthrop, MA 02152.

The fact sheet was posted in mid-August on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Web site and is available at: www.usccb.org/ocyp/compliance.htm.

Horan said that victims' advocacy groups have been advised of the provision. For the 2003 audit, people with information about possible noncompliance had to contact the child protection office, which then passed the data to the Gavin Group, she said.

Giving dioceses and eparchies their audit findings within two weeks will provide them with more time to digest the report and make it public locally, said Horan.

According to the fact sheet, the final report will be completed next February and posted on the USCCB Web site along with the individual reports.

Horan said that the 2004 audits will continue not asking dioceses and eparchies the amounts of money they spent in settling cases with accusers.

"This is not a charter issue," she said of settlements.

The 2004 audits are taking place after controversy surfaced among the bishops on whether to postpone this year's audits. At a June meeting, however, the bishops decided to approve the 2004 audits and to discuss the audit procedures during their overall review of sex abuse prevention policies to be done at their November meeting.

Prior to the June meeting, several bishops questioned whether annual audits were required by the charter as the charter mentions only "an annual report on the progress made" in implementing the charter.

The child and youth protection office fact sheet said that "the compliance audits are authorized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pursuant to the 'Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.'"