The Catholic church's new sexual abuse review board will begin work next week with its first meeting in Washington, D.C.

        But church officials in Cincinnati, who are under orders to form a similar board locally, are still trying to determine how large the Cincinnati group should be and who should be asked to join.

        The Archdiocese of Cincinnati, along with every other Catholic diocese in the United States, is required to establish a board of laypeople to review the church's handling of sexual abuse allegations.

        The creation of the boards was ordered in June at the Dallas meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

        The archdiocese already has a small review panel.

        “We're still looking at how conformative the existing panel is with what the bishops decided to do in Dallas,” said Tricia Hempel, spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

        While the local church continues to grapple with the issue, the national panel is getting ready to begin work.

        The panel will include several prominent Catholics, including one from Greater Cincinnati: William R. Burleigh, chairman of the board of Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co.

        “The mission is to oversee the work of the bishops and implement what they did in Dallas, to give credibility to the process,” Mr. Burleigh said.

        Ms. Hempel described Mr. Burleigh as a “very active Catholic” in Cincinnati and said church officials are pleased that a Cincinnati voice will be among those on the national board. “He's in a very interesting position right now to do a lot of good and to make sure this review board lives up to its promise,” Ms. Hempel said.

        The purpose of the national review board — as well as the local boards — is to provide more guidance to church officials on the sexual abuse issue. The church has been hit hard during the past year by allegations that church officials have repeatedly failed to stop abusive priests from molesting children.

        The national board's first order of business will be to appoint a director for the newly created Office of Child and Youth Protection. The board also will issue annual reports on sexual abuse to the church and to the American public.

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