VATICAN CITY
Star Tribune
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press JUNE 10, 2015
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has taken the biggest step yet to crack down on bishops who cover up for priests who rape and molest children, creating a new tribunal section inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect their flock.
The initiative has significant legal and theological implications, since bishops have long been considered masters of their dioceses and largely unaccountable when they bungle their job, with the Vatican stepping in only in cases of gross negligence.
That reluctance to intervene has prompted years of criticism from abuse victims, advocacy groups and others that the Vatican had failed to punish or forcibly remove bishops who moved predator priests around from parish to parish, where they could rape again, rather than report them to police or remove them from ministry. …
“Really pleased the Holy Father has approved our proposal,” commission member Marie Collins, herself a survivor of abuse, told The Associated Press in an email.
The main U.S. victims group SNAP was more cautious, noting that there are bishops currently in office who have delayed reporting abuse and yet no punishment has ever been meted out.
“In the face of this widespread denial, timidity and inaction, let’s be prudent, stay vigilant and withhold judgment until we see if and how this panel might act,” said SNAP’s David Clohessy. …
Terrence McKiernan, president of the online resource BishopAccountability.org, said the new tribunal was “a promising step” and that it was particularly significant that the Vatican was allocating senior staff and funds to it. But he said there were already several well-known cases of active bishops and cardinals who failed in their duty to protect children.
“This system will be coping with the complex interactions of enabling and offending that we see in cases involving bishops,” he said in a statement. “Priests abuse children and so do bishops — bishops who offend are inevitably enablers, and the commission’s plan must confront that sad fact.”
Canon law already does provide sanctions for bishops who are negligent in their duties, but the Vatican was never known to have meted out punishment for a bishop who covered up for an abuser.
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