Vatican sex crimes prosecutor warns bishops

ROME
BlueRidgeNow

The Associated Press

The Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor has warned bishops that they must follow the church’s laws and standards on dealing with priests who sexually abuse children or face possible church sanctions for negligence.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna spoke Wednesday on the sidelines of a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse that is designed to help bishops craft guidelines to protect children and keep pedophiles out of the priesthood.

Abuse victims have long denounced the lack of accountability of bishops who routinely moved abusive priests from parish to parish rather than report them to police or punish them internally.

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