VATICAL CITY
Wall Street Journal

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA
June 10, 2015

ROME— Pope Francis ordered the establishment of a special court to try bishops for mishandling cases of clerical sex abuse, filling a widely decried gap in the Vatican’s approach to the problem.

The Vatican on Wednesday said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which already holds responsibility for cases of sex abuse by priests, will also “judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors.”

While the Vatican has disciplined hundreds of priests for sex abuse since the outbreak of scandals in the early 2000s, no pope has explicitly punished a bishop for failing to prevent or punish abuse committed by other clergy.

A number of bishops accused of mishandling such cases have resigned under a provision of church law calling for them to step…