VATICAN CITY
NPR
Taking a new step toward holding bishops accountable for not protecting children who were sexually abused by priests, Pope Francis has set up a tribunal that will hear cases against senior clergy. But a victims’ group says the Vatican isn’t going far enough.
The move establishes “a new Judicial Section in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” the Vatican says, to investigate allegations of negligence of duty. The Holy See also set a five-year period for the program to be developed and evaluated.
From Rome, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports:
“Decades of clerical sex abuse first emerged in Boston in 2002 and triggered a wave of revelations of scandals in the Catholic Church across the world.
“In case after case, known abusers were quietly moved by their superiors from parish to parish, instead of being handed over to the authorities.
“A Vatican statement said that Pope Francis had approved proposals made to him by the commission advising him on how to root out abuse of children by priests.
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