IRELAND
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
Pope Francis has created a new Vatican tribunal within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to deal with bishops who fail to protect children from being sexually abused by priests.
The announcement in Rome on Wednesday is seen as unpredendented and as a major success for the Vatican’s new Commission for the Protection of Minors.
The new office will be able to hold bishops to account for mishandling or covering up allegations of clerical child sex abuse. It will act as a tribunal to pass judgement on accused bishops “with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors.”
To date no Catholic bishop has been removed from office by the Vatican for his role in covering up clerical child sex abuse. Following publication in November 2009 of the Murphy report, which investigated the cover up of clerical child sex abuse in Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese, the resignations of two Irish bishops were accepted by Rome. Prior to that, the resignation of Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey in 2002, and in similar circumstances, was also accepted by Rome.
In April Pope Francis accepted the resignation of US Bishop of Kansas – St Joseph Robert Finn who had been convicted in the courts of failing to report clerical child sex abuse.
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