POLAND
Buffalo News
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Catholic Church is preparing to publish a book on internal procedures to deal with child sex abuse by priests as cases come to the fore in the staunchly Catholic country, the head of the nation’s Catholic news agency said Thursday.
Marcin Przeciszewski told The Associated Press the book should come out by June, provided the Vatican approves the guidelines suggested by Poland’s bishops last year. It is not clear when the Vatican will make a decision.
The book appears to be a response by Poland’s church to allegations that it has been sweeping cases of sex abuse under the carpet, against the Vatican’s efforts since 2001 to punish abusers. Poland’s first conviction came in 2004, but allegations last year against two Polish clergymen — one was a Vatican envoy — serving in the Dominican Republic brought the problem to greater public attention.
“There is the will to publish it, there is nothing to hide,” Przeciszewski said. “The value of it will be that in one book everyone will be able to find guidance how the church should react, what the procedures are.”
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