Judge Michael Merz adds new committee to his resume

ARCHDIOCESE - Judge Michael R. Merz of Dayton, Ohio, has been named chairman of the National Review Board.

The board oversees the U.S. bishops' compliance with the national sexual abuse and child protection policies they adopted in June 2002.

Merz has been a magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio since 1984 and the district's chief magistrate judge since 2004. A member of the review board since October 2004, as chairman he succeeds Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, head of the board since June 2005.

Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, announced Merz's appointment and named four new board members May 29.

CNS PHOTO/NANCY WIECHEC

Bishop Gregory M. Aymond of Austin, Texas, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, answers a reporter's question about policies on clergy sexual abuse during a press conference at the U.S. bishops' fall meeting in Baltimore. At left is Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, former chairwoman of the National Review Board established by the bishops as an independent body to monitor how their policies are implemented.

The appointments took effect June 1.

Born in Dayton in 1945, Merz earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. After seven years in private practice in Dayton, he was named a municipal judge in 1977 and appointed a federal judge in 1984.

His work includes first federal review of any appeals in his district on death penalty cases, a role that he said he requested in order to make the court's work in that area "coherent and consistent."

He has been active in civic affairs and has served on the Cincinnati Archdiocesan Pastoral Council for the past six years, including a term as chairman, 2002-03.

"Judge Merz's participation on the National Review Board (NRB) has been a great asset to the council," said Russ Feldkamp, chairman of the Cincinnati Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. "Not only has he formally presented to our body on the structure and work of the NRB, he has also made himself available outside council meetings for members seeking additional information or help.

"I believe the council has a greater understanding of what is being done on a national level to protect our children largely due to his efforts to inform us," Feldkamp said. "I also believe the council's discussions on the abuse situation have provided Judge Merz an 'in the trenches' perspective on the real harm done to children and families that he will take back to the NRB. His selection as chairman of the NRB is welcome news. Our children and our church will benefit from his leadership of this board."

Merz said he would continue the strong role the board has developed as lay collaborators with the bishops in protecting children, healing the damage done by abuse and preventing its recurrence.

The board was established as part of the bishops' 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."

"Our present goals are to complete the 'causes and context' study, to audit charter programs in place to ensure they are effective and to recommend to the bishops best practices in implementing the charter," Merz said.

"Judge Merz is a profoundly dedicated Catholic whose participation in the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council over the past four years has been a gift to all APC members," said Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk. "I wish him well in this endeavor."

The $3 million "causes and context" study, which is being conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, is the second major study of Catholic clergy sexual abuse of minors commissioned by the National Review Board. The first, on the nature and scope of such abuse since 1950 - also conducted by the John Jay College and published in 2004 - found that three-fourths of the known incidents of abuse between 1950 and 2002 occurred between 1960 and 1984.

Kenney is psychiatrist at Prairie St. John's, a Catholic health care organization offering psychiatric and chemical dependency services in Fargo and several locations in Minnesota. He is a co-founder of the organization.

He is a graduate of the Creighton University medical school in Omaha, Neb.

Knight recently retired as executive director of Catholic Charities of the Milwaukee archdiocese. She has a master's degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is on the Community Advisory Board that advises the Milwaukee archbishop and his victim assistance coordinator and she serves on the Code of Ethics Task Force of Catholic Charities USA.

Kohm has been a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Queens County, since 1993, and an adjunct assistant professor at St. John's University in Queens since 1994. He is a graduate of New York University and Brooklyn Law School.

Steibe-Pasalich, a licensed clinical psychologist, is director of the University Counseling Center at the University of Notre Dame and an assistant professor in its psychology department. She serves on several university committees and is a member of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocesan Lay Review and Advisory Board for the Protection of Children and Young People. She earned her doctorate from the University of Ottawa.

National Review Board members are appointed to three-year terms. Because of his two-year appointment as chairman, Merz's term on the board has been extended to June 2009, said Sheila Kelly, deputy executive director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection.

(News editor David Eck, managing editor Dennis O'Connor and Catholic NewsService contributed to this story.)