VATICAN CITY
The New York Times
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
JUNE 10, 2015
ROME — Roman Catholic bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent the sexual abuse of children by priests will now be subject to judgment and discipline by a new Vatican tribunal, according to a plan approved on Wednesday by Pope Francis.
The decision is a measure that abuse victims have urged for years. The church has judicial procedures for judging priests accused of abuse, but until now bishops accused of negligence or cover-ups were almost never held accountable by the church itself.
The tribunal will also deal with the backlog of cases involving sexual abuse, “which are still very numerous,” a Vatican official said on Wednesday.
The issue of accountability has been under discussion for some time, said the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “As you see, it didn’t remain on paper,” he said.
The Vatican announced on Wednesday that the pope had approved a series of proposals advanced by the committee that advises him on sexual abuse.
The proposals set out the procedures for examining complaints of abuse of office by bishops. The complaints will be first investigated by the congregations that the bishops belong to, and then will be judged by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which already reviews all cases of clergy accused of abusing minors.
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