ROME
National Catholic Reporter
Feb. 13, 2012
By John L Allen Jr
ROME — Though a four-day summit in Rome on the sexual abuse crisis was, in a sense, directed at everyone, its primary audience was composed of approximately 100 bishops and superiors of religious orders from around the world, who face a Vatican-imposed May deadline to submit their anti-abuse policies.
As it turns out, those church potentates got an earful.
First, they were told, if you come from a place where you think sexual abuse of children isn’t a problem, think again. Experts said child abuse occurs at roughly the same high levels in every region of the world, so that if the clerical abuse crisis has not yet exploded someplace, it’s only a matter of time.
Second, the bishops were warned, if you drop the ball on handling abuse charges, be ready to face the music. There seems to be a new determination in the Vatican and across the Catholic world to use the tools of church law to hold bishops accountable.
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