CHICAGO (IL)
The Christian Post
Sunday, Jun. 19, 2005 Posted: 12:22:29AM EST
U.S. Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly voted to extend rules that will bar sexually abusive priests from public church ministry work.
The 229-3 vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Thursday meant that the rules adopted in 2002 at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandals will continue.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who reviewed the policy with the Vatican said that the policy was necessary to restore trust in the church leadership.
"Our real convictions come from the failure of oversight of priests by bishops in the past, and the concern of parents and the protection of children," he said, according to the Associated Press.
In the years since the abuses cases became widespread knowledge around the nation, the U.S. Roman Catholic Church has been besieged by financial and moral attacks by many of its members, in addition to outside criticism. They claimed that the church had been moving abusive priests to parishes where they were not known, and where they could repeat the same offenses.
Along with the policy extension, the bishops also voted 228-4 to commission a study that would analyze the roots and context of the abuses.
"We have been through an extraordinarily difficult time in the history of our church," said Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.