WASHINGTON (DC)
Think Progress
November 12, 2018
By Joshua Eaton
The Vatican has delayed a vote by U.S. Catholic bishops this week that would have held church leaders accountable for clergy sex abuse.
At a meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on Monday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the heads of all 196 U.S. dioceses and archdioceses that Pope Francis wanted them to hold off on a vote until after a meeting of worldwide church leaders in Rome in February.
The bishops had planned to vote Wednesday on a code of conduct for bishops and a lay commission to investigate violations.
“At the insistence of the Holy See, we will not be voting on the two action items,” DiNardo, who is archbishop of Galveston-Houston, in Texas, told his fellow bishops, according to The Washington Post.
Advocates for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, who have long accused the church of being unwilling to hold senior leaders accountable, were quick to criticize the move.
“We’re dealing with the crisis, right here, right now,” Becky Ianni, D.C. regional head of the victims’ group SNAP, told The Washington Post. “Yes, it’s a global problem, and they need to discuss it there [in Rome], but the U.S. needs to come up with something right now.”
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