ROME
The West Australian
VATICAN CITY (AFP) – The Vatican’s top prosecutor on Wednesday called for stricter accountability for bishops who cover up child abuse crimes and said 1,000 cases had been reported to him in the past two years alone.
“Ecclesial accountability has to be further developed. How do you sanction a bishop? That is something that Canon law reserves for the pope personally,” Charles Scicluna said on the sidelines of a Vatican summit on the issue.
“Once you set standards you have to respect them. It would certainly be the responsibility of the pope and the Holy See,” he said. He added that he believed a “culture of silence” on the issue of abuse persisted in the Church.
Archbishop Scicluna said his office at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic Church’s top enforcement body, had received more than 4,000 reports of child abuse since 2001 including 1,000 since 2009.
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