An eye-opening story from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The standard used to vet clergy sex abuse cases involving children in the Catholic Diocese of La Crosse appears to violate church law and may be putting young people at risk, a canon lawyer and high-ranking priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Thursday.Vice Chancellor James Connell, who serves on the Milwaukee archdiocese's sex abuse review board, said La Crosse's policy dictates a high burden of proof that may have caused the diocese to return abusive priests to ministry, and he called on church officials there to re-examine all cases in which it was used.Connell went public with his concerns in an open letter to Catholics on Thursday after three months of trying unsuccessfully to persuade state and national church officials, including Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who last served in La Crosse, to change the standard."Sometimes we've got to bring our problems to the Christian laity," said Connell, who cited a canon law provision that allows, and at times requires, church officials to make public matters of importance to the church.

La Crosse officials said the concerns were "unfounded" but the incoming bishop was going to conduct a review. Diane Knight, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board on clergy sex abuse issues, told the newspaper that Connell raises "cause for concern," but that her board did not have the authority to impose policy changes on a diocese.